Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Isabella Beeton (Part II)
(Continued from August 23, 2010): Brillat-Savarin’s comments about the English being the worst cooks in the world drew a sniff …
Tag Archives: English cookery
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Isabella Beeton (Part I)
Today in Britain, “Mrs. Beeton” is a culinary trademark not unlike “Betty Crocker,” whom General Mills created in a Frankensteinian moment to boost sales by appealing to Every Housewife.
The difference between the two ladies is that Mrs. Beeton was a real, breathing, living personage who wrote a monster of a book with a monster of a title: The Book of Household Management Comprising information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and Under House-Maids, Lady’s-Maid, Maid-of-all-Work, Laundry-Maid, Nurse and Nurse-Maid, Monthly Wet and Sick Nurses, etc. etc.—also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda: with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things Connected with Home Life and Comfort, BOHM for short.
See Jane Cook:* A Word About Sophie Grigson’s Mum
Jane Grigson is the nearest thing that we have on this side of the great green bouillabaisse to M.F.K. Fisher, …
A Bloody Fish Story
The price of fish is something nice — for fishmongers through the centuries, that is. And over the years, observers …
Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition
Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition (Medieval History and Archaeology), by C. M. Woolgar, Dale Serjeantson, and Tony Waldron …
The REAL Fish‑and‑Chips (and Lost Relatives, Too!)
Britain’s national dish is no longer bloody roasted beef, but rather fish and chips: batter fried fish and French fries, that is. Without fish and chips, eaten by millions of Englishmen everyday, the British economy would probably plummet and the national health care service grapple with more heart patients, no doubt. But fish and chips must be done just so in order to qualify as the REAL thing.
