Like many wives of yesterday and today, Emma Wedgwood Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin, compiled a cookery notebook revealing a lifestyle at the top of English society and intelligentsia.

Although Emma's recipes are well known to scholars and researchers, Dusha Bateson and Weslie Janeway provide the general public a treasure trove of fifty-five of her recipes for the first time, each one tested by the authors for today's cook with commentary and botanical illustrations.

The book includes unlikely dishes such as Turnips Cresselly and Penally Pudding, and even contains the recipe for boiling rice written in Charles Darwin's own hand, giving access to the Darwin family.

Lovers of cooking, history, Victoriana, and botany will devour this rich culinary exploration embodying the diversity and excitement of one of Charles Darwin's botanical adventures.