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  • Published: 28 April 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446475973
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160
Categories:

The Perfect Picnic



Relive the lost art of decadent al fresco dining with The Perfect Picnic

Take a warm summer's day, a secluded spot in the dappled shade, a blanket and a bottle of wine, friends and family, and a spread of delicious homemade food, and you have that timeless rustic idyll - the Great British picnic.

Perfect picnic food is simple, elegant and delicious, based around much-loved classics. Hilda Leyel, who wrote this book in 1936, was extraordinarily before her time. She influenced generations of foodies with her wonderfully inventive recipes , where retro meets modern, such as:

Egg mayonnaise on crusty bread
Watercress, beetroot and nasturtium salad
Chicken and leek pie
Spiced plum cake and salted almonds

She championed local, seasonal ingredients like watercress and asparagus; she promoted traditional recipes from raised pies to strawberries and cream; and she set a benchmark of refinement with crab soufflé and spaghetti and truffles.

  • Published: 28 April 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446475973
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160
Categories:

About the author

Hilda Leyel

Hilda Leyel was born in 1880, and was an expert cook and herbalist. She wrote numerous books about both subjects, and The Gentle Art of Cookery and Elixirs of Life are her best-known books about each. With training in medicine and a lifelong interest in botany, she founded the Society of Herbalists and set up the Culpeper shops, both of which continue today. She was a fellow of the Royal Institution and l'Academie Francaise. She died in 1957.

Praise for The Perfect Picnic

'If I had been given a standard Mrs Beeton instead of Mrs Leyel's wonderful recipes, I would probably never have learned to cook'

Elizabeth David