Image: Hannah Glasse · Public domain
Art of Cookery, or The Compleat Housewife
- Year
- 1760
- Era
- 18th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
Art of Cookery, or The Compleat Housewife, compiled by Alice Smith and first issued in 1760, is a mid-Georgian English household manual in the tradition established by Eliza Smith's earlier Compleat Housewife. It gathers receipts for cookery, preserving, and domestic remedies aimed at the mistress of a middling household, reflecting the period's appetite for practical printed guidance and the consolidation of English vernacular cookery writing before the rise of Raffald and Glasse's later editions.
Cooking from this book
A Made Dish of Sweetbreads
Signature dishThis delicate ragout of veal sweetbreads, gently stewed and enriched with a savoury sauce of forcemeat balls, mushrooms and a touch of wine, captures the refined yet practical spirit of Smith's collection. As a fashionable second course dish on Georgian tables, it shows the book's place within the Compleat Housewife tradition, balancing the elegance expected of a gentleman's household with the everyday competence of the mistress directing her kitchen.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
