Beautifully produced and encapsulating the cream of her Household Management Bible, Essential Beeton includes pearls of wisdom on housework (and the importance of elbow grease), home hairdressing, child rearing and some of Mrs B’s most celebrated recipes.

I must frankly own, that if I had known, beforehand, that this book would have cost me the labour which it has, I should never have been courageous enough to commence it. What moved me, in the first instance, to attempt a work like this, was the discomfort and suffering which I had seen brought upon men and women by household mismanagement. I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife’s badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways. Men are now so well served out of doors,—at their clubs, well-ordered taverns, and dining-houses, that in order to compete with the attractions of these places, a mistress must be thoroughly acquainted with the theory and practice of cookery, as well as be perfectly conversant with all the other arts of making and keeping a comfortable home.

 

In this book 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. For the matter of the recipes, I am indebted, in some measure, to many correspondents of the “Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine,” who have obligingly placed at my disposal their formulas for many original preparations. A large private circle has also rendered me considerable service.

 

PREFACE 5 INTRODUCTION 7 EXPLANATION OF FRENCH TERMS USED IN MODERN HOUSEHOLD COOKERY 11 CHAPTER 1 RECIPES FOR SOUPS 19 CHAPTER 2 RECIPES FOR COOKING FISH 35 CHAPTER 3 RECIPES FOR GRAVIES, FORCEMEATS, AND SAUCES 43 CHAPTER 4 RECIPES FOR COOKING BEEF 65 CHAPTER 5 RECIPES FOR COOKING MUTTON AND LAMB 77 CHAPTER 6 RECIPES FOR COOKING PORK 91 CHAPTER 7 RECIPES FOR COOKING POULTRY 107 CHAPTER 8 RECIPES FOR COOKING GAME 133 CHAPTER 9 RECIPES FOR COOKING VEGETABLES 151 CHAPTER 10 RECIPES FOR PUDDINGS, PASTRY, AND SWEET DISHES... 183 CHAPTER 11 RECIPES FOR CREAMS, JELLIES, &c 205 4 CHAPTER 12 RECIPES FOR PRESERVES AND STORE SAUCES 225 CHAPTER 13 RECIPES FOR MAKING BREAD, BISCUITS, AND CAKES 239 CHAPTER 14 RECIPES FOR BEVERAGES: TEA, COFFEE, &c 245 CHAPTER 15 RECIPES FOR INVALID COOKERY 259 CHAPTER 16 DOMESTIC SERVANTS 269

'There isn't much that Mrs Beeton dodn't improve upon in her time as the queen of 19th-century homemaking. Collected here are the jewels in her domestic crown, giving advice on such risky topics as meringues, proper tea preparation, the seasonality of wild duck, and domestic servants. And, of course, the book is packed with hundreds of her traditional Victorian-era recipes.'

 

'Ranging from definitions of French culinary terms, recipes for invalids and advice on managing domestic staff, to jointing beef and making 'excellent rolls', the definitive domestic goddess is ready for her 21st-century comeback.'

 

Mrs Beeton was born Isabella Mayson in London in 1836. She married the wealthy publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton in 1856 and published her first book, The Book of Household Management three years later, aged just 23. Taking four years to compile, it became an instant success, selling 60,000 copies in under a year. Mrs Beeton tragically died at the age of 28 during the birth of their fourth child. Books by this author

Essential Beeton

 

Essential Beeton by Mrs Beeton
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