The Country Housewife's Family Companion

William Ellis, who died in 1758, wrote about domestic economy and cookery and The Country Housewife's Family Companion, which he sometimes called The Country Family's Profitable Director, is the prime example of his work in this field. To anyone with the remotest interest in the history of English cookery, it is a resource of immense value. He describes a style of cooking far removed from the ragouts and fricassees of the nobility - who loved most things French - and offers unique information on the diet of country-dwellers and farm-workers, particularly in the Home Counties but with a ready interest in other regions too. There is also much about bread baking, not usually very well covered by early cookery books.
The work of a country housewife, in Ellis eyes, was never confined to the kitchen, so he tips in plenty of advice on the poultry yard, the pig stye, and the cow shed as well as many medical nostrums for the itch, scald-head, pustules and chilblains and lots of other delightful ailments, human and animal.