When The Practice of Cookery first appeared in Edinburgh and London
editions in 1829, reviewers hailed it as one of the best cookbooks
available. The book was unique not only in being wholly original, but
also for its broad culinary influences, incorporating recipes from
British North America, the United States, England, Scotland, France, and
India. Catherine Emily Callbeck Dalgairns was born in 1788. Though her
contemporaries understood her to be a Scottish author, she lived her
first twenty-two years in Prince Edward Island. Charlottetown was home
for much longer than the twelve years she spent in London or her mere
six years' residency in Dundee, Scotland, by the time of the cookbook's
first appearance. In Mrs Dalgairns's Kitchen, Mary Williamson reclaims
Dalgairns and her book's Canadian roots. During her youth, the popular
cookbook author would have had experience of Acadian, Mi'kmaq, and
Scottish Highlands foods and ways of cooking. Her mother had come from
Boston, inspiring the cookbook's several American recipes; Dalgairns's
brothers-in-law lived in India, reflected in the chapter devoted to
curry recipes. Williamson consults the publisher's surviving archives to
offer insights into the world of early nineteenth-century publishing,
while Elizabeth Baird updates Dalgairns's recipes for the modern
kitchen. Both an enticing history of the seminal cookbook and a
practical guide for readers and cooks today, Mrs Dalgairns's Kitchen
offers an intimate look at the tastes and smells of an early
nineteenth-century kitchen.
