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`I NEVER SEE ANY HOME COOKING.

ALL I GET IS FANCY-STUFF.'

by Bruce Tober

Copyright © 2004 Bruce Tober All Rights Reserved

Poor Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He is quoted as having said, "I never see any home-cooking. All I get is fancy stuff". In that case, I guess his must be a rough life. Allegedly, he is a man who enjoys his food -- cooking it (preferably by barbecue) as well as eating it.

He also owns quite a collection of cookery books. Cookery book collecting is a hobby many of us enjoy, more often unintentionally than deliberately.

Reading of the Prince's proclivity for such tomes, I thought it might be interesting to compare a few cookery books from the time of his early adulthood and those he might have added to his collection more recently.

The Basics

For basic, down-to-earth, home cooking there are few better sources than Hamlyn Cookery in Colour from 1960. More current is Hamlyn's All Colour Million Menus Cookbook.from 1992

In Hamlyn's Cookery in Colour readers found such helpful information as weights and measures conversion tables. They found a few charts and other small sections of information dealing with cuts of meat, its carving and deboning, the proper and hygienic preparation of jams and candies, etc.
. Patten's Cookery in Colour

Patten's Cookery in Colour

The reader of this volume also found nearly 1,100 recipes at his disposal. Also printed on plain matte-finish paper, this 11.5 x 8.5 inch volume also included several hundred photographs, most in black and white, although there are quite a few in colour.

Colour Cookery would have provided the Duke with a slightly up-market group of recipes, more befitting his royal status. These start with more than 30 hors d'oeuvre recipes. Readers also found the information needed to provide the right wines to serve whether entertaining guests or having a quiet evening with the Royal Family.

And, of course, having been published at the early days of the TV era, this opus includes 40 snacks and sandwich recipes perfect for the couch potato. These include such goodies as Sweet Corn au Gratin, Bacon Pudding, and Spaghetti Soufflé.

At the same time, increasing numbers of women were working outside the home for increasingly longer periods during the day. So timer-controlled cooking was becoming important. This early Hamlyn book also dealt with this subject in four pages of hints and techniques.

And, of course, the young prince would have received his first formal introduction to the art of grilling (barbecuing, allegedly his favourite method), `a simple and quick method of cooking small, tender pieces of food. ...'

Changing Times

But times change and nearly forty years on the British population is of course more mature and sophisticated.

In the early '90s, just as now, his dinner guests are more likely to be ravenous for continental cuisine and leaner and more healthy grub, perhaps even 100% vegie diets, than to be clamouring for spaghetti, puddings and sweets. One would think that concern about healthy eating would have changed some of his favourite recipes.

Recipes for today's healthier lifestyle?

However, when we checked we were somewhat surprised. The newer recipes often include less "healthy" or at least not very different ingredients than in the older variations.

For example, in Colour Cookery's recipe for four servings of spaghetti bolognese it calls for 6-8 ounces of spaghetti. However the newer Million Menus calls for a full pound of spaghetti for its spaghetti with walnut sauce recipe, also for four servings. Surprising considering today's supposed demand for lighter meals.

Both of Hamlyn's books include Hungarian Goulash. In the older volume, the recipe calls for a pound each of beef and veal, 2-3 ounces of dripping or butter, in addition to several vegetables and seasonings.

But the Million Menus book, on the other hand, is a somewhat richer recipe. It requires only one pound of meat (specifically beef), and three tablespoons (about 3 ounces) of oil, again in addition to the vegetables and seasonings. But, it then calls for such items as an ounce of flour, 1 pint beef stock and a quarter pint of soured cream.

All of which is to say that today's cookery books are prettier to look at, and perhaps easier to use. However, it's debatable just how much healthier the recipes are.