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I’m a firm believer in trying out the recipes and techniques I encounter. Both through working to create a dish and, later, eating it, an immense amount of value may be learnt.
I habitually work historic recipes into my everyday meals, as well as reinterpreting past techniques and tastes in the context of a modern kitchen (including, thankfully, a dishwasher). The recipes in use at Audley End are all chosen and tested by me before being rolled out, and are selected with specific interpretive points in mind. Outside this, I have an ongoing quest to try out chicken pie recipes from every book I encounter – not always to great visual effect, but my pastry making has definitely benefitted! Chicken pie is a fairly standard recipe in most cookbooks, and through following pies through over 200 years, I’ve been able to consider technique and taste, and through this reassessed what was, prior to starting my PhD, a fairly low (i.e. uninformed) opinion of Victorian cuisine.
I also attempt specific dishes, such as the boar’s head, either because I wish to explore ideas and hypotheses arising from my research or, as in this case, because it looks like fun.
(1) Robert May 1660 / (2) Elizabeth Cleland 1755
(3) Elizabeth Acton 1854 / (4) Isabella Beeton 1861