Gastronomic History in Eighteenth-Century England

Abstract

The eighteenth century was fascinated by historic cuisine. A group of texts addressed the relative virtues of old and new modes of preparing food, replicating in a gastronomic key the dispute over whether Ancients or Moderns were culturally more advanced. Such books varied enormously – some were satiric, others were virtual cookbooks, and still others were thinly disguised political tracts concerned to stave off revolution. Together, they offer a sustained extension of the “uses” of history to make arguments concerning current cultural issues. As a corollary, they constitute a meditation on Britain's direction as it emerges into cosmopolitanism.