The Housekeeper's Instructor facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
The Housekeeper's Instructor

Title page of 14th edition, 1807
Author	William Augustus Henderson Later editions revised by Jacob Christopher Schnebbelie
Country	England
Subject	English cooking
Genre	Cookery
Publisher	W. & J. Stratford
Publication date	1791
Pages	384

The Housekeeper's Instructor was a very popular English cookery book. It was written by William Augustus Henderson in 1791. This book was so successful that it was printed 17 times by 1823! Later on, another person named Jacob Christopher Schnebbelie helped update the book.

The full name of the book was "The housekeeper's instructor; or, universal family cook. Being a full and clear display of the art of cookery in all its various branches." Later versions had even longer titles.

About the Cookbook

How the Recipes Were Written

The recipes in this book were written in a style common in the 1700s. They were often very short. They didn't always tell you exactly how to cook something. They also gave very little information about how much of each ingredient to use. You wouldn't find cooking times or oven temperatures either. The ingredients were just mentioned in the text, not listed separately.

For example, here is a recipe for "Pickled Pork":

After washing and scraping it perfectly clean, put it into the pot with the water cold, and when the rind feels tender, it is enough. The general sauce is greens, among the variety of which you are to make choice to your own direction.

The book also explained how to make basic things like pastry. This was found under the "Pies" section. First, it gave some general advice:

One very material consideration must be, that the heat of the oven is duly proportioned to the nature of the article to be baked. ... Raised pies must have a quick oven, and be well closed up, or they will sink in their sides, and lose their proper shape.

Then, it shared different pastry recipes. One example is for "Puff paste":

Puff paste must be made thus: Take a quarter of a peck of flour, and rub it into a pound of butter very fine. Make it up into a light paste, with cold water, just stiff enough to work it up. Then roll it out about as thick as a crown piece; put a layer of butter all over, then sprinkle on a little flour, double it up, and roll it out again. Double and roll it, with layers of butter three times, and it will be properly fit for use.

Pictures in the Book

Frontispiece from an early edition. It shows the book being used to teach how to carve meat.

The book had a special picture at the very beginning called a frontispiece. In later editions, this picture showed a medallion of J.C. Schnebbelie. It also showed The Albany hotel in London.

However, earlier versions of the book had a different picture. It showed a busy kitchen with many pots and tools. A man was reading from the book, which was open on a table. He was pointing and teaching another man how to carve meat. A caption below this picture explained that it showed "a Lady presenting her Servant with The Universal Family Cook who diffident of her own knowledge has recourse to that Work for Information." This means a lady was giving the book to her servant, who then used it to learn.

There were no small pictures mixed in with the recipes. The book didn't show pictures of cooking tools or finished dishes.

The main pictures were found near the end of the book. There were seven full-page engravings in the "Carving" chapter. These pictures showed with lines and labels how to cut up chickens, game, meat, and fish. There were also pictures in the "Suppers" section. These showed how to arrange dishes on a table for meals. Some table layouts were even printed using letters and symbols, like ASCII art.

What's Inside the Book

Table layout for a "Ball Supper for Twenty People." Notice how many dishes are repeated on both sides. The middle decoration is made with letters and symbols.

The book covered many different topics related to cooking and running a household. Here is a list of some of the things you could learn from the 1810 edition:

Table layout for a "Dinner with Removes." This shows dishes that would be served first, then taken away.

Book Editions

The Housekeeper's Instructor was printed many times:

• The first edition came out in 1791.
• The 5th edition was printed in 1793.
• The 8th edition was printed in 1800.
• The 14th edition was printed in 1807.