Wednesday, June 13, 2012

New cookbook looks at old recipes — live frog pie, anyone?


Adventurous cooks might consider one of the recipes in Peter Ross's new book, but the author of the tome on unusual historical cuisine says it's probably best not to try a dish featuring animals like swans, peacocks or porpoises.

"You could cook a meal, but it could be quite a strange meal," said Ross, the chief librarian at Guildhall Library in London and the author of The Curious Cookbook, which looks at a wild range of cookery from medieval times right through to the Second World War.

"It's mostly the medieval recipes where you're going to have a problem — because they were eating things like swans, peacocks, porpoises."

The new book also features a live frog pie that dates from the 17th century.

Ross said the dish containing live frogs was "basically an entertainment" that was served during a high-class meal.

Click here to read this article and listen to an interview with the author from the CBC