The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy

Both text I and text J are recipes for different types of curries. Text I was produced in 1747 and was taken from the “the art of cookery made plain and simple” by Hannah Glass. Text J was produced in, 1998 by Ainsly Harriot from his book “meals in Minutes”. Both recipes are taken from cookery books whose names suggest the recipes will be simple. The first significant difference I saw was the difference in the texts graphology.

They are presented in very different ways, text J stands out as a more typical recipe, something I am more familiar with, it includes clear separations between the ingredients and instructions, also including helpful information about the recipes nutritional values. It’s clear layout makes it easy for someone who intends on making this dish to buy the ingredients prior to making it.

They could simply take the book or a copy of the page into a supermarket and buy the ingredients as they are also provided with the precise quantities, e. 400g of can coconut milk. Text I was produced before the standardisation of measurements, so it is less precise. There are clear lines separating the different sections of text J, which makes it easy for the cook to understand what section, they are in. For example if they take the recipe shopping they need to look at the middle section then when they get home they move onto the next. However, Text I is laid out in a paragraph incorporating the ingredients and instructions altogether at the same time.

Text I is a recipe most probably used by a cook, whose job it is to cook for the house and who will be cooking constantly, therefore the recipe has rightly assumed they will have the ingredients all ready stored in a pantry of some sort. This is why it is unnecessary to list the ingredients before hand. This recipe is written with as if the cook had read it before starting whereas Text J is written as if you were doing it while reading.

Text I allows the cook to improvise if they are short of any ingredients, however in text J the ingredients are specified before hand therefore the cook won’t have to improvise. Text J uses two different fonts in the recipe. One is a large font used for the title to make it stand out the same font is used in a smaller size for the introduction, and the other font is used for the ingredients and instructions to make it easy to distinguish between these one is bolder than the other. The Typography is used to make the recipe easy to follow and understand.

The changing of fonts asserts the discourse structure. This is vital as the recipe is in a cookery book that Ainsly Harriot is using to build his brand- therefore the easier the recipe is to follow the more people will like using his recipes and his brand will expand. This is different to Text I because text I was produced in a time before standardisation and computers therefore it was not possible nor was it thought of to use different fonts, however the text still asserts it’s discourse because the title is bolder than the rest of the text.

As I have already said Text I was produced before standardisation of the Roman alphabet and the dictionary. The usage of capital letters is random compared to the standard use of them in text J. Another difference this causes is the change in tenses, for example ‘If the sauce be too thick’ it uses the bare form when it should use the auxiliary ‘is’ to make it ‘if the sauce is too thick. ‘ However this is written by assuming the cook will read it first then cook the food.

Both recipes use a different spelling for the work curry. Due again to the fact that text I was produced before standardisation. ‘Currey’ is phonetically spelt as it is a borrowed foreign word that was a new phenomenon. Therefore phonetically spelling it is all they could do, as they couldn’t pick up a dictionary and check if it was right. Text I also uses ‘India’ as an adjective rather than a noun. It is used to sell the recipe, curries weren’t as common as they are now so it was an unusual dish to make.

If you compare both titles ‘To make a Currey the India way’ and “wan Kai Thai style red curry’ The recipe in text I is for general Indian curry, which is a strange thought as now in England the choice and range curry is enormous. The concept was still new to our culture. But if you compare this to the Wan Kai Thai red curry you can see the change. People travel a lot more and have tasted all types of Indian curries therefore jif Ainsly Harriot had titled his recipe ‘Indian curry’ It wouldn’t excite the cook at all as much as it would of back in 1747.

By just looking at the ingredients use in the recipes you can see how our culture has changed resulting in changes in our language. For example in text I the meat used in Rabbit or fowl- compared to fish either cod or haddock in text J. Rabbit and fowls are regarded as quite posh ingredients and is not the type of meat you would be able to buy in the supermarket. I think the intention of this recipe is that the rabbit and fowl would have been killed in the grounds of the house and not bought from a shop.

Unlike the fish in text J where the cook would of bought it in the supermarket, you can see the effects of globalisation on our culture our food is not as fresh and sustainable as it would have been in 1747. Text J is written for someone who will buy the products, make the food for them to eat. However in text I the recipe is written for a cook who would have all the ingredients provided for them to make for the house they work for. Text I uses the phrase ‘ dish it up and tend it to the table’ which is something that you wouldn’t find in a modern recipe. Show preview only