The King's College Hospital book of cooking recipes

From the librarian's dossier · AI-generated, grounded in the scanned text

This 1907 cookbook was compiled as a fundraising effort for King's College Hospital, drawing on recipes donated by friends and patrons to help finance the hospital's relocation to South London. It is a substantial household collection, anchoring 670 food recipes alongside a handful of household and medicinal entries, spanning soups, fish, sauces, meats, curries, vegetables, poultry and game, savouries, puddings, cold sweets, breads, cakes, preserves, pickles, ices, and beverages. Each recipe is credited to its contributor, giving the book the flavor of a community charitable project rather than the work of a single author. The scope is broad and cosmopolitan, mixing traditional British dishes like Yorkshire Pudding and Bubble and Squeak with Continental, colonial, and Indian-influenced recipes such as Bengal Cutlets, Bobotee, and various curries. Later material, appended after the original recipe collection and index, shifts markedly in tone, offering wartime food economy guidance centered on potatoes as a meat and bread substitute. Modern readers will find a snapshot of Edwardian genteel household cookery combined with an unusual practical appendix reflecting food shortages, likely added during or around the First World War. The book rewards browsing as both a culinary and social document of its era.

The book proceeds through conventional menu-course chapters: soups, fish, sauces, meats and entrees, curries and game preserving, vegetables and salads, poultry and game, breakfast savouries, puddings and pastry, creams and cold sweets, jellies, breads, cakes and biscuits, preserves and pickles, sweetmeats and ices, and beverages, ending with a comprehensive index. Several sections carry headers such as 'Additional Recipes' suggesting supplementary material was appended to core chapters as they were assembled. After the index, the book appends miscellaneous household and invalid preparations, advertisements, and then a distinct later section of wartime potato cookery and food economy guidance, including practical instructions like steaming without a steamer and stretching meat and bread rations with potatoes.