THE COMPLETE CONFECTIONER, or The Whole Art of Confectionary Made Easy: With Instructions to Decorate a Table with Taste and Elegance
London: Mathews and Leigh, 1806. Hardcover. Third edition of this Georgian-era dessert cookbook, with ten diagrammatic plates (three folding). This cookbook shares classic late 18th century recipes for biscuits, wafers, drops, prawlongs, jellies, jams, essences, waters, ice creams, water ices, brandied fruits, preserved sweetmeats, dried fruits, and assorted cakes and puddings. Known for the opulence and expense of his recipes, Frederic Nutt began his career as an apprentice confectionary at the famous cake and pie shop of Negri & Witten. Using the techniques and recipes he learned there, he later "moved as confectioner in only the best society whose select friends were apparently endowed with elephantine appetites and stomachs capable of infinite extension (Quayle 129). This edition was greatly expanded from the 1789 first edition. Small octavo: xxiii, [1, blank], 224 pp. with 10 plates (three folding). The original paper-covered boards with vellum corners have been handsomely rebacked with a gilt-stamped brown calf spine. The contents are a little toned, as usual; otherwise very good. Bitting 347; Oxford 117; Cagle 908. Very good. Item #80357
Price: $750.00