(*NEW ARRIVAL*) (Preserving) Auguste Corthay. La Conserve Alimentaire: Traite Pratique de Fabrication

xv, [1], 438 pp. Illus. throughout with wood engravings. Folio, period quarter calf & mottled boards, gilt-lettered spine; marbled endpapers. First Edition. Paris: Dentu, 1891.

Auguste Corthay (1844 - 1915) was a can manufacturer, inventor, technical writer, and editor specializing in canned foods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before writing his treatise on conserving, he was the culinary consultant to the king of Italy. The book was the result of twenty years of experience, as stated in his preface, and it was exhaustive regarding the manufacture of industrial preserves, which previous treatises did not have. Corthay proudly placed his treatise in the tradition of great preserving and fermenting authors such as Urbain Dubois, Marie-Antoine Carême and Nicolas Appert. 

Stunning illustrations accompany instructions on preserving foods in categorical order, from vegetables like asparagus, mushrooms, cardoons and tomatoes, to fruits and nuts, fish and meat. Front hinge cracking. A gorgeous and scarce work in very good condition.

(13)