The corrective recipe: imperialism, negation and control in the complete indian housekeeper and cook

This thesis explores the construction and use of the recipe in one of the most important cookbooks of late Victorian culture, The complete Indian housekeeper & cook: giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches (1888) by Grace Gardiner and Flora Annie Steel. The recipe in its bare, unaestheticised form, is used by Gardiner and Steel within the text to construct for their readers a fantasy of Imperial control over Indian people and culture. However, the household constructed within Indian Housekeeper – the “Anglo-Indian” ideal of white authority and Indian labour—did far more than just reflect or represent the existing views and values of its readers. Indeed, it was often at odds with them. This thesis will argue that the authors deploy the recipe as a corrective tool in order to discipline what they perceive as weaknesses and failings in their readers. This analysis of the use and construction of the recipe in Gardiner and Steel’s text highlights the nuances of the recipe as a communicative tool.

This thesis will firstly look at the recipe selection process in Indian Housekeeper. It will argue that recipes were chosen and written by Gardiner and Steel in an attempt to control and correct the desires of their readers. Secondly, this thesis will look at how the written recipe was used - openly by readers, and somewhat covertly by Gardiner and Steel – instead of dialogue and direct instruction to preserve social distance between a memsahib and her servants and avoid interaction.