Agnes Marshall
Encyclopedia
Agnes Bertha Marshall was an English culinary entrepreneur. She became a leading cookery writer in the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 period, and was dubbed the "Queen of Ices" for her works on ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 and other frozen dessert
Frozen dessert
Frozen dessert is the generic name for desserts made by freezing liquids, semi-solids, and sometimes even solids. They may be based on flavored water , on fruit purées, on milk and cream , on custard , on mousse , etc. In the UK and Ireland, where the term "dessert" is uncommon,...

s. In time before practical domestic refrigeration
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...

, her success increased the demand in London for ice imported from Norway. Her 1888 cookery book included a recipe for "cornets with cream", possibly the earliest publication of the edible ice cream cone
Ice cream cone
An ice cream cone, poke or cornet is a dry, cone-shaped pastry, usually made of a wafer similar in texture to a waffle, allowing ice cream to be eaten without a bowl or spoon...

.

Marshall was born in Walthamstow
Walthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...

. Her father, John Smith, was a clerk, but died when she was young and his widow, Susan, remarried. Marshall's early life remains obscure, but it was later written in the Pall Mall Gazette
Pall Mall Gazette
The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood...

that she studied cooking from an early age, and "practised at Paris and with Vienna's celebrated chefs". She married Alfred William Marshall in 1878.

She wrote four books: Ices Plain and Fancy: The Book of Ices (1885), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (1891) and Fancy Ices (1894). She also gave public lectures on cooking, and ran an agency for domestic staff. She was granted a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 for an improved ice cream machine that could freeze a pint of ice cream in five minutes, and also suggested using liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...

 to make ice cream. With her husband, she established the Marshall School of Cookery in Mortimer Street in 1883, and published a weekly magazine, The Table, from 1886. The couple also sold cooking supplies and equipment.

She fell from a horse in 1904 and never fully recovered. She died in Pinner
Pinner
- Climate :Pinner's geographical position on the far western side of North West London makes it the furthest London suburb from any UK coastline. Hence the lower prevalence of moderating maritime influences make Pinner noticeably warmer in the spring and the summer compared to the rest of the capital...

 the following year, and was cremated at Golders Green crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000, and was opened in 1902 by Sir Henry Thompson....

. After her death, the rights to her books were sold to Mrs Beeton
Mrs Beeton
Isabella Mary Beeton , universally known as Mrs Beeton, was the English author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, and is one of the most famous cookery writers.-Background:...

's publisher, Ward Lock. Her husband took over the business that they had run together, but it failed. Unlike Mrs Beeton, Marshall quickly faded from public memory.

A biography was published in 1998 entitled Mrs Marshall: the Greatest Victorian Ice Cream Maker, including a facsimile of her 1885 Book of Ices.

Further reading

  • Mrs Marshall, the Greatest Victorian Ice Cream Maker, with a facsimile of the Book of Ices 1885, ISBN 1858251028
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