A is for... Artichokes!

Artechoke bottoms (pickled) c.1728

Take Artechokes before they are full grown, pare them round, cutt off the leafs, chokes, & strings and boyle them, not too tender; drain them, and let them be cold; cutt some of them in Square pieces, and leave others whole, Boyle ye pickle of Vinegar, Cloves, Mace, whole pepper, and a little salt, let it boyle well, and then pour it hott aupon them; boyle the Pickle every day for three days, pouring it hot upon them every time; putt them into Potts, tye Covers over them close, and so they will keep well - elce not. 

Basil Besler (1561-1629), Artichoke, 1613

Introducing... The Friday Feasts Alphabet Challenge.

Wow. It has certainly been a while!

I have been meaning to dust off this blog for quite some time, and thankfully, the wonderful folks of the Twittersphere have inspired me to get back to enjoying the actual recipes that I have come to spend so much time writing about as part of my research. 

My research has come a loooong, long way since this page first started, and the sources I have come to know and love are truly magical. I cant wait to share some of that with you all.

And with that, I am setting myself a challenge, an alphabet challenge to be precise. Each week, I will make my way through the A-Z of the recipes of Elenor Mundy, and her daughter-in-law, Hester Miller-Mundy of Shipley Hall.

So, keep 'em peeled fellow recipe enthusiasts, 'A is for... Artichokes' will be coming your way soon! 

Shipley Hall

 Source: https://www.heanorhistory.org.uk/v2shipleypostcards.html

A Selection of Early Modern Soup Recipes

The humble soup. To this day, a revered dinner-party staple and 'user upper' of all things fresh that might be neglected in the bottom of the fridge and yet can be quite simply converted into this relatively cheap, comforting and nutritious meal. The particular selection of receipt compilations I am currently studying has quite the plethora of C17th-18th recipes for soups that seem to befit just about any occassion.

I am struck, in the recipes below, by the way in which meat features so heavily in some of these 'soups'. This may perhaps be due to the regionality of the writer, or more likely, influenced by there being little or no concept of the 'stew' or 'casserole' at that time. The introduction of the 'stew' or 'casserole' into English food vocabulary therefore, may well then have led to what we see now, that is, in terms of modern understandings of soup dishes to be largely vegetarian, or if not, at least of a smooth texture - i.e. Cream of Chicken, Oxtail etc.

As I am currently (attempting!) to write a paper which seeks to look at the influence of continental techniques, customs and ingredients in Early Modern English food, I am also particularly interested in the oft repeated serving suggestion or inclusion of a specifically French 'role' to accomanpany soup in the middle of the bowl...

The Cook - Bernado Strozzi c. 1620

Image Source: admiralsmallhat.blogspot.com

To Make a Soop – Mr Jepson
Take Six Pounds of the best end of a Brisket Beef, & Six Mutton Chops of the Loyn, put ‘em  into a Soop Pot at nine o’clock with two Onions cut in half, a small Bunch of Parsly & time ty’d together, & a handful of salt, & Six Quarts of Water, as soon as it Boyls take care to Skim in Clean, & take of all the fat, let it Boyl till one o’clock upon a very slow fire, then take Six Turnips, three large Carrots, cut ‘em in dice & half a Cabbidge put them into the Pot & let ‘em Boyl till half an hour after two, then put in the Crust of a French Role, Let it Boyl till three when it will be Ready.

Be sure keep it skim’d very often & take all the fat of the Beef you serve to Table in your Soop, the Mutton you take out.

A Cream Soop – Countess of Ferrers
Take a Pint of Peas Boyl them well, then Mash ‘em, & put ‘em through a Sieve, mix the Pulp into the Same Water they were Boyl’d, then put in 2 Ozs: of Bacon a Bunch of Mint, (an Onion if you Please) one Quart of young Peas, and when well Boyl’d put in half a Pint of Cream, with some Parsly cut very Small, then Boyl it a Smalltime.

To Make Peas Soop for Lent or any fasting Day – Mrs Eyre
Put a Quart of Good Breaking Peas to Six Quarts of Water, & Boyl ‘em till they are tender, then take out Some of the Clear Liquor, & Strain the Peas as Clean as you can from the Husks: take come Butter & Boyl it & it Breaks in the Middle, put to it an Onion, some mint cut very Small, Spinage & Sorrell & a Little Cettery Cut large, Stir it often & let it Boyl about a Quarter of an hour, then Shake in Some flower with one hand & Some of the thin liquor with the other, the put in the thick Straind Liquor, some Pepper, mace & Salt, & Boyl it an hour longer, then put into as Much as will make a Large Dish one Pint of Sweet Cream, put in a French Role Crisp’d and Dip’d in the Middle of the Dish.

To Make a White Soop

Take a Small Knokle of Veal, Set it on the fire in 2 Gallons of Water, a Little Mace, whole Pepper, & Onion, boyle it to 2 Quarts, then Strain it off, & have ready Some Boyl’d Rice, & Scall’d Spinage, & Put in what Quantity you like, put in ½ a Pint of Cream, & ¼ of a lb: of Butter, rub it in flower to prevent it oyling, boyl it alltogether then Serve it up.

 To Make a green Peas Soop

Take a Peck of Peas, & in Shelling Seperate the young from the old, Boyl the old one soft enough to  Strain through a Cullender, then put the young ones into the Liquor which Should be a Pint of Peas, & when they are Boyl’d enough you must put in a Quarter of the Juice of the Shells of the Peas, & Spinaage which must be Pounded & Strain’d to green the Soop, Strain it through a cloth, & put in a Sprig or two of Mint, & Pepper & Salt to your tast, & a Little of the Green of an Onion, when all is Boyl’d Enough, then take ½ a lb: of Butter, & work it into it with a Spoon, a good deal of flower, then put it into a Stewpan, with a Pint of the Soop & let it Boyl  till its very thick, Stirring it all the time, then put it in your Soop & Just let it Boyl up, & then it is Enough.

You may out in some Spinage of Lettice in Whole Leaves, & a French role fry’d in Butter in the Middle, a Peck of Peas will make near 2 Quarts of Soop.

To Make a Solid Soup – Mrs Heneage

Take a Leg of Veal, or any other young meat, Because if it be old you cant reduce it to a Jelly, & make a Strong Broth of it in the common way. Strain the Broth & Put it into a Wide Silver Bason, the wider the Better, & let it Simmer over a Gentle even Charcoal fire, stir it often, Both to Keep it from Burning & to Break the film that Gathers on the top, which will hinder the Avaparation, Proceed thus till you Bring it to a Jelly, then remove it from over the fire, & Place it over a Vessel with Boyling water, which is Both more even & less Violent heat, let it be cover’d with a tinn cover having a Nose like a Still which will keep in the heat, & let out the Moisture, but take it of now & then, to stir it for the reason abovementioned, it must Simer over this water ‘till it become as hard as Glew which will require Severall hours to Perform, by this Process all the good of the meat will be brought into a Narrow Compass, & a very Small piece put into hot water will make Good Broth, it will keep an East Indies Voyage, if it be not laid in a Moist Place.

Proceed Just in the same manner with juice of lemons & instead of a Glew you will have a Substance, like a very thick Surrup, the least Speck of which make anything very sour this will keep for ever in a flint Vial without Growing Musty like Surrup of Lemons.

A Trio of Recipes Attributed to Household Cooks

Since my very first encounters with Early Modern receipt book manuscripts, I have been fascinated by the attributions of recipes to certain individuals. These often little-, or even un-known ghosts of history who glean a hope of being remembered through having once shared a favourite recipe, and a love of food or healing with a friend or kinsman who happen to have taken it upon themselves to write it down.

In the receipt books of Lady Oxford, Henrietta Cavendish Harley Holles (1694-1755), I was a little surprised (and yet pleased!) to find recipes referenced back to individuals I understand to be cooks from the household of her mother, Margaret Holles (nee Cavendish). I wanted to share them with you here...

To Roast Mackarell - James Brown

Clean the Mackarell & draw ‘em, take ½ a lb: of Beef Suit, 3 Anchovies, half a handfull of Caper, a Little Thyme, Parsley onion, & Sweet Marjoram, Mince ‘em very fine, & Mix them alltogether with a Little of the Spaume, a Good handful of Bread Crums, one Egg, a Nutmeg Grated, a Little Pepper & Salt, Mix ‘em well, & heat it in a Saucepan, then fill the Belly of Every fish, Lay ‘em in a Pan to Roast bast ‘em often & turn ‘em ‘till they are Enough, make Gravy Sauce as for other fish.

N.B. These Quantities of the Several Ingredients Serves for 3 or 4 Mackarell.

Pull'd Chicken's - James Brown

Boyl the Chickens by themselves in a Little pot you need not truss ‘em, but be sure do not Boyl ‘em to much, then take ‘em up & put ‘em in a Dish cut ‘em up as if you car’d em then pull of the outside Skin, pull off the flesh in the Little Long Pieces with your finger, Save the Gravy that come from ‘em then put into a Saucepan with some of the Small Bones, if there is not Gravy Enough, put in some of the Liquor they were Boyl’d in then have ready Scal’d Parsly shred, & put to the Chickens a little Salt, a good Quantity of very Sweet Butter, & a Spoonfull or two of Cream, Set these over a very clear fire for the least smoke spoyls ‘em, let em Stew a Little while, then toss ‘em up, if not thick Enough put a Little Flower to thicken the Butter.

To Fry Pears - G Admagall

Pare ‘em & cut ‘em in halves, then cut out the Core, Clarify ½ a lb: of Butter, & Stove em over a Gentle fire, for an hour & a half till they Become Crisp, then take em out dry, & Scrape on Sugar, with Sack & Butter in a Bason.

An 18th Century Two-Course Meal

Over the summer, I have been busy in the archives looking at the receipt books of local women with the intention of focusing mainly on medical recipes and what these are able to reveal about the sharing and acquiring of medicinal knowledge in their time. An accidental sideline of this that has really caught my eye (and sometimes, made me a little hungry) are the food recipes that were also recorded side-by-side within the same medium. So, after an unintended summer break from blogging, I thought I'd kick start the new year with a bit of a foodie treat live from the 18th century for you all!

I've chosen the curry because of how peculiar some aspects of the method/equipment might seem to us, but also because I felt it revealed something a little bit unexpected about the already international culinary influences seeping through to at least the noble English households at this time. The pudding is, admittedly, a bit of a simple classic, but if anyone would like to have a go - I'd love a full review!

A note on the source: These recipes have been taken from the recipe book of Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford dated 1743. I'm in the process of finding out more, so if anyone has anything to share in this area or about Henrietta herself, please do! I have tried to transcribe as close to the original as possible, punctuation (or rather, lack of) and all.

Image: Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford, 1716.

Image source: http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/tts/tts1923/oxford/oxford1.htm

To Make a Pepper Curry
Take a Fowle Flea it, put it in a Stewpan with as much water as will cover it, put to it 14 Corns of whole Pepper, an Onion, & 2 Cloves of Garlick, Let it Boyl 'till the fowle is tender, Strain it through a hair Sieve, put the Broth into the Stewpan again, put it to a Quarter of a lb: of Butter rub'd in a Little Flower, let it Just Boyl 'till it looks Brown, then put the fowle to it, & Mix it all well together, Set it on the fire till 'tis the Thickness of Cream, & Serve it up with a Plate of Boyl'd Rice, & one with a Pancake made only with 2 Eggs, & a Sauce of Different Pickles.
N.B You may make your Curry of Pidgeons, Ducks, Rabbits or what meat you Please, or fish

Puddings By Mrs Rowney
Take a Penny Loaf cut it very thin, put to it a Pint & 1/2 of Milk, Boyl it and Break it fine & put 1/2 a lb: of Butter, & 5 eggs, half a lb: of Sugar & a Little Nutmeg.

Mrs Corlyon, 'A Booke of divers Medecines' (1606)

Pictured above is the cover of a recipe/receipt book manuscript dated 1606 that is held and has been digitised by the Wellcome Library's Archive and Manuscripts department. This is where my research predominantly lies at the moment - exploring the themes of maleficium and beneficium in women's receipt collections, and I am currently in the early stages of trying to find a sensible approach to transcribing (or transcribbling!) some of this large, and very fascinating collection as part of gathering my contextual, non-regional primary source material.

This manuscript as a whole, is fantastically accessible; the work is clearly organised into chapters of health remedies relating to each part of the body, there is an index at the back in the authors own hand and the paleography is uncharacteristically legible from what I can tell of similarly dated works. I wanted to make the most of the clarity of this work in order to make a start in practicing my transcription skills, and so decided to share a few of the extracts from the chapter 3 on 'Eares'. I chose these extracts mostly because they made me chuckle a little, but also because they seemed to say a lot, in just a few examples, about seventeenth-century common practices and processes in both making and administering health remedies (i.e. lots of heat and steam), about the interchangibility of food products into medicines (e.g. fruit, bread and spices) and possibly even more about the way in which these women (and no doubt men too) approached the task of writing down these receipts in a particular format. In the examples of the three recipes below for 'the singinge in the eares' , the structure of the work is able to imply a sense of efficacy to the reader too, who seems to be given the one with the most authority first ('it hath been approved'), to an additional 'very good' medecine, to just 'an other medicine' for the same ailments.

I'll include an image of the page I've taken these examples from below - apologies for the size - it was my intention that it would allow errors in transcription and interpretation to be corrected where noticed, but that seems unlikely seeing the outcome. Anyway, I do hope you enjoy these as much as I did!


"A Booke of diuers Medecines, Broothes, Salues, Waters, Syroppes and Oyntementes of which many or the most part haue been experienced and tryed by the speciall practize of Mrs Corlyon. Anno Domini 1606."

A Medecine to drawe and Earwigge out of the Eare.

Take a sweete Aple and rost it in the fyer untill it bee halfe rosted, then take of the softest of it, and spreade it very thick uppon a Lynnen clothe, and lay it to your eare as hott as you can suffer it, and lye upon the same syde, and when you do feele it stirr, you must lye very still untill it be come to the Aple, and then you must very sodainely pluck it away least the Earewigge retorne into your heade againe. And if you thincke there be any more laye a newe one to your eare.

A Medecine for the singinge in the eares.

Take Barlye flower and bake a loofe of it and when you drawe it our of the Oven devide it in the midste, and strowe uppon it the powder of Nuttmegges, and as hott as you may suffer it, holde it to your Eares, and do so often and you shall fynde ease. It hath been approved.

An other very good medecine for the same.

Take a quart of Sacke, and putt thereto an handfull of grounde Juye(?), as much of Pennyroyall, and lett them boile well together and as hott as you can suffer it lett the steeme thereof goe into your eares by a tunnell that will close cover(?) the pott. Use it in the morning and when you goe to Bedd, and keepe yourselfe warme.

An other Medicine for the same.

Take a greate Onyon and cutt of a rounde peece of the crowne, make an hollowe place within it, and putt into it a little Mythridate, a little olde Sallett Oyle and a spoonefull of Aquavite(?), and cloose it withe the peece that you cutt of the crowne and wrappe it in a paper and roste it in the embers and when it is very softe, that it it out of the fyer and bruse it altogether and laye it in a clothe and as hott as you may suffer it, holde it to your eare.

"At the Sign of the Flower De Luce"

C17th Astrology and Health

A great little (1685) example of an advertisement for the sale of a kind of knowledge, secrets or skills.

In this case, we have an example of an astrologer seeking business but it is no doubt reflective of the style of how other cunning-men and women or other empirics might advertise their 'wares'. The link drawn between astrology and medicine/health is of particular interest to me.

Source taken from EEBO, and transcribed by myself . As below, I have tried to remain as true to the original format as possible. I have refrained from modernising spelling, italics and punctuation marks are the authors own. I have also tried to maintain letter casing.


'At the Sign of the Flower De Luce' near the Church Porch in the Little Miuories, without Aldgate.

A Gentleman, who in his Youth was several Years a Student in Cambridge; hath Travelled, and for above 33; Years, spent the greatest part of his Time, In search after the solid Truth, of the Sublime Science, of Astrology, in all its Various Parts: Hitherto, for the private Satisfaction, and Diversion only, of himself and Intimate Friends. He is now willing, for the Benefit of all Sober Quaerents, to Communicate his Skill, by giving a faithful Answer to any Lawfull Serious Demand, within the Compass of the said Art; to Calculate Nativities, and impart his knowledge, to any Ingenious Gentleman or Others, who shall desire it.
We will add one Instance, (out of many) to prove the Usefulness and Verity of this Noble Science.
The greatest Evil that Invadeth our Bodies, is Sickness, to the Cure of which a certain knowledge of its Cause, Nature, Contenuance, End, &c. With a fit Election of Remedies, and the Time of Preparing, and Administring them, &c. is usually necessary: Now this Heavenly Fountain supplieth us with all this, as manifold Experience hath fully Convinced, not only us, but all the Sons of Urania.