Tuesday 13 December 2011

Sepia Saturday 105 : Saturday 17 December 2011


The Festive Season is almost upon us and I thought I might give you something of a festive prompt - and this is quite some feast!. It is an illustration from the 1901 Edition of Mrs Beeton's Cookery Book (courtesy of the State Library of Queensland’s collection, courtesy of Flickr Commons). As you can see, the food on offer includes a raised game pie; pigeon pie; lamb cutlets; piped ham and boned capon. So you have a veritable cornucopia of visual prompts which should have you posting up with the stuffed larks. For Sepia Saturday 105 post your posts on or around Saturday 17th December.

The Saturday after that will be Christmas Eve and the one after that, New Years' Eve. I have therefore decided to make Sepia Saturday 106 an open seasonal call which will cover both Christmas and New Year (I will put the call post up early next week). The normal Sepia Saturday fare will return with Sepia Saturday 107 on the 7th January 2012. But all that is in the future : for now just tuck in to SS105, Bon appetit!


27 comments:

Karen S. said...

Pigeon pie? Hmm.... I'll have to google that for sure! This is a great picture, it gives a person looking for something new and different to prepare...so many ideas...!

Martin said...

I'm not surprised to see you raising your game, in time for Christmas. Great prompt.

Julie Goucher said...

I wrote a weekend cooking post on the Anglers Rest blog back in October http://anglersrest.blogspot.com/2011/10/weekend-cooking-mrs-beetons-book-of.html

In the meantime, I need to put up a delayed last week post and think about the next one!

dakotaboo said...

The more Pigeon Pies, the less pigeons there are to eat my garden vegetables.

Stufferd Larks sounds interesting ... and combined with the Chick in Aspic above reminded me of the King Crimson 1973 album, "Lark's Tongue in Aspic". Until today I was sure it couldn't possibly exist and was a prog-rock 'joke' but this picture suggests it may actually be real. Will have to research it.

I'm not quite ready with my post yet, so will comment again once it's up.

dakotaboo said...

Ok, my doubly-themed post in ready and now up.

Bob Scotney said...

Just larking about.

Postcardy said...

The shapes of the food reminded me of plum pudding and gelatin molds, so those are my themes.

Kat Mortensen said...

The only link I can make with mine is through the humble potato, but then, I am Irish, after all.

Anonymous said...

My mother will likely be upset as I've posted a photo of her carving a turkey from many years ago.

Anonymous said...

And may I say that the prompt reminds me that food used to be an art form in the home kitchen as well as in a fancy restaurant. Not that I have ever used my molds for anything other than decoration, but I wonder if it would be all that difficult to make a shaped aspic...

Linda said...

You are what you eat, and thank goodness we don't eat the way we did in the bad old days.

Little Nell said...

A carboot bargain led to this post on the ‘doyenne of cookery writers’, as she was affectionately known

Christine H. said...

Did someone say food? I'm definitely in on this one. Those creations above certainly look beautiful. I wonder if they tasted good.

viridian said...

Larks! Couldn't have been that much meat on them! And is aspic what we would call gelatin?

DougVernX said...

What a great theme. Hope you all enjoy my delicious post. Happy Holidays everyone!

Howard said...

A very sad post from me this week...

Unknown said...

Oh, How we lived????

Bruno Laliberté said...

Not quite on theme...
Oh well!!
:)~
HUGZ

Alan Burnett said...

Mrs Beaton could provide a recipe for almost anything - and she provides a recipe for my Sepia Saturday post this week.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

I have an old Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management somewhere. I must look it out.

Mike Brubaker said...

Something very special this weekend from me.
A feast of words perhaps, but no polvers eggs. Cheers to everyone.

Unknown said...

Well the ingredients of those recipes are familiar to me but the method of prep is not. My post has to do with the down and dirty hard work of a homemaker. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
QMM

Wibbo said...

I've gone for austerity on the food front rather than extravagance - I don't fancy the recipe though ;o)

Tattered and Lost said...

Not on theme at all unless you figure the people in my photo will soon be indulging in a feast.

Happy Hectic Week to all.

Liz Stratton said...

The food had to get to the kitchen first before it could be prepared. I'm off hunting for fowl this week.

Julie Goucher said...

Posted on Friday, but forgot to link!

Sean Bentley said...

Mrs Beeton illustrations are awesome. We picked up a vintage copy in Barnsley (not the Yorkshire one) once upon a time. Wild recipes too, like Kangaroo.