Elizabeth Josephine Craig, MBE, FRSA (16 February 1883 – 7 June 1980) was a Scottish journalist, home economist and a notable author on cookery.
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Early life and family
Elizabeth Craig was born on 16 February 1883 in Addiewell, West Lothian to Catherine Anne Nicoll (died 3 March 1929) and Reverend John Mitchell Craig. Craig was one of eight children and her father was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. The family lived at the Manse in Memus, Kirriemuir, Scotland.
She attended Forfar Academy and George Watson's Ladies' College in Edinburgh before returning to Forfar Academy as a teacher.
Journalism
Craig's writing career began in Dundee where she studied journalism. She first published a cookery feature in the Daily Express in 1920, following comments from the Daily Mail's film editor, who declared she was "the only woman in Fleet Street who could cook". Craig was a founding member of the International P.E.N., and at the request of the founder, Catharine Dawson Scott, attended the first meeting of the association at the Florence Restaurant in London where John Galsworthy was elected its first president.
Cooking
Craig started to cook when she was six years old and began collecting recipes from age 12. She declared that the only formal training she had in cookery was a "three months course in Dundee". She began publishing cookery books after the end of World War I and proceeded through World War II and into 1980. She began writing in times when food was scarce and rationing was heavily relied upon, and her focus broadened when the majority of households had a refrigerator and an opportunity to access a much wider variety of foods: this can be observed in her writing as more diverse dishes appear in her later books.
Her contribution to English culinary literature comprises a very large corpus of traditional British recipes, although not only this: included are also a considerable collection of recipes from other countries which she liked to collect during visits abroad.
Personal life
Craig's engagement to American war correspondent and broadcaster Arthur E. Mann (died 9 June 1973) of Washington, D.C., was announced on 11 August 1919, and they were married at St Martin in the Fields Church, Trafalgar Square.
Publications
Cookery books
19?? The Woman's Journal Cookery Book
19?? Elizabeth Craig's Menus for a Year
19?? Elizabeth Craig's Springtime Cookery Book (The People's Friend)
1923 The Stage Favourites' Cook Book
1932 New Standard Cookery Illustrated
1932 Cooking with Elizabeth Craig
1932 The Up-to-Date Cookery Book
1933 Madeira: wine, cakes and sauce (In collaboration with André L. Simon)
1933 Entertaining with Elizabeth Craig (Illustrated by Herry Perry)
1934 Cakes and Candies: How to make them (Calendar with recipes)
1934 The Vicomte in the Kitchen (Georges, Vicomte de Mauduit's Cookery Book; introductions by Elizabeth Craig and Frances, Countess of Warwick)
1934 Elizabeth Craig's Standard Recipes
1934 Wine in the Kitchen
1934 Elizabeth Craig's Economical Cookery
1934 Elizabeth Craig's Simple Cooking
1935 Elizabeth Craig's Family Cookery: a new standard economical cookery on comprehensive lines
1935 Elizabeth Craig's Everyday Cooking
Promotional recipe books
Unknown dates
19?? More Everyday Dishes (Tate & Lyle Sugars & Syrups)
19?? Primula Presents Recipes by Elizabeth Craig
19?? The Kikkoman Book of Recipes
19?? 101 Recipes and Uses for Malt Vinegar (Malt Vinegar Brewers Association)
Known dates
1930 250 Recipes for use with Borwick's Baking Powder
1932 New Ways of using Custard (Foster Clark Ltd)
1934 The Importance of Eating Potatoes (Potato Marketing Board)
1937 The Way to a Good Table: electric cookery (British Electrical Development Association)
1938 (circa) Cooking Made Easier (Foster Clark Ltd – c. 1938)
1940 OxO Meat Cookery! The Oxo Way
1940 Slim While You Eat, a calendar with over 100 recipes
1949 (circa) Elizabeth Craig's Invalid Recipe Book (Benger's Food Limited – c. 1949)
1949 Chicken in the Kitchen
1954 Waterless Cooking (Milbro Vapour Seal Waterless Cookers)
Books on housekeeping and gardening
1936 Elizabeth Craig's Simple Housekeeping
1936 The Housewives' Monthly Calendar
1936 Keeping House with Elizabeth Craig
1937 Modern Housekeeping
1937 Elizabeth Craig's Household Library (1937 onwards)
1938 Elizabeth's Craig's Simple Gardening
1940 Gardening with Elizabeth Craig (Gardening in wartime)
1941 Elizabeth Craig's Needlecraft
1947 Housekeeping: a book for the single-handed housewife
1947 1000 Household Hints
1948 Gardening with Elizabeth Craig; new edition
1950 Elizabeth Craig's Enquire Within
1952 Elizabeth Craig's Practical Gardening