As you flip through the pages of “The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook” (Weldon Owen, 272 pages; $35) by British food historian Annie Gray, you can almost hear Mrs. Patmore and Daisy in the bustling kitchen of the country estate, scrambling to prepare yet another show-stopping meal for the Crawley family.
The cookbook, which debuts Sept. 17 to coincide with the highly-anticipated film, features more than 100 recipes split into two sections: The dishes served to the family in the grand upstairs’ dining room, like Salmon Mousse and Cucumber Soup, and those made for the servants, like Beef Stew with Dumplings and Cauliflower Cheese, served in the dining hall below stairs. There are tea-time and garden party spreads; picnic, race and shoot meet dishes, breakfast buffet favorites and several Christmas classics.
Some recipes are lifted directly from the PBS show’s six seasons and film, which opens Sept. 20, and others are dishes typical of the era, from 1912 to 1926, when “Downton Abbey” is set.
It’s all there, from Edwardian raised pies, roast meats and puddings to the foreign-influenced curries and pre-dinner cocktails that gained popularity in the 1920s. There’s even a section on how to host a Downton-style dinner. Hint: Ditch the etiquette book but keep the white tablecloth and flowers. Lots and lots of flowers.
Gray’s humor and historical notes about customs make the book, but our favorite parts are the recipes plucked straight from the show. Remember when Daisy’s perfect kedgeree convinces the visiting Harold Levinson that English food (and English cooks) are legit? It’s there — haddock, cold rice and all. Or when Ivy makes her first solo dish, a pastry and asparagus number? The dish is echoed by the book’s sprightly Asparagus Cups on page 173.
You can even make the golden lobster cutlets that were meant to be served at Edith’s wedding breakfast. Her union with Sir Anthony Strallan ended in tears and the cutlets were dramatically whisked away, ending up as the servants’ dinner.
The cookbook includes color photographs of the cast lifted from actual scenes as well as images of impeccable china, antique silverware and large buffets brimming with gravity-defying cakes. Unfortunately, less than half the recipes have accompanying images — and that’s our only criticism of the book: That we can’t see what pikelets, fairy cakes, ham and veal pie and other bygone dishes are supposed to look like.