WHY DID OFFAL FALL OFF THE COOK’S MENU?
If, like me, you own something in the region of 400 cookbooks it’s pretty hard to choose your top 10. But that’s what I was asked to do recently (see my list by searching my name at 1000cookbooks.com).
This sort of thing provokes a rediscovery of a book forgotten. For me it was Marguerite Patten’s All Colour Cookery, the one that got me started back in the 1970s. Flicking through, I relived culinary triumphs and disasters and tried to ignore the photography, which left much to be desired, and recipe horrors such as Jamaican fish (sole and bananas). I was struck by the number of offal recipes, which raised both an eyebrow and a question: when did we all become so squeamish?