Elizabeth Raffald with Alessandra Pino & Neil Buttery

<p>Today the tables are turned, and Neil is the guest on his own podcast and is interviewed about his new book <em>Before Mrs Beeton, Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper</em>, about c18th cook and Manchester legend Elizabeth Raffald, published on 28 February.</p><p>In the interviewer’s chair is previous guest and friend of the show Alessandra Pino. Alessandra is co-author of <em>A Gothic Cookbook</em> which is an illustrated cookbook inspired by classic and contemporary Gothic texts. She is also co-host of <em>Fear Feasts</em> which is a podcast about food and horror in books and the films based on those books. Like Neil, she is also interested in the history of sugar and has a chapter coming out soon in <em>The Palgrave Companion to Memory and Literature</em> about memory, sugar and Cuba.</p><p>They talked about how I discovered Elizabeth, her great achievements, the problem of Mrs Beeton, her recipes, my recipe section of updated Raffald recipes, "Rabbits Surprized", comparisons with modern chefs like Heston Blumenthal, why there’s no statue of her, the time she exorcized a house from an evil spirit and much, much more.</p><p>Pre-order Neil’s new book <em>Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper</em> at you favourite bookshop, or from the publisher Pen &amp; Sword History: <a href="http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Before-Mrs-Beeton-Hardback/p/22437" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Before-Mrs-Beeton-Hardback/p/22437</a> </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><u>Things mentioned in today’s episode:</u></p><p><em>The Experienced English Housekeeper</em> by Elizabeth Raffald (1769): <a href="https://archive.org/details/experiencedengl01raffgoog/page/n9/mode/2up" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/experiencedengl01raffgoog/page/n9/mode/2up</a> </p><p>Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1880 edition): <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Book_of_Household_Management/otoAAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&amp;gb