Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management
[8] In 1866, a year after Isabella's death, Samuel was in debt due to the collapse of Overend and Gurney, a London discount house to which he owed money.[9][10] The early editions included an obituary notice for Beeton, but the publishers insisted it be removed "allowing readers to imagine – perhaps even as late as 1915 – that some mob-capped matriarch was out there still keeping an eye on them".Chapters seven to 38 (roughly 1000 pages) cover English cooking, with recipes for soups, gravies, fish, meat (principally veal, beef, mutton and lamb, and pork), poultry, game, preserves, vegetables, pastries, puddings, sweets, jams, pickles, and savouries.[17] Chapters 40 to 50 (some 200 pages) give instructions for dairy products, vegetarian and invalid (sick person) cookery, making bread, biscuits and cakes, and beverages.[18] Chapters 51 to 59 describe cooking in various international styles including French, German, Spanish, Jewish, Australian, South African, Indian, American, and Canadian cookery.[19] Chapters 60 to 68 guide on matters from trussing poultry to the definitions of culinary terms, arranging meals, decorating the table, making menus, and the duties of domestic servants.[13] The preface sets out the book's goal of providing "men" with such well-cooked food at home that it may compete with what they could eat "at their clubs, well-ordered taverns, and dining-houses".[2] Mrs. Beeton claims that: I have attempted to give, under the chapters devoted to cookery, an intelligible arrangement to every recipe, a list of the ingredients, a plain statement of the mode of preparing each dish, and a careful estimate of its cost, the number of people for whom it is sufficient, and the time when it is seasonable[2]She explains that she was thus attempting to make the basics of cookery "intelligible" to any "housewife".She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice and trains up the other to virtue[23][24]The book thus advocates early rising, cleanliness, frugality, good temper, and the wisdom of interviewing servants rather than relying on written references.[23] Cookery is introduced with words about "the progress of mankind from barbarism to civilization", with a mention of man "in his primitive state, [living] upon roots and the fruits of the earth", rising to become in turn "a hunter and a fisher"; then a "herdsman" and finally "the comfortable condition of a farmer."It is granted that "the fruits of the earth, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, are still the only food of mankind", but that:[25] [T]hese are so prepared, improved, and dressed by skill and ingenuity, that they are the means of immeasurably extending the boundaries of human enjoyments.The text then swiftly passes to a description of simple measures like a table-spoonful, and the duties of servants.Finally, a "note" gives any required advice, such as "When stronger stock is desired, double the quantity of veal, or put in an old fowl."Despite professing to be a guide of reliable information about every aspect of running a house for the aspirant middle classes, the original edition devotes 23 pages to household management, then discusses cooking for almost all of the other 900.[1][29] In a critical letter, Mrs. Beeton's acquaintance Mrs. Henrietta Mary Pourtois English advised her that "Cookery is a Science that is only learnt by Long Experience[b] and years of study which of course you have not had.[42] One full-page colour plate illustrated a range of puddings, showing jelly, raspberry cream, a centre dish piled high with fruits, a trifle, and an ornamental flowerpot containing a strawberry plant.Mr. Toad attempts to make an apricot souffle, but the wind blows the pages to a "mustard and linseed poultice" remedy from the medical preparations section midway through.
Isabella BeetonCookeryWikisourcerunning a householdVictorianSamuel BeetonEliza ActonModern Cookery for Private FamiliesElizabeth RaffaldThe Experienced English HousekeeperMarie-Antoine CarêmeThe Art of Cookery Made Plain and EasyMaria Eliza RundellA New System of Domestic CookeryCharles Elmé FrancatelliplagiarismNigella LawsonDelia SmithSamuel Orchart BeetonThe Englishwoman's Domestic MagazineOverend and GurneyWard, Lock and Tylermob-cappedred mulletgraylingJohn DorymackerelwhitingsalmonherringplaicefloundergurnetcrayfishBook of ProverbsThe Vicar of WakefieldImperial unitsturpentineHannah GlasseLouis Eustache UdeAlexis SoyerKathryn HughesNew York TimesRestorationElizabeth DavidWilhelmina RawsonOxford English DictionaryArthur Conan DoyleA Duet, with an Occasional Chorusmiddle classesThe Wind in the Willows (TV series)poulticeRoyal Society of ChemistryGreat Recessiontoast sandwichDownton AbbeyGood OmensNew YorkMelbourneSydneyAdelaideThe AdvocateUniversity of Oklahoma PressThe South Australian AdvertiserThe GuardianWestern MailGoldsmith, OliverThe Daily ExpressLos Angeles TimesSpain, NancyCollinsVictorian Periodicals ReviewHughes, KathrynLeith, PrueCooper, ArtemisMichael JosephThe QueenslanderThe Morning BulletinAustralian Town and Country JournalThe SpectatorThe Washington PostProject GutenbergLibriVoxEnglish cuisineRoman timesSausagesMiddle AgesUtilis CoquinarioThe Forme of CuryApple pieBanbury cakeCheesecakeCustardGame pieGingerbreadKippersMince pieMortisPease puddingPottageRichard PynsonThe Boke of CokeryThomas DawsonThe Good Huswifes JewellBlack puddingFruit foolPancakeSconesSyllabubTrifle (without jelly)Elinor FettiplaceReceipt BookGervase MarkhamThe English HuswifeRobert MayThe Accomplisht CookHannah WoolleyThe Queen-like Closet or Rich CabinetKenelm DigbyThe Closet OpenedBattalia pieCurrant bunQueen of PuddingsSponge cakeSussex pond puddingSweet and sour