Review: Fun to read and dream about living in the Abbey
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 7, 2014
Wouldn't it be fun to get together with all your friends at 4:00 o'clock every day for a cup of tea and a few sweet treats? This book give the history of afternoon tea, tips on how to prepare the items, and manners that are expected at such an event. I already knew that High Tea involved one that had a meat serving and was something the farm hands had and nothing to do with being more high society than regular afternoon tea, so that was not new to me. But the recipies all sound delicious and some of them might even be something I would make some day. The book is written by a British woman so I had to look up some of the terms and the recipies include measurements in grams as well as ounces. In the US we don't usually measure our ingredients by weighing on a scale but I think if one really wanted to understand the measurements equivelents could be found on the internet.One thing that was not clear was why tea was held at 4pm. Appearantly, some royal person got hungry midday and asked her maid to make her tea and a snack, then started sharing the custom with her friends because she liked to gossip. But it sounds like they didn't have a midday meal like lunch. Maybe she was a late sleeper and her breakfast was late in the morning(?), I don't know. But anyway, tea seemed to be the refreshment break between breakfast and dinner.The author has incorporated family recipies into historical ones and named them after characters in the TV series and that adds a bit of fun to the recipies. She explains that milk was added to the china cups to prevent cracking of the glaze on them so adding milk after the tea was a sign of wealth because crazed cups could be replaced. Who knew?The recipies have lots of great ingredients that most of us aren't allowed to eat in our modern diet, such as butter, whole milk, whipping cream, lots of eggs, molasses, etc. But they sound delicious. One pie seems to be made of cooked syrup and bread crumbs and spices--seems like something is missing there.There are a few typing errors; the oven instructions for both centigrade(C) and farenheightf (F) temperatures are given but in one recipie they are both labeled C. Once an oven tray (cookie sheet would be my interpretation of that) is called a "try". Some instructions call for tart trays with removable bottoms--I am not familiar with those.But overall, a fun read even if only to dream of being rich and elegant and having tea with the Dowager Duchess, Countess Grantham, Lady Mary, Edith, Sybil, and their friends.