Spoonful of Sugar

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Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, All of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Fairies occupy a strange place in our culture.

Few people can really say where they come from or why we like them.

We just all accept the idea of cute little people with wings.

They're very popular in paintings and garden sculptures.

One painter in particular made a career out of depicting fairies, although his work gives us little insight into the human fascination with them.

In fact, his career only deepens the mystery surrounding fairies, as he was inspired to paint them while he was locked up in an asylum.

Born in Chatham, England in 1817, Richard Dadd was always seen as a little bit frail and sensitive, but his parents thought that was just the price he paid for being an artistic prodigy.

He started painting at the age of 13 and enroiled in the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 20.

Many of his contemporaries were content to paint the mundane rolling green hills of England, but Richard yearned to experience more of the world.

He wanted greater inspiration for his work.

He eventually became acquainted with Sir Thomas Phillips, a local politician famous for being wounded while putting down an uprising of the working class.

Now, that might not sound like such a good thing to us today, but to a member of the upper class like Richard, that was quite impressive.

And Richard learned that Sir Thomas was about to embark on a years-long tour of the Mediterranean and beyond.

Thomas wanted a painter to accompany him and depict his travels, so Richard quickly volunteered himself.

And it was an epic adventure, taking them all over the Middle East and northern Africa.

Richard became obsessed with painting scenes from their travels, whether that was a caravan of camels, Sir Thomas smoking a hookah, or a busy bazaar.

By the time they reached Egypt, Richard would sit out for hours in the boiling sun, chronicling every detail with his brushstrokes.

But this obsession soon became concerning for Sir Thomas.

He noticed that Richard was getting severely sunburnt from his long painting sessions and he was risking heat stroke.

When Sir Thomas tried to pull him away for his own good, Richard would lash out violently, threatening to kill his patron.

This was so alarming that Sir Thomas had to send a letter all the way back to England letting Richard's father know that he had lost his mind.

His father requested that Richard be sent home, and somehow Sir Thomas managed to get Richard onto a boat back to England.

And Richard, of course, was furious.

He believed that he had a special connection with Egypt and that his father was an evil man for taking him away from it.

It was, to say the least, not a rational belief.

As Richard fumed over what was happening to him, the idea entered his head that he was actually a servant of the Egyptian god Osiris, and he belonged in Egypt where he could paint for his supernatural master.

By the time he was home in England, Richard was plotting his return.

His father father brought him to the countryside, hoping that it would be good for his mental health, but Richard couldn't overcome this strange mental illness that had so changed him.

One day, while painting in the park with his father, he lashed out, stabbing his father to death.

He quickly boarded a boat to France, trying to make his way back to Egypt at all costs, but he was so out of his mind that he was easily found and arrested by the English authorities.

The courts took some pity on him, seeing that he was obviously unwell, so they sentenced him to be confined to a mental institution for the rest of his life.

And while these could obviously be terrible places in Victorian England, Richard's status as a member of the upper class seemed to win him superior treatment.

He was given his own artist's studio inside the asylum and began to produce incredibly detailed paintings, many of them featuring fairies.

Now, truth be told, it was hard to get Richard to explain exactly why he liked fairies so much, but his were different than the usual depictions people had seen.

They were pretty naked creatures dancing in nature, but he used odd dark colors and often framed them with disturbing touches, like the wings of a bat or the web of a spider.

Today, some of Richard's fairy paintings are seen as masterpieces.

When visitors to museums in England see his work on the wall, they can scarcely imagine how a curious life led him to produce such beautiful work.

Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees.

Just ask the Capital One Bank guy.

It's pretty much all he talks about.

In a good way, he'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast, too.

Oh, really?

Thanks, Capital One Bank Guy.

What's in your wallet?

Terms apply.

See capital One.com/slash bank.

Capital One NA member FDIC.

This show is sponsored by American Public University.

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With online courses, monthly start dates, and flexible schedules, APU is designed for busy professionals who need education that fits their lives.

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Visit apu.apus.edu to learn more.

That's apu.apus.edu.

Learning to cook something new is a daunting task.

When the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon can mean a delicious meal or an inedible mess, juvenile cooks owe everything to recipes.

But for a long time, standard English recipes didn't include exact measurements.

Many cookbooks assumed that you already knew what you were doing in the kitchen and had instructions like, add some flour or cook until done.

Now, if you were an old hand, perhaps this was fine, but if this was your first time in the kitchen, it was a recipe for disaster.

All of that changed, though, in 1845, when a former poet and schoolmistress tried her hand at writing cookbooks.

Born in Sussex in 1799, Eliza Acton didn't get her start in the culinary world, but she grew up adjacent to it.

Her father ran a brewery, and it's likely that young Eliza saw the beer-making firsthand, combining exact amounts of water, hops, and malt to get the right flavor.

She didn't know it then, but it seems this early experience with precision and preparation set her on her path.

As Eliza grew older, she tried her hand at a few different industries.

She opened boarding schools for girls in 1817 and 1819, lived in France for a while, and published a poorly received book of poetry.

When she attempted to publish a second volume, her publisher gave her another suggestion.

Why not try writing a cookbook instead?

It was, needless to say, an unusual career pivot, but Eliza embraced the challenge.

She spent the next few years carefully testing recipes, refining techniques, and most importantly, writing a book that would make cooking accessible.

The result was called Modern Cookery for Private Families, published in 1845.

And the book was an instant success.

Geared toward the middle class, it highlighted classic English recipes and popular adaptations of Indian dishes.

It also introduced some new exotic meals.

It marked the first recipe for cooking Brussels sprouts, the first time a plum pudding had been called a Christmas pudding in print, and the first English recipe for spaghetti.

As the pasta was unfamiliar to her, Eliza wrote it as spargetti.

Her most popular contribution, though, wasn't one dish, but the way she wrote the recipes.

Each page featured a play-by-play of how to cook the dish, followed by the total cooking time and a list of exact ingredients.

Instead of being instructed to simply add salt, readers knew that they should include one teaspoon.

Rather than being told to cook until golden, readers knew that they should cook their dish for 25 minutes.

And I get it, that might not sound dramatic to you, but at the time, it was groundbreaking, and it's set the format for nearly every recipe and cookbook ever since.

Eliza continued to publish cookbooks, 13 revised editions of modern cookery between 1845 and 1853.

She also wrote a scholarly study on the history of English breadmaking in 1857.

But despite the book's success, Eliza never received long-lasting fame.

Other cookbook writers took her clear direct style of recipes without giving her credit.

Many even published entire recipes stolen right from her books and published them under their own names.

And around the same time that Eliza was teaching the middle class how to bake, broil, and brine, another name was rising in the cooking world.

Isabella Beaton first published Mrs.

Beaton's Book of Household Management in 1861, and it was an instant success.

She became the Martha Stewart of her age.

Her recipes and hosting tips became synonymous with Victorian English culture.

Her book went through several editions, even after Isabella died in 1865, and in fact, is still in print today.

But Mrs.

Beaton was one of the many who took her recipes word for word from Eliza Acton's book.

Eliza was ill for much of her adult life and passed away in 1859 at the age of 60.

After her death, her work sank into relative obscurity.

But some chefs and cookbook scholars still consider her one of the most influential cookery writers in the English language.

Today, every professionally published cookbook follows the standard that Eliza set nearly two centuries ago, with precise measurements, ingredient lists, and detailed instructions.

Eliza Acton's legacy lives on in every carefully measured teaspoon and every meticulously written recipe.

So, the next time you follow a recipe with confidence, knowing exactly how much flour or sugar to use, take a moment to appreciate the woman who made it all possible.

Without Eliza Acton, cooking at home might still be a recipe for disaster.

I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting CuriositiesPodcast.com.

The show was created by me, Aaron Mankey, in partnership with How Stuff Works.

I make another award-winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show.

And you can learn all about it over at theworldoflore.com.

And until next time, stay curious.

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