The Experienced English Housekeeper

Name: The Experienced English Housekeeper
Author: Elizabeth Raffald

by Elizabeth Raffald

This book was first published in 1769 in Manchester. Its author was a lady called Mrs Elizabeth Raffald. She was a confectioner and housekeeper and also ran a registry for servants, like an employment exchange. Her cookery book is one of the most original of its period, and it’s one of the great English cookery books. I rate it very highly myself – it’s certainly much more important than Jamie Oliver’s books. It’s very readable, and every single recipe in it works – she’s obviously tested them. And they are her own recipes. I’ve replicated many of them. The editor of the Equinox edition of this book, Roy Shipperbottom, who was a close friend of mine, tried every single one of them before it was published, and found that they all worked perfectly – hundreds of recipes. Nearly all of them are, yes. One or two are difficult – she deals with things like turtle soup, which is not a thing you can do nowadays. Of all the 18th century cookery books, her book is probably the one that would appeal to modern taste more than any other. It’s a universally good book, and much more original than Mrs Beeton – yet most English people would never have heard of her, and she deserves to be better known.

Recommended by

Ivan Day

"This book was first published in 1769 in Manchester. Its author was a lady called Mrs Elizabeth Raffald. She was a confectioner and housekeeper and also ran a registry for servants, like an employment exchange. Her cookery book is one of the most original of its period, and it’s one of the great English cookery books. I rate it very highly myself – it’s certainly much more important than Jamie Oliver’s books. It’s very readable, and every single recipe in it works – she’s obviously tested them. And they are her own recipes. I’ve replicated many of them. The editor of the Equinox edition of this book, Roy Shipperbottom, who was a close friend of mine, tried every single one of them before it was published, and found that they all worked perfectly – hundreds of recipes. Nearly all of them are, yes. One or two are difficult – she deals with things like turtle soup, which is not a thing you can do nowadays. Of all the 18th century cookery books, her book is probably the one that would appeal to modern taste more than any other. It’s a universally good book, and much more original than Mrs Beeton – yet most English people would never have heard of her, and she deserves to be better known."

Historic Cooking · fivebooks.com