 While <unk> 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 <unk> to any of the sources . These included Eliza Acton 's Modern Cookery for Private Families , Elizabeth <unk> 's The <unk> English <unk> , Marie @-@ Antoine <unk> 's Le <unk> royal <unk> , Louis <unk> <unk> 's The French Cook , Alexis <unk> 's The Modern <unk> or , <unk> and The <unk> , Hannah <unk> 's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy , Maria Eliza <unk> 's A New System of Domestic Cookery , and the works of Charles <unk> <unk> . <unk> Daly and Ross G. <unk> , 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 <unk> 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 . " 
