No Ordinary Instructions: Nineteenth-Century English Gastronomy Books and the Female Art of Cooking

Gastronomy books reflect and are the reflection of the way in which food shapes received social roles. Focusing on nineteenth-century English cookery manuals compiled by women, this study investigates their creative role as writers of recipes as well as intercultural mediators within the culinary tradition of their country. Through the art of cooking, publishing female experts in food preparations could perform new roles, beyond the traditional ones as natural guardians of culinary treasures, the nurturers and managers of all things domestic. Their recipes were no ordinary instructions but explorations of and experimentations with common tastes and eating habits that helped facilitate the encounter between diverse local and exotic food ways.