Soyer's Soups

Abstract

This essay is a section of a larger study funded in part by a Culinary Research Award from Radcliffe College 'to document Sayer's social concerns by analyzing each of his major cookbooks and specifying the dietary characteristics of each'. The three books were, as explained in the essay, directed at different audiences, and Joyce Toomre believes that a systematic comparison of them as regards range of recipes, variety of ingredients, methods of preparation and language of instruction will throw light, from an unusual angle, on the class structure of mid-Victorian society. The present essay, after introductory material, carries out such a comparison for soups.