Cora Millet-Robinet (1798–1890) published her two-volume epic of household management, cookery, gardening and agriculture for the French country housewife, Maison rustique des dames, in 1845.
The French Country Housewife is a translation into English of the first volume. It includes the sections dealing with furnishing and decorating, managing the family and the household, entertaining guests, and cookery in all its guises, from bottling and preserving fruit and vegetables, making jam, and salting meat to the staples of the best-loved style of French cooking, la cuisine bourgeoise.
Madame Millet-Robinet’s book is a treasure trove of information for lovers of history, for readers of novels from the heroic age of French literature – Hugo, Balzac and Flaubert, for enthusiasts for French cookery and for all those people with houses deep in the French countryside wanting to know more about their surroundings.
Good Books and Artichoke Bottoms
Over fourteen years as a journalist, I have written more than 2,000 articles. I’ve filed book reviews, exhibition reviews, columns, features, interviews and an investigation into bubble-wrap...
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