The British Housewife

by Gilly Lehmann

The British Housewife is an academic survey of the cookery books of the 18th century. The male cooks of the 17th century tended to be flamboyant characters and their recipes had enormous numbers of ingredients, all of which were expensive and some very impractical. The 18th century was the time when female cookery writers started to really emerge. The 17th century recipes were trimmed down and simplified by ladies who had a real eye for economy, simplicity and for not wasting materials.