The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook, Hardcover

This is the first official cookbook from the Downton Abbey series, with 300 million viewers worldwide and the most sucessful British series of all time, and timed to coincide with the release of the Downton Abbey movie in September 2019.

This engaging and historically accurate cookbook presents more than 100 recipes that showcase the intrinsic role of food in the Crawley household and narrative--and bring this exciting gastronomic time to modern kitchens and Downton fans.

The period between 1912 and 1926, when Downton Abbey is set, was a tumultuous one and marked by numerous significant historical events and huge technological advances. Culuturally it was a time of jazz, art deco, and evolving Victorian values. Across all six seasons of Downton, the impact of these events and developments--on the Crawleys and their wider household--are visible: Downton Abbey looks solid and never changing, but this was an era in which everything changed, and did so very fast. Food, too, underwent change from the late Edwardian era to the swinging twenties, and it was an especially exciting time gastronomically.

The food of the Edwardian era, which has a modern reputation for being heavy, rich, and reliant on aspic, was phenomenal. This was the key period for the codification of French haute cuisine, and many of the dishes and techniques that are still regarded as intrinsic to classical French cooking today were developed at this time. British cooking was also quite good--raised pies, syllabubs, trifles, and roast meats were very popular and seen as quintessentially English, and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding was already a national dish.

The recipes included here reflect all the influences found on the Downton Abbey tables, upstairs and down. They are adapted from original recipes published or written down between 1875 and 1930 and have all been chosen to be easily made in a modern kitchen. Some are as seen on screen, some are alluded to, and others are typical of the time. They would all be at home in a stately dining room, with candles and gold and tightly corseted female figures. But more important, they would be at home as part of a twenty-first-century meal as well. These are historic recipes, and they are Downton recipes, but they are also delicious modern recipes.

Recipes Include
Kedgeree
Sardine Salad
Orange Layer Cake
Hot Cross Buns
Turbot with Hollandaise Sauce
Artichoke and Asparagus Salad
The Queen of Trifles
Lamb Stew with Semolina
Steamed Treacle Pudding
Gingerbread Cake

The first official cookbook from the Downton Abbey series, timed to coincide with the release of the Downton Abbey movie in September 2019, presents more than 100 recipes that showcase the intrinsic role of food in the Crawley household.

Annie Gray is one of Britain's leading food historians. She holds degrees from the University of Oxford, as well as York and Liverpool, and is an honorary research associate at the University of York. She is the author of a culinary biography of Queen Victoria: The Greedy Queen, Eating with Victoria (2016), as well as Victory in the Kitchen: The Story of Churchill's Cook (2020), a biography of Georgina Landemare, Winston Churchill's longest serving cook. She is also the resident food historian in BBC Radio 4's popular food panel show, The Kitchen Cabinet, and has both presented and consulted for various British TV productions, including the recent Victoria and Albert: The Wedding (also shown on PBS), and The Sweetmakers. She is also a consultant for the Victorian Way/Mrs. Crocombe series for English Heritage on YouTube. She works generally as a consultant to the heritage industry on historic food and dining, and worked for many years as a costumed interpreter, leading the service wing team at the award-winning Audley End House (English Heritage). She is a huge fan of a proper suet pudding.