27 Facts About Hannah Glasse

Hannah Glasse was an English cookery writer of the 18th century.

Hannah Glasse later wrote The Servants' Directory and The Compleat Confectioner, which was probably published in 1760; neither book was as commercially successful as her first.

The couple struggled financially and, with the aim of raising money, Hannah Glasse wrote The Art of Cookery.

Hannah Glasse copied extensively from other cookery books, around a third of the recipes having been published elsewhere.

Hannah Glasse was the first to use the term "Yorkshire pudding" in print.

Hannah Glasse was imprisoned for bankruptcy and was forced to sell the copyright of The Art of Cookery.

Hannah Glasse was a 30-year-old Irish subaltern, then on half-pay, who had previously been employed by Lord Polwarth; John was a widower.

Hannah Glasse's family found out about the marriage a month later, when she moved out of her grandmother's house and in with her husband in Piccadilly.

Hannah Glasse considered education important, and sent her daughters to good local schools and her sons to Eton and Westminster.

The couple struggled constantly with finances, and in 1744 Hannah Glasse tried to sell Daffy's Elixir, a patent medicine; the project did not take off.

Hannah Glasse extensively used other sources during the writing: of the 972 recipes in the first edition, 342 of them had been copied or adapted from other works.

The chapter on cream was taken in full from Eliza Smith's 1727 work, The Compleat Housewife, and, in the meat section, 17 consecutive recipes were copied from The Whole Duty of a Woman, although Hannah Glasse had rewritten the scant instructions intended for experienced cooks into more complete instructions for the less proficient.

The early editions of the book did not reveal its authorship, using the vague cover "By a Lady"; it was not until the fourth imprint, published in 1751, that Hannah Glasse's name appeared on the title page.

That year, Hannah Glasse set herself up as a "habit maker" or dressmaker in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, in partnership with her eldest daughter, Margaret.

Hannah Glasse wrote The Compleat Confectioner, which was published undated, but probably in 1760.

Hannah Glasse's work contained the essentials of sweet-, cake- and ices-making, including how to boil sugar to the required stages, making custards and syllabubs, preserving and distilled drinks.

Hannah Glasse saw that household education for young ladies no longer included confectionery and grand desserts, and many of the recipes in The Compleat Confectioner move away from the banqueting dishes of the 17th century to new style desserts of the 18th and 19th.

Hannah Glasse was not averse to criticising the French or their cooking, and her introduction states:.

Hannah Glasse was the first to use the term "Yorkshire pudding" in print; the recipe had first appeared in the anonymously written 1737 work The Whole Duty of a Woman under the name "dripping pudding".

Hannah Glasse was ahead of her time in other respects: she gave a recipe for "pocket soop" years before the introduction of branded stock cube; over a century before Louis Pasteur examined microbiology and sterilisation, Glasse advised cooks, when finishing pickles and jams, to "tye them close with a bladder and a leather" to aid preservation.

Hannah Glasse's advice reflects the trend of increasing hygiene in England at the time, with piped water more widely available.

Hannah Glasse did not give instructions on how to run the household.

Hannah Glasse aimed The Art of Cookery at a city-dwelling readership and, unlike many predecessors, there was no reference to "country gentlewomen" or the tradition of the hospitality of the gentry.

Hannah Glasse's work was plagiarised heavily throughout the rest of the 18th and 19th century, including in Isabella Beeton's bestselling Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.

In 2006 Hannah Glasse was the subject of a BBC drama-documentary presented by the television cook Clarissa Dickson Wright; Dickson Wright described her subject as the "mother of the modern dinner party" and "the first domestic goddess".

The 310th anniversary of Hannah Glasse's birth was the subject of a Google Doodle on 28 March 2018.

Hannah Glasse has been admired by several modern cooks and food writers.