In 1615, Englishman Gervase Markham published a handbook for housewives containing all the virtuous knowledges and actions both of the mind and body, which ought to be in any complete housewife . Markham reveals the pretty and curious secrets of preparing everything from simple foods to such elaborate meals as a humble feast , an undertaking which entails preparing no less that two and thirty dishes, which is as much as can stand on one table . He instructs the housewife on brewing beer and caring for wine, growing flax and hemp for thread, and spinning and dyeing. As a housewife was also responsible for the health and soundness of body of her family, he includes advice on the prevention of everything from the plague to baldness and bad breath. Michael Best’s introduction and his notes make The English Housewife accessible to the contemporary reader.