OP: The Compleat Housewife

J. Pemberton, London, 1730. Hardcover. Good. Fourth edition.

First published in 1727, Eliza Smith’s The Compleat Housewife is one of the great 18th century cookery books, from which those that came after “borrowed” heavily. 

This edition boasts over 500 recipes in “cookery, pastry, confectionary, preserving, pickles, cakes, creams, jellies, made wines, [and] cordials,” not to mention monthly bills of fare and 200-plus recipes for medicinal salves.

Dishes like fricasseed tripe, potted swan, pigeon bisque, and marjoram pudding (carrying the author’s note, “this is old-fashioned, and not good”) and libations like gooseberry wine, cock ale (made with ground rooster, raisins, sherry, and spices), and laudanum (wine, opium, saffron, and winter spices) make for fascinating reading and expose some archaic dishes and ingredients.

Even more revealing about life 300 years ago are the remedies and cures for everyday maladies like colic, stomach pains or “heaviness of heart” (the same antidote for both being sweetened rosewater with saffron), burns, or acne. Also addressed are more extreme issues such as tending to a mad dog bite, cancer, scurvy (licorice and sasafrass—neither of which is a source of vitamin C), and hastening childbirth (a solution of borax, white wine, and cinnamon).

Our copy is an attractive 1730 fourth edition bound in full leather. Minimal soiling to the block with some marginalia. “Housewife” elegantly written on bottom edge. Evidence of previous repairs to the case, which is otherwise shelfworn with fraying to the corners. This copy was acquired from famed music journalist June Barsalona (née Harris) who, in turn, acquired it from her friends and antiquarian book dealers Betsy and Timothy Trace. 

For a modern reprint, click here.