Isabella’s step-father, Henry, was quite a generous old chap who packed her off to finishing school in Heidelberg, Germany to study music and languages. The first editions after her death contained an obituary notice, but later editions did not, allowing readers to imagine that every word was written by an experienced Mrs. And may I remark, if a recipe was written between 1795 and 1837, many folks refer to that period of the Georgian era as “Regency”, thus Regency cookery.

One, two, three - now altogether, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday” – Oh, what a classic!Rice pudding with poached fruits - Dessert Rice pudding was a favourite recipe from the famed Victorian-era cookbook, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household management, which was widely used around the turn of the century. Darlings, Beeton’s Book of Household Management was first published during a time when newly-wed middle-class women were often separated from their mother’s apron strings by miles upon miles, so to speak.

I doubt she had time to participate in any extra culinary activities, as she was a wife, mother, mistress of the house, and a career woman!He published mass-market magazines for children; and, with his wife he published the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (started in 1852), one of the first inexpensive women’s magazines for the growing middle-class female market. Thank goodness, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy – the 1906 edition – sporting the slightly altered title of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management. She explains that she was thus attempting to make the basics of cookery "intelligible" to any "housewife".