My PhD project is entitled Ecological Hesitation: Views of Nature in Danish Cookbooks Written by Women for Rural and Urban Households, 1818-1901.

In my research, I explore Danish cookbooks authored by women in the nineteenth century as texts situated at the intersection of domestic practice, emerging scientific knowledge, and changing agricultural conditions. The project is set against a historical backdrop marked by industrialisation, urbanisation, economic growth, and technological advancement. I analyse cookbooks by authors such as Anne Marie Mangor, Louise Nimb, Christiane Rosen, and Sørine Thaarup, approaching their works not merely as practical cooking manuals, but as sites where conceptions of nature, sustainability, seasonality, thrift, and care are negotiated in subtle and often ambivalent ways.

Central to the project is the concept of ecological hesitation, which I use to describe how these texts simultaneously reproduce established extractive practices while articulating concerns about waste, depletion, and the ethical treatment of domestic animals. Through close reading and contextual analysis, I demonstrate how cookbooks functioned as key mediators of everyday environmental thought, shaping household practices and attitudes toward natural resources long before ecology emerged as a formalised field.

The project contributes to research on historical environmental thought, nineteenth-century women’s writing, and the cultural history of food by foregrounding domestic texts as important yet understudied sources for understanding human-environment relations in everyday life.

Sample plate for Cooking in Tune with Nature.

As part of my PhD, I was a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford, where I engaged with international research environments within the environmental humanities and food studies. During my stay, I also organised a public dissemination event entitled Cooking in Tune with Nature. Drawing on my background as a chef, I explored how nineteenth-century cookbooks can inspire ways of eating within the natural limits of the earthly economy. The presentation culminated in a meal served to the audience, combining nineteenth-century ideals with twenty-first-century flavours. The event took place at The Oxford Blue, a local pub where I previously worked.

While my dissertation focuses exclusively on nineteenth-century cookbooks in their historical context, the project as a whole is motivated by present-day discussions on sustainable food production and consumption in the context of the climate crisis.

At Aarhus University, I am affiliated with the Centre for the Rise of Science and Fiction, the Centre for Food Culture Studies, and the Centre for Environmental Humanities. I am also a member of Danske Madpublicister (Danish Food Publicists): https://danskemadpublicister.dk/medlemsprofiler/mau-lindow-tarbensen/