The Sherlock Holmes Victorian Cookbook

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

This delightful cookbook offers a “fascinating blend of history,
literature and cuisine.” The history section is irresistible, ranging
from a discussion of the culinary origins of the modern phrase “to eat
humble pie” and the word “Cockney” to brief histories of Christmas
foods, whiskey, and the pudding’s evolution from a spicy meat dish to
an after-dinner sweet. William Bonnell, a master of culinary arts who
has been described as the elder statesman of Canadian cuisine, gives
engaging accounts of culinary lore, explaining, for example, why
“Britain’s traditional morning repast of cheese, bread and ale”
changed suddenly in the early Victorian era to “the ‘typical’
English breakfast of porridge, bacon and eggs, toast, and marmalade,”
or what really was the “plum” that “Jack Horner” took from a pie
that he was taking to Henry VIII.

The section on cuisine contains a great collection of tried-and-tested
recipes, “adapted, where necessary, to contemporary tastes,” in 12
chapters, from soups and salads to beverages and preserves. It also
includes a special chapter titled “Christmas at Baker Street.” Baker
Street, of course, was the home of the immortal Sherlock Holmes and Dr.
Watson. Each recipe is prefaced with a quotation from one of the 60
Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Bonnell alludes
to the stories and the characters throughout. Many of the original
drawings by Sidney Paget from the stories’ first appearance in Strand
magazine illustrate this book, which is most attractively printed in
brown ink on cream-colored pages. There is also a recipe index, a
general index, and a bibliography.

“Cookbooks,” says Master Chef W. Brand in the introduction, “must
be a pleasure to read.” This one certainly is.