Rushing Dinner to the Table: The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine and Industrialization's Effects on Middle-Class Food and Cooking, 1852–1860". Beeton's death (in 1865) to 74 chapters and over 2000 pages; [13] the first edition had 44 chapters. The Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science observed that "it was probably found in more homes than any other cookery book, and [was probably] the most often consulted, in the years 1875 to 1914". The work, which was frequently used in the kitchen, is unsurprisingly scarce institutionally, with just three copies traced worldwide, all held in the UK (University of Cambridge, British Library, Townend National Trust), and just a single copy of this first edition traced at auction.

With over 2,000 practical Recipes and Sections on Labour-Saving, Carving and Trussing, Household Work, The Art of 'Using-Up', Servants' Duties, Laundry Work [and many other topics].Cookery is introduced with words about "the progress of mankind from barbarism to civilization", with a mention of man "in his primitive state, [living] upon roots and the fruits of the earth", rising to become in turn "a hunter and a fisher"; then a "herdsman" and finally "the comfortable condition of a farmer. I must frankly own, that if I had known, beforehand, that this book would have cost me the labour which it has, I should never have been courageous enough to commence it.

Beeton's Household Management: A Complete Cookery Book With Sections on Household Work, Servants' Duties, Labour-Saving, Laundry Work, Etiquette, Marketing, Etc. I didn’t realise this was almost A5 in size with the tiniest writing I couldn’t read, even with my specs on! For the book's 150th anniversary in 2011, the Royal Society of Chemistry planned to feature one of Beeton's recipes. Beeton has been described as "the grandmother of modern domestic goddesses", like Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith, who saw, as Beeton did, the need to provide reassuring advice on culinary matters for the British middle classes.

The 1907 edition runs to some 30 full-page colour plates and over 100 full-page illustrations in monochrome. Due to the financial climate at the time in wake of the Great Recession, the Society selected Beeton's toast sandwich, a dish that Beeton included to cater to the less well-off.

The conflicting opinions on the tomato occurring on the same page have been noted as seemingly careless editing. Chapters 60 to 68 guide on matters from trussing poultry to the definitions of culinary terms, arranging meals, decorating the table, making menus, and the duties of domestic servants.Beeton has been compared on the strength of the book with modern " domestic goddesses" [1] like Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith. Beeton's practice has been criticised as plagiarism; Beeton's modern biographer Kathryn Hughes talks of her "lifting" and "brazenly copying" recipes from others, and says that this was "the way that cookery books had been put together from time immemorial .