THE HOUSEKEEPER’s INSTRUCTOR:
OR, UNIVERSAL FAMILY COOK, BEING A FULL AND CLEAR Display of the Art of Cookery in all its Branches. Proper Directions for dressing all Kinds of Butcher’s Meat, Poultry, Game, Fish, &c. The Method of preparing all the Va-rieties of Soups, Hashes, and Made Dishes. The whole Art of Confectionery, Pick-ling, Preserving, &c. The making and keeping in Perfection British Wines; and Proper Rules for Brewing Malt Liquor for large or small Families. TO WHICH IS ADDED, The Whole Art of Carving, ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS, Explaining by proper References, the Manner in which Young Practitioners may acquit themselves at Table with Elegance and Ease. ALSO, Bills of Fare for every Month in the Year. The Manner of decorating a Table, displayed by Copper Plates. Directions for Marketing. Observations on Culinary Poisons, and The Management of the Kitchen and Fruit Garden. By W.A. HENDRSON, Many Years eminent in the Culinary Profession. The Fifteenth Edition. CORRECTED, REVISED, AND CONSIDERABLY IMPROVED, By every modern Addition and Variation in the Art, By JACOB CHRISTOPHER SCHNEBBELIE, LATE APPRENTICE TO MESSRS, TUPP AND PERRY, Oxford-Street; afterwards PRINCIPAL COOK AT MELUN’S HOTEL, BATH; AND NOW OF THE ALBANY, LONDON. LONDON PRINTED AND SOLD BY J. STARTFORD, NO. 112, HOLBOLN-HILL. 1809.
Large 8vo. 1fep. [1] Frontispiece with engraving of Schnebbelie and The Albany. [1] 3-4 Introduction. 5-448. 16p Index. 1fep. Seven engraved plates illustrating carving, plus three plates, (one folding) showing table settings, as called for. Handsome dark brown half calf binding. Spine with gilt lines and a black calf label with gilt lettering. Marbled boards. The text block very good with very slight foxing occasionally. Overall a very good copy.
- It was one of the most popular English cookery books of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Henderson's work was premised on the need to provide inexperienced householders with a basic instruction manual to impart the principles of proper domestic economy to cooks, servers and other household and garden staff. It is an attractive work, with interesting recipes and menus for the different months of the year, including a lavish one for a ball supper for twenty. Jacob Christopher Schnebbelie had been the principal cook at Melun’s Hotel in Bath and Martelli’s Restaurant at The Albany, in Piccadilly, London. - Cagle 738 for the 1791 first edition.
click on image to enlarge
Antiquarian category
ref number:
11164