Cookery book

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

This is a 1940 promotional and instructional cookbook issued by the Gas Council of Great Britain, designed to teach households how to cook using a gas cooker. Rather than a general recipe collection compiled by a named author, it functions as a manufacturer-backed manual combining appliance instructions with everyday British recipes of the period. The book opens by explaining how to operate and clean the hot plates, grill, and oven, then moves through soups, fish, and meat cookery before covering sauces, vegetables, puddings, pastries, cakes, and breads. Throughout, it ties recipes directly to the gas cooker's features, citing dial settings, shelf positions, and timings meant to help cooks get the most out of their appliance. With 106 anchored food records across just three sections, it is a compact but dense reference, likely meant to sit in the kitchen as a practical companion rather than be read cover to cover. Modern readers will find it a useful window into mid-century British domestic cooking, home economics instruction, and the way gas companies marketed their appliances by embedding themselves into everyday food preparation and household routine.

The book is organized in three broad sections that move from appliance instruction to actual cookery. Section 1 begins with operating and cleaning guidance for the cooker's top burners, grill, and oven, then transitions into soups and fish dishes before introducing basic meat cooking methods such as braising, frying, grilling, and roasting. Section 2 continues the meat theme with roasting times, stewing and steaming techniques, meat pies and puddings, sauces (both foundational and flavored), stuffings, vegetable preparation, and salads, closing with pudding recipes. Section 3 shifts to sweet and baked dishes, covering steamed and milk puddings, pastries, savory pies, cakes, scones, and breads, and ends with the book's index. The organization suggests a course-like progression from savory to sweet, framed around the practical use of the gas cooker rather than strict alphabetical or ingredient-based order.