The Compleat Housewife;
OR, Accomplished Gentlewoman's COMPANION: Being a COLLECTION of upwards of Five Hundred of the most approved RECEIPTS in (2 columns) COOKERY, CONFECTIONARY, PRESERVING, PICKLES, CAKES, CREAMS, JELLIES, MADE WINES, CORDIALS.With COPPER PLATES curiously engraved for the regular Disposition or Placing the various DISHES and COURSES. AND ALSO BILLS of FARE for every Month of the Yaer. To which is added, A Collection of near Two Hundred Family RECEIPTS of MEDICINES; viz. Drinks, Syrups, Salves, intements, and various other Things of sovereign and approved Efficacy in most Distempers, Pains, Aches, Wounds, Sores, etc never before made publick; fit either for private Families, or such publick-spirited Gentlewomen as would be beneficient to their poor Neighbours. By E------ S-----. The Second Edition. LONDON: Printed for J. PEMBERTON, AT THE Golden Buck, over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street. M.DCC.XXV11.
8vo. 1fep. Title page with double line border. p10 Preface. I-XV Index. [2] 2-318. p2 Advertisements. 6 Copper plate illustrations of table settings and dishes. 1fep. Full contemporary dark brown calf with two-tone boards and original blind tooling. The spine sometime relaid with brown label and gilt lettering. The whole shows its age but has a nice patina. Internally very clean. A wonderful copy of an early edition.
- This 2nd edition printed 1727 in the same year as the 1st edition. The first had 326 pages. Maclean states erroneously that Smith's full name only appears after the 1st edition. The initials on this 2nd edition refutes that. Maclean also records 18 editions printed up to 1773. Along with Hannah Glasse and Elizabeth Raffald, Eliza Smith is one of the best known 18th century cookery writers, and it was her work which in 1742 became the first cookbook to be published in America. The 5th edition was reprinted in 1742 by William Parks as the 1st American edition. Unlike Raffald and Glasse, little is known about Smith. In her preface she informs us she has for thirty years and upwards been constantly employed in fashionable and noble Families. Maclean notes that Lord Montague of Beaulieu has stated "When I was first shown 'The Compleat Housewife' I was fascinated to find that several of the recipes contained were identical to those in manuscript form in my books. Although it is not known which of the great houses Mrs E. Smith worked, it is more than probable that some dishes were originally created in one of my ancestor's kitchens."
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
10983