A Candid Examination of Mrs Mary Cole

Authors

  • Mary-Anne Boermans Independent Scholar Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.28111

Keywords:

18th century, copyright, cookbook history, publishing history, The Lady’s Complete Guide; or Cookery in All Its Branches, Mrs Mary Cole, authorship, originality, plagarism, bibliographic study, recipe lineage, pseudonymity

Abstract

The author gives an account of the the first British cookbook to openly acknowledge the sources from which its recipes were drawn, Mrs Mary Cole's The Lady’s Complete Guide; or Cookery in All Its Branches, published in 1788. The fact emerges that Mrs Cole's own book included scores of plagarized recipes and there are reasons to ask, did Mrs Mary Cole actually exist?

Author Biography

  • Mary-Anne Boermans, Independent Scholar

    Mary-Anne Boermans was a finalist in the 2011 series of The Great British Bake Off and is now a successful food blogger. Her interests have latterly been in British food history. Her book Great British Bakes: Forgotten Treasures for Modern Bakers is published by Square Peg.

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Published

2017-01-01

Issue

PPC 107 (2017)

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Boermans, Mary-Anne. 2017. “A Candid Examination of Mrs Mary Cole”. Petits Propos Culinaires, January, 63-97. https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.28111.