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The recipe manuscripts of Swedish eighteenth-century noblewomen have largely been overlooked in research, despite the owners’ proximity to power and their crucial responsibilities within the household.

Through an analysis of two noblewomen’s recipe manuscripts, this thesis examines expected roles, everyday practices, and social relationships through the lens of class and gender.

Recipe manuscripts, estate inventories, and household examination rolls inform the analysis. The recipe collections were photographed and transcribed using the AI-assisted transcription platform Transkribus.

Drawing on concepts of habitus, distinction and symbolic capital developed by Pierre Bourdieu, complemented by feminine respectability by Beverley Skeggs, the analysis suggests that the recipe collections can be seen as instrumental work tools that were functions of the noblewomen’s expected habitus and feminine respectability. Costly recipes such as punsch à la glace, arrack ice cream, can be seen as marking distinction within the upper class, while recipes detailing different types of rusks for the gentlefolks and classes of servants suggests clear distinction within the household. The recipes may be understood as forms of symbolic capital that supported the noblewomen’s performance of class and gender ideals. Lastly, it is suggested that the noblewomen’s role as recipe curators can be interpreted as giving them authority over whether received recipes would include the donors’ names, proposing that they controlled who was ascribed feminine respectability in the recipe collections.