Cuisine of the Time, or the Art of Preparing Savory and Exquisite Dishes Proper to

Ruiz Contreras, Luis, 1863-1953Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 104K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Cocina del tiempo, ó arte de preparar sabrosos y exquisitos platos propios deAuthor: Ruiz Contreras, Luis, 1863-1953,Language: Spanish, Class: TX: Technology: Home economics, Release Date: May 4, 2013

Editor's review

This is a public-domain e-book by the Spanish author Luis Ruiz Contreras, digitized and made available by Project Gutenberg, belonging to the category of Spanish-language domestic economy and culinary technique literature. The title translates literally as "The Cooking of the Age, or the Art of Preparing Savory and Exquisite Dishes," and judging by the title and classification, it is closer to a recipe and kitchen technique manual bearing the marks of its era than to a modern illustrated gastronomy book. Its value lies first at the documentary and linguistic level: readers can observe the conventions, ingredient names, and procedural descriptions of Spanish-language culinary writing from the late 19th to early 20th century, which is useful for those studying food history, translation history, or the evolution of Spanish vocabulary. Second, at the practical level, the dishes and techniques collected in the book can serve as leads for retro cooking, but readers need a certain command of Spanish and kitchen experience to judge whether quantities, heat levels, and hygiene conditions are applicable today. As a public-domain electronic text, the layout and annotations are plain, lacking the step-by-step photos and nutritional information common in modern cookbooks; it is best read as a historical source and source of inspiration rather than a ready-to-use operational guide.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with Spanish reading ability interested in European food history
Linguistic and cultural researchers studying Spanish culinary texts and recipe conventions
Experienced cooking enthusiasts who enjoy retro recipes and are willing to experiment with the original text
Learners who need public-domain Spanish texts for translation practice or corpus analysis

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners with no Spanish who hope to cook directly from the book
Modern home cooks who need precise gram weights, temperatures, and nutritional data
Readers expecting a richly illustrated cookbook with clear step-by-step instructions

Reading tips

First read through the table of contents and preface to understand the book's classification of dishes and the author's purpose, then decide which chapters to read closely.
While reading, note unfamiliar ingredient names and units of measurement, and use a Spanish dictionary or food-history sources for comparison.
If attempting to recreate dishes, start with one or two that use simple ingredients and short procedures, adjusting heat and storage methods to modern hygiene standards.
Read alongside Spanish or French cookbooks from the same period to observe similarities and differences in culinary writing conventions and terminology.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an operational cookbook for the modern home?

Not entirely. It bears clear marks of its era's writing style; quantities and heat levels often rely on experiential judgment and lack the precise parameters and step-by-step photos of modern cookbooks. It is better suited as a reference for food history and retro cooking; hands-on practice requires readers to convert and adjust on their own.

Can someone who doesn't know Spanish read this book?

Reading the original would be quite difficult, as the entire book is in Spanish and involves a great deal of ingredient and kitchen terminology. If you have no Spanish at all, it is advisable to first use a dictionary or a parallel translation to understand the content framework, or to use it as a corpus rather than a practical guide.

As a public-domain e-book, how are its layout and annotations?

The Project Gutenberg edition is known for textual accuracy and searchability, but the layout is plain and it typically lacks the illustrations, nutritional information, or detailed annotations of modern cookbooks. Readers need to supplement background information themselves; the reading experience is closer to that of an original document than a carefully edited book.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Ruiz Contreras, Luis, 1863-1953 Author

Luis Ruiz Contreras (1863–1953) is an author about whom little is publicly known; his nationality, education and professional career cannot be reliably established. The library holds only one work by him, Cocina del tiempo, ó arte de preparar sabrosos y exquisitos platos propios de, whose title means "Seasonal Cooking, or the Art of Preparing Tasty and Exquisite Dishes." Judging from the title, it is a practical work on cookery that emphasizes the seasonality of ingredients and the actual preparation of dishes. Written in Spanish, it reads as a recipe book and manual of instruction, concerned with workable methods rather than theoretical discussion. Because sources are scarce, its contemporary reach and reception cannot be assessed; it survives as a traditional culinary text that offers some insight into food writing of its era.