https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=The_Complete_Indian_Housekeeper_and_CookThe Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook - Revision history2026-09-06T21:04:05ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Complete_Indian_Housekeeper_and_Cook&diff=157115&oldid=previmported>Citation bot: Alter: template type, title. Add: date, title, isbn, authors 1-2. Removed proxy/dead URL that duplicated identifier. Removed access-date with no URL. Removed parameters. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Abductive | #UCB_webform 1095/22002021-08-13T16:07:30Z<p>Alter: template type, title. Add: date, title, isbn, authors 1-2. Removed proxy/dead URL that duplicated identifier. Removed access-date with no URL. Removed parameters. | <a href="https://en.bharatpedia.org/wiki/BP:UCB" class="extiw" title="wp:UCB">Use this bot</a>. <a href="https://en.bharatpedia.org/wiki/BP:DBUG" class="extiw" title="wp:DBUG">Report bugs</a>. | Suggested by Abductive | #UCB_webform 1095/2200</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Infobox book<br />
| name = The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook<br />
| image = <br />
| image_size = <br />
| caption = <br />
| author = [[Flora Annie Steel]] and [[Grace Gardiner]]<br />
| illustrator =<br />
| country = [[British India]]<br />
| language = English<br />
| subject = [[Housekeeping]]<br />
| genre = Manual<br />
| publisher = various<br />
| pub_date = 1888<br />
| pages = 300<br />
}}<br />
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'''''The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook''''' is a book on [[housekeeping]] during the [[British Raj]]. [[Flora Annie Steel]] and [[Grace Gardiner]], each the wife of a [[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|British civil servant]] in India, published the first edition of the book in 1888 after having lived in India for some years. They revised and reprinted the book several times.<br />
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The book is significant in modern times as a historical record of daily home living among the British in India. Though it focuses on domestic tasks, it reveals much about British attitudes to India in the late nineteenth century. Steel and Gardiner's mission was to uphold Victorian standards in Indian kitchens, and in their advice for [[wikt:memsahib|memsahib]]s explain how to "make hold" over their Indian servants.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=978-0199605767|title=The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook|last1=Steel|first1=Flora Annie|last2=Gardiner|first2=Grace|date=13 October 2011}}</ref><br />
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==Editions==<br />
There are no known extant copies of the 1888 original first edition.<ref name="Oxford 2010">{{cite book|last1=Steel|first1=Flora Annie|last2=Gardiner|first2=Grace|editor1-last=Crane|editor1-first=Ralph|editor2-last=Johnston|editor2-first=Anna|title=The complete Indian housekeeper and cook|date=2010|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford|isbn=9780199550142|pages=xxviii-xxix}}</ref> The earliest version identifies is the 1890 version which bears an introductory note that it was published after a previous first edition.<ref name="Oxford 2010"/> [[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann Publishing]] published the fourth edition in 1898 and kept that edition in print till 1921.<ref name="Oxford 2010"/><br />
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==Public Response==<br />
One reviewer considered how the authors of the text were representatives of women in ''[[Sahib#Colonial and modern use|memsaab]]'' roles.<ref>{{Citation |last=Coppin |first=Liesbeth |date=June 2010 |title=The British-Indian experience: Flora Annie Steel as an unconventional 'memsahib' |publisher=[[Ghent University]] |url=https://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/457/922/RUG01-001457922_2011_0001_AC.pdf}}</ref><br />
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One reviewer noted that the book describes British authority in the way that they ruled.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rubin|first1=Martin|title=BOOK REVIEW: 'The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook'|url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/4/book-review-the-complete-indian-housekeeper-and-co/|website=The Washington Times|date=4 June 2010}}</ref><br />
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Another reviewer described how the book gives insight to British national identity.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bertelsen|first1=Cynthia D.|title=a book review by Cynthia D. Bertelsen: The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook|url=https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/complete-indian-housekeeper-and-cook|website=New York Journal of Books|language=en|date=12 April 2010}}</ref><br />
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There are other reviews.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Crane|first1=edited by Ralph|last2=Johnston|first2=Anna|last3=Vijayasree|first3=C.|title=Empire calling administering colonial Australasia and India|date=2013|publisher=Foundation Books|location=Bengaluru|isbn=9789382264798}}</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
*[https://archive.org/details/b21528640 text at Internet Archive] <br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook, The}}<br />
[[Category:1888 non-fiction books]]<br />
[[Category:Books about British India]]<br />
[[Category:British cookbooks]]</div>imported>Citation bot