The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook (Oxford World's Classics)

by Flora Annie Steel (Author), RalphCrane (Editor), Anna Johnston (Editor), Grace Gardiner (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2011

  $4.33

  'an Indian household can no more be governed peacefully, without dignity and prestige, than an Indian Empire' InThe Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook (1888) Flora Annie Steel and her co-author Grace Gardiner provide practical, and often highly opinionated, advice to young memsahibs in India. They explain how to 'make a hold' over servants, how to establish and stock a storeroom, how to plan a menu, manage young children, treat bites from 'mad, or even doubtful dogs', and teach an Indian cook how to make fish quenelles. The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook promised its reader a comprehensive guide to domesticitiy in India, even if she found herself living in camps or in the jungle, on the hills or in the plains, whether she was the wife of an influential Indian Civil Servant or a missionary. This new edition, complete with its stimulating introduction and substantial notes, makes available a classic domestic work that in detailing the memsahib's role in the household sheds light on the entire imperial experience. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2010

  $4.33

  First published in 1888, The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook sought to provide practical advice to young memsahibs in India, 'giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches'. Ostensibly a manual of household management, it opens a fascinating window on to the day-to-day life of the British in India. Brisk, capable, humorous, highly opinionated and frequently ironic, the voice that emerges commands the reader's attention; Steel and Gardiner's mission to uphold British 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. They explain how to 'make a hold' over servants, how to establish and stock a storeroom, how to 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 in the jungle, on the hills or in the plains, no British woman would be at a loss with The Complete Indian Housekeeper by her side. The Mrs Beeton of British India, Steel and Gardiner's classic work was hugely popular and many times reprinted. This new edition illuminates the fascinating details of imperial household economics as seen through the eyes of these two curious, intelligent, and widely travelled women.