Louis Liger - Le Nouveau Cuisinier François - 1737

GASTRONOMY – COOKING OF THE XVIIIth CENTURY

LIGER, Louis
Le Ménage des Champs et de la Ville; ou nouveau cuisinier francois, accommodé au goût du Tems.
Paris, Chez Christ. David, Libraire-Imprimeur, rue S. JacQ. près la Fontaine S. Séverin, au Nom de Jesus, 1737

Format: In-12 (1 vol.).[Title page with engraved vignette, preface, table of chapters]. Full brown contemporary basane leather, spine with raised bands adorned with gilded compartments and cold-pressed fleurons, title piece in morocco (restorations as needed). Speckled edges.

New edition dated 1737, printed in Paris at Christophe David. This work continues the great traditions of the Francois Cuisinier de La Varenne by adapting it to the demands of the early eighteenth century, a turning point when French cuisine moved away from the heavy spices of the Middle Ages to refine the taste of the essences, vegetables, and subtle sauces.

Good general condition for a practical cookbook that has seen use (wear from handling, corners rubbed, boards and spine tips solid). Paper well preserved, fresh with occasional foxing and brownings as usual. Some small annotations or discreet old scribbles on the endpapers, bearing witness to its domestic use in the period. Complete with its magnificent title page with ribbons and the detailed table of contents covering bread, pastries, desserts and liqueurs.

To dive into Le Ménage des Champs et de la Ville is to offer oneself a time machine to the heart of the kitchens of the great lords and the prosperous bourgeoisie of the Ancien Régime. This manual does not merely provide recipes: it aspires to teach the “perfect Chef de Cuisine” how to run his table in every season. One discovers with fascination the art of shaping bread, of making “cassemuseaux”, “poupelains”, fougasses, dried and liquid jams, or of handling the “different liqueurs that are today in use.” A savory and indispensable testimony on the art of living in the French style in the Age of Enlightenment.

Be exemplary, rare in this state.