Maria Eliza Rundell (née Ketelby; 1745 – 16 December 1828) was an English writer. Little is known about most of her life, but in 1805, when she was over 60, she sent an unedited collection of recipes and household advice to
John Murray, of whose family—owners of the
John Murray publishing house—she was a friend. She asked for, and expected, no payment or royalties.
Murray published the work, ''
A New System of Domestic Cookery
''A New System of Domestic Cookery'', first published in 1806 by Maria Rundell (1745 – 16 December 1828), was the most popular English cookbook of the first half of the nineteenth century; it is often referred to simply as "Mrs Rundell", b ...
'', in November 1805. It was a huge success and several editions followed; the book sold around half a million copies in Rundell's lifetime. The book was aimed at middle-class housewives. In addition to dealing with food preparation, it offers advice on medical remedies and how to set up a home brewery and includes a section entitled "Directions to Servants". The book contains an early recipe for
tomato sauce
Tomato sauce (also known as ''salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are c ...
—possibly the first—and the first recipe in print for
Scotch egg
A Scotch egg is a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and baked or deep-fried .
Origin
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives the first instance of the name as of 1809, in an edition of Maria Rundell's '' A New System ...
s. Rundell also advises readers on being economical with their food and avoiding waste.
In 1819 Rundell asked Murray to stop publishing ''Domestic Cookery'', as she was increasingly unhappy with the way the work had declined with each subsequent edition. She wanted to issue a new edition with a new publisher. A court case ensued, and legal wrangling between the two sides continued until 1823, when Rundell accepted Murray's offer of £2,100 for the rights to the work.
Rundell wrote a second book, ''Letters Addressed to Two Absent Daughters'', published in 1814. The work contains the advice a mother would give to her daughters on subjects such as death, friendship, how to behave in polite company and the types of books a well-mannered young woman should read. She died in December 1828 while visiting
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
, Switzerland.
Biography
Rundell was born Maria Eliza Ketelby in 1745 to Margaret (' Farquharson) and Abel Johnson Ketelby; Maria was the couple's only child. Abel Ketelby, who lived with his family in
Ludlow
Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The t ...
,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, was a barrister of the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
, London. Little is known about Rundell's life; the food writers Mary Aylett and Olive Ordish observe "in one of the most copiously recorded periods of our history, when biographies of even the light ladies can be written in full, the private life of the most popular writer of the day is unrecorded".
On 30 December 1766 Maria married Thomas Rundell, either a surgeon from
Bath, Somerset
Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...
, or a jeweller at the well-known jewellers and goldsmiths
Rundell and Bridge
Rundell & Bridge were a London firm of jewellers and goldsmiths formed by Philip Rundell (1746–1827) and John Bridge (baptized 1755–1834).
History
When Edmond Walter Rundell, nephew of Philip Rundell, was admitted as a partner in 1804, the ...
of
Ludgate Hill
Ludgate Hill is a street and surrounding area, on a small hill in the City of London. The street passes through the former site of Ludgate, a city gate that was demolished – along with a gaol attached to it – in 1760.
The area include ...
in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
. The couple had two sons and three daughters.
The family lived in Bath at some point, and they may also have lived for a while in London. Thomas died in Bath on 30 September 1795 after a long illness. Rundell moved to
Swansea
Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe).
The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
,
South Wales
South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
, possibly to live with a married daughter, and sent two of her daughters to London, where they lived with their aunt and uncle.
Writing
![Frontispiece to the 1810 edition of A New System of Domestic Cookery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Frontispiece_to_the_1810_edition_of_A_New_System_of_Domestic_Cookery.jpg)
During her marriage and in widowhood, Rundell collected recipes and household advice for her daughters. In 1805, when she was 61, she sent the unedited collection to
John Murray, of whose family—owners of the
John Murray publishing house—she was a friend. It had been sixty years since
Hannah Glasse
Hannah Glasse (; March 1708 – 1 September 1770) was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. Her first cookery book, ''The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'', published in 1747, became the best-selling recipe book that century. It w ...
had written ''
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy
''The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'' is a cookbook by Hannah Glasse (1708–1770) first published in 1747. It was a bestseller for a century after its first publication, dominating the English-speaking market and making Glasse one of the ...
'', and forty years since
Elizabeth Raffald
Elizabeth Raffald (; 1733 – 19 April 1781) was an English author, innovator and entrepreneur.
Born and raised in Doncaster, Yorkshire, Raffald went into domestic service for fifteen years, ending as the housekeeper to the Warburton baron ...
had written ''
The Experienced English Housekeeper
''The Experienced English Housekeeper'' is a cookery book by the English businesswoman Elizabeth Raffald (1733–1781). It was first published in 1769, and went through 13 authorised editions and at least 23 pirated ones.
The book contains s ...
''—the last
cookery book
A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.
Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food.
Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cours ...
s that had sold well in Britain—and Murray realised that there was a gap in the market.
The document Rundell gave Murray was nearly ready for publication; he added a title page, the frontispiece and an index, and had the collection edited. He registered it at
Stationer's Hall as his property, and the first edition of ''
A New System of Domestic Cookery
''A New System of Domestic Cookery'', first published in 1806 by Maria Rundell (1745 – 16 December 1828), was the most popular English cookbook of the first half of the nineteenth century; it is often referred to simply as "Mrs Rundell", b ...
'' was published in December 1805. As was common with female authors of the time, the book was published under the pseudonym "A Lady". Rundell wanted no payment for the book, as in some social circles the receipt of royalties was thought improper, and the first edition contained a note from the publishers that read:
the directions which follow were intended for the conduct of the families of the authoress's own daughters, and for the good arrangement of their table, so as to unite a good figure with proper economy ... This little work would have been a treasure to herself, when she first set out in life, and she therefore hopes it may be useful to others. In that idea it is given to the public, and as she will receive from it no emolument, so she trusts it will escape without censure.
The book was well-received and became successful. The reviewer in the ''
European Magazine and London Review
''The European Magazine'' (sometimes referred to as ''European Magazine'') was a monthly magazine published in London. Eighty-nine semi-annual volumes were published from 1782 until 1826. It was launched as the ''European Magazine, and London Re ...
'' thought it an "ingenious treatise" that was "universally and perpetually interesting". The unnamed male reviewer for ''The Monthly Repertory of English Literature'' wrote "we can only report that certain of our female friends (better critics on this subject than ourselves) speak favourably of the work". The reviewer also admired the "sundry recipes, which may properly be called 'kitchen physic', with others, which are useful for ladies to know, and for good housewives to practise". ''
The Lady's Monthly Museum
''The Lady's Monthly Museum; Or, Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction'' was an English monthly women's magazine published between 1798 and 1832.
History
'' The Lady's Magazine'', a women's magazine founded in 1770 with a "pseudo-gentee ...
'' observed the work was "cheap in price, perspicuous in its directions, and satisfying in its results".
Several editions of ''A New System of Domestic Cookery'' were published, enlarged and revised. In 1808, Murray sent £150 to Rundell, saying that her gift was more profitable than he thought it would be. She replied to his letter, saying "I never had the smallest idea of any return for what really was a free gift to one whom I had long regarded as my friend".
In 1814 Rundell published her second book, ''Letters Addressed to Two Absent Daughters''. The work contains the advice a mother would give to her daughters. The reviewer for ''
The Monthly Review
''The Monthly Review'' (1749–1845) was an English periodical founded by Ralph Griffiths, a Nonconformist bookseller. The first periodical in England to offer reviews, it featured the novelist and poet Oliver Goldsmith as an early contributor ...
'' thought the book was "uniformly moral, and contains some sensible and useful reflections; particularly those on death and on friendship". The reviewer for ''
The British Critic
The ''British Critic: A New Review'' was a quarterly publication, established in 1793 as a conservative and high-church review journal riding the tide of British reaction against the French Revolution. The headquarters was in London. The journ ...
'' thought the work "contains much admirable instruction; the sentiments are always good, often admirable".
Rundell wrote to Murray in 1814 to complain that he was neglecting ''Domestic Cookery'', which impinged on the book's sales. She complained of one editor "He has made some dreadful blunders, such as directing rice pudding seeds to be kept in a keg of lime water, which latter was mentioned to preserve eggs in." She complained that "strange expressions" had been included in a new edition, saying "In sober English, the 2nd edition of DC has been miserably prepared for the press." Murray wrote to his wife about Rundell's complaint:
I have had such a letter from Mrs Rundell, accusing me of neglecting her book, stopping the sales, etc. Her conceit passes everything; but she again desires the reviews to be sent to her, she shall have them with a little truth in a moderate dose of remonstrance from me.
By 1819 the first term of ''Domestic Cookery''s copyright had expired. That November, Rundell wrote to Murray asking him to stop selling the book, and telling him that she would be publishing a new edition of the book through
Longman
Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC.
Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...
. She obtained an injunction to ensure he was unable to continue selling the book. Murray counter-sued Rundell to ensure she did not publish the book. The
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...
,
John Scott, stated that neither side could have the rights, and decided that it would need to be decided by a
court of law
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordanc ...
, not a
court of equity. In 1823, Rundell accepted an offer of £2,100 for her rights in the book.
![32 Ludgate Hill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/32_Ludgate_Hill.jpg)
Rundell spent much of her widowhood travelling, staying for periods with family and close friends, as well as abroad. Rundell's son, Edmund Waller Rundell, joined the well-known jewellers and goldsmiths Rundell and Bridge; the firm was run by
Philip Rundell, a relation of Maria Rundell's late husband. Edmund later became a partner within the firm. In 1827, Philip died; he left Maria £20,000, and £10,000 each to Edmund and Edmund's wife. In 1828, Rundell travelled to Switzerland. She died in Lausanne on 16 December.
Works
''Domestic Cookery''
The first edition of ''A New System of Domestic Cookery'' comprises 290 pages, with a full index at the end. It was written in what the historian Kate Colquhoun calls a "plain-speaking" manner; the food writer
Maxime de la Falaise
Maxime Le Bailly, comtesse de La Falaise (25 June 1922 – 30 April 2009), was an English 1950s model, and, in the 1960s, an underground movie actress. She was also a cookery writer and "food maven" as well as a fashion designer for Blousecraft, ...
describes it as "an intimate and charming style", and Geraldene Holt considers it "strikingly practical and charmingly unpretentious". The work was intended for the "respectable
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
", according to ''Petits Propos Culinaires''. Colquhoun considers that the book was "aimed at the growing band of anxious housewives who had not been taught how to run a home".
''Domestic Cookery'' provides advice on how to set up a home brewery, provides recipes for the sick, and has a section on "Directions to Servants". Quayle describes the book as "the first manual of household management and domestic economy which could claim any pretension to completeness". Rundell advises readers on being economical with their food, and avoiding waste. Her introduction opens:
The mistress of a family should always remember that the welfare and good management of the house depend on the eye of the superior; and consequently that nothing is too trifling for her notice, whereby waste may be avoided; and this attention is of more importance now that the price of every necessary of life is increased to an enormous degree.
The book contains recipes for fish, meat, pies, soups, pickles, vegetables, pastry, puddings, fruits, cakes, eggs, cheese and dairy. Rundell included detailed instructions on techniques to ensure the best results. Some of the recipes were from Mary Kettilby's work ''
'', first published in 1714.
![Scotch eggs - Maria Rundell recipe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Scotch_eggs_-_Maria_Rundell_recipe.jpg)
The food writer
Alan Davidson holds that ''Domestic Cookery'' does not have many innovative features, although it does have an early recipe for
tomato sauce
Tomato sauce (also known as ''salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are c ...
. The fourth edition (printed in 1809) provides the first printed recipe for
Scotch egg
A Scotch egg is a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and baked or deep-fried .
Origin
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives the first instance of the name as of 1809, in an edition of Maria Rundell's '' A New System ...
s.
Subsequent editions were expanded, with some small errors corrected. Additions included medical remedies and advice; the journalist Elizabeth Grice notes that these, "if efficacious, could spare women the embarrassment of submitting to a male doctor". The 1840 edition was expanded by the author
Emma Roberts
Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991 Additional on October 9, 2016) is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television projects of the horror film, horror and thriller (genre), thriller genres, she has received List of awar ...
, who included many
Anglo-Indian recipes. The new edition—the sixty-fourth—included seven recipes for curry powder, three for
Mulligatawny
Mulligatawny () is a soup which originated from South Indian cuisine. The name originates from the Tamil words ( 'black pepper'), and (, 'water'); literally, "pepper-water". It is related to the dish .
Main ingredients commonly include chicke ...
soup and seventeen curries, including:
King of Oudh
The Nawab of Awadh or the Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers who governed the state of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in north India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to a dynasty of Persian origin from Nishap ...
's,
Lord Clive's,
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
,
Dopiaza
Dopiaza ( fa, دوپیازه, meaning "two onions", is the name of two separate dishes, one in the Greater Iran region and one in South Asia. It refers to a family of recipes, typically meat-based, that contain onions as a major ingredient. T ...
,
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
, plain and vegetable. For this edition of ''Domestic Cookery'', underneath Rundell's statement that she would receive no emolument from the book, Murray added a note: "The authoress, Mrs Rundell, sister of the eminent jeweller on Ludgate Hill, was afterwards induced to accept the sum of two thousand guineas from the publisher."
''Addressed to Two Absent Daughters''
''Addressed to Two Absent Daughters'' takes the form of thirty-eight letters from a mother to two absent daughters, Marianne and Ellen. The advice included how to behave in polite company, the types of books a well-mannered young woman should read, and how to write letters. As it was normal at the time for girls and young women to have no formal education, it was common and traditional for mothers to provide such advice. The book contains no responses from the two fictional daughters, although the text refers to the receipt of "your joint letters" at several points.
Legacy
''A New System of Domestic Cookery'' was the dominant cookery book of the early nineteenth century, outselling all other works. There were sixty-seven editions between 1806 and 1846, and it sold over half a million copies in Rundell's lifetime. New editions were released into the 1880s. In America, there were fifteen editions between 1807 and 1844, and thirty-seven in total.
Rundell's work was
plagiarised
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and though ...
by at least five other publishers. In 1857, when
Isabella Beeton
Isabella Mary Beeton ( Mayson; 14 March 1836 – 6 February 1865), known as Mrs Beeton, was an English journalist, editor and writer. Her name is particularly associated with her first book, the 1861 work '' Mrs Beeton's Book of Household ...
began writing the cookery column for ''
The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine
''The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine'' (EDM) was a monthly magazine which was published between 1852 and 1879. Initially, the periodical was jointly edited by Isabella Mary Beeton and her husband Samuel Orchart Beeton, with Isabella contributin ...
'', many of the recipes were copied from ''Domestic Cookery''. In 1861, Isabella's husband,
Samuel
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...
, published ''
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management
''Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management'', also published as ''Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book'', is an extensive guide to running a household in Victorian Britain, edited by Isabella Beeton and first published as a book in 1861. Previously p ...
'', which also contained several of Rundell's recipes. ''Domestic Cookery'' was also heavily plagiarised in America, with Rundell's recipes being reproduced in
Mary Randolph
Mary Randolph (August 9, 1762 – January 23, 1828) was a Southern American cook and author, known for writing ''The Virginia House-Wife; Or, Methodical Cook'' (1824), one of the most influential housekeeping and cook books of the 19th century. ...
's 1824 work ''
The Virginia House-Wife
''The Virginia House-Wife'' is an 1824 housekeeping manual and cookbook by Mary Randolph. In addition to recipes it gave instructions for making soap, starch, blacking and cologne.
Publication history
''The Virginia House-Wife'' was first pub ...
'' and Elizabeth Ellicott Lea's ''A Quaker Woman's Cookbook''.
Rundell is quoted around twenty times in the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'', including for the terms "apple marmalade", "Eve's pudding", "marble veal" and "neat's tongue".
Grice, writing in ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'', and the journalist Severin Carrell, writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', both consider Rundell a "domestic goddess", although Grice writes that "she didn't have "
Nigella s">awsons sexual frisson, or
Delia s">miths uncomplicated kitchen manners". For Grice, "Compared with the illustrious
Eliza Acton
Eliza Acton (17 April 1799 – 13 February 1859) was an English food writer and poet who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, '' Modern Cookery for Private Families''. The book introduced the now-un ...
—who could write better—and the ubiquitous Mrs Beeton—who died young—Mrs Rundell has unfairly slipped from view."
Rundell has been admired by several modern cooks and food writers. The 20th-century cookery writer
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...
references Rundell in her articles, collected in ''Is There a Nutmeg in the House'', which includes her recipe for "burnt cream" (
crème brûlée
''Crème brûlée'' or ''crème brulée'' (; ), also known as burnt cream or Trinity cream, and virtually identical to the original crema catalana, is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar ...
). In her 1970 work ''Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen'', David includes Rundell's recipe for fresh tomato sauce; she writes that this "appears to be one of the earliest published English recipes for tomato sauce". In ''
English Bread and Yeast Cookery'' (1977), she includes Rundell's recipes for
muffins,
Lancashire pikelets (crumpets), "
potato rolls
Potato bread is a form of bread in which potato flour or potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family ...
",
Sally Lunns, and
black bun.
[; recipes cited respectively.] The food writer and chef Michael Smith used some of Rundell's recipes in his 1973 book ''Fine English Cookery'', which re-worked historical recipes for modern times. The food writer
Jane Grigson
Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...
admired Rundell's work, and in her 1978 book ''Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book'', referred to Rundell's writing, and included her recipe for red cabbage stewed in the English manner.
Notes and references
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rundell, Maria Eliza
1745 births
1828 deaths
19th-century English writers
English women writers
19th-century English women writers
Women cookbook writers
History of British cuisine