 While coping with the loss of her child , Isabella continued to work at The Englishwoman 's Domestic Magazine . Although she was not a regular cook , she and Samuel obtained recipes from other sources . A request to receive the readers ' own recipes led to over 2 @,@ 000 being sent in , which were selected and edited by the Beetons . Published works were also copied , largely unattributed to any of the sources . These included Eliza Acton 's Modern Cookery for Private Families , Elizabeth Raffald 's The Experienced English Housekeeper , Marie @-@ Antoine Carême 's Le Pâtissier royal parisien , Louis Eustache Ude 's The French Cook , Alexis Soyer 's The Modern Housewife or , Ménagère and The Pantropheon , Hannah Glasse 's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy , Maria Eliza Rundell 's A New System of Domestic Cookery , and the works of Charles Elmé Francatelli . Suzanne Daly and Ross G. Forman , in their examination of Victorian cooking culture , consider that the plagiarism makes it " an important index of mid @-@ Victorian and middle @-@ class society " because the production of the text from its own readers ensures that it is a reflection of what was actually being cooked and eaten at the time . In copying the recipes of others , Isabella was following the recommendation given to her by Henrietta English , a family friend , who wrote that " Cookery is a Science that is only learnt by Long Experience and years of study which of course you have not had . Therefore my advice would be compile a book from receipts from a Variety of the Best Books published on Cookery and Heaven knows there is a great variety for you to choose from . " 
