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Pride and Prejudice Cookbook: Have a Ball in Your Kitchen!
Pride and Prejudice is a popular romantic novel set in the Georgian era and follows the courtship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. The novel has been adapted into several movies and shows and remains popular to this very day. One of the more prominent scenes of the story is the Netherfield ball, where young and old partake and have a gala time enjoying food, as well as their partner’s company. The food is divided into 3-4 courses and served well into the night. This cookbook gives you 30 delicious recipes that are a part of the movie and are served at the ball. You will have a fun time reading through the stories associated with the recipe and thrill your guests with a Georgian-era menu. Let’s start!
79 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 17, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 7, 2025
If you are wondering what this book has to do with Pride and Prejudice, the short answer is nothing really.
The long answer is that the introduction says these are supposed to be recipes for food that are easy to make that would have been served at the Netherfield ball. But I find this to be untrue, and I don't think the author did any research at all, despite riding on Austen's coattails. There are some references to the characters or events in Pride and Prejudice, but apart from the fact that there was a ball at Netherfield in the book, everything else was made up by the author of this cookbook, not actually anything that Austen wrote.
In several places the author seems to assume that P&P was a Victorian era book. For future reference, Pride and Prejudice was originally written in 1797 and published in 1813. Jane Austen died in 1817. Victoria was born in 1819. Her reign, aka the Victorian era was 1837-1901. (It took me about a minute to google and confirm the dates, and this author could have done it just as easily.)
Many recipes call for ingredients that Miss Bingley would have found out of season on November 26, or difficult to obtain at all in Austen's England. Where the heck did she get the fresh strawberries, mangoes and kiwis? The cultivation of kiwi fruit did not really begin until the 1900s. According to the NYT, London got its very first shipment of fresh mangoes in 1931. Queen Victoria may have ordered some from India but they are said to have gone off before they arrived. Corn flakes hadn't been invented yet. I love fondue but I have my doubts it would have been among Miss Bingley's choices for the menu as it didn't become popular until later. Worcestershire sauce was first sold in 1837. And I'm sure that mango powder was not a staple in Meryton....
Are they easy to make? Excuse me while I go and catch five pigeons for the pigeon pie. Wait, it's not pigeon hunting season now. But not to worry, you can easily replace pigeons with quail. (I don't even know what quails look like so I'll have to google it first before I go hunting. And while googling I learned that hunting them is illegal in my area, and they spend the winter elsewhere anyway. Forget the quail, chicken tastes like chicken I guess.)
The complexity of the cooking involved varies. There are some main courses and desserts that call for more preparation but some of the simpler items you might not even need a recipe for. Did you use a recipe the last time you made a sandwich? If I wanted to make a fruit salad, I wouldn't consult a book, I'd go to the grocery store and pick and chop whatever looks good in this season. There is a recipe for pickling olives that takes three weeks of preparation time. But I've never ever seen fresh olives sold where I live so if I wanted to serve pickled olives at a party I'd go buy a jar of pickled olives.
There is nothing about dietary restrictions in this book but I checked it for you. The main courses are heavily meat based so if you are not a carnivore there is not much for you. Watch out for the mashed potatoes, there's bacon in them. If you're a vegan at the Netherfield ball, as imagined by Ronny Emerson, you can have some of the drinks, and you can eat pickled olives. Everything else contains something animal based (There's honey in the fruit salad.) If you're catering a party based on this book, don't invite your vegan friends.
As for the drinks, Darcy apparently likes lemonade and is frequently seen sipping this sugary concoction, no doubt a habit that will end up destroying his teeth. And one of the recipes suggests you make dandelion tea because Mr Bennet loves it. (Does he? I don't know why, you tell me. But it's in this book so it must be true.) There is a picture of lovely yellow dandelions you're supposed to simmer in hot water. The preparation time is said to be 25 minutes. But... if I wanted to serve dandelion tea at a ball in November I'd have to collect them in May or June and then preserve them somehow for months.
Some of the recipes are a bit oddly named. The table of contents lists "Coffee", "White wine" and "Madeira" but you are not told how to make coffee or wine but are given recipes for some sort of mixed drinks based on those beverages.
Irish coffee sounds good right about now, thank you. But I doubt they would have served it at the Netherfield ball, and even if they served some coffee based drink, certainly they would not have been calling it that. Irish Coffee as we know it was created in the 1940s.
Judging from the pictures, the drinks look the most tempting. It's partly just the food photography I think, some of the meat based food pictures look dated like they were from your grandmother's old cookbook, other photos could be in more modern food blogs. The book doesn't say whose photos they are using.
This is a quote from the book: "If there is one alcoholic drink that goes around a lot in Pride and Prejudice, then it is wine. Both red and white are loved." page 15
This makes them sound like some sort of winos... I had to look this up, and wine is mentioned exactly three times in Pride and Prejudice. A Lucas boy would drink wine every day if he was as rich as Darcy, Mr. Philips smells of port wine, and Darcy offers to bring Elizabeth a glass when she's upset about Lydia (but didn't). Not a word whether she would have preferred white or red.
So. Mostly this just looks like random food pictures in various styles and a collection of recipes that can't really decide what sort of a cookbook it wants to be. It is probably not a simple task to come up with recipes that would be both historically accurate, easy to make with ingredients that are readily available at your usual grocery store, and appealing to modern eaters. But I bet it is easier if you try.
I wasn't motivated to try any of the recipes so I can't comment on the taste. The second star I gave because I probably could get my friends drunk serving some of these suggestions.
TL;DR If you're looking for a historically accurate account of what they would have eaten at the Netherfield ball, go look somewhere else. If you're looking for easy recipes for a fun party this book might not be it either unless your guests are handy with the rifle and can bring their own pigeons. Don't forget to stock up on dandelions, whenever they are in bloom in your area.
The long answer is that the introduction says these are supposed to be recipes for food that are easy to make that would have been served at the Netherfield ball. But I find this to be untrue, and I don't think the author did any research at all, despite riding on Austen's coattails. There are some references to the characters or events in Pride and Prejudice, but apart from the fact that there was a ball at Netherfield in the book, everything else was made up by the author of this cookbook, not actually anything that Austen wrote.
In several places the author seems to assume that P&P was a Victorian era book. For future reference, Pride and Prejudice was originally written in 1797 and published in 1813. Jane Austen died in 1817. Victoria was born in 1819. Her reign, aka the Victorian era was 1837-1901. (It took me about a minute to google and confirm the dates, and this author could have done it just as easily.)
Many recipes call for ingredients that Miss Bingley would have found out of season on November 26, or difficult to obtain at all in Austen's England. Where the heck did she get the fresh strawberries, mangoes and kiwis? The cultivation of kiwi fruit did not really begin until the 1900s. According to the NYT, London got its very first shipment of fresh mangoes in 1931. Queen Victoria may have ordered some from India but they are said to have gone off before they arrived. Corn flakes hadn't been invented yet. I love fondue but I have my doubts it would have been among Miss Bingley's choices for the menu as it didn't become popular until later. Worcestershire sauce was first sold in 1837. And I'm sure that mango powder was not a staple in Meryton....
Are they easy to make? Excuse me while I go and catch five pigeons for the pigeon pie. Wait, it's not pigeon hunting season now. But not to worry, you can easily replace pigeons with quail. (I don't even know what quails look like so I'll have to google it first before I go hunting. And while googling I learned that hunting them is illegal in my area, and they spend the winter elsewhere anyway. Forget the quail, chicken tastes like chicken I guess.)
The complexity of the cooking involved varies. There are some main courses and desserts that call for more preparation but some of the simpler items you might not even need a recipe for. Did you use a recipe the last time you made a sandwich? If I wanted to make a fruit salad, I wouldn't consult a book, I'd go to the grocery store and pick and chop whatever looks good in this season. There is a recipe for pickling olives that takes three weeks of preparation time. But I've never ever seen fresh olives sold where I live so if I wanted to serve pickled olives at a party I'd go buy a jar of pickled olives.
There is nothing about dietary restrictions in this book but I checked it for you. The main courses are heavily meat based so if you are not a carnivore there is not much for you. Watch out for the mashed potatoes, there's bacon in them. If you're a vegan at the Netherfield ball, as imagined by Ronny Emerson, you can have some of the drinks, and you can eat pickled olives. Everything else contains something animal based (There's honey in the fruit salad.) If you're catering a party based on this book, don't invite your vegan friends.
As for the drinks, Darcy apparently likes lemonade and is frequently seen sipping this sugary concoction, no doubt a habit that will end up destroying his teeth. And one of the recipes suggests you make dandelion tea because Mr Bennet loves it. (Does he? I don't know why, you tell me. But it's in this book so it must be true.) There is a picture of lovely yellow dandelions you're supposed to simmer in hot water. The preparation time is said to be 25 minutes. But... if I wanted to serve dandelion tea at a ball in November I'd have to collect them in May or June and then preserve them somehow for months.
Some of the recipes are a bit oddly named. The table of contents lists "Coffee", "White wine" and "Madeira" but you are not told how to make coffee or wine but are given recipes for some sort of mixed drinks based on those beverages.
Irish coffee sounds good right about now, thank you. But I doubt they would have served it at the Netherfield ball, and even if they served some coffee based drink, certainly they would not have been calling it that. Irish Coffee as we know it was created in the 1940s.
Judging from the pictures, the drinks look the most tempting. It's partly just the food photography I think, some of the meat based food pictures look dated like they were from your grandmother's old cookbook, other photos could be in more modern food blogs. The book doesn't say whose photos they are using.
This is a quote from the book: "If there is one alcoholic drink that goes around a lot in Pride and Prejudice, then it is wine. Both red and white are loved." page 15
This makes them sound like some sort of winos... I had to look this up, and wine is mentioned exactly three times in Pride and Prejudice. A Lucas boy would drink wine every day if he was as rich as Darcy, Mr. Philips smells of port wine, and Darcy offers to bring Elizabeth a glass when she's upset about Lydia (but didn't). Not a word whether she would have preferred white or red.
So. Mostly this just looks like random food pictures in various styles and a collection of recipes that can't really decide what sort of a cookbook it wants to be. It is probably not a simple task to come up with recipes that would be both historically accurate, easy to make with ingredients that are readily available at your usual grocery store, and appealing to modern eaters. But I bet it is easier if you try.
I wasn't motivated to try any of the recipes so I can't comment on the taste. The second star I gave because I probably could get my friends drunk serving some of these suggestions.
TL;DR If you're looking for a historically accurate account of what they would have eaten at the Netherfield ball, go look somewhere else. If you're looking for easy recipes for a fun party this book might not be it either unless your guests are handy with the rifle and can bring their own pigeons. Don't forget to stock up on dandelions, whenever they are in bloom in your area.
June 8, 2025
Wonderful dishes
A few recipes are used regularly today, but, most are delightfully regency , though modern in design. Really, except the pigeon, I will be trying each of these dishes.
They are fancy, perfect for entertaining and showing off, but can be used for regular family meals quite easily.
The ingredients are modern so no looking for some obscure item only historic farmers grow.
I love the drink section. The dandelion drink, or tea, was interesting. The other drinks, both alcoholic and not, sound very tasty and sweet.
Really, for what you find inside this book is a great bargain.
Ohhh, I almost forgot the sausage dishes. Scotch eggs and for those who make their own bread, A recipe for sausage stuff brioche.
And White Soup recipe.
Well I cold go on, but you will see for yourself.
I am glad I purchased this recipe book, I want to try the recipes and reading through it gave me inspiration to revamp some dishes I regularly make at home.
A few recipes are used regularly today, but, most are delightfully regency , though modern in design. Really, except the pigeon, I will be trying each of these dishes.
They are fancy, perfect for entertaining and showing off, but can be used for regular family meals quite easily.
The ingredients are modern so no looking for some obscure item only historic farmers grow.
I love the drink section. The dandelion drink, or tea, was interesting. The other drinks, both alcoholic and not, sound very tasty and sweet.
Really, for what you find inside this book is a great bargain.
Ohhh, I almost forgot the sausage dishes. Scotch eggs and for those who make their own bread, A recipe for sausage stuff brioche.
And White Soup recipe.
Well I cold go on, but you will see for yourself.
I am glad I purchased this recipe book, I want to try the recipes and reading through it gave me inspiration to revamp some dishes I regularly make at home.
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