Image: Engraving possibly "B. Colese"; text Martha Bradley · Public domain
The British Housewife
- Year
- 1756
- Era
- 18th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
The British Housewife, compiled by Martha Bradley and first issued in 1756, is an expansive English domestic encyclopaedia arranged according to the months of the year, guiding the reader through seasonal cookery, preserving, marketing, and household management. Among the most ambitious works of its kind in the eighteenth century, it gathers recipes, medical receipts, and practical instruction into a comprehensive calendar of rural and urban housekeeping, drawing on and consolidating earlier English culinary traditions.
Cooking from this book
A Grand Salamongundy
Signature dishSalamongundy, a composed cold salad of finely chopped meats, anchovies, eggs, pickles and herbs arranged in decorative concentric rings or pyramids, is emblematic of Bradley's expansive Georgian table. Her monumental almanac of household cookery presents it as a showpiece for the warmer months, when garden produce and cold cuts could be marshalled into an ornamental centrepiece. It captures the book's spirit: seasonal, methodical, and devoted to genteel English hospitality on a generous scale.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
