Isabella Beeton Quotes

Afternoon tea should be provided, fresh supplies, with thin bread-and-butter, fancy pastries, cakes, etc., being brought in as other guests arrive.

Dine we must and we may as well dine elegantly as well as wholesomely.

I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly cooked dinners and untidy ways.

Dining is the privilege of civilization. . . . The nation which knows how to dine has learnt the leading lesson of progress.

The kitchen is the great laboratory of the household, and much of the 'weal and woe' as far as regards bodily health, depends on the nature of the preparations concocted within its walls.

Spring is the usual period for house-cleaning and removing the dust and dirt which, notwithstanding all precautions, will accumulate during the winter months from dust, smoke, gas, etc.

The half-hour before dinner has always been considered as the great ordeal through which the mistress, in giving a dinner-party, will either pass with flying colours, or lose many of her laurels.

Pay, pay anything rather than go to law.

there should be a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Fish is held out to be one of the greatest luxuries of the table and not only necessary, but even indispensable at all dinners where there is any pretence of excellence or fashion.