Book 8 of the Collection contains the recipe book known as Brief and useful instruction for beginner cooks according to the style of the Discalced Carmelites, by Francesc del Santíssimo Sagrament (Reus, 1753-Mataró, 1824), cook of the convent of Sant Josep de Barcelona, ​​located where the Mercat de Sant Josep, la Boqueria, is currently located.

The author, as a religious of the convent, had access to its rich library, which surely included cooking recipes and, however, as he himself explains, of all the recipes he knew, he could not take advantage of any of them, since they were addressed to experienced cooks, while what he wanted was to be useful to novice cooks, who wanted to practice this trade in convents.

The Carmelite diet was based on cereals (bread, pasta and rice), legumes (dry or fresh), vegetables, eggs and fish, fats of vegetable origin (olive oil), and fresh and dried fruit, with a more or less restricted presence of meat, although the latter will vary over time as manuscript copies of his work appear.

From what we know so far, before Friar Francesc wrote his recipe book, Carmelite recipes were passed down orally, from cook to cook, and therefore, without his contribution, today perhaps many of these recipes would have been lost and we would also have lost an excellent source of information about what was eaten and how it was eaten in the convents in Catalonia.

Book available in Catalan.

Also available in ebook format.