Before Mrs Beeton: England's Most Influential Housekeeper

The Experienced English Housekeeper, published in 1769, ran to more than twenty editions, shaped British cooking in ways that persist today, and was drawn on so heavily by Isabella Beeton that Beeton's later fame has obscured its author Elizabeth Raffald's importance. Raffald also founded a cookery school, ran a high-end Manchester tavern, compiled the first street directory of that city, established what amounted to the first domestic staffing agency in England, and wrote a book on midwifery. Her husband's alcoholism bankrupted her twice, and she ended her days in a disreputable coffeehouse.

Neil Buttery, a food historian with a popular blog and podcast, reconstructs her world as well as her life. Raffald was among the third of the British population that could read, she spoke French, and she entered service at the precise moment when medieval assumptions about the servant-employer relationship were giving way to something more contractual.

Her publishing instincts were equally well-calibrated: she was an early and aggressive exploiter of England's emerging copyright protections. Buttery moves through trade and empire, the agricultural revolution, gentlemen's clubs, and the gradual removal of midwifery from women's hands, showing of Raffald fit in a transforming world.

Some familiarity with British culinary traditions will serve readers well. Those who bring it will find this a richly detailed account of a figure whose influence on English food far outlasted her recognition.

Hardcover. Color and black-and-white plates.