“Frugality and Economy are Home Virtues”: Thrift in the Textual Space of the Nineteenth-century Recipe

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the nineteenth century, the ideology of thrift was pervasive in didactic nonfiction, which encouraged readers to engage with frugality as an economic and moral stance. Samuel Smiles’ Thrift (1875) emphasized the importance of thrift to individuals and society, positioning it within the domestic setting. To understand how thrift was enacted in the nineteenth-century home, this article examines the ideology of thrift in cookbooks and recipes. These writings sought to practically enable readers to thriftily engage with food, making the most of ingredients creatively and frugally. While scholarly attention that highlights ideological discourses within cookbooks focuses on the cultural discussions authors include around recipes, little attention has been paid to how ideologies are present within recipes themselves. This article applies a close literary and structural reading to recipes, arguing that cookery was “the handmaid of thrift” and that recipes were textual tools, enabling readers to incorporate thrift into their lives.