MovieChat Forums > The Great British Bake Off (2014) Discussion > Did anyone see this history of the triff...

Did anyone see this history of the triffle?

posted 9 years ago by bluekrush
3 replies | jump to latest

It was at the end of today's show. There's one part I don't understand. They said that this lady who was upper class married someone of lower status and decided to write a cookbook containing the triffle recipe and that this appealed to the aspirational middle class who did not have access to upper class recipes?. But why would an upper class person even know how to cook? Don't they have servants cooking and since servants do cook for the upper class aren't the recipes pretty much known by the lower class

[–] elena-28 9 years ago

Well, you never can tell about these things: in _Pride and Prejudice_ Lady Catherine de Bourgh sticks her nose into everything, including the kitchen, and always knows best.

Going back to the 1390s, we have _Le Ménagier de Paris_, written by an elderly professional gentleman for the benefit of his young wife. This book contains information about cooking, planting, hiring and training servants, and tips on cleaning clothing (we don't use his method these days: it features urine). How and why a man who was likely a busy lawyer had the time to find out all these things, leave us not to question. But the book exists to show at least one did!

[–] bluekrush 9 years ago

But even if some of the upper class were interested in cooking. Saying that the lower class did not have access to the recipes is odd since they are the cooks. I could see not having access to the ingredients but not the recipes lol.

[–] shellieeyre 9 years ago

A woman of high status but with no money might well marry a lower status man who was wealthy.

Also - it's trifle - one 'f'.

I'm the clever one; you're the potato one.