Cooking the Victorian Recipe: An Experiential Approach to Cookbooks in Victorian Studies

Abstract

This chapter examines an experiential approach to nineteenth-century cookbooks within the classroom by offering educators the materials, critical theory questions, and program used in the 2019 January-Term course, A Domesticated Idea: Cooking the Victorian Recipe, which was taught at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM) in 2019. It explores the living process of recipe reading and writing, which the author has named, “the generative effects of cookbook recipes,” and how this effect can be employed to teach students close reading skills through hands-on practices. The integration of Victorian cookbooks and recipe testing in the classroom not only promotes interdisciplinary work, but also highlights the importance of textual understanding through recipe reading, authorial personas, and hands-on experimentation through cookbook recipes.

Appendix

Cooking the Victorian recipe Dr. Helana E. Brigman

Day 1: Women’s recipe writings: Tradition, heritage, & shared women’s work

Readings: George Henry Lewes, “The Condition of Authors in England, Germany, and France,” pp. 285–95; Nicola Humble, Culinary Pleasures, “Introduction,” pp. 1–4; Andrea K. Newlyn, “Redefining ‘Rudimentary’ Narrative: Women’s Nineteenth-Century Manuscript Cookbooks,” pp. 43–48 Recipes: “Mush, or Porridge of Maize Meal,” pp. 584 ff Discussion post 1

Day 2: Authorial personas and cooking the Victorian recipe

Readings: “Preface,” Modern Cookery in All its Branches by Eliza Acton, pp. vii-xi; “Preface,” Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton, pp. 3–4; The Modern Housewife, or Ménagère , by Alexis Soyer, pp. iii-vi and “Introduction,” pp. ix-xvi, “Breakfasts” and “How to Make Toast,” pp. 1–3 Recipes: Soyer , “To Make Muffins,” “To Make Crumpets,” “Rusks” pp. 5–7 Discussion post 2

Day 3: Bread: The staff of life

Readings: Dena Attar, “Receipt Books,” Cookery and Household Books Published in Britain 1800–1914, pp. 14–15 Recipes: Soyer , “Tops and Bottoms,” “Buns,” “Brioche Rolls,” pp. 5–7 Discussion post 3

Day 4: Victorian puddings

Readings: Daniel Pool, “Pudding,” pp. 207–08; “How to Make Christmas Pudding – The Victorian Way” Recipes: Acton, “Boiled Puddings,” pp. 364–88; Focus on: “Common Apple Pudding,” pp. 373–74; “Publisher’s Pudding,” p. 374; “Her Majesty’s Pudding,” p. 375; “Mother Eve’s Pudding” (handout) Discussion post 4

Day 5: The “Marvellous” Mrs. Beeton

Readings: Nicola Humble, “Introduction,” pp. vii-xvii (end at “natural history”) “Chapter 1 The Mistress,” pp. 7–10; “Vegetables”, pp. 239–43 (optional: 244–56) Recipes: Beeton, “A Few Hints Respecting the Making and Baking of Cakes,” pp. 333–36 and cake recipes, pp. 339–44 Discussion post 5

Discussion Questions

Day 1

Today you learned about the origins of the Victorian recipe and the recipe as a genre of prose. In a well-written paragraph, discuss what you have learned about women’s recipe writings during the Victorian age, including its history and traditions.

Day 2

• 1. Post your group’s recipe of Eliza Acton’s “Mush, or Porridge of Maize Meal.”

• 2. Today you learned about Eliza Acton and the first cookbook for middle-class women readers, Modern Cookery in All Its Branches (Longman, 1845). Our discussion included an overview of the “hungry forties” nutritional crisis in England and the way writers such as Charles Dickens represents this narrative in Oliver Twist . You also made your first recipe: Mush, or Porridge of Maize Meal, from Modern Cookery. In a well-written paragraph, discuss what you have learned about nutrition in 1840s Britain, Victorian recipes (so far), and the style/structure of the cookery manual. Use Apt Specific References (ASRs) to support your ideas about today’s readings and discussion.

Day 3

• 1. Post your group’s recipe for bread from Soyer’s cookbook.

• 2. Today you learned about the “dilettante gentlemanly tradition” of early Victorian cookbooks, Alexis Soyer’s The Modern Housewife, or Ménagère , and gender in recipe writing. You also made your choice of one of Soyer’s recipes: muffins, crumpets, rusks, “tops and bottoms,” buns, and/or brioche rolls. Discuss what you have learned about Alexis Soyer and the way women’s recipes were perceived and written. How does Soyer’s version of the “women’s recipe” change or influence what was already in print?

Day 4

• 1. Post your group’s recipe for Acton’s cookbook.

• 2. Today you learned about Victorian puddings and the surprising wide range of recipes written and made during the Victorian period. We discussed the poet-turned-cookbook-author’s “Mother Eve’s Pudding,” and how Acton uses recipes to explicitly comment on the socio-economic status of her publisher, printer, and herself. What have you learned about Acton’s recipes as a unique style of women’s prose? Does Acton change/alter/influence the “women’s recipe” in what you read for today?

Day 5

• 1. Post your recipe for Isabella Beeton’s cookbook.

• 2. Today you learned about the blockbuster success of Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management . We discussed the editor’s appropriation of Acton’s recipes, the difference between authors who are “creators” versus those who are “curators,” and the concept of nineteenth-century culinary “plagiarism.” What have you learned about Beeton’s recipes as a style of women’s writing that is not created but curated? Does Beeton change/alter/influence the “women’s recipe” in what you read for today?