Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management - Contents

Contents

Of the 1,112 pages, over 900 contained recipes, such that another popular name for the volume is Mrs Beeton's Cookbook. Most of the recipes were illustrated with coloured engravings, and it was the first book to show recipes in a format that is still used today, i.e., with all the ingredients listed at the start. It is said that many of the recipes were copied from earlier writers (including Eliza Acton), but the Beetons never claimed that the book's contents were original. Mrs Beeton is perhaps described better as its compiler and editor than as its author, many of the passages clearly being not her own words.

It was intended as a guide of reliable information about every aspect of running a house for the aspirant middle classes. In addition to cooking, its 2,751 entries include tips on how to deal with servants' pay and children's health, and above all a wealth of cooking advice, instructions and recipes. It was an immediate best-seller, selling 60,000 copies in its first year and totalling nearly two million up to 1868. In 1863, a revised edition was issued in installments.