A quirky digest of the institution that is Mrs Beeton, picking out not only her best recipes but her insights into Victorian life and women
You’ll probably remember a battered old copy of Mrs Beeton’s the Book of General Household Management lying around your grandmother’s house. Or even just a collection of her recipes, pulled out for the annual Christmas cake making. Beyond that you may not have given it much thought. Unlike author and film director, David Cohen, who picked up a copy one day and couldn’t put it down.
Fascinated, not only by the recipes, but by Isabella Beeton's footnotes, witty asides and references to poetry and Greek verse, Cohen found himself writing ‘a guide to her tragic history and her social and culinary insights’. Why tragic? Well, extraordinarily, Mrs Beeton died aged 28. A year younger than Emily Brontë. And more than just writing a recipe book, Mrs Beeton, decided that what was needed for the middle class Victorian wife was a general household management guide. She had spotted a gap in the market!
Published in 1861, when Mrs Beeton was 25, the Book of Household Management was a comprehensive guide of how to effectively run a household; from when to get up in the morning (‘…while petticoated philosophers might lie in bed late, the Mistress had to be up early giving orders to her domestic troops.’), what to have in your medicine cabinet, how to deal with door to door salesmen; the duties of a butler and how to make sure he was keeping honest accounts. As well as general observations of food, where and when to buy and how to store, Mrs Beeton gives detailed plans for dinner parties and makes the occasional joke.
David Cohen really brings to life Mrs Beeton’s labour of love and also chooses 40 recipes, including Stewed Venison, An Unrivalled Plum-pudding and A Very Good Seed Cake, converting the imperial measures into more user-friendly ones. One of those books you’ll find yourself dipping into again and again.
Mrs Beeton’s Best Bits by David Cohen, is published by Psychology News Press.
