Google Doodle toasts England's first popular cook, Hannah Glasse

Described as the "queen of the dinner party," and hailed as the author of The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse would have been 310 on March 28.

In her honour, Google is changing its logo in more than 16 countries to a doodle of her work.

But, Glasse was not recognised for her achievements during her lifetime. Her identity as the author of one of the most popular cookery books was challenged until 1938.

This is her story:

Illegitimate child

Hannah Glasse was born on March 28, 1708, in St Andrews, Holborn, London. Her mother is said to have been Hannah Reynolds, a widow, and her father, Isaac Allgood, was a landowner who was married to another woman, Hannah Clark.

Glasse was brought up in Allgood's home at Simonburn near Hexham. During her education, in spite of being an unwelcome presence in her father's home, she witnessed good living and tasted the foods of the upper class.

Allgood and his wife died of illness by 1725, when Glasse was 16 years old. She later married a soldier of fortune, John Glasse.

a soldier of fortune, John Glasse. Together they had 10 children, of whom only five survived. Needing to raise money to feed her family, Hannah set to writing The Art of Cookery.

Art of Cookery

She began work on The Art of Cookery in 1746, and her ambition was to teach simple, straightforward recipes with the very minimum of expenditure and technical complication.

"I believe I have attempted a Branch of Cookery which nobody has yet thought worth their while to write upon ..." she wrote as her introductory line. The book was first published in 1747.

Her cookbook was a bestseller with the British public due to its conversational style. Preceding cookbooks were written for the chefs of royal and aristocratic households.

The book did not reveal its authorship, except with the signature 'By a Lady'. It included 972 recipes, covering everything from puddings and soups, to what to serve at Lent, to preparing food for the sick.

In her own words, she aimed to accomplish a work "which far exceeds anything of the kind ever yet published."

Bankruptcy

Matthew Cruickshank/Google

Modern English cooking would be nothing without sausages and jelly and trifle (just like American cooking would be nothing with hotdogs and Jell-O and sponge cake).

But before Hannah Glasse, English cooking was little more than cabbage soup and mutton (and the occasional eel pie, if you were lucky!). The woman behind one of Britain's most popular early cookbooks, "The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy" brought simple and accessible cooking to the masses, both in Glasse's homeland of England as well as in America.

Google paid tribute to Glasse's 310th birthday in its doodle on Wednesday, celebrating her contribution to modern cookery, long before Julia Child was on our TV screens.

First published in England in 1747 (and later in America in 1805), "The Art of Cookery" was notable for its conversational language and its "plain and easy" recipes. The book brought cookery within the reach of all classes (not just those fortunate enough to have a cook to do the work for them).

The impressive list of 972 recipes in her book also included some of the first known mentions of now-famous foods, including jelly and Yorkshire Pudding.

Google's doodle, illustrated by Matthew Cruickshank, shows Glasse baking a batch of Yorkshire puddings, ready for the Sunday roast. Very British indeeed.

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For centuries, residents of the British Isles have found culinary comfort in the mysterious golden chemistry of the Yorkshire pudding.

The versatile doughy pockets have been used as an accompaniment to a variety of dishes, but they are best known as a vital component of the traditional Sunday roast.

With their deep puffy hollows and gilded crenellations, the Yorkshire pudding’s success lies in its simple magic - wrought from nothing more than flour, eggs and milk, the batter is bunged into the oven and what emerges is a lumpen, crispy beacon of British cookery.

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They first became popular after wheat flour began to become commonly used in the production of cakes and puddings and there were various recipes from the 18th century that advised on how to create them at home. Early variations included a 1737 recipe for “dripping pudding”.

But the Yorkshire pudding surged to fame and gained its name ten years later, with the 1747 publication of the book The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse, the subject of today's Google Doodle.

Glasse, who has previously been described as “the first domestic goddess” and even “the mother of the modern dinner party”, saw immediate success upon the publication of her book, which was reprinted in its first year and then remained in print for almost a century in over 20 editions.

The book’s cover did not reveal Glasse as the author, but instead mysteriously stated it was “By a Lady”.

Despite the success of the work, Glasse did not prosper for long after the initial publication.

In 1754, she became bankrupt and was forced to auction her most prized asset - the copyright to the book.

In 1757, she was consigned to debtors’ prison but released later that year, whereupon she registered shares in a new book she had written in 1755, The Compleat Confectioner - it was also reprinted several times, but did not enjoy the same levels of success as The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.

Glasse died in September 1770 aged 62, her contribution to the British Sunday assured.

British cookery writer Hannah Glasse (1708-1770) was born 310 years ago today, an anniversary acknowledged in the latest Google Doodle.

Glasse remains best known for her 1747 recipe collection The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, which was published anonymously and remained a best-seller for a century.

One of the work's key innovations was the author's pledge to democratise the business of cookery, promising in an introductory note to readers that the language contained within was intended so that domestic servants could understand it.

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