December 9, 2025 • 36 mins
Eliza Acton: The Pioneer of Modern Cookbooks
This episode discusses the life and contributions of Eliza Acton, a Victorian poet who unexpectedly authored the world's first cookbook aimed at home cooks. The hosts highlight Acton's significant innovations in recipe writing, emphasizing practical and detailed instructions that were revolutionary at the time. The episode also touches on the history of publishing, the eventual overshadowing of Acton's work by Mrs. Beeton's plagiarized book, and how Acton's legacy is being revived today. The discussion is filled with various anecdotes, historical context, and humorous commentary.
Sources for today are:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/72482/72482-h/72482-h.htm
https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discovery/history-
stories/first-woman-eliza-acton-writer-of-the-first-cook-book-
aimed-at-the-home-cook/
https://www.tonbridgehistory.org.uk/people/eliza-acton.htm
https://www.mentalfloss.com/food/eliza-acton-cookbooks-
food-history
The Language of Food by Anabel Abbs
00:00 Charlie's Delivery Job
02:14 Introducing Eliza Acton
04:17 The Golden Age of Publishing
09:07 Eliza Acton's Early Life and Poetry
15:13 The Birth of Modern Cookery
17:43 Revolutionizing Recipes: The Birth of Modern Cookbooks
19:02 The Poet and the Pragmatist: Eliza Acton's Unique Approach
19:54 Lessons in Chemistry: The Science Behind Cooking
20:35 Charming Illustrations and Personal Touches
21:39 Preventing Food Waste: A Vision Ahead of Its Time
23:27 Sassy Recipes: The Poor Author's Pudding vs. The Publisher's Pudding
24:06 The Legacy of Modern Cookery
27:16 The Unexpected Rival: Mrs. Beaton's Plagiarism
28:51 Eliza Acton's Enduring Influence
30:26 Final Thoughts and Recommendations
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
audio1507710367 (00:07):
I have a, we update for you.
Um, so, you know, I was sayingCharlie was off on a shift, a
trial shift of a delivery job.
Yes.
And he didn't think it was gonnabe for him.
He stuck with it because heagreed to do it.
So he saw it out, which, youknow, good advice from dad
there.
But, um, he ended up actuallythinking, this is all right.
(00:29):
He made a ton of tips.
I think that's why he think itwent all right.
Exactly.
But what cracks we know yourprice.
Charlie, what cracks me up wasafter I was talking about like
how you know, what a lovelyyoung man he is and how, you
know, mature and everything he'sbecoming, I came home and
having.
(00:49):
Talked some considerable trashabout the state of the kitchen
of the place that he was, youknow, supposed to do well.
That's my question.
Delivery for Yes.
Well, I come in and he goes,Hey, if you're hungry, I brought
home food.
And I was like, he did not.
He did not.
He did.
Where are these boys, moms?
He's still a student at heart.
He, he's like, yes, free foodversus.
(01:11):
Sketchy looking kitchen.
Um, but yeah, there you go.
He, his price is veryinteresting.
Free food, his tips and ahandful of tips Good on him.
You know, he's getting hismoney.
He's, he's chasing that bag.
I'm, I'm fine with it.
Love Charlie.
But he was so principled at thetime.
Yeah.
And all it took, because acouple of hands, it.
(01:31):
Squished, uh, fives andsuddenly, yeah.
That's a good story.
That's a good story for thefuture girlfriend, that his, his
morals are so easily swayed.
Yes.
Yeah.
Good for him.
He's got stuff to pay for.
He's, he's on, he wouldn'tallowed to be open if it was
that.
But I was thinking on the wayhome as well.
Exactly.
There'll be hygiene if it wasthat hard.
(01:51):
Yeah.
I think there'll be hygienechecks and stuff like that.
Maybe was spoiled by the othercompany maybe.
'cause they're so, the othercompany were like, who knew?
So maybe he's comparing the Ritzto whatever of pizza to, you
know, to fault shop.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe that's what, maybe he justneeded to get through that.
That's fascinating.
(02:12):
I love Charlie.
Alright, so yeah, today, um,doing a little chitty chat about
food is a nice segue because weare going to speak about a woman
who.
Ended up in that arena, althoughthat wasn't what she thought she
was going to do with her lifewhen she started.
Okay.
Which is relatable.
I think we never, none of usknow Exactly is she's gonna be,
(02:34):
be more by tips.
She, I guess you could draw, youcould draw a little parallel
with the financial necessitypiece, but yeah.
Let's, let's, uh, let's get intoit.
Are you ready?
I'm so ready.
Alright.
How are you Vicki?
How are you doing?
I'm good.
Yeah, thanks.
How are you?
Yeah, doing good.
Ready to roll?
Um, yeah, I will.
(02:55):
I will begin it.
Uh, so yes, sometimes someonewill come along who being in the
right place at the right time orthe wrong place at the wrong
time finds the course of theirlife diverted into a completely
unexpected path.
And I hear that one such person.
Oh, yes.
Um, one such is today's lady whois Eliza Acton, uh, Victorian.
(03:17):
A poet and unexpectedly, theauthor of the World's first
cookbook aimed at the home cook.
There's a little picture of herthere.
It's later life.
I know.
It's so, it's so arbitrary.
I had no idea about this person.
My friend Theresa recommended anovel about her life and it kind
of got Teresa.
Interested, and I'm so glad shedid because it's fascinating.
(03:41):
Um, our sources for today are,uh, project Gutenberg, where you
can read the entirety of ElizaActon Cookbook.
Highly recommended, um, theBrighton Museums.
Uh, had a story about herTonbridge history.
Uh, museum also had a storyabout her, because it's a bit of
a local interest thing.
(04:02):
There's a cool website youwould've come across called
Mental Floss, and they had anarticle about her.
And then there is the novel,which is called The Language of
Food by an author called AnnabelAbs.
Right.
Nice.
So.
On this damp and wintry morning,I know that you're thinking deep
down inside what I'd really loveis a condensed history of the
(04:27):
publishing industry in Britain,circa 1476 to 1860.
Is that you are Damn right,Cara.
That is up exactly my morningcoffee.
Lucky you strap in.
Here we go.
Okay.
So I'll try to keep it reallybrief, but it is important, um,
to the story.
So in London.
In 1476, the first mechanicalprinting press arrived, and then
(04:52):
it was kind of really rarefieduse it.
It was all very regulated,hundreds of years pass, and in
1695, the UK government relaxedcensorship and control over
printed materials.
We're gonna whiz on to the 18thcentury as, uh, that's when the
(05:14):
first kind of concepts ofcopyright laws were introduced,
which factors into our storylargely in terms of how they did
not work as effectively as youwould hope.
And then we're gonna zoom aheadagain, and now it's the
industrial revolution of the19th century.
And you have this kind ofperfect storm where.
(05:34):
The technological advances, um,like an a, an easier to use
steam powered printing pressmachinery that allowed wood pulp
to be turned into paper muchmore easily.
Uh, typesetting machinery couldbe manufactured more easily,
things could be distributed bythe new railway networks.
All of that came together at thesame time as.
(05:55):
Tax was abolished on printeditems.
And the public through this kindof like golden age, were being,
given better chances forliteracy and education and all
of those things fed in togetherto lead to what was called the
golden age of publishing.
That's a lot of information, so,right.
(06:17):
Um, yeah.
I never appreciated a, that wewere censored and this is in
this country, right.
So there was censorship on that,which is so interesting
considering all the free speechJitt chatter.
Sorry, go on.
It was at the time when, supposeit being new technology, the
printed word.
Was sacrosanct and thegovernment and the church to
(06:41):
some extent were sort of incontrol of what was printed.
And if you ever read any of theHillary Mantel books, you will
know there was a real.
Lethal interest in controllingthe printed word, the Bible in
its original Latin versionversus English.
And so think, think along thosevibes.
(07:03):
Like we have to be reallycontrolled about what gets put
into print.
And I suppose when only ahandful of people can read, then
the, the majority of yourpopulace goes, you know,
whatever, do what you want.
But as people became moreeducated and.
Printing was democratized bytechnology.
Yeah.
You got a, a more free printingtrade.
(07:25):
And it also made me think howlucky we were with the guy who
invented the internet who said,this is free for all.
Like if he hadn't done that,that could have history, could
have repeated itself.
That's interesting.
And that's another thing Ithought of.
And then, um, then the tax onprinted items.
(07:46):
Do we have tax today?
We must have tax today onprinted items like books.
We didn't honestly tell you, Idon't, I don't think books are
tax.
No way.
Let me check.
That's insane.
I love that you're checking yoursources.
Sources.
Sorry.
No, it's good.
It's, it's robust.
(08:08):
It is the kind of thing we like.
Yeah.
So it is tax unless it'seducational.
Educational is zero VAT.
Most standard examples are vt.
Oh, no, no, no.
Sorry, I've misunderstood.
So.
VAT on things like diaries,calendars, forms, invoices,
(08:31):
vouchers, stickers, no VAT onbooks, newspapers, journals,
brochures, pamphlets, picturebooks, maps, huh.
They're worthwhile.
They want people to buy them.
So, well, that's adorable.
Yay.
For books.
Bit of a, a change of thinking.
So into this, into this sort ofcauldron of.
(08:53):
Books becoming more available,books becoming more printable
and distributable.
There's a bit of a feedingfrenzy.
Let's let's publish what we can.
And at that time, that is when,uh, miss Eliza Acton was born.
She joins us in battle in Sussexin 1799.
And, um, she grew up in a humblehouse connected to the brewery
(09:16):
where her father worked.
Mm-hmm.
She was educated in keeping withthose times and then.
Grew up in Suffolk andeventually co-ran a boarding
school for girls.
So you can see she's kind ofinterested in education in the
written word and academia.
Yeah.
That's where her life is headed,and this is where things take a
(09:40):
bit of a turn for thescandalous.
Um, we, I do not know whatactually happens.
It's not particularly welldocumented.
But I'll say there's gossipafoot.
So Eliza goes off to France andthere are rumors of gossip.
Her already gossip.
Yeah.
Gossip is, is bubble in a way.
(10:02):
She may have been, uh, jilted bya sweetheart.
Yes.
Yes.
Kara, for the gossip, this isgreat.
On the gossip, some of thesources that talk about her.
Leaving for France at that time.
Talk about how women of hersocial class were often sent to
Europe if they wereinconveniently pregnant outside
of marriage, and then they wouldhave the baby and adopt it to
(10:24):
your, you are pouring feel onthis fire, Kara, I'm just, I'm
just reporting what was in thesources, but none of them know
for sure.
Maybe she just wanted to go onvacation.
Right.
The poor woman.
Yeah.
But whatever happened, she wentoff to France for a few years
and then returned to England.
Sweet.
At that point, she, she movesback to Tunbridge.
(10:47):
It's 1826.
You'll know from our condensedhistory of the printing trade,
lots of publication going on.
She, at that point, puts out herown first poetry pamphlet.
Did she And it's, it's, yeah,just a faring back.
It's Well, yes, and more soperhaps than even you'd think,
because at that time, in orderto have something published
(11:08):
small scale like that, thatwasn't commissioned, you had to
go to the publisher with a listof subscribers, which were
people who had agreed in advanceto pay for your work.
Kind of like a self-publishingvibe.
Or Instagram followers.
Like that's a lot of thepublishing today is that you
won't get your book publishedunless you get so many followers
on Instagram the same.
So something's never, neverchanged.
(11:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
Sorry, so she's, she's outthere, she's hustling, she's
getting those, getting thoselikes and, and follows.
Um, she.
Manages to get this thingpublished and the gist of a lot
of the poetry is the scornedwoman.
So imagine Taylor Swift loving abit of melodrama, loving a bit
(11:51):
of nature imagery more than sheloves a catchy hook.
And that's the vibe.
I have got some excerpts fromEliza's poetry for you to read
if you would be so kind, giveyou a little flavor of that.
I'm very excited.
This sounds great.
And this is her about beingjilted.
Hmm.
Potentially.
Heather, see what you think.
(12:12):
See what you think.
Go cold and fickle.
Trier.
Go and bear thy traits.
Smiles are far when none likeme, two well shall know how
hollow and how vain they are.
Take back thy ring for I havelearned to hear thy name with
hopeless heart and off withsickening soul have turned from
(12:34):
what thou were to what thou art.
They said the words I love tohear.
We are whispered in another'sear with that sweet smile and
tender tone, which thou madis myheart fine.
Own.
It's so swift.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's so swift.
I'll give you the titles ofthese poems.
The first one was cold andfickle rifer.
(12:56):
Oh, sorry.
Assumed it was One second.
No, no, there's, sorry.
It sort of read that way the wayI put it in.
But there's three, sorry.
Take back your ring and a bande.
So this chick, somethinghappened to her, right?
Didn't it?
I mean, yes.
Reading that something happens.
She's heartbroken.
Yeah, she is heartbroken.
And she then is published forher heartbreak.
(13:18):
History and she's monetizingthat girl.
Good for her.
She's, she, she is chasing thatcoin.
Good for her.
I like that.
However, in the fullness oftime, people don't talk kindly
about her poetry.
They judge her as cliche,sentimental, banal,
romanticized.
It's not very nice.
But you know, she wasn't justdoing it for the art.
(13:42):
She was working through somestuff.
We've all been there.
That's, that's fine.
Just, yeah, just getting outthere and putting her heart on
the page, but mm-hmm.
Despite that love of poetry thatneed to write poetry, it wasn't
gonna be her destiny for herwhole life.
So, okay.
I, I gotta be a little bitcareful here because foolishly I
(14:03):
started reading the novel.
Before doing the research, so Ineed to like really clearly
separate in my head the thingsthat the novel depicts and the
research.
But yes, it's not anautobiography.
It's not a biography, it's anovel.
No, it's not.
It's a novel.
It's it's historical fiction andthere's lots of truth in it, but
that it takes a really clearview and basically what what
happens is Eliza goes to thispublisher with the idea to
(14:27):
publish another poetrycollection.
And for whatever reason thatpublisher says, no, we don't
want to publish that.
But we do want you to dosomething entirely new, which is
a book about food, A book aboutcookery.
What?
And in the novel.
Yeah.
What do you mean exactly?
That was pretty much herresponse in the novel.
She's like, absolutely not.
(14:47):
What are you talking about?
And then she eventually warms upto the idea because of financial
necessity, fine reality.
It's less clear.
She might have been up for itimmediately, but what is known
is that her father was declaredbankrupt at about that time, and
he then went off to France, gofigure.
And she did.
(15:07):
France is the land, France isthe place where you go if you're
in Suffolk and things are goingsouth.
Um, literally.
Um, so yeah, she, she took thecookbook job and what I super
admire is that she.
Absolutely got to work.
She didn't sort of grudgingly doit.
She threw herself at itwholeheartedly and spent 10
years making this extraordinarywork.
(15:30):
So the cookbook, we will callmodern cookery throughout this
talk because the full titles fitlonger.
I've got it for here for you toread in a second.
But yeah, it's a mammoth.
It's just over 500 pages.
And if you would be kind enoughto read the entire title.
Modern Cookery in All ItsBranches Kan reduced to a system
(15:53):
of easy practice for the use ofprivate families in a series of
practical receipts.
Which have been strictly testedand are given with the most
minute exactness.
What do you mean?
It's, that's, that's a title.
That's a title and a half Thatis a mission statement.
Where is it?
You know?
(16:13):
I don't know if that is apicture of the cover.
It must just be on the spine inthe smallest print you've ever
seen.
I, I think it's absolutelycharming.
Yes, you're true.
You could, could see a readerstanding in a bookshop holding
this thing.
The whole marketing pitch is inthe title.
Well, and if Exactly, yeah.
If that didn't persuade you, ifyou flipped it open on the
(16:36):
inside facing page, it, youwould see it was dedicated to
the young housekeepers ofEngland.
Nice.
So she knows her target market.
She's pinpointed it.
Exactly.
She's rude.
Business woman.
And once that reader got thatcomb, they will not have been
disappointed because okay, shehas got this completely novel
(16:58):
approach.
Cookbooks that existed up tothis point in time were only
intended as sort of.
Memory helpers for professionalchefs.
So people who worked incommercial kitchens, people who
worked in, you know, a bigmanner house in the kitchen of
that house.
They didn't bother with littlepesky details, just jotted
(17:18):
notes.
Add, add some eggs or do this inthe French tray.
Add some eggs.
Like seriously, literally, thisis how recipes were up until
Eliza got involved.
That sounds so stressful.
Horrible Eliza's recipes.
Were aimed really intentionallyat the kind of home cooks that
like you and I are people wholike to cook.
(17:39):
We like food, but we needspecifics in order to get it
started.
Like we, we need advice.
Believe it or not.
Nothing like that had ever beenprinted before.
So there's a little excerptthere of her recipe from
Raspberry Jam.
Very straightforward.
It talks exactly about how manypounds of raspberries, how much
sugar, how many minutes those.
(17:59):
That hadn't happened before.
Those ingredients beingseparately pulled out, the
times, the methods of mixing andso on hadn't been described
before.
It would just say, raspberryjam, make the raspberry jam.
Like that was about the vibe.
So do you think that's becausepeople were like just living off
the land a lot more, just like,um, I suppose make, make do with
(18:20):
what you have.
Maybe or family recipes would bepassed on in oral tradition.
Yeah.
'cause it, again, we're at atime where literacy of a common
person in a common household iskind of new.
And so up till now, perhapsthings were jotted down and
handed on.
But really you just learned atyour mother's hip and that that
(18:42):
was how you knew.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you memorized it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which means, you know, thethings your mother knew and her
mother before her.
Mm-hmm.
But this, this method ofcompiling a cookbook with
cooking times ingredientmeasurements and methods just
opened it out to people.
And so.
(19:02):
She was, she was a poet.
She had a poet's soul, but shealso had a sort of pragmatism
about her.
There's a quote from her hereabout why she wanted to add
those details to her recipes.
It is the want of a scientificbasis, which is given rise to so
(19:23):
many absurd and hurtful methodsof preparing food.
So she's coming at it from ahealth and safety.
Point of view health and safety.
Yes.
And, and more.
We'll kind of come back to thatin a second.
But yeah, she, she really wantedit to be robust and rigorous and
scientific, not just.
(19:45):
Uh, not just airy fairy and, andoh, you know, this is how we've
always done it and, you know,perhaps that wasn't the most
efficient or sensible way.
So have you read the book, um,lessons in Chemistry?
I have, yeah.
It feels that's a really goodparallel, right?
Yeah, it feels very, obviouslythat's a lot later work in
(20:06):
history.
That's 1960s.
But the, yeah, the same.
She was wanting wasn't to, shewas, she was a chemist and
wanted that.
That rigor to be applied tothings for, for similar reasons.
Because you want the predictableresults.
Yeah.
Even now, having cooked forliterally decades at my age, I
(20:27):
am really frustrated if a recipesays something like, add some
oil, like give me measurements.
I just need the information.
So that was very much the energyshe was bringing and although
that practicality was importantto her, she still had her.
Love of the arts.
(20:48):
I think because you see thelanguage of the book and the
illustrations in the book reallyshow beauty for, for lack of a
better word, I have put here aquote from her introduction to
the book to give you a flavor ofher kind of use of language, if
you would be kind enough to readit.
Sure.
When both the mind and body areexhausted by the toils of the
(21:11):
day, heavy or unsuitable food sofar from recruiting their in fee
board, powers prostrates theirenergies more completely.
Eat to live should be the mottoby the spirits of which all
writers upon it should beguided.
Oh, she's quite flay.
Yeah, she's, she's got a littlepizazz about her.
Yeah.
And you can see some of theillustrations there, which I
(21:33):
hope we'll put up on thesocials.
There's all kinds of bits andpieces throughout the cookbook.
They're so charming.
Yes.
So the thing you asked about theprevious quote about, um, you
know, food being prepared in, anabsurd hurtful way.
A way, yeah.
This is very, now she was reallyinterested in food waste and
preventing food waste andrecommending that kind of nose
(21:54):
to tail eating culture centuriesbefore it became proper.
Um, and there's another quotefrom her here on that same
topic, if you're.
Up for it.
It may be safely ave the goodGRI is the best and trust
economy.
Turning to full account everywholesome article of food and
converting into palatable meals,what the ignorant either render
(22:17):
un eatable or throw away indisdain.
So as a vegetarian, I thinkyou'll respond to her.
She has so many rants throughoutthe cookbook about badly cooked
vegetables She, how inediblethey are and like over boiling
something or you know, yeah, wecould have bonded over
(22:38):
cauliflower, you.
An overcooked cauliflower isbeneath disdain.
Absolutely disgusting.
But she was like, this is howyou do it.
So it's nice and it can be done.
Um, she also like poured her ownpersonality into the book, which
was a novelty at the time.
Most cookery, again, being avery kind of professional
(22:59):
manual, was very dry.
Like Hanes manual style.
She threw this likeconversational approach.
To it made it more appealing.
She would talk about if a dishhad gone wrong, a kind of like
Nigel thing.
That's nice.
She'd be like, oh, what do welike?
I'm one of you.
Yeah, yeah.
Just, just like everybody else,she tried every single recipe in
(23:20):
the cookbook at home beforeputting it in.
Maybe that's why it took her 10years.
Um, yeah.
She also had a bit of sass abouther.
So one of her dishes is a recipefor a sort of stale bread in
boiled milk pudding with alittle tiny bit of sugar and a
little bit of spice, and that isnamed the Poor Author's Pudding.
(23:42):
And the next recipe is calledthe Publisher's Pudding, which
has things like almonds andmarrow and raisins and citrin.
Brandy and her opening note onthat one is the publisher's
pudding.
Can scarcely be made too rich?
Oh, it's just a bit She did not.
She did.
She did.
She was, um, she was coming at'em.
(24:03):
That's, that's fine.
He was sassy.
I love it though.
I think that is the combinationof qualities that precision she.
Empathy for her reader.
She wanted to test thingsherself.
She took it very seriouslybefore recommending them.
She had a beauty of language,these charming illustrations and
just personality, and it mademodern cookery into a tremendous
(24:24):
success.
So yeah, that, that focus ontelling everyday people, you can
cook tasty food, it's withinyour reach.
It's down to earth.
Yeah, it's possible.
It's, it's possible.
It's reliable.
It kept her cookbook.
With 13 revisions in print until1918, and the work outlived the
(24:47):
author.
She died relatively young in1859, so.
We're nearly gonna move on formodern cookery, but before we
do, I have to talk a little tinybit about the food.
It had so many firsts in it.
She had, recipes for spaghetti,which she called s spaghetti and
sort of referred to as Naplesvermicelli, which apparently
(25:07):
made it more nice,understandable.
At the time.
Whatever.
Um, she had.
Some of the first recipesVictorians would've even heard
of, let alone seen for chutneysand curries food from other
countries.
Did she, she kind of, yeah.
She went out out to her friendsand said, what have you eaten?
What's good?
What do you, and then she wouldtry those recipes out.
The recipe list alone is worthreading.
(25:29):
And again, if you go to ProjectGutenberg, they have published
it in full.
You can just whiz through.
It's such an insight into thekind of things that they would
eat at the time, like.
Uh, mock turtle soup and stuff.
You're like, what even is that?
But then things that we wouldrecognize today, there's,
there's a little excerpt herewhere it's light buns of
different kinds.
(25:49):
The Exeter bun.
Oh, like, ooh, yes, please.
Devon Chare.
Don't mind to find two.
Oh, and there's a littleseasonal synchronicity,'cause
we're recording this inDecember.
And in this book of firsts,there are two Christmas specific
ones to note.
So modern cookery has the firstprinted recipe for a Christmas
pudding.
(26:09):
Does that, and the first forBrussels sprouts.
Oh, so there you go.
There's also mixed pause in, isthat the pud in there?
Is that the Christmas pud?
That is her chapter aboutpuddings in general.
That's the Oh, okay, okay.
Uh, front piece for the, thechapter about puddings.
But to me that looked like aChristmas pudding.
So it does a little bit, Ithink.
Yeah, for sure.
So yeah, this is a adorable goodold Eliza, isn't it?
(26:32):
Sweet.
Yes.
Um, things are about to get alittle saltier, so just, just
bear modern cookery wasincredibly popular.
Every good Victorian householdhad a copy.
This is, you're too Young.
This is a nineties reference,but it made me think of River
Cottage Cookbook.
Everybody had River CottageCookbook in the nineties.
This was kind of that of its dayand Okay.
(26:53):
For people who are listening whoare interested in history, it
might also bring to mind a bookcalled Mrs.
Beaton's book of HouseholdManagement.
Right.
I think that's the one I'mthinking of.
I, yes.
It's funny, I was just Googling,so I wanted to bring it up, but
I couldn't.
Well, yeah, I think onto yourapron, because that brings us to
the unexpected villain of thepeace.
(27:16):
Oh, so.
Modern cookery was eventuallyknocked off the top spot in
British households by IsabellaBeaton's, Mrs.
Beaton's book of HouseholdManagement that was published in
1861 and is still widely inprint today.
It was a seminal work forBritish house makers, British
(27:37):
cooks.
Everybody I think pretty muchknows about it.
Cornerstone Food Book.
But nowadays, scholars andhistorians have come to
understand that Mrs.
Beaton's book freely plagiarizedfrom what many of Eliza Acton
recipes and not just hers.
There are bits and pieces from alot of different books, all of
(28:00):
them given without credit,without credit.
Without credit.
It's so easy to give creditpeople.
It's so simple, and this is thething I guess we see in the
history of the printing tradethat copyright laws had already
come into effect.
But having a law and enforcing alaw are very different matters.
So what ultimately happened wasMrs.
(28:22):
Beaton's book, which was newerand had more recent techniques,
and amalgamated the best ofseveral other cookbooks.
Outpaced Acton in the 1860s.
Thankfully after Eliza had died,that would've been devastating
for her to see, but it sounds asthough she may have been aware
of the plagiarism, whichwould've been really
(28:43):
frustrating, I'm sure.
But nowadays.
You know, no, no truth can hidefrom the sun forever.
We now have a turning tide andthis awareness of Eliza Acton
and what she brought to foodcookery, and to helping home
cooks has really started to cometo light.
She's started to gather somesupport.
(29:04):
Um, Delia Smith who.
You know, just this legend ofBritish cookery calls her the
best writer of recipes in theEnglish language, and people
from Jane Gregson to Rick Steinare going to bat for her and
talking about the influence ofher books and how they can see
that's not what her, not Mrs.
(29:26):
Beaton's.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
It's really, it's reallystarting to come full circle and
you know, we just have to knowthat when we see a recipe that
we can follow as, not as trainedchef, but just as home cooks,
let alone one with personalasides from the author.
Mm-hmm.
We have Eliza Acton to thank forthat.
(29:47):
So, uh, I do believe this is thelast quote I've incorporated,
but just to give you one lastlittle one that I thought was
adorable.
This is her talking about why wedon't cook when we're in a bad
mood, and it's from a pineapplemarmalade recipe.
If the mixture is placed onto adirect heat, it will often
(30:07):
convert what would otherwise beexcellent preserve into a
strange source of compound forwhich it is difficult to find a
name.
So it's adorable.
I mean, she's, she's there withus in the kitchen.
We understand what we're doingbecause of the way.
She brings us in.
Um.
If you have found her ascharming as I have, or if you
(30:29):
need a good recipe or Christmaspudding or mince pies, go check
out Modern Cookery on ProjectGutenberg.
You can also look for, um, anon-fiction account of her life
called the Real Mrs.
Beon.
The story of Eliza Acton.
Damn coming straight for it orfor fiction, the book, uh, that
I had been given by Theresa, theLanguage of Food by Anabel Abs,
(30:52):
which I can now finally go aheadand read without fear of pulling
fiction into our talk.
Oh, and that book has apparentlybeen optioned by one of the
American television networks, soit should be made into a series
in the future.
Oh, that's exciting.
So that's fun.
And yeah, that's all I've gotfor you today, but.
That has made me hungry.
I was thinking I might go andtry her Yorkshire Plowman salad,
(31:16):
which I thought soundeddelightful.
That sounds delightful, but youcould feel free to peruse the
different recipes and pick onethat you might be interested in.
Oh yeah.
Lobster sausages.
Oh, Nathan.
I know.
It's so weird.
It goes so well.
No, I was thinking that I'mdoing, um, what am I doing for
the choir thing?
(31:37):
Mince pies.
Maybe I could do Eliza's mincepies.
Maybe.
Oh, I, I, are they risky?
Caution?
They're risky because I thinkthey incorporate very Victorian
things like beef seit.
So they're Okay.
They might not be vegetarianfriendly, but that's Victorians
for you in it.
'cause I was thinking aboutmaking mince pies and I was
(31:57):
thinking, do I even bother?
Because you're gonna make youpre by the pastry.
Pre by the mince meat, like whatam I doing?
I mean, just to, you can make,you can make from scratch if you
know, you can, if you feel, Iwould never make pastry from
scratch.
Even Mary Berry doesn't make,yeah, Mary Berry doesn't make
(32:17):
pastry, so it's like, what am Idoing?
Nah.
So then I was like, maybe Ishould just buy some, and it
kind of took all the joy out ofit.
I don't know.
I'm a bit, bit already.
You could your own filling.
I would probably, I wouldhalfway house it.
I reckon I would buy the pastry.
Make the filling and then makethe filling.
Yeah.
You can make it your own.
I'll have, have a look.
(32:38):
This Miss Elizabeth Beaton?
No.
Was it Isabella Beaton?
Yeah.
What, what possessed her?
I wondered if what possessed herwas the commanding words of her
publisher.
Because you know, the personwho's printing the stuff,
they're the commissioner really.
They're the ones who say, thisis what it needs to contain and.
(33:03):
I wonder if there was pressureon her to take the best of what
was out there and who knows?
In a meeting room?
Yes.
Yes, of course.
We'll give credit to all of thesources.
Like you don't know it.
I, I'm gonna try not to judgeharshly.
What I don't fully understand,but it doesn't sound great, does
it?
I just wonder what the, what thewhy.
(33:25):
I just.
I guess if there's a successfulthing that's kind of been
knocking around for a while, Imean, this is story as old as
time.
It's like a knockoff, isn't it?
Yeah.
You rip it off, make it a littlebit, freshen it up with some new
material and Hey Prestobestselling book that's still
around hundreds of years later.
Yeah, it's easy money, isn't it,I guess.
(33:46):
Yeah.
But AI says that, um, Mrs.
Beaton's last ingenious was notactually in creating original
recipes, but in her innovationand systemic.
Presentation of them, a clearand consistent way of
presentation, including usefulnotes and pricing, seasonality
and social etiquette, which madethe information accessible and
(34:06):
highly popular for the Victorianmiddle class.
So they're saying it's, it's notall in the recipe, I guess is
what she's saying?
No, that she's, I guess likeEliza Acton.
Adding value hasn't addedsomething new and useful into
the, into the mix.
What a pesky monkey.
(34:27):
Mm.
Interesting.
I didn't know what to expecttoday.
But not that, that isdelightful.
It's pleasant, isn't it?
Delightful.
And did she ever is considered,it said 10 years between her,
for her to write it.
So what was she doing?
Like if her father was, Igenuinely know whether she had
(34:47):
an advance on the work or what,but I do know that.
At some point she became acookery correspondent for
several home journals.
Oh, okay.
She published other works aboutfood as well.
Something about bread, she kindof be, she immersed herself in
that world, but whether thosethings happened after she was
(35:07):
published, cookery book writer,or whether they were whilst she
was doing it, I'm not sure.
Mm-hmm.
Um, there's this whole like,murky thing about her mom and
her moving to this house andthen her dad.
Goes off to France'cause he isbankrupt and they stay in the
house.
first thing was a pamphlet.
There's no reason she could makeother pamphlets, you know what I
mean?
Like, it didn't have to be.
(35:29):
She did have poetry published injournals.
Whether it was paid for or not,I don't know.
So yeah, all the sniffy peoplewho say, oh, it wasn't very
good, well they can put that intheir pipe and smoke it.
That's impressive.
Somebody thought it was goodenough.
It's still in print.
Print now, you know, still outthere.
And also I think that shows howmuch she.
Cared.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
About her output as well.
(35:51):
If it took 10 years to perfect.
Yeah.
500 odd pages.
That's a lot of recipes to try.
Wow.
Yeah.
Nice.
Nice, nice, nice.
Well, I never knew that.
Thank you so much Co.
Either.
It was a fun one to research.
Thank you for listening.
audio2663295054 (36:08):
Thank you for listening to this episode of She
Changed History.
If you enjoyed it, please like,subscribe and comment below.
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She Changed history@gmail.com.
I have a, we update for you.
Um, so, you know, I was sayingCharlie was off on a shift, a
trial shift of a delivery job.
Yes.
And he didn't think it was gonnabe for him.
He stuck with it because heagreed to do it.
So he saw it out, which, youknow, good advice from dad
there.
But, um, he ended up actuallythinking, this is all right.
(00:29):
He made a ton of tips.
I think that's why he think itwent all right.
Exactly.
But what cracks we know yourprice.
Charlie, what cracks me up wasafter I was talking about like
how you know, what a lovelyyoung man he is and how, you
know, mature and everything he'sbecoming, I came home and
having.
(00:49):
Talked some considerable trashabout the state of the kitchen
of the place that he was, youknow, supposed to do well.
That's my question.
Delivery for Yes.
Well, I come in and he goes,Hey, if you're hungry, I brought
home food.
And I was like, he did not.
He did not.
He did.
Where are these boys, moms?
He's still a student at heart.
He, he's like, yes, free foodversus.
(01:11):
Sketchy looking kitchen.
Um, but yeah, there you go.
He, his price is veryinteresting.
Free food, his tips and ahandful of tips Good on him.
You know, he's getting hismoney.
He's, he's chasing that bag.
I'm, I'm fine with it.
Love Charlie.
But he was so principled at thetime.
Yeah.
And all it took, because acouple of hands, it.
(01:31):
Squished, uh, fives andsuddenly, yeah.
That's a good story.
That's a good story for thefuture girlfriend, that his, his
morals are so easily swayed.
Yes.
Yeah.
Good for him.
He's got stuff to pay for.
He's, he's on, he wouldn'tallowed to be open if it was
that.
But I was thinking on the wayhome as well.
Exactly.
There'll be hygiene if it wasthat hard.
(01:51):
Yeah.
I think there'll be hygienechecks and stuff like that.
Maybe was spoiled by the othercompany maybe.
'cause they're so, the othercompany were like, who knew?
So maybe he's comparing the Ritzto whatever of pizza to, you
know, to fault shop.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe that's what, maybe he justneeded to get through that.
That's fascinating.
(02:12):
I love Charlie.
Alright, so yeah, today, um,doing a little chitty chat about
food is a nice segue because weare going to speak about a woman
who.
Ended up in that arena, althoughthat wasn't what she thought she
was going to do with her lifewhen she started.
Okay.
Which is relatable.
I think we never, none of usknow Exactly is she's gonna be,
(02:34):
be more by tips.
She, I guess you could draw, youcould draw a little parallel
with the financial necessitypiece, but yeah.
Let's, let's, uh, let's get intoit.
Are you ready?
I'm so ready.
Alright.
How are you Vicki?
How are you doing?
I'm good.
Yeah, thanks.
How are you?
Yeah, doing good.
Ready to roll?
Um, yeah, I will.
(02:55):
I will begin it.
Uh, so yes, sometimes someonewill come along who being in the
right place at the right time orthe wrong place at the wrong
time finds the course of theirlife diverted into a completely
unexpected path.
And I hear that one such person.
Oh, yes.
Um, one such is today's lady whois Eliza Acton, uh, Victorian.
(03:17):
A poet and unexpectedly, theauthor of the World's first
cookbook aimed at the home cook.
There's a little picture of herthere.
It's later life.
I know.
It's so, it's so arbitrary.
I had no idea about this person.
My friend Theresa recommended anovel about her life and it kind
of got Teresa.
Interested, and I'm so glad shedid because it's fascinating.
(03:41):
Um, our sources for today are,uh, project Gutenberg, where you
can read the entirety of ElizaActon Cookbook.
Highly recommended, um, theBrighton Museums.
Uh, had a story about herTonbridge history.
Uh, museum also had a storyabout her, because it's a bit of
a local interest thing.
(04:02):
There's a cool website youwould've come across called
Mental Floss, and they had anarticle about her.
And then there is the novel,which is called The Language of
Food by an author called AnnabelAbs.
Right.
Nice.
So.
On this damp and wintry morning,I know that you're thinking deep
down inside what I'd really loveis a condensed history of the
(04:27):
publishing industry in Britain,circa 1476 to 1860.
Is that you are Damn right,Cara.
That is up exactly my morningcoffee.
Lucky you strap in.
Here we go.
Okay.
So I'll try to keep it reallybrief, but it is important, um,
to the story.
So in London.
In 1476, the first mechanicalprinting press arrived, and then
(04:52):
it was kind of really rarefieduse it.
It was all very regulated,hundreds of years pass, and in
1695, the UK government relaxedcensorship and control over
printed materials.
We're gonna whiz on to the 18thcentury as, uh, that's when the
(05:14):
first kind of concepts ofcopyright laws were introduced,
which factors into our storylargely in terms of how they did
not work as effectively as youwould hope.
And then we're gonna zoom aheadagain, and now it's the
industrial revolution of the19th century.
And you have this kind ofperfect storm where.
(05:34):
The technological advances, um,like an a, an easier to use
steam powered printing pressmachinery that allowed wood pulp
to be turned into paper muchmore easily.
Uh, typesetting machinery couldbe manufactured more easily,
things could be distributed bythe new railway networks.
All of that came together at thesame time as.
(05:55):
Tax was abolished on printeditems.
And the public through this kindof like golden age, were being,
given better chances forliteracy and education and all
of those things fed in togetherto lead to what was called the
golden age of publishing.
That's a lot of information, so,right.
(06:17):
Um, yeah.
I never appreciated a, that wewere censored and this is in
this country, right.
So there was censorship on that,which is so interesting
considering all the free speechJitt chatter.
Sorry, go on.
It was at the time when, supposeit being new technology, the
printed word.
Was sacrosanct and thegovernment and the church to
(06:41):
some extent were sort of incontrol of what was printed.
And if you ever read any of theHillary Mantel books, you will
know there was a real.
Lethal interest in controllingthe printed word, the Bible in
its original Latin versionversus English.
And so think, think along thosevibes.
(07:03):
Like we have to be reallycontrolled about what gets put
into print.
And I suppose when only ahandful of people can read, then
the, the majority of yourpopulace goes, you know,
whatever, do what you want.
But as people became moreeducated and.
Printing was democratized bytechnology.
Yeah.
You got a, a more free printingtrade.
(07:25):
And it also made me think howlucky we were with the guy who
invented the internet who said,this is free for all.
Like if he hadn't done that,that could have history, could
have repeated itself.
That's interesting.
And that's another thing Ithought of.
And then, um, then the tax onprinted items.
(07:46):
Do we have tax today?
We must have tax today onprinted items like books.
We didn't honestly tell you, Idon't, I don't think books are
tax.
No way.
Let me check.
That's insane.
I love that you're checking yoursources.
Sources.
Sorry.
No, it's good.
It's, it's robust.
(08:08):
It is the kind of thing we like.
Yeah.
So it is tax unless it'seducational.
Educational is zero VAT.
Most standard examples are vt.
Oh, no, no, no.
Sorry, I've misunderstood.
So.
VAT on things like diaries,calendars, forms, invoices,
(08:31):
vouchers, stickers, no VAT onbooks, newspapers, journals,
brochures, pamphlets, picturebooks, maps, huh.
They're worthwhile.
They want people to buy them.
So, well, that's adorable.
Yay.
For books.
Bit of a, a change of thinking.
So into this, into this sort ofcauldron of.
(08:53):
Books becoming more available,books becoming more printable
and distributable.
There's a bit of a feedingfrenzy.
Let's let's publish what we can.
And at that time, that is when,uh, miss Eliza Acton was born.
She joins us in battle in Sussexin 1799.
And, um, she grew up in a humblehouse connected to the brewery
(09:16):
where her father worked.
Mm-hmm.
She was educated in keeping withthose times and then.
Grew up in Suffolk andeventually co-ran a boarding
school for girls.
So you can see she's kind ofinterested in education in the
written word and academia.
Yeah.
That's where her life is headed,and this is where things take a
(09:40):
bit of a turn for thescandalous.
Um, we, I do not know whatactually happens.
It's not particularly welldocumented.
But I'll say there's gossipafoot.
So Eliza goes off to France andthere are rumors of gossip.
Her already gossip.
Yeah.
Gossip is, is bubble in a way.
(10:02):
She may have been, uh, jilted bya sweetheart.
Yes.
Yes.
Kara, for the gossip, this isgreat.
On the gossip, some of thesources that talk about her.
Leaving for France at that time.
Talk about how women of hersocial class were often sent to
Europe if they wereinconveniently pregnant outside
of marriage, and then they wouldhave the baby and adopt it to
(10:24):
your, you are pouring feel onthis fire, Kara, I'm just, I'm
just reporting what was in thesources, but none of them know
for sure.
Maybe she just wanted to go onvacation.
Right.
The poor woman.
Yeah.
But whatever happened, she wentoff to France for a few years
and then returned to England.
Sweet.
At that point, she, she movesback to Tunbridge.
(10:47):
It's 1826.
You'll know from our condensedhistory of the printing trade,
lots of publication going on.
She, at that point, puts out herown first poetry pamphlet.
Did she And it's, it's, yeah,just a faring back.
It's Well, yes, and more soperhaps than even you'd think,
because at that time, in orderto have something published
(11:08):
small scale like that, thatwasn't commissioned, you had to
go to the publisher with a listof subscribers, which were
people who had agreed in advanceto pay for your work.
Kind of like a self-publishingvibe.
Or Instagram followers.
Like that's a lot of thepublishing today is that you
won't get your book publishedunless you get so many followers
on Instagram the same.
So something's never, neverchanged.
(11:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
Sorry, so she's, she's outthere, she's hustling, she's
getting those, getting thoselikes and, and follows.
Um, she.
Manages to get this thingpublished and the gist of a lot
of the poetry is the scornedwoman.
So imagine Taylor Swift loving abit of melodrama, loving a bit
(11:51):
of nature imagery more than sheloves a catchy hook.
And that's the vibe.
I have got some excerpts fromEliza's poetry for you to read
if you would be so kind, giveyou a little flavor of that.
I'm very excited.
This sounds great.
And this is her about beingjilted.
Hmm.
Potentially.
Heather, see what you think.
(12:12):
See what you think.
Go cold and fickle.
Trier.
Go and bear thy traits.
Smiles are far when none likeme, two well shall know how
hollow and how vain they are.
Take back thy ring for I havelearned to hear thy name with
hopeless heart and off withsickening soul have turned from
(12:34):
what thou were to what thou art.
They said the words I love tohear.
We are whispered in another'sear with that sweet smile and
tender tone, which thou madis myheart fine.
Own.
It's so swift.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's so swift.
I'll give you the titles ofthese poems.
The first one was cold andfickle rifer.
(12:56):
Oh, sorry.
Assumed it was One second.
No, no, there's, sorry.
It sort of read that way the wayI put it in.
But there's three, sorry.
Take back your ring and a bande.
So this chick, somethinghappened to her, right?
Didn't it?
I mean, yes.
Reading that something happens.
She's heartbroken.
Yeah, she is heartbroken.
And she then is published forher heartbreak.
(13:18):
History and she's monetizingthat girl.
Good for her.
She's, she, she is chasing thatcoin.
Good for her.
I like that.
However, in the fullness oftime, people don't talk kindly
about her poetry.
They judge her as cliche,sentimental, banal,
romanticized.
It's not very nice.
But you know, she wasn't justdoing it for the art.
(13:42):
She was working through somestuff.
We've all been there.
That's, that's fine.
Just, yeah, just getting outthere and putting her heart on
the page, but mm-hmm.
Despite that love of poetry thatneed to write poetry, it wasn't
gonna be her destiny for herwhole life.
So, okay.
I, I gotta be a little bitcareful here because foolishly I
(14:03):
started reading the novel.
Before doing the research, so Ineed to like really clearly
separate in my head the thingsthat the novel depicts and the
research.
But yes, it's not anautobiography.
It's not a biography, it's anovel.
No, it's not.
It's a novel.
It's it's historical fiction andthere's lots of truth in it, but
that it takes a really clearview and basically what what
happens is Eliza goes to thispublisher with the idea to
(14:27):
publish another poetrycollection.
And for whatever reason thatpublisher says, no, we don't
want to publish that.
But we do want you to dosomething entirely new, which is
a book about food, A book aboutcookery.
What?
And in the novel.
Yeah.
What do you mean exactly?
That was pretty much herresponse in the novel.
She's like, absolutely not.
(14:47):
What are you talking about?
And then she eventually warms upto the idea because of financial
necessity, fine reality.
It's less clear.
She might have been up for itimmediately, but what is known
is that her father was declaredbankrupt at about that time, and
he then went off to France, gofigure.
And she did.
(15:07):
France is the land, France isthe place where you go if you're
in Suffolk and things are goingsouth.
Um, literally.
Um, so yeah, she, she took thecookbook job and what I super
admire is that she.
Absolutely got to work.
She didn't sort of grudgingly doit.
She threw herself at itwholeheartedly and spent 10
years making this extraordinarywork.
(15:30):
So the cookbook, we will callmodern cookery throughout this
talk because the full titles fitlonger.
I've got it for here for you toread in a second.
But yeah, it's a mammoth.
It's just over 500 pages.
And if you would be kind enoughto read the entire title.
Modern Cookery in All ItsBranches Kan reduced to a system
(15:53):
of easy practice for the use ofprivate families in a series of
practical receipts.
Which have been strictly testedand are given with the most
minute exactness.
What do you mean?
It's, that's, that's a title.
That's a title and a half Thatis a mission statement.
Where is it?
You know?
(16:13):
I don't know if that is apicture of the cover.
It must just be on the spine inthe smallest print you've ever
seen.
I, I think it's absolutelycharming.
Yes, you're true.
You could, could see a readerstanding in a bookshop holding
this thing.
The whole marketing pitch is inthe title.
Well, and if Exactly, yeah.
If that didn't persuade you, ifyou flipped it open on the
(16:36):
inside facing page, it, youwould see it was dedicated to
the young housekeepers ofEngland.
Nice.
So she knows her target market.
She's pinpointed it.
Exactly.
She's rude.
Business woman.
And once that reader got thatcomb, they will not have been
disappointed because okay, shehas got this completely novel
(16:58):
approach.
Cookbooks that existed up tothis point in time were only
intended as sort of.
Memory helpers for professionalchefs.
So people who worked incommercial kitchens, people who
worked in, you know, a bigmanner house in the kitchen of
that house.
They didn't bother with littlepesky details, just jotted
(17:18):
notes.
Add, add some eggs or do this inthe French tray.
Add some eggs.
Like seriously, literally, thisis how recipes were up until
Eliza got involved.
That sounds so stressful.
Horrible Eliza's recipes.
Were aimed really intentionallyat the kind of home cooks that
like you and I are people wholike to cook.
(17:39):
We like food, but we needspecifics in order to get it
started.
Like we, we need advice.
Believe it or not.
Nothing like that had ever beenprinted before.
So there's a little excerptthere of her recipe from
Raspberry Jam.
Very straightforward.
It talks exactly about how manypounds of raspberries, how much
sugar, how many minutes those.
(17:59):
That hadn't happened before.
Those ingredients beingseparately pulled out, the
times, the methods of mixing andso on hadn't been described
before.
It would just say, raspberryjam, make the raspberry jam.
Like that was about the vibe.
So do you think that's becausepeople were like just living off
the land a lot more, just like,um, I suppose make, make do with
(18:20):
what you have.
Maybe or family recipes would bepassed on in oral tradition.
Yeah.
'cause it, again, we're at atime where literacy of a common
person in a common household iskind of new.
And so up till now, perhapsthings were jotted down and
handed on.
But really you just learned atyour mother's hip and that that
(18:42):
was how you knew.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you memorized it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which means, you know, thethings your mother knew and her
mother before her.
Mm-hmm.
But this, this method ofcompiling a cookbook with
cooking times ingredientmeasurements and methods just
opened it out to people.
And so.
(19:02):
She was, she was a poet.
She had a poet's soul, but shealso had a sort of pragmatism
about her.
There's a quote from her hereabout why she wanted to add
those details to her recipes.
It is the want of a scientificbasis, which is given rise to so
(19:23):
many absurd and hurtful methodsof preparing food.
So she's coming at it from ahealth and safety.
Point of view health and safety.
Yes.
And, and more.
We'll kind of come back to thatin a second.
But yeah, she, she really wantedit to be robust and rigorous and
scientific, not just.
(19:45):
Uh, not just airy fairy and, andoh, you know, this is how we've
always done it and, you know,perhaps that wasn't the most
efficient or sensible way.
So have you read the book, um,lessons in Chemistry?
I have, yeah.
It feels that's a really goodparallel, right?
Yeah, it feels very, obviouslythat's a lot later work in
(20:06):
history.
That's 1960s.
But the, yeah, the same.
She was wanting wasn't to, shewas, she was a chemist and
wanted that.
That rigor to be applied tothings for, for similar reasons.
Because you want the predictableresults.
Yeah.
Even now, having cooked forliterally decades at my age, I
(20:27):
am really frustrated if a recipesays something like, add some
oil, like give me measurements.
I just need the information.
So that was very much the energyshe was bringing and although
that practicality was importantto her, she still had her.
Love of the arts.
(20:48):
I think because you see thelanguage of the book and the
illustrations in the book reallyshow beauty for, for lack of a
better word, I have put here aquote from her introduction to
the book to give you a flavor ofher kind of use of language, if
you would be kind enough to readit.
Sure.
When both the mind and body areexhausted by the toils of the
(21:11):
day, heavy or unsuitable food sofar from recruiting their in fee
board, powers prostrates theirenergies more completely.
Eat to live should be the mottoby the spirits of which all
writers upon it should beguided.
Oh, she's quite flay.
Yeah, she's, she's got a littlepizazz about her.
Yeah.
And you can see some of theillustrations there, which I
(21:33):
hope we'll put up on thesocials.
There's all kinds of bits andpieces throughout the cookbook.
They're so charming.
Yes.
So the thing you asked about theprevious quote about, um, you
know, food being prepared in, anabsurd hurtful way.
A way, yeah.
This is very, now she was reallyinterested in food waste and
preventing food waste andrecommending that kind of nose
(21:54):
to tail eating culture centuriesbefore it became proper.
Um, and there's another quotefrom her here on that same
topic, if you're.
Up for it.
It may be safely ave the goodGRI is the best and trust
economy.
Turning to full account everywholesome article of food and
converting into palatable meals,what the ignorant either render
(22:17):
un eatable or throw away indisdain.
So as a vegetarian, I thinkyou'll respond to her.
She has so many rants throughoutthe cookbook about badly cooked
vegetables She, how inediblethey are and like over boiling
something or you know, yeah, wecould have bonded over
(22:38):
cauliflower, you.
An overcooked cauliflower isbeneath disdain.
Absolutely disgusting.
But she was like, this is howyou do it.
So it's nice and it can be done.
Um, she also like poured her ownpersonality into the book, which
was a novelty at the time.
Most cookery, again, being avery kind of professional
(22:59):
manual, was very dry.
Like Hanes manual style.
She threw this likeconversational approach.
To it made it more appealing.
She would talk about if a dishhad gone wrong, a kind of like
Nigel thing.
That's nice.
She'd be like, oh, what do welike?
I'm one of you.
Yeah, yeah.
Just, just like everybody else,she tried every single recipe in
(23:20):
the cookbook at home beforeputting it in.
Maybe that's why it took her 10years.
Um, yeah.
She also had a bit of sass abouther.
So one of her dishes is a recipefor a sort of stale bread in
boiled milk pudding with alittle tiny bit of sugar and a
little bit of spice, and that isnamed the Poor Author's Pudding.
(23:42):
And the next recipe is calledthe Publisher's Pudding, which
has things like almonds andmarrow and raisins and citrin.
Brandy and her opening note onthat one is the publisher's
pudding.
Can scarcely be made too rich?
Oh, it's just a bit She did not.
She did.
She did.
She was, um, she was coming at'em.
(24:03):
That's, that's fine.
He was sassy.
I love it though.
I think that is the combinationof qualities that precision she.
Empathy for her reader.
She wanted to test thingsherself.
She took it very seriouslybefore recommending them.
She had a beauty of language,these charming illustrations and
just personality, and it mademodern cookery into a tremendous
(24:24):
success.
So yeah, that, that focus ontelling everyday people, you can
cook tasty food, it's withinyour reach.
It's down to earth.
Yeah, it's possible.
It's, it's possible.
It's reliable.
It kept her cookbook.
With 13 revisions in print until1918, and the work outlived the
(24:47):
author.
She died relatively young in1859, so.
We're nearly gonna move on formodern cookery, but before we
do, I have to talk a little tinybit about the food.
It had so many firsts in it.
She had, recipes for spaghetti,which she called s spaghetti and
sort of referred to as Naplesvermicelli, which apparently
(25:07):
made it more nice,understandable.
At the time.
Whatever.
Um, she had.
Some of the first recipesVictorians would've even heard
of, let alone seen for chutneysand curries food from other
countries.
Did she, she kind of, yeah.
She went out out to her friendsand said, what have you eaten?
What's good?
What do you, and then she wouldtry those recipes out.
The recipe list alone is worthreading.
(25:29):
And again, if you go to ProjectGutenberg, they have published
it in full.
You can just whiz through.
It's such an insight into thekind of things that they would
eat at the time, like.
Uh, mock turtle soup and stuff.
You're like, what even is that?
But then things that we wouldrecognize today, there's,
there's a little excerpt herewhere it's light buns of
different kinds.
(25:49):
The Exeter bun.
Oh, like, ooh, yes, please.
Devon Chare.
Don't mind to find two.
Oh, and there's a littleseasonal synchronicity,'cause
we're recording this inDecember.
And in this book of firsts,there are two Christmas specific
ones to note.
So modern cookery has the firstprinted recipe for a Christmas
pudding.
(26:09):
Does that, and the first forBrussels sprouts.
Oh, so there you go.
There's also mixed pause in, isthat the pud in there?
Is that the Christmas pud?
That is her chapter aboutpuddings in general.
That's the Oh, okay, okay.
Uh, front piece for the, thechapter about puddings.
But to me that looked like aChristmas pudding.
So it does a little bit, Ithink.
Yeah, for sure.
So yeah, this is a adorable goodold Eliza, isn't it?
(26:32):
Sweet.
Yes.
Um, things are about to get alittle saltier, so just, just
bear modern cookery wasincredibly popular.
Every good Victorian householdhad a copy.
This is, you're too Young.
This is a nineties reference,but it made me think of River
Cottage Cookbook.
Everybody had River CottageCookbook in the nineties.
This was kind of that of its dayand Okay.
(26:53):
For people who are listening whoare interested in history, it
might also bring to mind a bookcalled Mrs.
Beaton's book of HouseholdManagement.
Right.
I think that's the one I'mthinking of.
I, yes.
It's funny, I was just Googling,so I wanted to bring it up, but
I couldn't.
Well, yeah, I think onto yourapron, because that brings us to
the unexpected villain of thepeace.
(27:16):
Oh, so.
Modern cookery was eventuallyknocked off the top spot in
British households by IsabellaBeaton's, Mrs.
Beaton's book of HouseholdManagement that was published in
1861 and is still widely inprint today.
It was a seminal work forBritish house makers, British
(27:37):
cooks.
Everybody I think pretty muchknows about it.
Cornerstone Food Book.
But nowadays, scholars andhistorians have come to
understand that Mrs.
Beaton's book freely plagiarizedfrom what many of Eliza Acton
recipes and not just hers.
There are bits and pieces from alot of different books, all of
(28:00):
them given without credit,without credit.
Without credit.
It's so easy to give creditpeople.
It's so simple, and this is thething I guess we see in the
history of the printing tradethat copyright laws had already
come into effect.
But having a law and enforcing alaw are very different matters.
So what ultimately happened wasMrs.
(28:22):
Beaton's book, which was newerand had more recent techniques,
and amalgamated the best ofseveral other cookbooks.
Outpaced Acton in the 1860s.
Thankfully after Eliza had died,that would've been devastating
for her to see, but it sounds asthough she may have been aware
of the plagiarism, whichwould've been really
(28:43):
frustrating, I'm sure.
But nowadays.
You know, no, no truth can hidefrom the sun forever.
We now have a turning tide andthis awareness of Eliza Acton
and what she brought to foodcookery, and to helping home
cooks has really started to cometo light.
She's started to gather somesupport.
(29:04):
Um, Delia Smith who.
You know, just this legend ofBritish cookery calls her the
best writer of recipes in theEnglish language, and people
from Jane Gregson to Rick Steinare going to bat for her and
talking about the influence ofher books and how they can see
that's not what her, not Mrs.
(29:26):
Beaton's.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
It's really, it's reallystarting to come full circle and
you know, we just have to knowthat when we see a recipe that
we can follow as, not as trainedchef, but just as home cooks,
let alone one with personalasides from the author.
Mm-hmm.
We have Eliza Acton to thank forthat.
(29:47):
So, uh, I do believe this is thelast quote I've incorporated,
but just to give you one lastlittle one that I thought was
adorable.
This is her talking about why wedon't cook when we're in a bad
mood, and it's from a pineapplemarmalade recipe.
If the mixture is placed onto adirect heat, it will often
(30:07):
convert what would otherwise beexcellent preserve into a
strange source of compound forwhich it is difficult to find a
name.
So it's adorable.
I mean, she's, she's there withus in the kitchen.
We understand what we're doingbecause of the way.
She brings us in.
Um.
If you have found her ascharming as I have, or if you
(30:29):
need a good recipe or Christmaspudding or mince pies, go check
out Modern Cookery on ProjectGutenberg.
You can also look for, um, anon-fiction account of her life
called the Real Mrs.
Beon.
The story of Eliza Acton.
Damn coming straight for it orfor fiction, the book, uh, that
I had been given by Theresa, theLanguage of Food by Anabel Abs,
(30:52):
which I can now finally go aheadand read without fear of pulling
fiction into our talk.
Oh, and that book has apparentlybeen optioned by one of the
American television networks, soit should be made into a series
in the future.
Oh, that's exciting.
So that's fun.
And yeah, that's all I've gotfor you today, but.
That has made me hungry.
I was thinking I might go andtry her Yorkshire Plowman salad,
(31:16):
which I thought soundeddelightful.
That sounds delightful, but youcould feel free to peruse the
different recipes and pick onethat you might be interested in.
Oh yeah.
Lobster sausages.
Oh, Nathan.
I know.
It's so weird.
It goes so well.
No, I was thinking that I'mdoing, um, what am I doing for
the choir thing?
(31:37):
Mince pies.
Maybe I could do Eliza's mincepies.
Maybe.
Oh, I, I, are they risky?
Caution?
They're risky because I thinkthey incorporate very Victorian
things like beef seit.
So they're Okay.
They might not be vegetarianfriendly, but that's Victorians
for you in it.
'cause I was thinking aboutmaking mince pies and I was
(31:57):
thinking, do I even bother?
Because you're gonna make youpre by the pastry.
Pre by the mince meat, like whatam I doing?
I mean, just to, you can make,you can make from scratch if you
know, you can, if you feel, Iwould never make pastry from
scratch.
Even Mary Berry doesn't make,yeah, Mary Berry doesn't make
(32:17):
pastry, so it's like, what am Idoing?
Nah.
So then I was like, maybe Ishould just buy some, and it
kind of took all the joy out ofit.
I don't know.
I'm a bit, bit already.
You could your own filling.
I would probably, I wouldhalfway house it.
I reckon I would buy the pastry.
Make the filling and then makethe filling.
Yeah.
You can make it your own.
I'll have, have a look.
(32:38):
This Miss Elizabeth Beaton?
No.
Was it Isabella Beaton?
Yeah.
What, what possessed her?
I wondered if what possessed herwas the commanding words of her
publisher.
Because you know, the personwho's printing the stuff,
they're the commissioner really.
They're the ones who say, thisis what it needs to contain and.
(33:03):
I wonder if there was pressureon her to take the best of what
was out there and who knows?
In a meeting room?
Yes.
Yes, of course.
We'll give credit to all of thesources.
Like you don't know it.
I, I'm gonna try not to judgeharshly.
What I don't fully understand,but it doesn't sound great, does
it?
I just wonder what the, what thewhy.
(33:25):
I just.
I guess if there's a successfulthing that's kind of been
knocking around for a while, Imean, this is story as old as
time.
It's like a knockoff, isn't it?
Yeah.
You rip it off, make it a littlebit, freshen it up with some new
material and Hey Prestobestselling book that's still
around hundreds of years later.
Yeah, it's easy money, isn't it,I guess.
(33:46):
Yeah.
But AI says that, um, Mrs.
Beaton's last ingenious was notactually in creating original
recipes, but in her innovationand systemic.
Presentation of them, a clearand consistent way of
presentation, including usefulnotes and pricing, seasonality
and social etiquette, which madethe information accessible and
(34:06):
highly popular for the Victorianmiddle class.
So they're saying it's, it's notall in the recipe, I guess is
what she's saying?
No, that she's, I guess likeEliza Acton.
Adding value hasn't addedsomething new and useful into
the, into the mix.
What a pesky monkey.
(34:27):
Mm.
Interesting.
I didn't know what to expecttoday.
But not that, that isdelightful.
It's pleasant, isn't it?
Delightful.
And did she ever is considered,it said 10 years between her,
for her to write it.
So what was she doing?
Like if her father was, Igenuinely know whether she had
(34:47):
an advance on the work or what,but I do know that.
At some point she became acookery correspondent for
several home journals.
Oh, okay.
She published other works aboutfood as well.
Something about bread, she kindof be, she immersed herself in
that world, but whether thosethings happened after she was
(35:07):
published, cookery book writer,or whether they were whilst she
was doing it, I'm not sure.
Mm-hmm.
Um, there's this whole like,murky thing about her mom and
her moving to this house andthen her dad.
Goes off to France'cause he isbankrupt and they stay in the
house.
first thing was a pamphlet.
There's no reason she could makeother pamphlets, you know what I
mean?
Like, it didn't have to be.
(35:29):
She did have poetry published injournals.
Whether it was paid for or not,I don't know.
So yeah, all the sniffy peoplewho say, oh, it wasn't very
good, well they can put that intheir pipe and smoke it.
That's impressive.
Somebody thought it was goodenough.
It's still in print.
Print now, you know, still outthere.
And also I think that shows howmuch she.
Cared.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
About her output as well.
(35:51):
If it took 10 years to perfect.
Yeah.
500 odd pages.
That's a lot of recipes to try.
Wow.
Yeah.
Nice.
Nice, nice, nice.
Well, I never knew that.
Thank you so much Co.
Either.
It was a fun one to research.
Thank you for listening.
audio2663295054 (36:08):
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