HANNAH GLASSE: BIOGRAPHY, RECIPES AND PUBLISHED WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Hannah Glasse (c. 1708 - 1770) was a British author of household books, but gained her fame specifically for the cookbook The Art of the Kitchen, Simple and Easy, in which she used common words and simple instructions from so that the text could be understood by everyone who obtained the work.

The book, which originally contained recipes from 18th century English cuisine, was a best-seller for approximately 100 years, in which nearly 40 editions were made. However, many of those prints were illicit copies.

, via Wikimedia Commons

What little is known of Hannah Glasse's life was gleaned from her correspondence with various people, particularly her paternal aunt Margaret Widdrington. Raised in a middle-class household, Hannah received a good education. Although not comparable to that provided for royalty, it provided her with tools to defend herself in life.

The future author was part of the domestic service of noble families. After moving to London she had to help her husband with the maintenance of their home, and decided to do it with his texts.

Thus, Glasse became one of the most revolutionary cookery writers in history. She brought the kitchen that had been reserved for the few to the masses and set the tone for how to write a cookbook. She also wrote other texts, but those did not achieve fame in the way that her first work did.

Furthermore, the writer's ties to her work had been questioned until 1938. Since then, multiple tributes have been paid to the mother of recipe books.

Biography

Early years

Hannah Allgood was probably born in Hexham, England, around 1708. It is known with certainty that she was baptized on March 28, 1708 in St. Andrew's Church of Holborn, London (St. Andrews Holborn).

Hannah was an illegitimate daughter of Isaac Allgood, a Northumberland landowner, and Hannah Reynolds, a widow. Isaac, shortly before the birth of his first-born, had married Hannah Clark, the daughter of a London vintner.

Hannah had two brothers and a sister: Mary (1709-1717), Lancelot (1711-1782) and Isaac (1712- before 1725). Mary and Isaac were the sons of Reynolds, Hannah's mother, while Lancelot, who later became a member of parliament, was the son of Clark.

During his childhood in that home, where he lived with all his siblings, he formed a friendship with his father's younger sister, Margaret Widdrington, with whom he exchanged letters for the rest of his life.

Marriage

Hannah Allgood secretly married Irish soldier John Glasse. The ceremony took place on August 5, 1724, at St Mary the Virgin Parish Church in Leyton, England. That same year, her mother died of illness. The following year her father met the same fate.

From 1928 to 1932, Hannah and John Glasse were part of the domestic staff in the home of the 4th Earl of Donegall, in Broomfield. When resigning their positions they left for London together, and they settled permanently in the capital city.

Simplicity in the art of cooking

Life in London was very hard for the Glasse couple. Financial difficulties forced Ms. Glasse to find a way to earn some extra money and she decided to make a compendium of recipes to sell by subscription or at Ms. Ashburn's porcelain store.

Thus, in 1747, The Art of the Kitchen appeared, simple and easy, which was an immediate success. At a time when cookbooks were written by renowned chefs, that text was aimed at maids and housewives.

The simplicity of the instructions and the availability of the ingredients, as well as advice on choosing them when buying them, made the dishes once reserved for the great houses of the aristocracy, could be prepared by anyone who could read.

The work, which had been published anonymously and signed simply "For a Lady", had such a large number of sales that a second edition was made in the same year 1747. Other points of sale were added to the subscription and to the porcelain store. such as toy stores or markets.

The ruin

The same year that Hannah Glasse became a successful kitchen writer, John Glasse died. The writer was associated with her eldest daughter, Margaret, and began working as a seamstress in a local located in Covent Garden, London. However, the economic situation was not improving.

Although her book was still a success, and from about the sixth edition she had signed it as "Hannah Glasse, Seamstress to Her Royal Highness Princess of Wales in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden," her sales had declined due to kidnapping and sales. Unlicensed.

In 1754, the author and seamstress had to declare bankruptcy. Since all the stocks in her business were in Margaret's name, they were not put up for public auction. But on October 29 of that year, Hannah Glasse had to auction the rights to The Art of the Kitchen, Simple and Easy.

Although at that time he was able to pay off his debts, in 1757 he was again in financial trouble. Therefore, on June 22, she was taken to the Marshalsea Prison for Debtors. A month later she was transferred to Fleet Prison.

Last years

It is not known exactly how long he was in prison, but on December 2, 1757, he registered a new book on the management of the home: The directory of the servants.

That new text did not come close to the success of his first work. The sales were very bad and, to top it all, the plagiarism and unlicensed runs made a dent in the income that the writer would have received from her sales.

Ironically, the plagiarism of that work and the previous one, were extremely popular in the thirteen British colonies located in North America.

In 1760 he published his last book, The Complete Pastry Chef, which collected dessert recipes. Several editions were made and it was a little more successful than The Servants' Directory, but it never reached the level of impact that its debut feature caused.

Death

Hannah Glasse, widow of John Glasse, died on September 1, 1770 at age 62. 5 of her at least 9 children survived her.

After his death, some children's books were published which were attributed their authorship for having been signed "For a Lady", as Glasse did with The Art of the Kitchen, Simple and Easy.

However, the attribution of the works Cato or The Interesting Adventures of a Loving Dog (1816), Easy Rhymes for Children Ages 5-10 (1825), The Infant's Friend, and Little Rhymes for Little People have not been confirmed..

Work

The art of writing a simple cookbook

In the 18th century, great British kitchens were run by men. The most famous cooks, generally in the service of some aristocrat, published cookbooks for other cooks.

These books are now considered to be ego exercises as they contained complicated recipes with foreign ingredients, sophisticated instructions, and required a number of staff to prepare.

But in 1747, Hannah Glasse anonymously published The Art of the Kitchen, Simple and Easy: It far exceeds anything published so far. The book contained almost 1000 recipes and was expressly addressed to housekeepers and housewives.

, via Wikimedia Commons

“So, in many other things in the kitchen, great cooks have such a high way of expressing themselves that the poor girls don't know what they mean. "

The book was full of simple advice for anyone who "could at least read", from how to choose the products in the market, to the best recipes for the sick. There was a chapter dedicated to ship captains preparing food to be preserved during long voyages.

A work without the control of its writer

The first edition was sold by subscription or at Mrs. Ashburn's china shop. About 200 people signed up, mostly women, and it was such a success that a second impression had to be made the same year.

The first editions of the book were published with the authorship of “Por una Dama”, which facilitated plagiarism and illicit copies. Already the sixth edition was signed by "Hannah Glasse, seamstress to Her Royal Highness Princess of Wales in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden", when her name was then widely associated with the text.

In each new edition of The Art of the Kitchen there were added some recipes or some very appropriate tips in the Glasse style. However, in 1754 the author had to sell her rights to the text as part of the agreement to get out of bankruptcy.

From that moment on, increasingly international and strange recipes and ingredients were included, still using Glasse's name as the author.

The first appearance of gelatin as an ingredient, the first mention of the hamburger as a dish, and the first English recipe for a curry preparation from India, are among the famous additions to the original text.

A legacy beyond recipes

Although Hannah Glasse wrote famous recipes such as "A Yorkshire pudding" or "To roast a hare", her legacy is the popularization of the art of cooking.

His straightforward descriptions, easy-to-understand measurements (“as much finely chopped thyme as will fit on a sixpenny piece”), and accessible language are the seeds of every cookbook that succeeded him.

Even the additions that were made to the work after the writer lost the rights to it tried to follow the original spirit with simple explanations.

The success of the book was such that it overcame anti-British sentiment in the newly independent American colonies, as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson are said to have had copies of the book.

Glasse was wrongly attributed the English phrase "first catch your hare" or "first catch your hare", which means that you should always start with the most basic. However, this instruction does not appear in the roast hare recipe or anywhere in the book.

Hannah Glasse Top Recipes

- To roast a hare

Grab your hare after removing the skin and make a pudding.

Take a quarter pound of tallow and the same amount of bread crumbs, some finely chopped parsley, and as much chopped thyme as will fit on a sixpenny piece.

Add an anchovy, chopped into small pieces, a little salt and pepper, some nutmeg, two eggs and a lemon peel. Mix everything and put inside the hare.

Cook the belly, put it on the spigot over high heat.

Your drip pan should be very clean and pretty. Put in it two and a half quarts of milk and a half pound of butter. Bathe the hare all the time while it is roasting, until the butter and milk are gone and your hare is done.

You can mix the liver in the pudding if you like. You should first boil it and then cut it finely.

- A yorkshire pudding

Have a quarter of milk, four eggs and a little salt. Make it a thick mixture with flour, like a pancake batter. You must have a good piece of meat on the fire, I took a pan of stews and put some of the meat drip on it; put it on the fire.

When it boils, pour your pudding. Let it bake on the fire until you think necessary. Then put a plate upside down in it drip pan so it doesn't turn black.

Put your stew pan under the meat and let the drip drip onto the pudding and the heat from the fire reaches it so that it turns slightly brown.

When your meat is ready and sent to the table I scooped all the fat out of the pudding and put it back on the fire to dry out a bit. So, slide them as dry as you can onto a plate, melt some butter, pour it into a mug, and dip the pudding from the middle.

It is an excellent pudding and the sauce on the meat goes very well with it.

Publications

- The art of cooking, simple and easy: it far exceeds anything published so far.

- The directory of servants

- The complete pastry chef

Authorship not confirmed

- Cato or the interesting adventures of a loving dog

- Easy rhymes for kids ages 5-10

- The infant's friend

- Little rhymes for little people

Tributes

Since 1938, almost 200 years after its first edition, the historian Madeline Hope Dods confirmed Hannah Glasse as the author of The Art of Cooking, Simple and Easy, the author has been the subject of recognition.

In the beginning, some cookbooks attributed a recipe or instruction to Hannah Glasse's book. But since the popularization of culinary programs on television, the relevance of Hannah Glasse has been brought to the fore.

In 1994 and 1998 the first edition of The art of simple and easy cooking was republished, this time under the title First catch your hare. In 2004, the 1805 edition was republished, commented on by culinary historian Karen Hess.

Walter Staib, specialist in 18th century English food and chef at the City Tavern restaurant in Philadelphia, USA, serves Glasse recipes and celebrates it both in his books and on his television shows.

The BBC dramatized the life of Hannah Glasse in 2006. In the narrative she was called "the mother of modern dinners" and "the original residential goddess."

On March 28, 2018, Google honored him with a Doodle on their search page. That same day, many newspapers around the world such as El País de España or the British Independent, published articles entertaining the writer.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Hannah Glasse. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
2. Encyclopedia.com. (2019). Hannah Glasse - Encyclopedia.com. Available at: encyclopedia.com.
3. López, A. (2018). Hannah Glasse, the first 'masterchef' of cookbooks. THE COUNTRY. Available at: elpais.com.
4. Sommerlad, J. (2018). How a 300-year-old recipe book revolutionized British cookery. The Independent. Available at: independent.co.uk.
5. Glasse, H. (2019). The Art Of Cookery Internet Archive. Available at: archive.org.
6. Wikitree.com. (2019). Hannah (Allgood) Glasse (1708-1770) - WikiTree FREE Family Tree. Available at: wikitree.com.