Sovay's Profile

From: Northern England,

Joined: October 7th, 2012

About me: I've embarked on a mission to cook something new from every cookery book I own - currently 260 - and am planning to use my account here to keep track (thanks to rfb from Librarything for tipping me off to the existence of this site). I've made a couple of rules for myself: to cook the recipe as given, with no substitution or variation unless suggested by the author; and to try to pick a genuinely new dish from each book - in other words, as I've cooked many Leek and Potato Soups in my time, I don't get to count Leek and Potato Soup as a new dish just because I haven't used this specific recipe before (unless it has really significant differences from the usual versions).

Hodge Podge from Mrs Beeton's Cookery Book

Beef and vegetable soup with beer - turned out disappointingly bland. The recipe had no seasoning other than salt and pepper - having tried it, I added a stock cube and some Worcester sauce, which helped... read more >

recipe reviews (241)
book reviews (5)
useful review votes (43)

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Sovay's Reviews

3 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 3Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Classical Cookbook

By Andrew Dalby, Sally Grainger
British Museum Press - 1996

This is from the Wedding Feast in Macedon chapter; the mackerel is seasoned with salt and asafoetida and topped with crumbled goat cheese flavoured with oregano. The recipe calls for a whole mackerel per person but all the mackerel at the market today were enormous, so I used a fillet. I also chickened out in the asafoetida department and reduced the quantity to half or maybe a bit less, which turned out to be the right decision - it was perceptible but not overpowering, which it would have been in the original amount. The result was excellent though it definitely needs a quite light, sharp goat cheese.

useful (0)  

This is from the On Hadrian's Wall chapter; I cooked it a couple of years or so ago but the memory lingers on! Roman cooks apparently had a reputation for not knowing where to stop when it came to seasoning, and this recipe is probably a good illustration; it's basically a stew of pork, leek, apple and little beef meatballs with spices and a LOT of vinegar and fish sauce, the two ingredients which for me tipped it over the edge. Having said that, after my first taste of the finished dish I toned it down by straining off about three-quarters of the sauce and replacing it with chicken stock, and the result was pretty good.

useful (0)  

A bit fiddly but delicious - the kidneys are stuffed with pine nuts (soaked in wine and pounded with fennel seed, pepper and coriander leaf) then braised in olive oil and fish sauce. Highly recommended, though I'm not sure I'd want to attempt it for more than two people, as coring the kidneys whilst keeping them whole and in good shape was quite time-consuming.

useful (1)