The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook
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Description
Brisk, capable, humorous, highly opinionated, and frequently ironic, The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook opens a fascinating window on the day-to-day life of the British in India in the late nineteenth century. Steel and Gardiner's mission to uphold Victorian standards in Indian kitchens has illuminating parallels with the running of the British Empire, and their domestic guide reveals as much about British attitudes to India as any history book on the Raj. In this treasure trove of household advice for young British memsahibs, they explain how to "make a hold" over servants, establish and stock a storeroom, plan a menu, manage young children, treat bites from "mad, or even doubtful dogs," and teach an Indian cook how to make fish quenelles. Whether living in camps or the jungle, on the hills or in the plains, no British woman would be at a loss with The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook by her side. For this new edition, the editors provide a lively Introduction and notes that offer an invaluable guide to the manual.Features
- The Mrs Beeton of British India, Flora Annie Steel and her companion Grace Gardiner's book of household management for memsahibs offers a fascinating insight into the daily life of Anglo-Indians and their servants under the Raj.
- The most thorough and entertaining guide to the duties of mistress and servant, including advice on the storeroom, accounts, meals, gardening, camp life, clothing, cookery and recipes.
- Practical advice is tempered with personal anecdotes and glimpses into the lives of two remarkable memsahibs in the 1880s and 1890s.
- Lively Introduction looks at Steel's life and writings and other imperial manuals and books on cooking and empire, and illuminates the connections which the book makes explicit between running a domestic household in India and running the British Empire.
- Notes provide an invaluable reading guide to the manual, detailing elements from the late nineteenth-century pharmacopeia, the kitchen, and the laundry cupboard alongside geographical, historical, and political facts peculiar to British India and the Empire.
- Includes glossary of Indian terms.
Reviews
"Fascinating, immensely detailed... A priceless insight into the mindset and even the character of those women out there, imposing their will and their ways amid the "alien corn" surrounding them... What these women did was create an authentically unique subculture of their own on that vast, sometimes hostile, subcontinent." -- Washington Times
'The cream of the crop of the recent historical [cookery] reprints. Steel and Gardiner aimed to do for memsahibs what Mrs Beeton had done for their stay-at-home sisters. Their mission, to create a domestic space that was forever Wiltshire, throws a bright light on the larger project of which they were part, that of running the British empire.' -- The Guardian
About the Author(s)
Ralph Crane is Professor of English at the University of Tasmania.
Anna Johnston is Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Tasmania.
