Jane Austen Society of North America, Southwest (JASNA-SW)

Did you miss our Festive Winter Meeting,

“Wassail and Plum Pudding:
Cooking in Jane Austen’s England?”

Saturday, December 4, 2010 was a day of lively and entertaining talks on foods and cooking in Jane Austen’s England by three erudite gourmets, including a Regency era feast designed by Jan Fahey and prepared especially for us by Los Angeles Athletic Club chef Boris Chernyak.

Here are some photos and a recap of our event.

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In her book COOKING WITH JANE AUSTEN, author Kirstin Olsen showed how Jane Austen used her experience with domestic concerns to animate her works. In her talk, Ms. Olsen illustrated the preparation of recipes for the dishes featured in these novels, especially Fanny’s dinner with the Grants in "Mansfield Park," and discussed the social implications of the timing of dinner, the type of food served at different meals, and the rivalry between French and English styles of cooking.

Richard Foss, food historian, journalist, author of science fiction, and raconteur is a restaurant reviewer and instructor in Elizabethan History and Culinary History at Osher Institute/UCLA Extension. He is currently on the Board of the Culinary Historians of Southern California. In Austen’s day, the beverage a host offered his guest said something about the social status of each, and the subtle rituals involved might not be obvious to a modern reader. In his talk, "Drinking with Jane Austen," Mr. Foss discussed domestic and imported libations of Austen’s era, and the social connotations of each.

Our own Dr. Janet Fahey is a 15-year member of JASNA-SW and of the Culinary Historians of Southern California. For our December meeting she researched recipes from original sources and developed the authentic period menu we enjoyed at the Athletic Club. She also created the souvenir menu booklet that every guest took home from this event. In her talk, "Jane Austen's Pantry," Jan discussed the foods Jane Austen had available to her, and their geography and history from the Stone Age to the nineteenth century.

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Susan Ridgeway gave us a preview of the 2011 JASNA AGM, which takes place in Ft. Worth, Texas this year, and a recap of the 2010 AGM in Portland, Oregon.

Our Menu:
Swiss Soup Meagre
Choice of Roast Turkey with Bread Crumb Stuffing,
Broiled Salmon with Caper Herb Sauce, or
Martha Lloyd’s Vegetable Pie with Puff Pastry Crust
Parsley Red Potatoes
Green Beans, Carrots and Pearl Onions in Butter
Mrs. Bates’ Baked Apples & Gingerbread “Cakes”
Christmas Pudding
And as a special treat, we toasted our honoree, Jane Austen, on the occasion of her 235th birthday with a specially prepared Holiday Wassail.

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Many thanks to Carla Washburn and all of her fellow JASNA-SW members who worked so hard to create this event.