Now where are the Spice Jars?

The Cook needed some spices, so she wandered into the shop above the kitchens to see what she could find. It was all a bit of a mess, and the coal man had even left a sack of coal in the middle of the shop. "However does the Master manage to make money from this?" she wondered. However, the spice jars were easily found, safely stored on one of the higher shelves of a dresser, along with some plates and books. Perhaps Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management was among them.

The Victorian era was a period of extravagant entertaining for the upper middle and high classes. Victorian meals consisted of as many as nine courses, although many dishes were light and petite-sized. Fine ingredients, such as exotic spices imported from distant countries, were used in lavishly prepared meals. Through her widely-read recipe books, Beeton also popularized such phrases as "Dine we must and we may as well dine elegantly as well as wholesomely."