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'I'm not the only person who loves reading cookbooks, | 0:00:03 | 0:00:07 | |
'and the grande dame of them all is Mrs Beeton's Household Management. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:11 | |
'A bestseller for a hundred years, | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
'there was a time when no British kitchen was without one. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
'And as a food-lover and writer, | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
'I have long been fascinated by its author. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
'Isabella Beeton was a fantastically modern woman - | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
'one who shaped the appetites and habits of the British Empire. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
'But she remains a bit of an enigma.' | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
I want to find out what made her write this book. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
I want to find out more about the extraordinary life she led. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
I also want to find out | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
what made this book have such a heavyweight reputation, | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
and why so many of us have got it in our kitchen. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
'Household Management was the domestic Bible for Victorians. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
'But is it at all relevant today? | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
'I want to find out why Mrs Beeton's voice was so influential, | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
'and to see how she shaped our idea of the perfect housewife.' | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
I think it looks absolutely spectacular. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
'Can I get a sense of her through her recipes?' | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
It is really effectively prosthetic snot. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
'Is the original book of any practical use today?' | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
How many does it make? That'll give you some idea. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:22 | |
'I'm even going to attempt | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
'one of her rather impressive dinner parties. My aim - | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
'to find the woman behind the book, and see if domestic goddesstry | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
'a la Isabella Beeton is remotely achievable today. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
'I inherited my copy of Mrs Beeton from my grandmother. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
'It has always been a constant in the kitchen. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
'It might look dusty and inaccessible to a modern eye, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
'but 150 years ago, Household Management revolutionised cookery books, | 0:01:52 | 0:01:57 | |
'presenting food in a whole new way.' | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
This must have been stunning for somebody to flick through. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
'Alice Hart is a food writer, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
'but she's never seen the original Household Management before.' | 0:02:06 | 0:02:10 | |
-And that is beautiful. -They are gorgeous! -Yeah. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
Total fantasy food there. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
She was the first person to have colour plates in a cookery book. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
I just wouldn't expect that with a book of this time. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
'For women of my grandmother's generation, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
'Household Management was an essential wedding present.' | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
You can imagine a new wife at home being given this | 0:02:27 | 0:02:31 | |
for a wedding present, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
wondering how she's going to achieve all of it. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
I think I might get stage fright. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
'And it wasn't just the colour pictures that were new. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
'Mrs Beeton combined all of this racy modernity | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
'with unprecedented practicality.' | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
Carrot jam's a Mrs Beeton staple. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
It was her economical recipe for people who couldn't afford apricots. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
You make carrot jam with almonds. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:10 | |
'I want to know what the book means to other people, | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
'so we're making a couple of her most iconic jams | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
'to try out on the great British public.' | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
"Simmer the damsons over the fire till they are soft, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
then beat them through a coarse sieve." | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
'First published in 1861, | 0:03:39 | 0:03:41 | |
'Household Management was a revelation.' | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
And what was amazing about this book was, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
she was the first person to list ingredients first, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
then the method, and then the cost. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
There had been a lot of cookbooks written by male French chefs | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
who didn't give that instruction, expected people to know. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
So it must have been with a huge sigh of relief | 0:04:02 | 0:04:04 | |
that these housewives... | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
Finally you really could plan your week's recipes | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
-and your week's shopping, because you'd be able to budget. -Yeah. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
"Stir the sugar in and simmer the damsons for two hours." | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
'And Household Management was about more than just food.' | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
This book is brilliant because it's not just recipes. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
It's how to run your entire household. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
So she has how to hire staff, how to fire staff, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
how to wash your linens, what to do if you've got difficult tenants. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
We've got here "Substitute for milk and cream", | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
"Stye in the eye". It just goes on and on. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
So this would become your domestic Bible, I suppose. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
This is what you would refer to. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
"Put the carrot pulp in a preserving pan | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
with the sugar, and let this boil for five minutes." | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
"When cold, add lemon rind and juice, | 0:04:54 | 0:04:58 | |
almonds and brandy." | 0:04:58 | 0:05:00 | |
I'm pleased with my plum cheese. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
-It's a lovely rich, wintry... -It's a beautiful colour. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
-How's your carrot jam? -Looking apricotty. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
Yes. See? That looks just like my granny's apricot jam. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
Gorgeous! | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
'I'm taking our jams to market | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
'to find out whether Mrs Beeton's recipes withstand the test of taste and time.' | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
Would you like to try some jam? | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
'The British palate has changed hugely since the Victorian era. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
'We've opened ourselves up to flavours from all around the world. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
'I wonder what today's foodies really know about the quintessential British cookbook and its author?' | 0:05:33 | 0:05:39 | |
-Do you know anything about Mrs Beeton? -Just the book. It's massive. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
I think my mother-in-law still uses the book. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
-Plain, basic cooking. -That sort of simple... | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
Simple... Very good for you, too. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
All these wonderful pictures of how to truss a chicken, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
and how to bake a cake! I don't remember this recipe. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
Mm! Very tasty. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
'So we have an idea of the book, but what about the woman who wrote it?' | 0:06:00 | 0:06:05 | |
And do you know anything about her? | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
Large, bosomy Victorian lady. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
-Do you imagine her at an age or looking a certain way? -Old and grey. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
-A spinster. -I'd have liked to have met her, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
especially if she could cook like this. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
-THEY LAUGH -Thank you very much. -Cheers. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
'It seems most people have heard of the book, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
'and their sense of the author is much the same - | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
'starchy, authoritative, all-knowing. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
'But the real Isabella Beeton was something quite different. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
'At the National Portrait Gallery there is a rare photo of her, | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
'taken when she was halfway through writing Household Management.' | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
So, here she is - Isabella Beeton, aged 23. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:54 | |
And what's amazing about this picture in particular | 0:06:54 | 0:06:57 | |
is that she's already writing the book. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
She's writing this tome of domesticity, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
this young woman. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:05 | |
She looks very prim and buttoned up. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
She looks very much the staunch Victorian matron, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
from her posture to her dress. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
-You wouldn't mess with her. -SHE LAUGH | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
She looks very serious. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
'I don't think it's an accident we imagine this 23 year old | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
'as a bossy old woman. She sounds like one, in the book.' | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
"As with the commander of an army, or the leader of any enterprise, | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
so it is with the mistress of a house." | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
"Her spirit will be seen through the whole establishment." | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
I think, from the portrait we've just seen | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
and the tone that she takes in the book, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
she wanted to portray a tone of matronly authority. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
You don't imagine her as a young woman, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:02 | |
and I think the reason for that was, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
young women weren't listened to in Victorian times. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
They were considered flibbertigibbets. They didn't know anything. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
You had to earn your stripes, and so that sort of matronly stance, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
the matronly tone, it was a very, very good selling tool. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:21 | |
How could you doubt that a person that looked like that | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
and wrote like that wouldn't know what they were talking about? | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
But the truth about Isabella Beeton was far more complex. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:32 | |
She was born to Elizabeth and Benjamin Mayson in 1836, | 0:08:33 | 0:08:37 | |
and was brought up above her father's drapery business | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
in London's Cheapside. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:43 | |
The London she was born into | 0:08:43 | 0:08:45 | |
was the biggest and wealthiest city in the world. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
Money was creating huge social change in Britain, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
and a whole new class, the middle class, was emerging. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:55 | |
STALLHOLDERS SHOUTING | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
How'd you like to get your hands on me buns, m'dear? | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
The historian Kate Williams knows the impact food had on Isabella | 0:09:03 | 0:09:08 | |
and her future readers. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
19th-century London was really the time | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
of the growth of what we call now the middle classes. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
Industrialisation created this huge, aspirational middle class, | 0:09:18 | 0:09:23 | |
so many people gaining their money from trade, | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
from the great empire. And these were the new power, the new money, | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
and they wanted to prove themselves as excellent through taste. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
Where was the food coming from? | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
From all over the empire. By the end of her reign, | 0:09:36 | 0:09:40 | |
Queen Victoria ruled a quarter of the world's population. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
She ruled huge swathes of the world, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
and these places produced incredible foodstuffs | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
for Londoners to enjoy. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
-Was there an abundance of food? -Absolutely. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
Nuts, meats, wonderful vegetables, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
exotic fruits... You could buy lemons out of season. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
The great foods, you could buy them. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
Of course, not everyone got to experience these riches. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
An expanding working class struggled to survive | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
on low-quality street food. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
For them, a hot meal might be a simple baked potato, | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
used as a hand-warmer until it was eaten. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
So, if you'd escaped from the clutches of poverty, | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
you wanted to make damn sure everyone knew about it. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:25 | |
The middle classes wished to differentiate themselves | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
from the working classes, who didn't have kitchens, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
who didn't have servants. They prided themselves | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
on dining at home, and they needed guidance on what to do | 0:10:34 | 0:10:39 | |
with all these amazing ingredients. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
There's no point having all this abundance | 0:10:41 | 0:10:43 | |
if you don't know what to cook. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
Small wonder, when it was published in 1861, | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
Household Management was an immediate bestseller. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
It provided the perfect blueprint for how to be middle class. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
'To get a sense of how these new middle classes were living, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:14 | |
'I'm attempting a Mrs-Beeton-style dinner party. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
'I want to road-test some of the recipes beforehand, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
'so I've enlisted the help of Annie Grey. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
'She lives and breathes food history, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
'and also looks very fetching in a corset.' | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
Annie, you're in full Victorian costume. Will you tell me why? | 0:11:27 | 0:11:31 | |
I'm dressed as a middle-class housewife would be | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
in 1861-ish, when the book was published. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
'I've decided to try out one of the most fashionable recipes | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
'in the book.' | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
Would this have been one of the new recipes for the young housewife | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
-who was entertaining? -Yes. A French dish upon the table | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
shows that you have arrived. | 0:11:57 | 0:11:59 | |
"Take one lobster, pick the meat from the shell, | 0:11:59 | 0:12:03 | |
and cut it up into small, square pieces." | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
'Victorian dinner parties were epic feasts, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
'designed to impress. You would serve several dishes | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
'at each course. Annie's constructing a pie | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
'that would have been served at the same time as the lobster.' | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
So, Annie, you're making pigeon pie over there. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
Yes. And of course I've plucked them earlier. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:35 | |
-Good housewife, you are. -Yes. Plucked and gutted them. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
-What goes in your pie? -It's a pie dish, which is lined with pastry, | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
and then there'll be layers of rump steak, | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
then some pigeon - pigeon breasts in this case- | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
with a piece of butter and ham, seasonings, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
and then the yolks of some hardboiled eggs | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
just to make sure that the surface is beautiful, | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
so when you put your puff pastry lid on and decorate it, | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
it looks absolutely gorgeous. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
It wasn't just the food that was alien. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
Many of Mrs B's housewives were learning how to work with staff | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
for the first time, | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
and the ovens and kitchen accessories were new, too, | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
nothing like what they'd grown up with. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
This kitchen would have been new to Mrs Beeton and her readers. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
Do you think that's why there was a gap in the market | 0:13:20 | 0:13:24 | |
for a cookbook? There needed to be a guide | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
-to cooking and running a household like this. -Yes. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
She really sees the desperation of a lot of middle-class girls | 0:13:29 | 0:13:33 | |
having to turn out middle-class dinners | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
to entertain their husbands' prospective business colleagues. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:39 | |
"Take the white stock, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
cream, mace and cayenne, and add to the lobster." | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
"Serve it in the shells, which should be nicely cleaned, | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
and have a border of puff pastry." | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
There's an awful lot of aspiration in Mrs Beeton's cookbook. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
She has, er, recipes for turtle soup, | 0:13:56 | 0:14:00 | |
which no-one in the middle class would have made. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
In fact, mock-turtle soup, which she also has a recipe for, | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
ends up being THE middle-class dish, because you can make it with a calf's head. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
She's writing not only in an aspirational way, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
but also, because this is an era where people shoot up and down the social scale very quickly, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
all of a sudden the housewife might find herself in the position | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
where she has to cook a wedding breakfast for 100 people | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
because her daughter has married someone further up the social scale than she is. Panic! | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
But Mrs Beeton has the answer. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
'I'm not convinced that this pie has a great deal going for it.' | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
"Clean three of the feet and place them in a hole | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
made in a crust at the top. This shows what kind of pie it is." | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
The feet look like they're trying to climb out. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
I think it looks absolutely spectacular. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
There's something quite Gothic about it. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
'Household Management's promise | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
'was that it would always have the right recipe, | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
'whatever your circumstances.' | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
'And Isabella herself knew that circumstances could change | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
'very, very quickly. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
'In 1841, when she was just five, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
'Isabella's father died. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
'Her mother Elizabeth was pregnant, and had three young children. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:15 | |
'With no welfare state, and the looming possibility of the workhouse | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
'the family were hugely vulnerable.' | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
I think losing her dad at five was a formative lesson for Isabella. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
I think she realised how fleeting life could be, | 0:15:30 | 0:15:35 | |
and you really get a sense of that from the book. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
She has recipes for 19-course meals, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
and she also has these sweet, quite meagre recipes | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
for bread soup or a toast sandwich. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
Living in a city that heaved with both the very rich and very poor, | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
Isabella's childhood had shown her that everything was possible, | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
but that everything could also be whisked away. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
So she understood the need for a guide that you could rely on | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
whatever life threw at you. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
'But Isabella was fortunate. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
'Her sensible mother did what any young Victorian widow | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
'with children would do - she married again.' | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
Elizabeth's second husband, Henry Dorling, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
was a well-to-do widower who ran the racecourse at Epsom, | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
'home of the Derby. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
'Swapping London, with its smoke and poverty, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
'for the bucolic pastures of Surrey, | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
'Isabella had entered the world of the middle classes. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
'Like Elizabeth, Henry already had four children of his own, | 0:16:46 | 0:16:50 | |
'so the couple started with eight, and carried on. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
'Models of Victorian productivity, | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
'Elizabeth and Henry eventually produced a brood | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
'of - deep breath - 21 children.' | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
'With so many brothers and sisters, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
'the young Isabella took on a lot of responsibility.' | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
How can I help? | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
Could I have, a, um...a tea, please? | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
-Tea? Would you like any cakes? -Um, no, thank you. -I'll just get that for you. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
This is a card that Elizabeth made for Henry Dorling | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
for his birthday in 1848, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
and it gives a real insight into what childhood would have been like | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
for Isabella. You've got her, aged 12, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
surrounded by... You can't even tell. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
I think it's 13 children. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:37 | |
She's the only one that's shaded in, like her mother, | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
so she's a little miniature mother. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
They look happy, they look loving, but it looks quite chaotic, | 0:17:43 | 0:17:47 | |
and Henry's standing to the side, looking, um, a bit baffled. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
It's unsurprising to me that, out of that, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
she entered into a life of lists and order and... | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
But that could be my own projection on it. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
'Given Isabella's chaotic childhood, | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
'perhaps it is unsurprising that Household Management | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
'places so much importance on creating the perfect family home.' | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
"It ought to enter into the domestic policy | 0:18:14 | 0:18:16 | |
of every parent to make her children feel | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
that home is the happiest place in the world." | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
"To imbue them with this delicious home feeling | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
is one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow." | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
CROWD CHEERING | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
Isabella's own childhood became ever more extraordinary. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
Come on! Come on, now! Come on! | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
Though the family were by now very comfortable, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
not even wealthy Henry Dorling could provide a house big enough for 21 children. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
As the brood rapidly expanded, Isabella and some of her siblings were sent to live, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
of all places, in the grandstand of Epsom racecourse. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
Come on, now! | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
'I want to get a sense of what it was like for the young Isabella | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
'to grow up in the havoc that is a racecourse.' | 0:18:59 | 0:19:02 | |
CHEERING | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
'Having never been to the races before, | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
'who better to go with than the doyenne of the racing novel, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
'writer Jilly Cooper?' | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
I can't believe you've never been. You've missed so much. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
It's incredibly exciting. The horses, they're so beautiful, | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
and they race their hearts out. And very, very glamorous people. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:23 | |
Somehow racing attracts very, very good-looking men | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
and very beautiful women, | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
and that helps a lot. And also it's lovely, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
because at the races, all classes mix. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
Would it have been like that at Epsom, where Isabella grew up? | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
Tremendous amount of drinking went on, and bad behaviour, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
lots of aristocratic young men gambling and fighting, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
and all the gypsies would turn up, and the crowd would be quite extraordinary. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
-The royal family would be there too. -I'm asking you all of this | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
because Mrs Beeton grew up in the grandstand. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
-In the grandstand? At Epsom? -At Epsom. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
-Mercy! -Yes. Sleeping in camp beds. Her stepfather was the clerk there. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
There wasn't enough room for her and her brothers and sisters at home | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
because there were so many of them, and she was responsible for all these small children. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:10 | |
A lot of weight on her shoulders. You can imagine this bunch of raggle-taggle children... | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
And ghosts of punters, ghosts of horses floating round. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
And tobacco on the floor, and what it might have smelled like. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
Absolutely extraordinary! What an extraordinary thing to do! | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
But it makes sense, why she would sort of have... | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
somewhat sought order and lists, and... | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
-Yes, and Household Management... -Yes. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
-..probably is how she... -Chaos. -Chaos, yes. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:36 | |
-Yes. -Very good for a writer, very good material for a writer. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
She had plenty to draw on. All the seeds were there at the Derby. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
I believe this early responsibility was a key part | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
of Isabella's success. Out of that rambling, child-ridden chaos, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
she emerged, her heart set on practised domesticity. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
'After all, by the time she was a teenager, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
'Isabella was already well versed in mothering. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
'Her small shoulders were loaded with responsibility.' | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
'But she was no poor Cinderella. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
'Perhaps mindful of the early burden she'd borne, | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
'her stepfather Henry sent her to Heidelberg | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
'to finish her education. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
'She learnt French, she learnt German, | 0:21:23 | 0:21:25 | |
'and she learnt how to bake. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
'She was clearly pretty passionate about it. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:30 | |
'There are 179 baking recipes in her Household Management, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
'the largest chapter in the book. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
'150 years on, there are still plenty of people | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
'building their afternoon teas round Mrs Beeton's recipes.' | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
Hello, Mary! | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
'To find out why she still has such a powerful reputation, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
'I've come to Suffolk for a baking session with some of her biggest fans, the WI.' | 0:21:55 | 0:21:59 | |
-So, you're the fun, modern WI. -I hope so, yes. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
What sort of things have your WI done? | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
-We did The Full Monty last year. -I have to know. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
-You have to expand. -Eight of us stripped down | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
to very skimpy aprons, which we did in front of our entire village, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:16 | |
-and we just shocked them rigid. -SHE LAUGHS | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
Did you have a stiff drink beforehand? | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
We did, actually, girls, didn't we? | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
We had a lot of drinks before we did it. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
'The WI has clearly modernised, and so has Household Management. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
'Over the years it's been regularly updated. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
'In fact, there are over 60 editions, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
'with recipes added or altered in line with our changing tastes. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:39 | |
'Today we're comparing a recipe from the first book | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
'with more modern editions. The WI are making scones and Swiss rolls | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
'from the more recent Mrs Beetons. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
'I'm making ginger nuts from the original.' | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
Mrs Beeton's ginger nuts call for a great deal of ground coriander! | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
-Really? -Yes. So I have no idea what they're going to taste like. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
"Take allspice, coriander and ginger, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
freshly ground. Put them into a basin with flour and sugar, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
and mix well together." | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
Carol, are those Mrs Beeton's scones? | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
They are, yes, from one of the more modern, adapted recipes. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:27 | |
There is such a connotation of Victorian food | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
being very stodgy. You could whack people over the head with it. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:35 | |
I suspect that my ginger nuts may be heading in that direction. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
There you go! | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
"Warm the treacle and butter together." | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
"Then, with a spoon, work it into the flour | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
until the whole forms a nice smooth paste." | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
Mary, can I call on you for a non-pregnant arm? | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
-Yes. Let me give you some help. -Thank you. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
-Oh, my goodness! -SOPHIE LAUGHS | 0:23:56 | 0:23:59 | |
They must have had very strong arm muscles. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:03 | |
'This mix needs the full resources of the WI sisterhood. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
'My pregnant arms can't take it any more!' | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
Would you like to have a go? | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
-What size was Mrs Beeton? -THEY LAUGH | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
-Was she a petite woman? -A little sturdy-looking. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
-Does that look better? -That looks perfect. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
-Over to you. -Thank you very much. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
-How big? -There. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
How many does it make? That'll give you some idea - | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
-how many it makes. -559. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:31 | |
-Lovely. -Thank you. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
-Can I be on tea duty? -Yeah. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:40 | |
'Afternoon tea was a Victorian invention. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
'Household Management contained all the recipes | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
'Isabella's early readers needed, and in the following 150 years, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
'it continued to supply fashionable recipes | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
'for entertaining at home.' | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
-THEY LAUGH -They're not round. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
-Now, these look so tasty. -Well, yours might look very tasty. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
The proof is in the eating, though. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
But can we just be honest about these? | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
-They look like rabbit-turd biscuits. -THEY LAUGH | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
They're not a thing of beauty. They're really not. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:14 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
You can certainly taste the ginger. You've got a really crispy outside | 0:25:16 | 0:25:21 | |
and quite a heavy, dense inside. It's a bizarre combination. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:26 | |
-I quite like them, actually. I do. -She's got weird tastes. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
-I am weird. -We know that she learned to bake in Heidelberg, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:34 | |
so do we think they're possibly a little German in influence? Yes? | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
The white icing, the spices? | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
I think white icing would actually help them. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
-What would you like next, girls? -Carol has made scones | 0:25:47 | 0:25:51 | |
from one of the modern ones, and that was 2005. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
Mm! Absolutely beautiful! | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
They are so light and fluffy, aren't they? | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
-They're so good. -Mmm! | 0:26:00 | 0:26:02 | |
Mrs Beeton is this enduring character. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
We've all got variants of her, but what does that say about her? | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
I think it's what she stands for - the household management, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:13 | |
the domesticity, the getting some standards and rules in place, | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
and I think everybody knows the name Mrs Beeton, | 0:26:17 | 0:26:22 | |
so there's an element of trust. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
I think because it's what our mothers did, | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
and it's so nice to carry that tradition on | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
-from our mothers to us, and then on to our children. -Mm. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:35 | |
Household Management became much more than a Victorian phenomenon. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
Its contents are regularly updated, but the name has stayed the same, | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
and so we have continued to trust in the reliability of its author. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
The name Mrs Beeton was one of the first and most powerful brands | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
in Britain. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
So, how did the young Isabella Mayson transform herself | 0:26:56 | 0:27:01 | |
into the enduring character of Mrs Beeton? | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
In the first place, through marriage. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
Sam Beeton was a young, ambitious publisher | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
who Isabella first met when they were children in Cheapside. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
He was a very modern man. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
He was very forward-thinking in his attitude toward women, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
and you can really tell that from the tone of their letters to each other. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
There's, um... | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
..one from her to him. She says, "In a very short time | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
you will have the entire management of me, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
and I can assure you that you will find me a most docile and willing pupil." | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
And he writes back, | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
"I don't desire, I assure you, to manage you." | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
"You can do that quite well yourself." | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
So there must have been... rather a sense of relief, | 0:27:45 | 0:27:49 | |
in that she wasn't off to marry someone | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
who was going to boss her around, and she was marrying an equal, | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
and throughout their life together, you get a huge sense of that, | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
that they were partners. They were proper equals. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
Isabella married her beloved Sam | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
on Thursday the 10th of July 1856, | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
at St Martin's Church in Epsom. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
She was 20, and ready to set up her very own family home. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:15 | |
And the British home was changing. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
This was the time of sudden railway expansion in Britain, | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
allowing people to live away from the cities they worked in. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
Suburbs were being built for the very first time. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
'And suburban homes were marketed heavily at new middle-class couples | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
'like Sam and Isabella.' | 0:28:38 | 0:28:40 | |
This is a copy of the original prospectus | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
of Sam and Isabella's first marital home, | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
Chandos Villas in Pinner. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:48 | |
And this would have been the thing that Sam used | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
to tempt Isabella, in her chaperoned glory, | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
to say, "This is what I can give you when we get married." | 0:28:54 | 0:28:57 | |
You get a real sense from this what they were buying into. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
It's leafy suburbia at its best, | 0:29:01 | 0:29:06 | |
so you have, "In short, real country air, food, | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
seclusion and society can only be had | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
by going into the country, by leaving London a dozen miles behind, | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
and thereby getting beyond the smell of its smoke, | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
the range of its bad characters, and the influx of its population." | 0:29:18 | 0:29:23 | |
Look at their house here. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:26 | |
Incredibly grand. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
It's probably very difficult for us to imagine in modern times, | 0:29:29 | 0:29:33 | |
a young married couple moving into this grandeur. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:38 | |
Isabella must have felt relief, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:40 | |
coming out of her enormous, chaotic family | 0:29:40 | 0:29:43 | |
with all those children. Suddenly sort of shutting the door | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
and getting peace and quiet must have seemed like total heaven. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:50 | |
'Although the Beetons' beautiful house was bombed | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
'in the Second World War, I know one of the original houses | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
'from the estate still stands. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
'I want to walk the streets she walked. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
'I want to breathe the neighbourhood that she and Sam first called home.' | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
'In new suburbs like Pinner, many women were for the first time | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
'living far away from their families. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
'They didn't know their neighbours, and new rules | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
'about how to call on people were needed.' | 0:30:16 | 0:30:18 | |
'This is where the book really came into its own. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
'Mrs Beeton guided these inexperienced women | 0:30:24 | 0:30:26 | |
'through every moment of daily life.' | 0:30:26 | 0:30:28 | |
-Hello! -Hi! Hi, there. Hi. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
I'm Sophie Dahl. I'm making a programme about Mrs Beeton. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
-I do recognise you, yes. Hi! -Did you know anything, really, | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
-about the history of Mrs Beeton? -No. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:42 | |
She was probably our first celebrity cook, I suppose. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
"After luncheon, morning calls may be made and received." | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
"These visits should be short, a stay of from 15 to 20 minutes | 0:30:50 | 0:30:53 | |
being quite sufficient." | 0:30:53 | 0:30:55 | |
"A lady paying a visit may remove her boa or neckerchief, | 0:30:55 | 0:30:58 | |
but neither her shawl nor bonnet." | 0:30:58 | 0:31:01 | |
Since we've moved in, we've got the bug. We all love cooking, | 0:31:01 | 0:31:05 | |
and our neighbours and the neighbours before, | 0:31:05 | 0:31:07 | |
so I think her spirit lives on. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:09 | |
The one problem with these idyllic suburban homes | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
is that it meant a new separation between the place men worked | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
and the place women stayed. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
'Preparing a delicious dinner to lure your husband home | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
'was a key task for the novice housewife.' | 0:31:33 | 0:31:35 | |
In the beginning of the book, Mrs Beeton stresses the importance | 0:31:35 | 0:31:39 | |
of having a hot meal on the table for your husband, | 0:31:39 | 0:31:41 | |
because there are so many temptations in the city, | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
so much that could tempt a man from home. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
So she has this very funny bit in the opening of the book, | 0:31:47 | 0:31:50 | |
which says, | 0:31:50 | 0:31:52 | |
"Men are now so well served out of doors, at their clubs, | 0:31:52 | 0:31:56 | |
well ordered taverns and dining-houses, | 0:31:56 | 0:31:58 | |
that, in order to compete with the attractions of these places, | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
the mistress must be thoroughly acquainted with the theory and practice of cookery, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
as well as be perfectly conversant with all the other arts | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
of making and keeping a comfortable home." | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
The thing about so many of her recipes is, | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
they're for whatever's available, | 0:32:25 | 0:32:27 | |
and apples in England, quite a plentiful thing. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
'Every Victorian dinner would start with soup. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
'I'll try this one out now to use at my party later.' | 0:32:33 | 0:32:37 | |
"Peel and quarter the apples, taking out their cores." | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
"Put them into the stock. Add the cloves." | 0:32:41 | 0:32:45 | |
"Stew gently till tender." | 0:32:45 | 0:32:47 | |
"Rub the whole mixture through a strainer." | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
One of the reasons Mrs Beeton was so invaluable to her readers, | 0:32:52 | 0:32:55 | |
she would provide monthly charts, | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
breakdowns of what to serve, how much it cost, | 0:32:58 | 0:33:01 | |
so here you've got, "A plain family dinner for February". | 0:33:01 | 0:33:06 | |
"Sunday, ox-tail soup, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
broccoli and potatoes, plum-pudding and apple tart, cheese." | 0:33:09 | 0:33:13 | |
One meal. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
"Monday, fried soles, butter and potatoes, | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
cold roast beef, mashed potatoes. The remains of the plum-pudding | 0:33:17 | 0:33:21 | |
cut in slices, warmed and served with sifted sugar sprinkled over it. Cheese." | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
"Tuesday, the remains of ox-tail soup from Sunday." | 0:33:25 | 0:33:29 | |
There's a lot of meat, | 0:33:29 | 0:33:31 | |
there's a lot of boiling, and there's a lot of re-use | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
of leftovers. Leftovers would see you through the week. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:39 | |
"Add cayenne and white pepper, | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
give it one boil-up, and serve." | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
This would have been the smell to tempt the man back from the city. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:51 | |
Looks like it might appear in Oliver! | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
It's, um... It's quite heavy going. | 0:33:58 | 0:34:01 | |
But while Mrs Beeton was teaching her readers | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
to be patient homemakers, her own life was something rather different. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:10 | |
'Isabella was not tied to the stove like many of her young readers. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
'She was off to the office.' | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
She was an extremely successful journalist, | 0:34:19 | 0:34:23 | |
and, together with Sam, she commuted into London each day. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:27 | |
With more and more women becoming educated, | 0:34:30 | 0:34:32 | |
female literacy was booming. 60 percent of women could now read, | 0:34:32 | 0:34:36 | |
and they were crying out for new literature. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
There was a huge gap in the market just waiting to be filled. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
'Sam already published several popular magazines, | 0:34:42 | 0:34:45 | |
'but it was when he collaborated with his wife | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
'on The English Woman's Domestic Magazine | 0:34:48 | 0:34:50 | |
'that they struck gold. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
'I'm going to the Women's Library in East London | 0:34:53 | 0:34:55 | |
'to see Isabella's first printed endeavours in the flesh.' | 0:34:55 | 0:34:59 | |
You get a real sense, through looking at the contents pages | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
of English Woman's Domestic, | 0:35:06 | 0:35:09 | |
really how varied the information they're giving to women was. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:12 | |
So here you've got the poetry of the month, | 0:35:12 | 0:35:16 | |
Home Arrangements And Domestic Economy, | 0:35:16 | 0:35:18 | |
my favourite, Curious Weddings And Remarkable Marriages, | 0:35:18 | 0:35:23 | |
and then, in a flash, the first time we see Isabella's name | 0:35:23 | 0:35:27 | |
in print, "The Paris Fashions, Edited by Mrs Isabella Beeton, | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
from material supplied direct from the capital of 'Le beau monde'." | 0:35:31 | 0:35:34 | |
And it's so funny, because we're used to thinking of her | 0:35:34 | 0:35:39 | |
in only terms of this domestic voice of kitchen reason, | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
and here she is, she's a fashion journalist. She's off in Paris. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
She's writing about what all the pretty women of Paris are wearing. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
I think they realised, with the success of English Woman's Domestic, | 0:35:49 | 0:35:53 | |
that there was this huge audience that they could reach | 0:35:53 | 0:35:56 | |
and somewhat exploit. | 0:35:56 | 0:36:00 | |
They put out a request to all their readers | 0:36:00 | 0:36:03 | |
to supply them with recipes for a forthcoming cookbook, | 0:36:03 | 0:36:07 | |
Mrs Beeton's Book Of Household Management. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
"We shall be exceedingly obliged to any lady | 0:36:10 | 0:36:12 | |
who will spare a few moments to write out for us | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
some of her choice recipes." Very, very, very clever. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:19 | |
You look back, and you think, "How brilliant!" | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
They knew who their audience was, | 0:36:22 | 0:36:24 | |
they knew how they wanted to be treated, | 0:36:24 | 0:36:26 | |
and they knew that they could keep profiting from them. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:31 | |
So, out of all this came this, the Book Of Household Management. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
It's a compendium of knowledge for a generation of women | 0:36:37 | 0:36:42 | |
that were really missing that authority, | 0:36:42 | 0:36:45 | |
missing...mothers, | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
living in different towns, missing a sisterhood. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
It took Isabella four years to pull together recipes and advice | 0:36:55 | 0:36:59 | |
from her readers and other experts. But it was worth it, | 0:36:59 | 0:37:02 | |
for, though she was just 26 when she finished it, | 0:37:02 | 0:37:05 | |
Isabella had produced the ultimate domestic Bible. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
It sold 60,000 copies in its first year, | 0:37:08 | 0:37:13 | |
more than Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, published at the same time. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
Its genius was that it covered much more than recipes. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
From hiring domestic staff to tending to sick children, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:24 | |
Isabella instructed her readers on everything they needed | 0:37:24 | 0:37:27 | |
to run a home and care for a family. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
'But how reliable was that broader household instruction? | 0:37:32 | 0:37:35 | |
'I'm going to ask some modern-day experts | 0:37:35 | 0:37:37 | |
'what they think of Isabella's advice, | 0:37:37 | 0:37:39 | |
'and find out whether it could still be considered of use to young women today.' | 0:37:39 | 0:37:43 | |
I always regard myself as a bit of a Mrs Beeton, actually, | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
because I'm very bossy with my clients, | 0:37:56 | 0:37:59 | |
and I tell them exactly what to do. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:01 | |
'Clare Byam-Cook is a midwife and breastfeeding consultant.' | 0:38:01 | 0:38:05 | |
What I think is interesting is that, in Victorian times, | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
they started having a new attitude to breastfeeding babies, | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
and what Mrs Beeton was saying was that, | 0:38:11 | 0:38:13 | |
as a mother, you actually should feed your own baby, | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
and get great pleasure from it. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
Motherhood itself was redefined in the Victorian era. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:23 | |
For the middle classes, childcare had previously been the domain | 0:38:23 | 0:38:26 | |
of servants. But now, tending to the needs of your little ones | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
was elevated to one of the chief womanly virtues. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
Women wanted guidance on how to get to grips with this new role. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:36 | |
A lot of the advice she was giving back in the 1860s | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
is very similar to the advice that mothers either do get now, | 0:38:41 | 0:38:45 | |
or, in my opinion, should get. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
Mrs Beeton gives a lot of advice about what you should eat | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
as a nursing mother. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
Well, I think her sort of old-fashioned advice | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
of "eat regularly", and she even tells you what to eat, | 0:38:55 | 0:38:58 | |
is actually quite good. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:00 | |
There's very amusing diet advice. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:04 | |
It's, er, "The food itself should be light, easy of digestion, | 0:39:04 | 0:39:09 | |
and simple - boiled or roast meat with bread and potatoes," | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
then her big suggestion is, "Half a pint of stout | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
with a Reading biscuit at 11 o'clock | 0:39:15 | 0:39:18 | |
will be abundantly sufficient between breakfast at eight | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
and a good dinner with a pint of porter at one o'clock." | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
I have to say, I think if the modern mother started tucking into alcohol | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
at 11 in the morning, she would be deemed an alcoholic, | 0:39:28 | 0:39:31 | |
-not a good mother. -Social Services would be at the door in minutes. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:35 | |
Absolutely. So I think generally her advice is good. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
Obviously there weren't opportunities to bottle feed | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
in Mrs Beeton's time, so the next best thing, | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
-a wet nurse. -Absolutely. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:46 | |
Just because breastfeeding's natural doesn't mean everyone can do it. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
And it's very funny to imagine her wet-nurse interviewing. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
Yes, exactly. I love the way she describes how to do it. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:57 | |
"The best evidence of a sound state of health | 0:39:57 | 0:39:59 | |
will be found in a woman's clear, open countenance, | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
the ruddy tone of the skin, the full, round and elastic state of the breasts, | 0:40:02 | 0:40:06 | |
and especially in the erectile, firm condition of the nipple, | 0:40:06 | 0:40:10 | |
which in all unhealthy states of the body | 0:40:10 | 0:40:12 | |
-is pendulous, flabby and relaxed"... -Yes. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:14 | |
.."in which case the milk is sure to be imperfect | 0:40:14 | 0:40:17 | |
in its organisation, and consequently deficient | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
in its nutrient qualities." | 0:40:20 | 0:40:22 | |
Well, that's clearly her opinion, and actually I do agree. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:26 | |
My local dairy farmer tells me | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
that when he needs to replace some of his cows, | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
he examines their udders very carefully, | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
and he can often tell, just by examining the udders, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
whether they're going to be good milk producers, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
and Mrs Beeton clearly felt the same. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
I think the thing that's so impressive about Mrs Beeton | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
is that, at the age of 23, she's got the voice of... | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
-It's extraordinary. -..the mother. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:50 | |
Can you imagine many 23 year olds today | 0:40:50 | 0:40:52 | |
knowing anything at all about household management, | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
or parenthood, or...you know, in the detail that she does? | 0:40:55 | 0:40:58 | |
And I think she was a great boon to mothers in those days. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:02 | |
-We all need a Mrs Beeton. -You do! Exactly. You do. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
Looking after children often meant managing their illnesses. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:10 | |
Isabella was determined to equip her readers | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
for this vital responsibility, | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
and so she commissioned a surgeon to produce a full chapter | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
of essential first aid. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
James, in the 1850s, women weren't just responsible for the cooking, domestic duties. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:35 | |
They were also responsible for the health of their families. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:39 | |
Health would have been considered akin to the raising of children | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
as one of the domestic duties. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
'I've asked ethnobotanist James Wong | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
'to help me explore the science behind Mrs Beeton's home remedies.' | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
This is a cold remedy. This actually has some relative plausibility | 0:41:50 | 0:41:54 | |
-behind it. It might work. I'll take you through the ingredients. -OK. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:58 | |
The first thing here is a cupful of linseed. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:00 | |
-What does it do for a cold? -When you stick linseeds in water, | 0:42:00 | 0:42:04 | |
they start to swell up. They produce this mucilage, | 0:42:04 | 0:42:07 | |
this slimy, gel-like substance that coats them. | 0:42:07 | 0:42:10 | |
I'm going to put another thing, what she calls sun raisins. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
Grape polyphenols, which is the chemical | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
responsible for the colour in grape skin, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:19 | |
actually has been linked to reduced incidence of inflammation, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:23 | |
and is also antiviral and antibacterial | 0:42:23 | 0:42:26 | |
in certain situations. There's evidence, in fact, | 0:42:26 | 0:42:28 | |
that people who drink red wine in reasonable amounts | 0:42:28 | 0:42:31 | |
-have a 60 percent less incidence of catching colds. -Marvellous! | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
So... Another one of the ingredients that she would have used a lot, | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
and that's in this recipe, is liquorice. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:40 | |
This is the original liquorice stick, | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
and it has a chemical in it called glycyrrhiza, | 0:42:43 | 0:42:45 | |
which has an antiviral effect. It has been demonstrated | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
in some tests to stop the virus invading the cells of the lungs, | 0:42:48 | 0:42:52 | |
so it's a really useful thing to have. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
So there really is a genuine plausibility | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
about how this could work. I'll just pour some water on here. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:01 | |
This looks unpromising now, | 0:43:01 | 0:43:02 | |
and I can tell you will look even more unpromising | 0:43:02 | 0:43:05 | |
when we boil it up. But surprisingly, it tastes wonderful. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:08 | |
-I've made it quite a few times. -I'm not sure of a promise of that. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
-It's kind of a very old-school hot toddy. -OK. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
"Let it simmer over a slow fire till reduced by one quart." | 0:43:15 | 0:43:19 | |
"Add a quarter of a pound of pounded sugar candy." | 0:43:19 | 0:43:22 | |
It's really exciting to do a cold remedy, | 0:43:22 | 0:43:25 | |
because there were huge influenza outbreaks during the 19th century | 0:43:25 | 0:43:29 | |
that killed hundreds of thousands of people, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
including at about the time this book was published, | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
so this would have been a very important form of first aid. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:38 | |
Have a look at that. | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
-Appetising! -Mmm! | 0:43:40 | 0:43:42 | |
-Now, if I do this... -Although... | 0:43:42 | 0:43:45 | |
-it smells much better than it looks. -It smells great. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:48 | |
-It smells kind of raisiny... -It smells like Christmas. Exactly. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:52 | |
If you don't have enough mucus to coat your mucous membranes, | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
this gives you the next best thing. It is effectively prosthetic snot. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
-HE LAUGHS -Do you want to try some? | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
-Well... -I've got a spoon. -..for the sake of science. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:05 | |
A full half pint is the recommended dosage, | 0:44:05 | 0:44:08 | |
taken every couple of hours, I believe. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
-Hang on. Look at that. Oh, yeah! -THEY LAUGH | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
Yours gets improved with rum, and I don't get the benefit of that... | 0:44:17 | 0:44:20 | |
-You can get some lemon juice. -..because I'm up the duff. OK. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:24 | |
-Yeah, that's rum. Pop that in. -I'm jealous of your rum. OK. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:27 | |
It is improved by the lemon. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:32 | |
Extremely sweet. Tastes a bit of raisins. Bit slimy. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:36 | |
-It's just quite snotty. -SHE LAUGHS | 0:44:36 | 0:44:39 | |
But if you were ill, not altogether unpleasant, | 0:44:39 | 0:44:41 | |
particularly because you feel it coating your throat. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
It actually isn't that bad. Cheers. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
'So obviously some of her remedies do work.' | 0:44:47 | 0:44:50 | |
But as a Victorian mother, you could only do so much. | 0:44:50 | 0:44:54 | |
Diseases we now control with vaccinations and antibiotics | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
were then terrifying killers. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:00 | |
When Household Management was published, | 0:45:00 | 0:45:03 | |
nearly one in three children in Britain died | 0:45:03 | 0:45:05 | |
before their fifth birthday, and no-one was exempt. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
In the year she began writing the book, | 0:45:13 | 0:45:15 | |
Isabella lost her first baby, who was three months old. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:18 | |
And in the year that the book was published, | 0:45:18 | 0:45:20 | |
she lost her second child, who was three. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:22 | |
What's extraordinary about the book | 0:45:22 | 0:45:24 | |
is that it covers the gamut of medical information, | 0:45:24 | 0:45:27 | |
how to look after your babies, everything from cold | 0:45:27 | 0:45:30 | |
to consumption. | 0:45:30 | 0:45:32 | |
But there's a very finite passage, | 0:45:32 | 0:45:36 | |
which just acknowledges that sometimes... | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
infant death is... | 0:45:39 | 0:45:41 | |
..is unavoidable. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:44 | |
"Sometimes, however, all these means will fail | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
in effecting utterance from the child, | 0:45:48 | 0:45:51 | |
which will lie, with livid lips and flaccid body, | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
every few minutes opening its mouth with a short gasping pant, | 0:45:54 | 0:45:58 | |
and then subsiding into a state of pulseless inaction, | 0:45:58 | 0:46:01 | |
lingering probably some hours, | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
till the spasmodic pantings growing further apart, | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
it ceases to exist." | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
I think although we know infant mortality was very high | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
in Victorian times, what becomes so clear | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
from reading the descriptions of it | 0:46:18 | 0:46:20 | |
is that it didn't become any more palatable. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:23 | |
It didn't become any easier just because it was commonplace. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
There's a letter from Sam to Isabella | 0:46:27 | 0:46:29 | |
seven years after their son died, and he's sleeping in the room | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
in Newmarket where their son died, and he writes to her, | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
"I slept in the room last night - it made my heart ache - | 0:46:36 | 0:46:40 | |
you may know - where our first little chappy went away from us." | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
So you get this... | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
It's really heartbreaking, | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
this sense of their loss, and just their total... | 0:46:48 | 0:46:51 | |
There was nothing they could do about it, absolutely nothing. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
'There's an emotional tone in the personal letters | 0:47:01 | 0:47:03 | |
'that is avoided at all costs in the book. | 0:47:03 | 0:47:06 | |
'While Isabella suffered horrendous tragedies at home, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:09 | |
'Mrs Beeton exuded only serenity and calm confidence. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
'And the poor Beetons' fortunes continued to fail. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
'Despite the book's commercial success, | 0:47:16 | 0:47:18 | |
'Sam got into debt. They had to give up their suburban idyll | 0:47:18 | 0:47:22 | |
'and move back into London. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
'Their chances of living out the domestic dream were ruined.' | 0:47:25 | 0:47:29 | |
In 1863, now living in the flat above the office on the Strand, | 0:47:31 | 0:47:35 | |
Isabella gave birth to a third son. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:37 | |
He survived, and the family struggled on. | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
But one year later, just seven days after the birth | 0:47:40 | 0:47:43 | |
of her fourth son, Isabella died. | 0:47:43 | 0:47:45 | |
She was 28 years old. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:49 | |
With his beloved wife gone, Sam's life unravelled. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:54 | |
He accrued more debts, got into complex legal battles, | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
and his writing became pornographic. He appeared to be going mad. | 0:47:57 | 0:48:01 | |
'Recent research has suggested Sam's behaviour | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
'and the death of the children could be put down | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
'to one shrouded source.' | 0:48:06 | 0:48:08 | |
'Household Management covers almost every illness, | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
'but there is one glaring omission - sexually transmitted diseases. | 0:48:12 | 0:48:16 | |
'I've come to ask clinician Peter Greenhouse | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
'if it's really possible that Sam Beeton | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 | |
gave his wife and children syphilis.' | 0:48:25 | 0:48:27 | |
As a sexual-health consultant, can you help me put the pieces together | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
-over whether Mrs Beeton could have had syphilis? -Yeah, sure. | 0:48:31 | 0:48:34 | |
We need to know how many children she had | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
and what sequence she had them in. That'll give you the clue. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:41 | |
So, the history. She had two children who died. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
-The first one died three months old... -Yep. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:48 | |
..of reported cholera, | 0:48:48 | 0:48:50 | |
although there were no other reported cholera cases | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
in the area at the time the child died. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
-No reported cases, and they labelled the child as having cholera? -Yes. | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
Then, there's no way that the kid had cholera. Absolutely. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
Suspicious. Her second child died at the age of three | 0:49:03 | 0:49:07 | |
of suppressed scarlatina. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:10 | |
That will give you a rash, and it's interesting | 0:49:10 | 0:49:12 | |
that some scarlatina rashes, particularly the trunk, | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
will look exactly like syphilis. I do have some illustrations | 0:49:15 | 0:49:19 | |
that were produced in Germany exactly around the time. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:22 | |
Not very nice pictures at all, | 0:49:22 | 0:49:24 | |
but syphilis would tend to cause rather unpleasant skin rashes, | 0:49:24 | 0:49:28 | |
and so you'd get this child born | 0:49:28 | 0:49:32 | |
with this rash all over the body, | 0:49:32 | 0:49:34 | |
and there's very little else that would cause a rash like that. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:38 | |
-What happened after that? -Then... | 0:49:38 | 0:49:40 | |
for four years, no children reported, | 0:49:40 | 0:49:43 | |
and then two healthy children | 0:49:43 | 0:49:45 | |
-who lived to be in their 80s and... -Lived for a long time. -Yes. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:49 | |
A big gap is going to be miscarriages that are just not recorded. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:53 | |
This pattern of births is absolutely classic for syphilis. | 0:49:53 | 0:49:57 | |
-It really can't be anything else. -So Isabella gave her children syphilis. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
-Would she have caught that from her husband? -Tell me a bit about him. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:04 | |
Er, Sam died in his late 40s. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:08 | |
-He died of, er, reported TB. -Yeah. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
But there was evidence of dementia. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:14 | |
Then, that's syphilis until proved otherwise. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:16 | |
It stays under the surface for ten, 15, 20 years, | 0:50:16 | 0:50:19 | |
until it may come back later in life | 0:50:19 | 0:50:22 | |
when they might go mad, get a stroke or they might get heart disease | 0:50:22 | 0:50:26 | |
or a number of other features that are really quite obvious to see, | 0:50:26 | 0:50:29 | |
and which may not have been properly recorded at the time. | 0:50:29 | 0:50:33 | |
Syphilis was rife among prostitutes and the men who frequented them, | 0:50:33 | 0:50:37 | |
and prostitution was extremely common | 0:50:37 | 0:50:39 | |
because of Victorian double standards. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:41 | |
Nice girls couldn't have sex before marriage, | 0:50:41 | 0:50:44 | |
but the boys could, and did. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:46 | |
It's a tragic reality of Victorian existence | 0:50:48 | 0:50:51 | |
that lots of people would have had perfectly monogamous relationships, | 0:50:51 | 0:50:55 | |
but the syphilis would have been in the relationship beforehand | 0:50:55 | 0:50:58 | |
because the young man will have sown his wild oats, acquired it, | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
and passed it to his wife. Neither of them may have known. | 0:51:01 | 0:51:05 | |
-They wouldn't have the foggiest... -He wouldn't have known? | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
They would probably not have had the foggiest idea. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:11 | |
So could syphilis have been an explanation | 0:51:11 | 0:51:14 | |
-for why Isabella died? -How old was she? | 0:51:14 | 0:51:16 | |
-She was 28. -Oh, very unlikely. That's very early | 0:51:16 | 0:51:19 | |
to die of syphilis. Do we know anything more about it? | 0:51:19 | 0:51:22 | |
Her death was reported as childbed fever. | 0:51:22 | 0:51:24 | |
That was the commonest cause of death in childbirth. It was so common | 0:51:24 | 0:51:28 | |
that, from Samuel's point of view, a man of his background | 0:51:28 | 0:51:31 | |
would expect to lose at least one wife in his lifetime. | 0:51:31 | 0:51:35 | |
-It was that widespread, and that tragic, actually. -Mm. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:39 | |
'Household Management went on to sell millions of copies. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:49 | |
'Publishers brushed over the fact | 0:51:49 | 0:51:52 | |
'that its author had died years before. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:55 | |
'While the motherly caricature of Mrs Beeton flourished, | 0:52:00 | 0:52:03 | |
'the real, resourceful, flesh-and-blood young woman | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
'was forgotten.' | 0:52:06 | 0:52:08 | |
"In affectionate memory of Samuel Orchart Beeton, | 0:52:14 | 0:52:17 | |
author, editor, publisher, | 0:52:17 | 0:52:20 | |
and his wife and fellow worker in many of his literary enterprises, | 0:52:20 | 0:52:25 | |
Isabella Mary, (Mayson) | 0:52:25 | 0:52:27 | |
born 1836 - died 1865". | 0:52:27 | 0:52:31 | |
Well, | 0:52:33 | 0:52:35 | |
it's quite surprising, because when I began, | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
I saw "author, editor, publisher", and I thought, "Oh, fantastic!" | 0:52:38 | 0:52:42 | |
"She's been properly acknowledged." | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
But it would seem that she's not properly acknowledged. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:49 | |
She's...simply Sam's wife and fellow worker | 0:52:49 | 0:52:54 | |
in many of HIS literary enterprises. | 0:52:54 | 0:52:56 | |
There's something very sad about that to me. | 0:52:56 | 0:53:00 | |
28's so young. So young. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:04 | |
Um, five years younger than me, | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
but she was the mother of four children. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:10 | |
Edited this book. She was a journalist, | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
she was a wife, and there's something particularly sad | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
when you look back, this book, this sort of manual of how to live. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:21 | |
And she...she didn't get to live. | 0:53:23 | 0:53:25 | |
She had all of that snatched away from her. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:28 | |
So, you know, how to rear your babies, | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
how to... | 0:53:31 | 0:53:33 | |
how to set the table, how to throw a party - | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
those were not things she got to do. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
At the end of my journey, a dinner party seems like a fitting way | 0:53:56 | 0:54:00 | |
to celebrate Isabella. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
"The half hour before dinner has always been considered | 0:54:09 | 0:54:12 | |
the great ordeal through which the mistress, in giving a dinner party, | 0:54:12 | 0:54:17 | |
will either pass with flying colours or lose many of her laurels." | 0:54:17 | 0:54:21 | |
'The menu features all the dishes I've been experimenting with... | 0:54:25 | 0:54:29 | |
'..and I've invited all those who have helped me get to know Isabella | 0:54:30 | 0:54:34 | |
'to share the celebration and find out what they make | 0:54:34 | 0:54:36 | |
'of her original recipes.' | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
-So, what have we got here? -We've got Mrs Beeton's apple soup. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:43 | |
-Apple soup? -Mm. | 0:54:43 | 0:54:45 | |
It's slightly tart. It's not sweet, | 0:54:45 | 0:54:48 | |
-which I'd assumed an apple soup would be. -Yeah. | 0:54:48 | 0:54:50 | |
It's actually quite interesting. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
Is it basically apple sauce diluted with stock? | 0:54:53 | 0:54:56 | |
-Kind of. -THEY LAUGH | 0:54:56 | 0:54:59 | |
The Victorians loved thin soups. It was their favourite thing, | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
because you were preparing for the big courses to come. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
-You don't want to be too full before the main thing. -Exactly. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:10 | |
It was like the warm-up for a culinary marathon. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
In that case, this serves its purpose very well. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:15 | |
-So this is our second course of five. -Sensational! | 0:55:15 | 0:55:20 | |
-Aha! -Oh, no! Claws! | 0:55:20 | 0:55:22 | |
-Jurassic Park meets Alien, isn't it? -That's what it is. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
-Jurassic Park in pastry. En croute. -Astonishing! | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
-What, no claw? -Oh, you want a claw? | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
That can be arranged! | 0:55:32 | 0:55:34 | |
The lobster's great. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:37 | |
'It may be that many of the original recipes are too bland | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
'or foot-ridden for the modern palate, | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
'but Household Management endures, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:44 | |
'because at its heart is an idea that has been imprinted | 0:55:44 | 0:55:48 | |
'on our national DNA.' | 0:55:48 | 0:55:49 | |
Unless you actually live nowadays in a house like this, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
you don't really have a household. You have a flat. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:55 | |
But I think actually it's "household" as an idea, | 0:55:55 | 0:55:58 | |
so it transcends where you live. It's about family. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:02 | |
It's about who your house consists of. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
So it could be a tiny flat. It could be an enormous house. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
But I think what Mrs Beeton represents | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
is the idea of the hearthstone of family, | 0:56:10 | 0:56:14 | |
and that's what her enduring appeal has been. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:18 | |
That's a serious trifle. How heavy was that, James? | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
That's a good seven or eight kilos of trifle. | 0:56:21 | 0:56:25 | |
-So you reckons Mrs Beeton had a bit of muscle about her? -Yeah! | 0:56:25 | 0:56:28 | |
'I believe Isabella was both Renaissance woman | 0:56:28 | 0:56:31 | |
'and a culinary fairy godmother, who earned her place in history.' | 0:56:31 | 0:56:35 | |
It's only about perspective, | 0:56:35 | 0:56:37 | |
whether you consider domesticity inferior to a professional life | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
outside the home. I kind of like the idea | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
of making trifle all day. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:45 | |
SHE LAUGHS You like it, or your wife doing it? | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
I like the idea of doing that all day | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
rather than going to a bank and sitting on a train. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:53 | |
I think it's an awful lot more rewarding. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
-It just depends on what you want to do. -Yeah. | 0:56:56 | 0:56:58 | |
'We and our relationship to the kitchen may have changed, | 0:56:58 | 0:57:01 | |
'but one message of Isabella's persists. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:03 | |
'Regardless of class or budget, | 0:57:03 | 0:57:06 | |
'Mrs Beeton recognised that the true heartbeat of a home | 0:57:06 | 0:57:09 | |
'was the happiness of the family that lived in it. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:11 | |
'This was her best recipe by far - | 0:57:11 | 0:57:14 | |
'that thoroughly modern, marvellous Mrs Beeton. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:17 | |
THEY LAUGH AND CHATTER | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:39 | 0:57:43 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:57:43 | 0:57:47 |