The Belgian Cookbook
1915
A small cookbook with a profound story behind it. Compiled in 1915 from recipes contributed by Belgian refugees scattered across the United Kingdom, this collection emerged from displacement and loss. Families fleeing the German invasion of Belgium found refuge in Britain, and in their new homes, they shared the dishes of their homeland. The result is not a chef's manual but a act of cultural preservation, written for families of modest means who needed practical, economical meals that still brought warmth and pleasure. The recipes begin where comfort always begins: with soup. Cauliflower soup, fish soup, garden vegetable soup. Simple things made with everyday ingredients. But read the preface, with its gentle wit about the nature of cooking and food, and you understand this is more than a collection of instructions. It is a record of what people held onto when everything else was taken. For cooks interested in wartime history, preservation of cultural memory, or simply the way food carries the weight of home.
Editions
X-Ray
“FRENCH EGGS Put a lump of butter the size of an egg in a fireproof dish, mixing in when it is melted some breadcrumbs, a chopped leek, the inside of three tomatoes, pepper and salt. Let it cook for three or four minutes in the oven, then stir in the yolks of two eggs, and let it make a custard. Then break on the top of this custard as many eggs as you wish; sprinkle with pepper and salt. Let it remain in the oven till these last are beginning to set. Take out the dish, and pass over the top the salamander, or the shovel, red hot, and serve at once. I have seen this dish with the two extra whites of eggs beaten and placed in a pile on the top, and slightly browned by the shovel.””
— Unknown
