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The Experienced English Housekeeper
The Experienced English Housekeeper is a cookery book by the English businesswoman Elizabeth Raffald (1733–1781). It was first published in 1769, and went through 13 authorised editions and at least 23 pirated ones.
The book contains some 900 recipes for: soups; main dishes including roast and boiled meats, boiled puddings, and fish; desserts, table decorations and "little savory dishes"; potted meats, drinks, wines, pickles, preserves and distilled essences. The recipes consist largely of direct instructions to the cook, and do not contain lists of ingredients. The book is illustrated with three fold-out copper plate engravings.
The book is noted for its practicality, departing from earlier practice in that it avoids plagiarism, consisting instead almost entirely of direct instructions based on Raffald's experience. It introduced the first known recipe for a wedding cake covered in marzipan and royal icing, and is an early use of barbecue. The book remains a reference for cookery writers.
Raffald was born in Doncaster in 1733. Between 1748 and 1763 she was employed as a housekeeper by several families, including the Warburtons of Arley Hall in Cheshire, where she met her future husband, John Rafford, Arley Hall's head gardener. In 1763 the couple moved to Manchester, where Elizabeth opened a confectionery shop and John sold flowers and seeds at a market stall. They had 16 children, all girls. As well as her cookery book, she wrote a book on midwifery and ran a register office in Manchester to place domestic servants with prospective employers. In 1773, she sold the copyright to the book to her publisher for £1400, equivalent to about £185,000 in 2024.
Raffald writes in her Preface that she not only worked as a housekeeper "in great and worthy families", but "had the opportunity of travelling with them". The bibliographer William Carew Hazlitt observes that in this way she "widened her sphere of observation". A 2005 article in Gastronomica described Raffald as "the most celebrated English cookery writer of the eighteenth century after Hannah Glasse".
The following page numbers refer to the 4th edition of 1775.
Part I [Soups, meat, fish, pies and puddings]
Part II [Desserts and accompanying dishes]
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The Experienced English Housekeeper
The Experienced English Housekeeper is a cookery book by the English businesswoman Elizabeth Raffald (1733–1781). It was first published in 1769, and went through 13 authorised editions and at least 23 pirated ones.
The book contains some 900 recipes for: soups; main dishes including roast and boiled meats, boiled puddings, and fish; desserts, table decorations and "little savory dishes"; potted meats, drinks, wines, pickles, preserves and distilled essences. The recipes consist largely of direct instructions to the cook, and do not contain lists of ingredients. The book is illustrated with three fold-out copper plate engravings.
The book is noted for its practicality, departing from earlier practice in that it avoids plagiarism, consisting instead almost entirely of direct instructions based on Raffald's experience. It introduced the first known recipe for a wedding cake covered in marzipan and royal icing, and is an early use of barbecue. The book remains a reference for cookery writers.
Raffald was born in Doncaster in 1733. Between 1748 and 1763 she was employed as a housekeeper by several families, including the Warburtons of Arley Hall in Cheshire, where she met her future husband, John Rafford, Arley Hall's head gardener. In 1763 the couple moved to Manchester, where Elizabeth opened a confectionery shop and John sold flowers and seeds at a market stall. They had 16 children, all girls. As well as her cookery book, she wrote a book on midwifery and ran a register office in Manchester to place domestic servants with prospective employers. In 1773, she sold the copyright to the book to her publisher for £1400, equivalent to about £185,000 in 2024.
Raffald writes in her Preface that she not only worked as a housekeeper "in great and worthy families", but "had the opportunity of travelling with them". The bibliographer William Carew Hazlitt observes that in this way she "widened her sphere of observation". A 2005 article in Gastronomica described Raffald as "the most celebrated English cookery writer of the eighteenth century after Hannah Glasse".
The following page numbers refer to the 4th edition of 1775.
Part I [Soups, meat, fish, pies and puddings]
Part II [Desserts and accompanying dishes]