Image: Lady · Public domain
The Whole Duty of a Woman
- Year
- 1737
- Era
- 18th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- Household/Etiquette
The Whole Duty of a Woman, issued anonymously in 1737, belongs to a hybrid genre of English manuals that combined moral conduct literature with practical household instruction. Alongside guidance on female virtue, deportment, and domestic management, it offers recipes for cookery, preserving, and physic, illustrating how eighteenth-century publishers packaged ethical formation and kitchen knowledge as complementary aspects of a gentlewoman's education.
Cooking from this book
A Great Cake
Signature dishThe Great Cake stands as an emblem of this hefty volume, which paired moral conduct with the practical management of an English household. Rich with dried fruit, spice and sack, raised with yeast and baked for ceremonial occasions such as christenings and weddings, it represented the mistress of the house at her most accomplished. Its scale and expense made it a fitting showpiece for a book that framed cookery as part of a woman's wider social duty.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
