Eliza Acton (17 April 1799 – 13 February 1859) was an English food writer and poet who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, Modern Cookery for Private Families. The book introduced the now-universal practice of listing ingredients and giving suggested cooking times for each recipe. It included the first recipes in English for Brussels sprouts and for spaghetti. It also contains the first recipe for what Acton called "Christmas pudding"; the dish was normally called plum pudding, recipes for which had appeared previously, although Acton was the first to put the name and recipe together.
Acton was born in 1799 in Sussex. She was raised in Suffolk where she ran a girls' boarding school before spending time in France. On her return to England in 1826 she published a collection of poetry and released her cookery book in 1845, aimed at middle class families. Written in an engaging prose, the book was well received by reviewers. It was reprinted within the year and several editions followed until 1918, when Longman, the book's publisher, took the decision not to reprint. In 1857 Acton published The English Bread-Book for Domestic Use, a more academic and studious work than Modern Cookery. The work consisted of a history of bread-making in England, a study of European methods of baking and numerous recipes.
In the later years of its publication, Modern Cookery was eclipsed by the success of Isabella Beeton's bestselling Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861), which included several recipes plagiarised from Acton's work. Although Modern Cookery was not reprinted in full until 1994, the book has been admired by English cooks in the second part of the 20th century, and influenced many of them, including Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, Delia Smith and Rick Stein.
Eliza Acton was born on 17 April 1799 in Battle, Sussex, and was baptised at her local parish church on 5 June. She was the eldest of six sisters and three brothers born to John Acton, a brewer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Mercer. By 1800 the family had moved to Ipswich, Suffolk, where they lived in a house adjoining the St. Peter's Brewery, where John took employment running Trotman, Halliday & Studd, the company that owned the brewery. In 1811 Trotman died, and John was offered the opportunity to become the junior partner in the firm; he accepted and the business was renamed Studd, Halliday and Acton. Sheila Hardy, in her biography of Eliza, considers it likely that John would have borrowed heavily to buy himself into the business.
In 1817 Acton, with a Miss Nicolson—about whom no further information is known—opened a "boarding school for young ladies" in Claydon, just outside Ipswich. In 1819 Acton left the school and opened another in September with her sisters, this time at nearby Great Bealings; the school moved three miles (4.8 km) to Woodbridge in 1822 and had probably closed by 1825.
Early in her life Acton spent some time in France—either in Paris or the south of the country—but it is not known when she left England; Hardy considers it likely that she travelled in 1823. The food historian Elizabeth Ray, writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, states that Acton travelled abroad for the good of her health, because she had a weak constitution. It is possible that she was pregnant when she left for Paris and that she went abroad to give birth to an illegitimate daughter. The food writers Mary Aylett and Olive Ordish theorise that Acton's child was raised by Sarah, Eliza's sister. The two observe that "there is no evidence for this, other than family tradition". Hardy dismisses the theory, stating that Acton did not have a sister called Sarah, let alone one who was married (none of Acton's sisters were married); she also observes that she has found no baptismal or census record that would account for a child of the right age. While in France Acton had an unhappy relationship with a French army officer; it is possible there was an engagement, but if so it was broken off. She returned to England, probably in 1826.
Acton had been writing poetry since at least 1822, as she wrote that year on the bottom of one of her poems. She wrote at least one while in France, "On Approaching Paris", which she dated 1826. When she returned to England, she arranged for a collection to be published by Longman. As was the practice for publishers at the time, Acton had to provide the names of subscribers—those who had pre-paid for a copy—who were listed inside the work; nearly all came from Suffolk. 328 copies were printed in October 1826 and a reprint was needed within a month. She subsequently wrote some longer poems, including "The Chronicles of Castel Framlingham", which was printed in the Sudbury Chronicle in 1838, and "The Voice of the North", which was written in 1842 on the occasion of Queen Victoria's first visit to Scotland. Other poems were published in a local periodical, the Sudbury Pocket Book.
In 1827 John Acton was declared bankrupt, and the company in which he was a partner was dissolved; one of his business partners was involved in the claim against him. The Commissioner of Bankruptcy ordered John to surrender himself to the Office of the Commissioners to disclose his wealth, but he fled to France. In his absence his family moved into Bordyke House, in Tonbridge, Kent, where Elizabeth Acton, Eliza's mother, turned the large building into a boarding house for upper class guests, particularly for those who wanted to visit Royal Tunbridge Wells and enjoy the spa facilities there. It is likely that Elizabeth left Bordyke House around 1841, although her daughter remained in residence.
At some point—Hardy considers 1835; Aylett and Ordish consider 1837—Acton sent a further set of poems to Longman for publishing. The company reportedly declined the poems, and suggested that she write a cookery book instead; Hardy considers the story apocryphal. By her own account, Acton took ten years to develop her cookery book, which was published in January 1845 under the title Modern Cookery in all its Branches. The work was aimed at the English middle classes; in the preface she wrote:
The details of domestic economy, in particular, are no longer sneered at as beneath the attention of the educated and accomplished; and the truly refined, intelligent, and high-minded women of England have ceased, in these days of comparative good sense, to consider their acquaintance with such details as inconsistent with their dignity or injurious to their attractions.
Modern Cookery consists of mainly English recipes, although Acton labelled several of them "French". A chapter covers curries (and potted meats), and gives recipes for Eastern "chatneys" (chutney), treating them as a naturalised Anglo-Indian dish, rather than of solely Indian origin, according to the professor of English literature Susan Zlotnick. The book contains the first recipe for Brussels sprouts, and the first use in an English cookery book of the word spaghetti—which she spelled sparghetti. It also contains the first recipe for what Acton called "Christmas pudding"; the dish was normally called plum pudding, recipes for which had appeared previously, although Acton was the first to put the name and recipe together.
Acton's layout for each recipe was for the description of the cooking process followed by a list of ingredients and the total cooking time required for the preparation of the dish. With the inclusion of timings and ingredients, Modern Cookery differed from other cookery books, and was a development of Acton's own. Acton wrote that each recipe had been cooked and "proved beneath our own roof and under our own personal inspection". The food historian Sarah Freeman describes the cooking instructions Acton produced as being written "so conscientiously, and with such gastronomic sensitivity, that ... [Modern Cookery] was as much a work of art on food as it was functional".
The reviews for Modern Cookery were positive, and the critic from The Morning Post considered it "unquestionably the most valuable compendium of the art that has yet been published". The review in The Spectator stated that the order of the book was "very natural", while "the methods are clearly described, and seem founded on chemical principles"; the reviewer for the Kentish Gazette also commended the clarity of the instructions, and the inclusion of ingredients and timings. The unnamed critic for The Atlas described the layout for the recipes to be "excellent" and, in a positive review in The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, praise was given to "the intelligibility of the instructions which are given", which contrasted with other cookery books.