annieb123's Review of Before Mrs Beeton

by Neil Buttery

The great Elizabeth Raffald used to be a household name, and her list of accomplishments would make even the highest of achievers feel suddenly impotent. After becoming housekeeper at Arley Hall in Cheshire at age twenty-five, she married and moved to Manchester, transforming the Manchester food scene and business community, writing the first A to Z directory and creating the first domestic servants registry office, the first temping agency if you will. Not only that, she set up a cookery school and ran a high class tavern attracting both gentry and nobility. She reputedly gave birth to sixteen daughters, wrote book on midwifery and was an effective exorciser of evil spirits.

These achievements gave her notoriety and standing in Manchester, but it all pales in comparison to her biggest achievement; her cookery book The Experienced English Housekeeper. Published in 1769, it ran to over twenty editions and brought her fame and fortune.

But then disaster; her fortune lost, spent by her alcoholic husband. Bankrupted twice, she spent her final years in a pokey coffeehouse in a seedy part of town.

Her book, however, lived on. Influential and often imitated (but never bettered), it became the must-have volume for any kitchen, and it helped form our notion of traditional British food as we think of it today.

To tell Elizabeth's tumultuous rise and fall story, historian Neil Buttery doesn't just delve into the history of food in the eighteenth century, he has to look at trade and empire, domestic service, the agricultural revolution, women's rights, publishing and copyright law, gentlemen's clubs and societies, the horse races, the defeminization of midwifery, and the paranormal, to name but a few.

Elizabeth Raffald should be revered, not unknown. How can this be? Perhaps we should ask Mrs Beeton�

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Before Mrs. Beeton is a fascinating biography of Elizabeth Raffald, the Georgian period's own answer to Martha Stewart, written and annotated by food historian Dr. Neil Buttery. Due out 28th April from Pen & Sword, it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

I was familiar with Mrs. Beeton, but completely unfamiliar with her predecessor and inspiration Elizabeth Raffald. The author does a wonderful job of providing a meticulously researched and annotated academically rigorous biography in layman accessible language and at the same time succeeds in making it really interesting. The book is quite simple graphically, there aren't a lot of illustrations, but there are a number of facsimiles, photos, and line drawings contained in an appendix in the back of the book. The author has also included notes and annotations, as well as a comprehensive index.

It's not a cookbook in much of a sense of the word, or at least not chiefly a cookbook, there are only a few recipes here, in an appendix. There is however, broad ranging historical background, social commentary, history, quite a lot of drama, and some pathos, retelling the rise and fall of Mrs. Raffald. The author has gone to great pains to delineate the subtleties and explain the background minutiae showing the differences between ingredients, preparation methods, and cooking fuels from the 1700s compared to the modern day.

Five stars. This would be a superlative choice for foodies fascinated by history as well as for historical re-creators/SCA folks.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Reading updates

18 February, 2023: Started reading

18 February, 2023: Finished reading

18 February, 2023: Reviewed