Gourmet's 50 Women Game Changers: Mrs. Beeton meets the slow cooker

Move over Martha and Nigella, Isabella Beeton was the original domestic goddess.  

"As with the commander of an army, or the leader of any enterprise, so
is it with the mistress of a house."

This week we're up to #10 on Gourmet's list of the 50 Women Game Changers in the world of food: Mrs. Beeton (Book of Household Management,1861) and Hannah Glass, (The Art of Cookery, 1747.)  Thanks to Mary from One Perfect Bite for organizing a group of us cooking and blogging our way through this list, one dish at a time.  Check back every Friday for another story and recipe from the list, and e-mail Mary if you'd like to join the group.

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, published in London in 1861, is a 1,112 page guidebook for Victorian ladies.  It includes instructions for every member of a bustling middle class Victorian household, from the mistress herself, down through the chain of command to the housekeeper, cook, butler, footman, coachman, valet, laundry-maid, nurse-maid, wet-nurse and many more. She includes advice on everything from legal matters, to hiring servants, to choosing the most suitable colors for a ladies' wardrobe.  A reader can look up how to clean their butter churn, make boot polish (it contains treacle and olive oil!)  or exactly how to slaughter an ox.  Aspiring Victorian social climbers could pick up invaluable insight into polite society, including the admonition that under no circumstances should a lady 'gargle the mouth' with the fingertip water that is brought around to clean genteel fingers at the end of a fine meal.

This was the first book to compile recipes in the format that we're familiar with today, with lists of ingredients first and instructions following.  She compiled over 900 recipes illustrated with colorful engravings, all before she died at the age of 28, after the birth of her fourth child.  But she did a lot more than just present recipes...

"In the department belonging to the Cook I have
striven, too, to make my work something more than a Cookery Book, and
have, therefore, on the best authority that I could obtain, given an
account of the natural history of the animals and vegetables which we
use as food. I have followed the animal from his birth to his appearance
on the table; have described the manner of feeding him, and of slaying
him, the position of his various joints, and, after giving the recipes,
have described the modes of carving Meat, Poultry, and Game.

It was definitely a challenge to choose a recipe from Mrs. Beeton's book, not so much because of the sheer number of choices, but because the Victorian methods and ingredients are often foreign to the modern palate.  In her introduction to the Cookery section of the book Mrs. Beeton makes a typically Victorian (and racist) connection between the relative complexity of food preparation, and civilization.  Maybe this explains why her instructions for vegetables involve such  'extended' boiling times and so many of the illustrations look more like Easter bonnets than food!

"Man, it has been said, is a dining animal. Creatures of the inferior races eat and drink; man only dines. It has also been said that he is a cooking animal; but some races eat food without cooking it. A Croat captain said to M. Brillat Savarin, “When, in campaign, we feel hungry, we knock over the first animal we find, cut off a steak, powder it with salt, put it under the saddle, gallop over it for half a mile, and then eat it.” Huntsmen in Dauphiny, when out shooting, have been known to kill a bird, pluck it, salt and pepper it, and cook it by carrying it some time in their caps. It is equally true that some races of men do not dine any more than the tiger or the vulture. It is not a dinner at which sits the aboriginal Australian, who gnaws his bone half bare and then flings it behind to his squaw. And the native of Terra-del-Fuego does not dine when he gets his morsel of red clay. Dining is the privilege of civilization. The rank which a people occupy in the grand scale may be measured by their way of taking their meals, as well as by their way of treating their women. The nation which knows how to dine has learnt the leading lesson of progress."

This kind of says it all...

But I managed to find something that appealed to me.  As I said yesterday, there's a hint of fall in the air these days, so I felt this simple stew would be a good choice.  The addition of pale ale is very British, and the smell while it was cooking was wonderful.  I think Isabella would approve of my decision to use the crock pot...she was a great champion of the most modern kitchens.

HODGE PODGE (exactly as from the Book of Household Management)

(I halved the ingredients) 

Ingredients - 2 lbs. of shin of beef, 3 quarts of water, 1 pint of table-beer, 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 turnips, 1 head of celery; pepper and salt to taste; thickening of butter and flour.

Mode.—Put the meat, beer, and water in a stewpan; simmer for a few minutes, and skim carefully. Add the vegetables and seasoning; stew gently till the meat is tender. Thicken with the butter and flour, and serve with turnips and carrots, or spinach and celery.

Time.—3 hours, or rather more. Average cost, 3d. per quart.

Seasonable at any time. Sufficient for 12 persons.

TABLE BEER.—This is nothing more than a weak ale, and is not made so much with a view to strength, as to transparency of colour and an agreeable bitterness of taste. It is, or ought to be, manufactured by the London professional brewers, from the best pale malt, or amber and malt. Six barrels are usually drawn from one quarter of malt, with which are mixed 4 or 5 lbs. of hops. As a beverage, it is agreeable when fresh; but it is not adapted to keep long.

Notes:  I used beef round, and way less water than called for, about 2 cups for the half recipe because I wanted more of a stew.  I threw it all in the slow cooker for about 6 hours. 

You can read the Book of Household Management in its entirety at the Project Gutenburg online book site. I recommend it.

Couldn't resist this: here is one of Isabella's suggested dinner menus for the month of August ---

DINNER FOR 6 PERSONS (August)

FIRST COURSE.
Vegetable–Marrow Soup.
Stewed Mullet.
Fillets of Salmon and Ravigotte Sauce.

ENTREES.
Curried Lobster.
Fricandeau de Veau la Jardinire.

SECOND COURSE.
Roast Saddle of Mutton.
Stewed Shoulder of Veal, garnished with Forcemeat Balls.
Vegetables.

THIRD COURSE.
Roast Grouse and Bread Sauce.
Vol-au-Vent of Greengages.
Fruit Jelly.
Raspberry Cream.
Custards.
Fig Pudding.

DESSERT.

Be sure to check out the other bloggers who are participating in this exploration of Gourmet's 50 Women Game Changers in the world of food---
Val -  More Than Burnt Toast 

Joanne - Eats Well with Others 

Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
Susan - The Spice Garden
Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey          
Heather - girlichef 
Janette - Healthy Living 
April - Abby Sweets
Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Mary - One Perfect Bite  

Kathleen - Bake Away With Me 
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen