About the Book

Kettner's Book of the Table (1877) is the wittiest cookery book of its century — a dictionary of the dinner table in which every entry is a small essay: where the dish came from, what its name means, and what the author thinks of it (he usually thinks something).

It was published anonymously and named for Auguste Kettner's fashionable Soho restaurant, but its true author was E. S. Dallas, a celebrated leader-writer for The Times — which explains why a manual of cookery reads like the best journalism of its day.

It runs from ABSINTHE to ZEBU by way of Achilles the grill-cook, the poetry of the bay leaf, and a standing quarrel with menu French — the quarrel this site's Menu Decoder now settles in the book's favour.

This site reproduces the complete text of the original 1877 edition, digitized page by page from the original printing. The book is in the public domain.