Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book and Household Guide

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The first chapter sets the tone of the book with a quotation from the Book of Proverbs, and in early editions cites also The Vicar of Wakefield with: [23] Freeman, Sarah (1989). Mutton and Oysters: The Victorians and Their Food. London: Gollancz. ISBN 978-0-575-03151-7. Hughes, Kathryn (2006). The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton. HarperCollins. pp.198–201, 206–10. ISBN 978-0-7524-6122-9. Biography [ edit ] Early life, 1836–1854 [ edit ] Cheapside, London, where Isabella and her family moved in 1836

In 2012 the food economist for the British television period drama Downton Abbey described Beeton's book as an "important guide" for the food served in the series. [50] a b Brown, Mark (2 June 2006). "Mrs Beeton couldn't cook but she could copy, reveals historian". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Stringer, Helen (19 January 2000). "Mrs. Beeton Saved My Life". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013 . Retrieved 10 September 2013.a b "Mrs Beeton (1836–1865)". BBC. 2014. Archived from the original on 3 January 2021 . Retrieved 15 May 2018. Paxman, Jeremy (2009). The Victorians: Britain Through the Paintings of the Age. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-1-84607-743-2. The literary historian Kate Thomas sees Beeton as "a powerful force in the making of middle-class Victorian domesticity", [113] while the Oxford University Press, advertising an abridged edition of the Book of Household Management, considers Beeton's work a "founding text" [114] and "a force in shaping" the middle-class identity of the Victorian era. [115] Within that identity, the historian Sarah Richardson sees that one of Beeton's achievements was the integration of different threads of domestic science into one volume, which "elevat[ed] the middle-class female housekeeper's role... placing it in a broader and more public context". [116] Nown quotes an unnamed academic who thought that "Mrs Beetonism has preserved the family as a social unit, and made social reforms a possibility", [117] while Nicola Humble, in her history of British food, sees The Book of Household Management as "an engine for social change" which led to a "new cult of domesticity that was to play such a major role in mid-Victorian life". [118] Nown considers Beeton Around 1854 Isabella Mayson began a relationship with Samuel Orchart Beeton. His family had lived in Milk Street at the same time as the Maysons—Samuel's father still ran the Dolphin Tavern there—and Samuel's sisters had also attended the same Heidelberg school as Isabella. [17] [18] Samuel was the first British publisher of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 and had also released two innovative and pioneering journals: The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine in 1852 and the Boys' Own magazine in 1855. [19] [20] The couple entered into extensive correspondence in 1855—in which Isabella signed her letters as "Fatty"—and they announced their engagement in June 1855. [21] The marriage took place at St Martin's Church, Epsom, in July the following year, and was announced in The Times. [22] Samuel was "a discreet but firm believer in the equality of women" [23] and their relationship, both personal and professional, was an equal partnership. [9] The couple went to Paris for a three-week honeymoon, after which Samuel's mother joined them in a visit to Heidelberg. They returned to Britain in August, when the newlyweds moved into 2Chandos Villas, a large Italianate house in Pinner. [24] [25] Samuel Orchart Beeton in 1860 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.

Beeton's half-sister, Lucy Smiles, was later asked about her memories of the book's development. She recalled: Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management". Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007 . Retrieved 2 December 2015. Barnes, Julian (3 April 2003). "Mrs Beeton to the rescue". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. After merging with Harper's magazine to become Harper's & Queen in 1970, the publication then became Harper's, before its current incarnation, Harper's Bazaar. [62] [63] Within a month of returning from their honeymoon Beeton was pregnant. [26] A few weeks before the birth, Samuel persuaded his wife to contribute to The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, a publication that the food writers Mary Aylett and Olive Ordish consider was "designed to make women content with their lot inside the home, not to interest them in the world outside". [27] The magazine was affordable, aimed at young middle class women and was commercially successful, selling 50,000 issues a month by 1856. [28] Beeton began by translating French fiction for publication as stories or serials. [29] Shortly afterwards she started to work on the cookery column—which had been moribund for the previous six months following the departure of the previous correspondent—and the household article. [30] [31] The Beetons' son, Samuel Orchart, was born towards the end of May 1857, but died at the end of August that year. On the death certificate, the cause of death was given as diarrhoea and cholera, although Hughes hypothesises that Samuel senior had unknowingly contracted syphilis in a premarital liaison with a prostitute, and had unwittingly passed the condition on to his wife, which would have infected his son. [32]Hughes, Kathryn (2006). The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton. London: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7524-6122-9. a b "Isabella Beeton". Orion Publishing Group. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015 . Retrieved 1 December 2015. Beetham, Margaret (2003). A Magazine of Her Own?: Domesticity and Desire in the Woman's Magazine, 1800–1914. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-76878-3.