French Domestic Cookery, combining Economy with Elegance, and adapted to the use of Families of Moderate Fortune. First Edition.

London: Thomas Boys, 7, Ludgate Hill., 1825. First edition. Hardback. 12mo. [i], ii - xii, [1], 2 - 418pp. Rebacked but retaining contemporary boards. Containing 1,068 recipes, each titled in French with an English translation. The book also includes a Glossary of French terms with some Practical Observations. Although the recipes might not be the most practical for a modern kitchen, the book contains many entertaining remarks, such as: "How often does it fall to the lot of an English wife to have to cater for a husband or other relation, whose delicate appetite cannot relish the usual English routine of roast or boiled, and hashed or minced; indeed, the endless hashes of beef and mutton, with the mince of veal, require a stomach in unimpaired health to be relished three times a week, (as is often requisite, ) for the whole term of life:" or: "The best age for a woman cook is from thirty to forty, there being no domestic employment in which the giddiness of youth is more to be feared, or where the usual faults of old age are more insupportable. The appearance of a cook should announce cleanliness, simplicity, and order...appearances which are usually accompanied by the display of trumpery trinkets, or gaudy coloured ribands, will at once decide a judicious mistress of a family against hiring an applicant, who evinces, in her personal appearance, qualities totally opposed to those desirable in a cook." Book in very good condition. Binding very sound. Some dust of ages nestling on the text block edges. Minor spotting to endpapers and very slight sporadic spotting elsewhere. Bitting p554.