It was definitely a challenge to choose a recipe from Mrs. Beeton’s book, not so much because of the sheer number of choices, but because the Victorian methods and ingredients are often foreign to the modern palate. In her introduction to the Cookery section of the book Mrs. Beeton makes a typically Victorian (and racist) connection between the relative complexity of food preparation, and civilization. Maybe this explains why her instructions for vegetables involve such ‘extended’ boiling times and so many of the illustrations look more like Easter bonnets than food!

I started by chopping the rhubarb. Mrs Beeton suggests cutting it into one-inch length pieces, however I seem to have bought the largest rhubarb known to man, so I’ve adjusted my measurements to suit. Dessert is underway, with sliced rhubarb, sugar, and puff pastry prepared for the tart. Dissolve the soda in the vinegar, add it to the dough until all are well incorporated with the others. Time to prepare the basins for steaming. Cut a large piece of greaseproof paper and foil. Place the foil piece on the kitchen counter followed by the greaseproof paper on top, then lightlygrease with butter. Mrs. Beeton’s Hodge Podge Stew ~ move over Martha and Nigella, Isabella Beeton was the original domestic goddess. This classic beef stew recipe is from her Book of Household Management, 1861!

Mix together well the flour, sugar, ginger, drained raisins, and drained candied peel and cherries (save the rum for dousing). The cookbook form flourished in the Victorian age, and Mrs Beeton’s format of ‘breaking each recipe into ingredients, mode, time, average cost, seasonableness [sic], and number of portions’ (Prasch 942) not only made recipes easier to follow for fellow Victorians, but also for 21st century graduate trainee library assistants. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs until pale and fluffy (at least five minutes). Mix in the butter, cream, treacle, and beat the mixture for a few more minutes. The Oxford English Dictionary recognised that, by the 1890s, Beeton's name "was adopted as a term for an authority on all things domestic and culinary". [45] The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science observed that "it was probably found in more homes than any other cookery book, and [was probably] the most often consulted, in the years 1875 to 1914". [8]

Unlike earlier cookbook authors, such as Hannah Glasse, the book offered an "emphasis on thrift and economy". [1] It also discarded the style of previous writers who employed "daunting paragraph[s] of text with ingredients and method jumbled up together" for what is a recognisably modern "user-friendly formula listing ingredients, method, timings and even the estimated cost of each recipe". [1] [29] Plagiarism [ edit ] public Wi-Fi - this extends to the majority of our public spaces including the Reading Rooms, as well as our study desks and galleries at St Pancras (you won't require a login)

BBC navigation

a b "Beeton, Mrs Isabella Mary 14 March 1836–6 February 1865". UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016 . Retrieved 1 March 2016. A chapter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus (1899) is entitled, "Concerning Mrs. Beeton"; a character declares: "Mrs. Beeton must have been the finest housekeeper in the world, therefore Mr. Beeton must have been the happiest and most comfortable man". [46] [47] Modern [ edit ]

Using a large piece of string, tightly wrap it around a few times under the ‘lip’ of the basin, and secure with a knot or two. She split and steamed the recipe as described but between about 5 basins of various size. We made them in November and would get one out (suitably matured) at various times during the year when it was cold and we had roast leg of lamb or such. The Cookery Book". Western Mail. Perth: National Library of Australia. 25 August 1906. p.38. Archived from the original on 3 January 2021 . Retrieved 10 September 2013.The tomato's) flavour stimulates the appetite and is almost universally approved. The Tomato is a wholesome fruit, and digests easily.... it has been found to contain a particular acid, a volatile oil, a brown, very fragrant extracto-resinous matter, a vegeto-mineral matter, muco-saccharine, some salts, and, in all probability, an alkaloid. The whole plant has a disagreeable odour, and its juice, subjected to the action of the fire, emits a vapour so powerful as to cause vertigo and vomiting. Now, Mrs Beeton’s recipe says that it serves eight, so I’m going to haphazardly quarter the recipe so that I’m not eating cabbage soup for the foreseeable future.