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Old-Time Ingredients, Measurements and Descriptions
A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A (top)
ADDERS-TONGUE is the popular name for the genus of ferns Ophioglossum, as well as many other plants, for example herb robert and some orchids. (William Ellis, 1750)
AEPINAGE: ? an old spelling of spinach. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
AETHIOPS MINERAL is a combination of quicksilver and sulphur ground together to form a black powder, hence its name. (William Ellis, 1750)
AGRESTA. This is the Italian word for the verjuice grape (see also entry for VERJUICE). The corresponding word for the verjuice made from it was agresto. The verjuice grape was cultivated in both Italy and France, and was also used for conserves and jellies. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
AGRIMONY: Agrimonia eupatoria: astringent, with medical uses. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
AGRIMONY: Agrimonia eupatoria, also called Aaron's rod and liverwort. (William Ellis, 1750)
ALAMODE, 57: the French phrase a la mode, meaning fashionable, was often applied in an anglicized form to dishes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ALCALOUS: alkaline. (William Ellis, 1750)
ALE PINT: see Weights and measures. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ALE YEAST, BARM: The frothy mass of fungi produced during the alcoholic fermentation of ale. Formerly used for the leavening of bread and cakes. Often bitter, and unreliable in its leavening powers, the successful management of ale yeast required care and experience. It was only in the mid-19th century that compressed yeast such as we know it today began to replace ale yeast. (John Nott, 1726)
ALE YEAST, or BARM was the form of yeast used in baking until the middle of the 19th century (when the more convenient and reliable compressed yeast became available). It consisted of the frothy mass produced on top of ale during its fermentation. Yeast is a fungus, but in this form it handles like a liquid and was measured by the spoonful or pint. Karen Hess (1981) states that in her experience 1/2 oz of fresh compressed yeast does the work of a 'spoonful' of ale yeast.(Glasse, 1747)
ALEMBICK: the head or cap of a still, an apparatus used in distilling. Its beak conveyed the vaporous products to a receiver, where they condensed. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ALEXANDER: alexanders,Smyrnium olusatrum.Anciently in use as a pot-herb; recommended by Parkinson. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ALEXANDER: Smyrnium olusatrum, also known as black lovage, this plant somewhat resembles angelica. The buds were used in salads and were among the numerous aromatic herbs which went into mead and metheglin. (John Nott, 1726)
ALEXANDERS, appearing often, e g as Alexander leaves, 47, and Ellicksander buds, 160: this is Smyrnium olusatrum, the herb known as alexanders, horse-parsley, or black lovage. A native of Macedonia, it was introduced to Britain by the Romans, but now only grows wild. The young shoots and leaf stalks, the parts which were usually eaten, have a flavour like celery, to which the plant is related; and it was the development of improved varieties of celery which caused the cultivation of alexanders to be largely abandoned. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ALICANT WINE: Rough and probably rather sweet red wines from the Alicante region of south-east Spain. (John Nott, 1726)
ALKANET: A plant of the Anchusa family. Cultivated for its root, the inner part of which was used to give a red colouring to oils and spirits of wine. Gerard reported that 'the Gentlewomen of France do paint their faces with these roots, it is said'. (John Nott, 1726)
ALLHOLLANTIDE, ALLHOLLANDTIDE: All Hallows' Day, All Saints' Day, 1st November. (William Ellis, 1750)
ALLOMD, 419: presumably, 'treated with alum', the mineral salt, used for preserving purposes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ALLUM, ALUM: called by Evelyn 'roch-allum' in Acetaria, is an astringent salt, a double sulphate of aluminium and potassium, used in pickling and bread baking, as well as fabric dying (Hess). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ALLUM (alum): a whitish mineral salt with an astringent taste, chemically a double sulphate of aluminium and potassium. Combined with boiling vinegar in pickle recipes, it made unripe fruit and vegetables look greener. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ALLUM, ALUM: an astringent mineral salt (sulphate of aluminium and potassium, used in baking, dyeing, tanning, paper making and medicine). It was extracted from earth or rock, the latter being sometimes defined as 'rock alum'. (William Ellis, 1750)
ALMOND MILK FOR COLLATIONS: A distinction is made by Nott between 'almond milk for collations' and 'almond milk for meals'. See A 24. There were also various medicinal almond milks. See A 25-7. A 28 is an almond custard. These are all rather more complex that the almond milks of medieval cookery which consisted of pounded almonds steeped in water and wrung through a cloth. The resulting milk was sometimes sweetened with honey, or added to meat broths, with wine and spices. On non-meat days almond milk replaced animal milk and cream. (John Nott, 1726)
ALMONDS OF A GRAY COLOUR: I think that 'gray colour' here is an English rendering of the Spanish color gris, dun colour, in other words browned almonds. (John Nott, 1726)
ALMONDS. Sweet, bitter and Jordan almonds are mentioned. Jordan almonds had nothing to do with the country of that name, Jordan being a corruption of jardin, the Spanish word for garden. See Anne Wilson (1973, especially 353 and 355-7) for information on the use of almonds in England from mediaeval times.(Glasse, 1747)
ALOE: a genus of plants containing over a hundred species, distinguished by the bitter juice which they exude. They were cultivated in the West Indies. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ALTERATIVE is a type of medicine, a treatment which 'alters processes of nutrition, and reduces them to healthy action'. 'Alteratives… have a power of changing the constitution, without any sensible increase or decrease of the natural evacuations.'(William Ellis, 1750)
AMBER PLUMS: See P I go. These sound much like the famous candied plums of Elvas in Portugal. (John Nott, 1726)
AMBERGREESE, 137: ambergris, a substance produced in the sperm whale and harvested from the sea or beach in pieces that can weigh up to 200 lb. 'Greece' is a natural description of its texture, which is waxy, though the term refers to its greyish colour ('gris', grey in French). Evidently it imparted a scent rather than a flavour to the food it was prepared with. May uses it, often in conjunction with musk, for various dishes, including oysters (388), eggs (439), and to make Ambergriese Cakes (274). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
AMBERGRECE, ambergrease, am. greec, ambregreece, ambergrice, amber: ambergris. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, describes it as a 'biliary concretion in the intestines' of the sperm whale, found either floating in the sea, or in the abdomens or intestinal tracts of dead whales. It is a 'solid, fatty, inflammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour, the shades being variegated like marble, possessing a peculiar sweet, earthy odour.' It was much used in cookery, but is now restricted to perfumery. The glossary to Joan Cromwell's cookery book describes the perfume of ambergris as 'the blending of new-mown hay with the scent of violets.'(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
AMBER-GREECE: ambergris. Perfume fixative, produced by whales. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
AMBERGREECE: 'Wax-like substance found floating in tropical seas, and in intestines of sperm-whale, odoriferous and used in perfumery, and formerly in cookery'. C.O.D. In Nott's day the use of ambergreece and musk in food was already rather old-fashioned, but both perfumes appear in a number of his receipts. For the manner in which it was used see A 41-5. (John Nott, 1726)
AMBER-GRIS: a wax-like, ash-coloured substance found floating in tropical seas or extracted from the intestines of the sperm-whale. Nowadays it is used only in perfumery. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
AMBER, AMBERGREASE. These names, the confusing history of which is explained in the OED, refer to two different substances. The first is amber, a fossilized resin familiar as jewellery. The second, 'ambergrease', is an intestinal secretion of the sperm-whale, sometimes found in the animal itself but more often floating on the sea or washed up on the beach. It is a waxy solid, in lumps which weigh from a few ounces up to 200 lb (Tressler, 1927). The French saw a resemblance between it and true amber and, since its normal colour is ashy grey, called it ambre grist From this name are derived the English name ambergris and various corruptions thereof such as ambergrease. Amber formerly had a role as an ingredient in food and drink. Hannah Glasse employed it rarely (e.g. added to Steeple Cream, 143), but it appeared more often in earlier books, under the influence of mediaeval Arab traditions. (The Arabs regarded amber as an aphrodisiac and used it for this purpose.) Its use survived in France into the 19th century as an additive for chocolate as a drink, witness a famous passage in Brillat-Savarin (1826). Ambergrease is used once by Hannah Glasse, in the Icing of a Great Cake, 138; but it disappeared from this recipe in later editions. Nott (1726) had it in several recipes, but Elizabeth David, in her glossary to that work (1980), comments that its use was already rather oldfashioned in his time.(Glasse, 1747)
AMLETT: omelette or omelet. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
AMULET: Obsolete word for omelet. (John Nott, 1726)
AMULET, an old spelling of omelette. Hannah Glasse's Amulet of Beans, 103, uses egg yolks only and is really a sort of rich custard. Many earlier authors had given recipes for what we would recognize as an omelette, but she did not pick up any of these.(Glasse, 1747)
ANA: of each alike. (See Weights and measures.)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ANA: of each (Latin). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ANACKS: a type of bread made from fine oatmeal. Not for the first time, though rarely acknowledged, Ellis is quoting Gervase Markham (d.1637), a further instance of his relying on books written during the previous century rather than current manuals. (William Ellis, 1750)
ANCHOVY. Was an anchovy in Hannah Glasse's recipes really an anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) or was it a sprat (Sprattus sprattus)? Lamb (1726) says very clearly that anchovies 'are a small Sea-Fish, that being pickled in Salt, are brought to us in little Barrels.' This strongly suggests real anchovies imported from the Mediterranean (where the anchovy is abundant, although its range extends as far north as the North Sea). But Hannah Glasse herself explains how to 'make anchovies', using sprats, 155. This could be a recipe for making anchovy-substitutes, but the impression left is that what she tells you how to make is what she means when she refers to anchovies in her recipes. In any event, when following her recipes it would be appropriate to use real anchovies, whether salted and rinsed or canned and drained; but to bear in mind that sprats can make a passable substitute (witness, for example, the Norwegians and Swedes who dub canned sprats 'anchovies'), and that Hannah Glasse was referring to whole anchovies, of which one equals four of the fillets now sold in cans.(Glasse, 1747)
ANDOLIANS, 22: an anglicized version of the French word andouilles, meaning sausages made of chitterlings. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ANDOLIANS: Corruption of the French andouilles, chitterlings. (John Nott, 1726)
ANGELOTS: round Norman cheeses named after the coin called the angelot (picturing St Michael slaying the dragon) minted in Paris during the English occupation by Henry VI, and later, by King Louis XI of France. The OED cites a definition in Cotgrave's English-French dictionary of 1611. Patrick Rance (The French Cheese Book) gives examples of cheeses beyond the Norman border that took the name. In fact, the name predates Henry VI, and may have had nothing to do with the coin, but all with the Pays d'Auge, whence originated Camembert. The earliest mention of angelot, Rance confirms, is in the Roman de la Rose in the early 13th century. Compare the recipe here with that in The Compleat Cook. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ANIMALCULA: a small or tiny animal, a mite. (William Ellis, 1750)
APPLE-MOISE, 300: presumably applemos, a pottage of cooked and sieved apples, a familiar dish of the medieval period (Wilson, 1913). An example of a passing reference to a dish for which no recipe is given; it is evident from the context that May expected his readers to be familiar with it. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
APPLES: there were several apple varieties current, and mention is made of some of them in the text. The most convenient summary of varieties is in the glossary to Hannah Glasse. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CODLINS: small green apples that were suitable for coddling (gently boiling). However, Karen Hess makes clear that the etymology of the two words is different. The apple word derived from a Middle English term meaning 'hard'; the cookery descriptor came from the Norman French caudeler, to heat gently – the same root, she points out, as the word 'caudle', and coddle as in coddled eggs. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PEARMAINS: a tall five-faceted, dual-purpose apple. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PIPPINS: sweet apples, that were raised from imported European stock. The skin was usually flecked with gold. Receipt 301 specifies Kentish pippins. Davidson, in the glossary to Hannah Glasse, notes that the Red Kentish Pippin was first mentioned by the botanist John Ray in 1665. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
APPLES.
PEAR-MAINS/PEERMAINS: an apple of French origin, known since 1200, pear shaped and well-coloured. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PIPPINS: fruit of any tree grown from seed. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GOLDEN-PIPPINS: recorded as a variety as early as 1629 by Parkinson in Paradisus in Sole Paradisus Terrestris, as possibly originating from Parham Park near Arundel. The Golden Pippin, used for tarts, jelly and cider, was still being cultivated as late as the mid nineteenth century. George Washington ordered trees of this variety for his estate at Mount Vernon, but they failed to thrive. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CODLINGS: a hard apple, elongated and tapering in shape, in the seventeenth century it was used generally as the name for an apple of this shape to be cooked unripe. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RED-STREAKS: a wild apple, possibly identical with the 'Scudamore Crab', found in Herefordshire and praised as a cider apple by Evelyn in his Pomona of 1664. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GINET-MOILS: a cider-apple widely grown in the seventeenth century, producing pleasant and mild cider.The modern name is Genet-moyle. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
JOHN APPLES/APPLE-JOHN: a keeping apple, said to keep until the next year's early apples were ready, widely grown in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The name derives from their lasting until about St. John's Day (August 29). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
APPLES. According to Bradley's Dictionarium Botanicum (1728) there were fifty-four different types of apples cultivated in England, of which forty-five were good for eating or baking. Only three kinds of apples, however, are specified in the recipes: the codlin, golden pippin, and golden rennet. Bradley was clearly very partial to apples: 'There is no kind of Fruit better known in England than the Apple, or more generally cultivated. It is of that Use, that I hold it almost impossible for the English to live without it, whether it be employ'd for that excellent Drink we call Cyder, or for the many Dainties which are made of it in the Kitchen: In short, were all other Fruits wanting to us, Apples would make us amends.' (New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718, p. 21.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
APPLES. Hannah Glasse refers often to general categories of apples by collective names such as pippins and codlins; and she also lists many particular varieties, I f,4-5. The following commentary, which takes the categories first and the varieties second, must be prefaced by saying that synonymy does not always indicate identity and that relating 18th century named apples to apples growing in the 20th century is not something which can be done with precision. The same applies to other fruits, which are however treated more briefly since a survey of apples is quite enough to establish the point. *Apples under names marked thus are growing at the National Fruit Trials, Brogdale Farm, Faversham, Kent.
CODLIN, a term originally used for any small immature apple. In Elizabethan times it was used for a green, somewhat conical, apple which if parboiled (or coddled) would retain its form and could be served as 'Codlins and Cream'. The list of apples given in Bradley's Dictionarium Botanicum (1728), which incorporates the list of a nursery gardener gives but one codlin, that described by Parkinson (1629): 'The Kentish Codlin is a fair great greenish Apple, very good to cat when it is ripe, but the best to coddle of all the other Apples.'
LEATHERCOATS, an Elizabethan term denoting russet apples. There is some doubt whether it was a collective term or a specific variety (possibly resembling Lawson's Royal Russet*, or an apple now extinct). Parkinson (1629) distinguished it clearly enough from a number of russets in his list and described it thus: 'The Leather coate apple is a good winter apple, of no great bignesse, but of a very good and sharp taste.'
PEARMAIN, a name which appears in a document of 124, came to describe a tall five- sided apple splashed with red, a dual purpose apple, keeping until April. Parkinson (1629) merely distinguished between the Great Pearmain and the Summer Pearmain. Bradley's nursery gardener (1728) had the Royal Pearmain, Winter Pearmain* and Loans Pearmain*. By the latter part of the 19th century scores of named varieties of Pearmain were being listed.
PIPPINS, a name originally referring to apples which could bc raised from seed (as opposed to grafting), tended also to be applied to the dessert apples of which stock were introduced from the Continent early in the 1 6th century. Five pippins were listed by Parkinson (1629), of which Switzer (1724) named but one: 'The Golden Pippin is well known, and indeed the French own it, to be of English Extraction; is of a longish Form, yellow as Gold, the Juice thereof is very sweet, the Skin (especially where expos'd to the Sun) is often freckled with Yellow Spots; 'tis certainly the most ancient as well as most excellent Apple that is.'
RENNETING (REINETTE).This is the typical dessert apple, of moderate size, usually squat, with a mixture of red and russet, aromatic and well flavoured. By the time of Hogg (1869) the number of listed varieties was 150, compared with only four 'Rhenets' listed by Bradley's nursery gardener (1728), and a single one (the Golden Rennet) recommended by Switzer (1724). The Golden Reinette* remains the best known of the group historically, although not the best in flavour nowadays.
RUSSETINGS, RUSSETS. John Lyly (1602) was the first to use this apple term in English. Russet apples came to England from France, and are named for their colour. [Other collective terms for apples such as Costard, Quoining, etc, have not been considered here as they do not appear in The Art of Cookery.]
DEUXANS. Parkinson (1629) had equated the name Deuxann with Apple John (cf John Apple), and Switzer (1724) lists 'John Apple or Deux-Ans'; but Mrs Glasse distinguishes them. Hambledon deux Ans* was recognized about 1750 in the Hampshire village of that name as an excellent cooking apple which would keep until the next apple season began.
GILLYFLOWER*. This is mentioned by Parkinson (1629), Evelyn (1699), Switzer (1724) and others. Some would identify it with the Cornish Gillyflower*, which was 'rediscovered' in 181, but this is apparently wrong.
GOLDEN-DORSET (January) and GOLDEN DUCKET DAUSET (March). Perhaps the Golden Doucet praised by Switzer (1724) is meant in both instances.
HARVEY APPLE, or more usually Doctor Harvey*; a high quality Norfolk cooking apple mentioned by Parkinson (1629). According to Ray (1665), it was named after Gabriel Harvey, the Cambridge poet. Doctor Harvey is ripe from October to January (Mrs Glasse gives January).
JOHN APPLE* (or APPLE-JOHN). Also known more recently as Ironstone Pippin, Winter Greening and French Crab*. A cooking and cider apple known from Elizabethan times for its good quality and excellent keeping properties.
JUNEATING (JOANNETTING, JENNETTING), a dessert apple known from the 17th century and variously described as ripening at the end of June or July: the name was used of several varieties, as indicated below.
WHITE JUNEATING* (Primiting; Early Juneating; Early May). A dessert apple known before 1600), the earliest to ripen, by tradition on the Feast of St John the Baptist, 24 June.
RED JOANETTING* (whose numerous synonyms include Lammas, Margaret and Maudling or Magdalene Apple). A 17th century dessert apple, ripening about the end of July (St Margaret's Day, 20 July; St Magdalene's Day, 22 July; or Lammas Day, 1 August).
MARIGOLD. Parkinson (1629) wrote: 'The Marrigo is the same, that is called the Marigold Apple; it is a middle-siz'd apple, very yellow on the outside, shadowed over as it were with red, and more red on one side; a reasonable well relished fruit.' It appears as the Marygold Apple in the list of Bradley's nursery gardener (1728). it is possible that Mrs Glasse's Marigold was identical with the Orange Pippin* (Isle of Wight Pippin*, which had Marigold as a synonym), a first class dessert apple ripening from September to January.
MARGARET APPLE, see under Red Joanetting above.(Glasse, 1747)
PIPPINS, see under collective apple names, above, and the following six entries on varieties of pippins.
DUTCH PIPPIN. Not recorded elsewhere under this name. The Holland Pippin* could be what is meant, an old apple recommended by Switzer (1724). A first rate cooker, in season from November to March (Mrs Glasse's Dutch Pippin was in season in January).
FRENCH PIPPIN. Another variety which also figures in the list of Bradley's nursery gardener (1728) and was mentioned by Batty Langley (1729), but is difficult to identify.
GOLDEN PIPPIN*. See under PIPPIN, above. One of the greatest of English dessert apples, praised by writers from Parkinson (1629) onwards. It came into season about Christmas time (Mrs Glasse says January to February). The variety survives.
KENTISH PIPPIN. There are several apples of this name, of which the best known is a dessert or dual purpose apple ripening from October to January (Mrs Glasse's kept until January) and also known as the Red Kentish Pippin. It was first mentioned by Ray (1665).
KIRTON PIPPIN, or KERTON PlPPIN as Switzer (1724) has it, is mentioned by Ray (1665) as identical with the Broad-Eye Pippin*, a large and excellent cooking apple in use from September to January.
RUSSET PIPPIN. Referred to by Parkinson (1629), who said it was 'as good an Apple as most of the other sorts of Pippin', and cited by Bradley (1728). Otherwise there seems to be no evidence of an apple of this name.
PEARMAIN, see under collective apple names, above, and the two following individual varieties.
LOVE'S PEARMAIN. No apple of this name has been traced, but Loan's Pearmain is an old 17th century dessert apple in season from November to March. (Mrs Glasse gives the season of Love's Pearmain as January to March.)
WINTER PEARMAIN*. This is probably the oldest English apple, recorded as being grown in Norfolk in 1200. It was primarily a cooking apple, in season from December to April, but was also used for dessert and cider. A tree believed to be typical was planted by the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley in 1928.
POMEWATER, a cooking apple described in Gerard's Herbal (1633) and according to Hogg (1869) still to be found in Lancashire and Cheshire in the latter part of the 19th century.
WESTBURY. No apple of this name has been traced.(Glasse, 1747)
APPLES (William Ellis, 1750)
FRENCH PIPPIN: it is unclear which variety is meant by this description. Pippins were generically French in origin, in English eyes, and described as 'fine-flavoured, late-keeping'. Mawe & Abercrombie (1805) include French Pippin in their list of varieties. (William Ellis, 1750)
GOLD-RENNET, or Golden Reinette, an English variety – similar to Blenheim Orange – associated particularly with Hertfordshire. (William Ellis, 1750)
GOLDEN PIPPIN is first recorded by Parkinson in 1629, widely sold in the 18th century and used in tarts, cider and jelly. (William Ellis, 1750)
green: it is not clear which variety is meant by this description. (William Ellis, 1750)
HOLLAND PIPPIN is noted by Morgan & Richards as being first recorded in Lincolnshire in 1729. (William Ellis, 1750)
JOHN-APPLE is described by Morgan & Richards as a 16th- and 17th-century variety that was said to 'last until apples come again', i.e. until St John's Day (August 29). (William Ellis, 1750)
KENTISH is the Kentish Pippin, or the Colonel Vaughan, an early type, much used for tarts and cider and for sale in the London markets. (William Ellis, 1750)
LEMON PIPPIN: Morgan & Richards identify its first naming in William Ellis though it was probably known earlier. Used for drying, for eating and in tarts. It may be of Norman origin. (William Ellis, 1750)
NON-PAREIL is an eating apple of high repute in the 18th century. First recorded in 1696, it was possibly imported from France in Tudor times. (William Ellis, 1750)
PARSNIP: Ellis' most favoured variety is not listed in any of the standard authorities. (William Ellis, 1750)
RUSSETTINGS is a generic description of russet apples. (William Ellis, 1750)
APRICOT. Mrs Glasse's Masculine apricot may be the same be the same as Red Masculine, a very old and well known variety. Switzer (1724) wrote: 'The Masculine or early Apricock is a pretty little Fruit of a good Sugar'd Juice; but being small, is not so much esteem'd as the large Dutch, Orange, Turkey, Roman or Common.' These other apricots do not appear in Mrs Glasse's list.(Glasse, 1747)
ARBUTERS, a way of spelling arbutus, the strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo. This evergreen shrub bears edible, but not very interesting, red berries in the winter. Bradley (1728) commented that it grew wild in Ireland but was cultivated in England.(Glasse, 1747)
ARCHANGEL usually describes either dead-nettle or black stinking horehound. (William Ellis, 1750)
AROMATICK ROSAT: I think this means rose sugar. q.v. (John Nott, 1726)
ARRACK: a name applied to any eastern alcoholic drink of native manufacture. It is often made from the fermented sap of the coco-palm, or from rice and sugar, fermented with coconut juice. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ARSMART or arsesmart: water pepper (Polygonum hydropiper). It was so called as it would be laid in bed linen to repel fleas and would sting or make smart any bare flesh that came in contact with it. (William Ellis, 1750)
ARTICHOCKS, 448-9; VIRGINIA ARTICHOCKS, 211, 426. By 1660, the Artichock (globe artichoke, Cynara scolymos) had been grown and eaten in England for one hundred years; the unrelated but somewhat similar tasting 'Virginia' artichock (Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus), for perhaps only forty years. May does not always say which he means, but the context usually makes this clear, if 'bottoms' are taken as applicable to the globe and 'roots' to the Jerusalem.
The name 'Virginia' for the Jerusalem artichoke was due to its American origin. The accepted name Jerusalem, also dating from this period, has proved more popular. It has no connection with the city Jerusalem, but probably owes its origin to the Italian word girasole, which refers to the closely related sunflower. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ASHEN KEYS: Wing-like seed chambers of the common ash tree. Pickled ash keys were used like capers, in winter salads. (John Nott, 1726)
ASPARAGUS: the Dutch blanched their asparagus buds by covering them with straw or litter. See Bradley's Dictionarium Botanicum, 1728. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ASTERTION BUDS, an odd way of spelling NASTURTIUM BUDS.(Glasse, 1747)
AUME, aam, awm: a liquid measure used for wine and oil. A Dutch aume of wine equalled about 41 English gallons. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
AVE MARIA WHILE: time measure (about 12 seconds). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
AVENS, avence: herb bennet, wood avens, Geum urbanum. Grown as a pot herb in the sixteenth century. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
AVENS: Geum urbanum Herb Bennet. (John Nott, 1726) from Herba Benedicta, or Blessed Herb, so called because the root was worn as an amulet to ward off evil spirits Also used medicinally, and to flavour ale, tonic wines, and anti-plague waters. (John Nott, 1726)
AVENS: herb bennet or wood avens (Geum urbanum). It was used in brewing to impart the flavour of cloves. (William Ellis, 1750)
ASHENKEY: ash key, the seed of the ash, usually pickled, as in Receipt 131. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
B (top)
BACK, e g at 324: bass, i e the sea bass, Dicentrarchus Wrax. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BAGNIO is a Turkish bath as well as a place of doubtful resort. (William Ellis, 1750)
BAIN-MARIE, TO MAKE: See B 8. The receipt is for a kind of bollito misto or a very ample pot-au-feu. The name refers to the method of cooking, i.e. the pot containing the ingredients stands in a bath of barely simmering water. (John Nott, 1726)
BAKING COVER: A common kitchen utensil in Nott's day. A copper or earthenware cloche with a flattened top on which coals could be placed, so that the dish underneath cooked with heat above as well as beneath. (John Nott, 1726)
BAKING PAN: Receipt 297 contains several references to the use of a baking pan to make marchpane. It advises that the sheets of marchpane should be laid on a table and a baking pan cover put over them, 'with charcoale lighted very clear'. Kenelm Digby records different details, but points up the function of the baking pan: 'You must have a pan like a tourtiere, made to contain coals on the top, that is flat, with edges round about to hold in the coals, which set over the Cakes, with fire upon it. Let this remain upon the Cakes, till you conceive, it hath dryed them sufficiently for once; …pull the Papers [on which the marchpane was laid] …and turn them upon new Papers…remove the pan…to dry their other side.' The baking pan, therefore, was like a Roman clibanus, a vessel that could have coals heaped on all sides, and on the top, in the hearth to replicate the function of an oven – like the pot ovens used in western districts of the British Isles. Most contemporary recipes for marchpane include reference to the baking pan, though not all of them specify how it should be used. For example, A Queens Delight states that the marchpane should be baked 'in an Oven, or in a Baking-pan'. There is a mention in Sir Hugh Plat's Delightes for Ladies of an instrument he calls a 'campaign stove' which must have been akin. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BALM (as a verb), 438: probably the same as warm/warm, q v. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BALNEUM: a vessel filled with water or sand, in which another vessel is placed to be heated (bain-marie). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BALNEO, a way of spelling balneum, meaning bain-marie.(Glasse, 1747)
BALSAM is, literally, natural oleo-resin from trees or plants. The meaning was extended to an oily or resinous preparation (often using turpentine) in which various substances were dissolved or combined, usually for external application. (William Ellis, 1750)
BALSAM OF PERU was the resin of the tree Myroxylon Pereirae which grew in San Salvador. Though fragrant, it has no specifically medicinal virtues (says Britannica). (William Ellis, 1750)
BALSAM OF TOLU. Balsam, in the sense relevant here, is a compound of resins mixed with volatile oils, insoluble in water. This was originally obtained from the Near and Middle East, as Balsam of Gilead or of Mecca, and was mainly used for medicinal purposes. (Balsam is sometimes termed balm, e.g. balm of Gilead, but is not to be confused with the plant called balm.) The discovery of the New World added Balsam of Peru and of Tolu (a place in Colombia, now Santiago de Tolu) to the list. Balsam of Tolu is produced by collecting the resin from incisions in the bark of the plant Myroxylon balsamum (formerly M. toliuferum) and letting it harden into cakes in the sun. It can be used as an alcoholic tincture or dissolved in water with the aid of mucilage or egg yolk, and has been valued chiefly for its agreeable flavour. It was used by Hannah Glasse in the exotic recipe for Artificial Asses' Milk, 121.(Glasse, 1747)
BANBURY CAKE: In the 17th century a Banbury cake was a very rich and highly spiced fruit mixture enclosed in a yeast-leavened pastry, rather like the Scotch Black Bun of later days. (John Nott, 1726)
BARBARY SUGAR, 257: presumably sugar from North Africa. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BARBERRY, passim: Berberis vulgaris, a fruit which was commonly in use for flavouring and colour, and which figures in many of May's recipes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BARBERRY: Small translucent red fruit of berberis vulgaris, an ornamental garden shrub. Barberries were much used both for their decorative qualities and for their pleasant sweet-sour flavour. The fresh berries in bunches were scattered over cooked meats, and as we see from Nott's receipts (B 16-25) they were also candied, pickled, and made into jellies and syrups. (John Nott, 1726)
BARBERRY (pipperage or pipperidge): 'a pleasant Shrub, bearing beautiful Branches of yellow Flowers in the Spring, and no less delightful Clusters of red Berries towards the Autumn: The Fruit is of a sharp Taste when it is ripe, and seldom us'd any other way than in sauces.' (New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718, p. 51.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BARK is the bark of the cinchona tree, from Peru. It contains quinine. (William Ellis, 1750)
BARLEY. Pearl barley (barley which has been husked and milled) is still an article of commerce. French barley, 107, is a term often used in 17th and 18th century cookery books. Recipes for Barley Cream, for example, bid one 'take your French barley, and add cream', suggesting that French barley was simply a plump variety and that it too came in husked form. But Margaret Saville (1682) has a recipe for French Barley Cream which says: 'Tye your ffrench barley in a cloth, and dippe itt in water, then beet itt till ye huskes bee clean off. . .' So perhaps the French variety could be had either husked or unhusked.(Glasse, 1747)
BARLEY, FRENCH: a form of pearl or pot barley. OED quotes the Family Herbal of 1789 which defines French barley as being skinned, with the ends ground off. Pearl barley is a further refinement of the grain. Elinor Fettiplace describes in her receipts the preparation of French barley by soaking barley corn, beating it with a beetle in a sack, then rubbing, winnowing and wetting it again before drying the grains in the oven. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BARM, and LEAVEN, 171, 173. Barm is a specific term, meaning the actively fermenting substance which can be taken as froth from the top of brewing ale. Leaven is a general term which covers berm, yeast, or dough that contains yeast. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BARM: yeast. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BARM: the froth that forms on top of fermenting malt liquors; used to leaven bread and to ferment other liquors. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BARM, see ALE-YEAST.(Glasse, 1747)
BARROW-HOG is a castrated boar. (William Ellis, 1750)
BARTHOLOMEW-TIDE was 24 August, Saint Bartholomew's Day. The religious and trading fair which took place at his shrine in Smithfield from early mediaeval times developed into a purely popular festival by the 17th century and then into 'a carnival of the grossest kind' (Chambers, 1864). It expired in the 19th century.(Glasse, 1747)
BASEL: (?) basil. Although this word occurs in Receipt 191 (To pickle salmon), it is not certain it is an accurate transcription, nor may it ever have been the intended meaning. It is added above the line, apparently qualifying the word 'spices' and it seems an unexpected element in the recipe. No other occurrence of the herb exists in the manuscript. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BASILICON, BLACK is a description of a family of 'sovereign' (from the Greek) healing ointments: ingredients not disclosed. Ellis' favourite doctor, John Quincy (d.1722) called it a tetra-pharmacon (four ingredients). (William Ellis, 1750)
BASSE: bass, bast, a string or tape of straw or bark, specifically of lime or linden, used here to bind up a collar of bacon (Receipt 20). The word bast is found today in stitchery, and in raffia-work. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BASS. This is the inner bark of the lime or linden tree, the name is sometimes applied to similar fibres, such as split rushes or straw. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BATALIA PIE, 211. The NSOED derives the name, via French béatilles, from the Latin beatillae, meaning small blessed objects; and explains that a battalia pie is therefore a pie containing tidbits such as cockscombs and sweetbreads. Nott (1726) gives two recipes, one for Battalia Pye and the other for Battalia Pye of Fish. The latter incorporates battlements and towers in the pie-case, which might have suggested an alternative origin for the name, if the true one had not been established. Nott's first pie has sweetbreads, but his fish version lacks tidbits of the sort suggested by the NSOED. See also 'Deciphering Culinary Allusion and Illusion in Robert May's "ExtraOrdinary Pye"', by S.M.Pennell in the forthcoming Look and Feel (Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1993) (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BATLDORE: battledore. One used battledores to smash shuttlecocks over the net. In other words, the battledore was a paddle-like instrument, used primarily in the laundry, to beat things with. Receipt 210, for wafers, in which this implement figures is interestingly detailed in matters of equipment and method. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BATTLE-DOOR: wooden tool shaped like a paddle. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BAULME: balm, Melissa officinalis, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BAY SALT: See Salt. (John Nott, 1726)
BAY-SALT, see SALT.(Glasse, 1747)
BAY-SALT is made by natural evaporation in the sun in southern Europe. It is large and coarse-grained and was thought stronger than common salt but in fact it is a better material for use in salting meats, etc., because it is slower in dissolving. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEANS. There are references to the broad Windsor bean, the French or kidney bean, and the horse bean. The last was not normally eaten; it was ploughed into the land to improve stiff clay soils. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BEANS, FRENCH: Phaseolus spp, beans of the New World, of which P coccineus, the runner bean, and P vulgaris, whose numerous common names include French bean, haricot bean, and kidney bean are the most familiar. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BEANS, GARDEN: Faba vulgaris, the broad bean of the Old World. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BEARBIND: Grigson records this as a Home Counties name for bindweed (Calystegia sepium), though it was also used to name other sorts of convolvulus. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEARING: the OED defines this as the external parts of animals which are involved in parturition, citing 'The teats and external female parts…called by farmers the bearing' (1779). Ellis, however, seems to be describing a prolapsed womb. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEAT: stamp (q.v.) or grind, e.g. 'beat mustard seed'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BEATEN means pounded when applied to ingredients such as mace.(Glasse, 1747)
BEATILES, beatilia, battalia: tit-bits (e.g. cockscombs or sweet-breads) in a pie. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BEATILLO: derived from the French béatilles, which word denotes, according to Larousse Gastronomique (1938 edn.), small articles such as cockscombs, chicken kidneys, and lambs' sweetbreads that are used as fillings for vol-au-vents, tourtes and bouchées. Robert May calls his beatillo pie batalia. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BEAT-ROOT, BEATS, beetroot, beets.(Glasse, 1747)
BEAVER, or more commonly bever, is a snack between meals. Ellis' description, repeated in his Modern Husbandman, is 'they eat wholly on this [cheese] and bread at one time of the day, which they call their beaver and this is commonly about four of the clock in the afternoon.'(William Ellis, 1750)
BEEFER, 126: an animal bred for beef. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BEET, beete: Beta vulgaris, the leaf beet (red, white or black), not the root, is often meant when, as in Receipt 40, Evelyn suggests adding beetes along with potherbs. White beets are suggested in Receipts 182 and 184. These are what we call Swiss Chard (see Acetaria). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BEET-CARDS or BEAT-CHARDS: white beetroot leaves. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BELL-METTLE SKILLET, 131. Bellmetal is a kind of bronze consisting of approximately four parts of copper to one of tin, the proportions being such as to make the product particularly suitable for use in bells and, for example, Chinese gongs. In the kitchen it was regarded as superior in certain respects to plain copper or tinned copper, probably because it was less likely to affect flavour than the former and more durable than the latter. But members of the (UK) Historical Metallurgy Society have commented (private communications) that any such conclusions should be regarded as tentative, especially as the term 'bell metal' has often been used rather loosely.(Glasse, 1747)
BELONY SAUSAGES, 126: Bologna sausages, i.e. the kind of salami for which the Italian city of Bologna was already famous. In later editions Hannah Glasse adopted the spelling Bolognia. Cf the recipe 'To make Bologna Saucidges' in Lamb (1726); and that 'To make Polony Sassages to keep all the year' in Rabisha (1682); etc.(Glasse, 1747)
BERBERIES: barberries, Berberis vulgaris. Culinary and medicinal uses. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BERMUDAS, see ORANGES.(Glasse, 1747)
BEROUGELLA: a mystery fruit. It does not seem to be mentioned in any of Bradley's other works, nor in any dictionaries or other works of reference where one would expect to find it. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BETONY: Stachys officinalis. Believed to be diuretic and cleansing. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BETONY: Stachys officinalis. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BETONY: Stachys Betonica. A woodland plant held to have multiple healing and medicinal properties. (John Nott, 1726)
BETONY: Stachys officinalis, believed to be diuretic and cleansing. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEZOAR, 453: a stone-like concretion found in the stomachs or intestines of certain ruminant animals, especially the wild goat of Persia. It was supposed to have medicinal qualities. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BIBEROT: See P 12. 'To dress Partridges a biberot'. A biberon is a baby's bottle. The name of the receipt probably refers to the pappy nature of the dish. (John Nott, 1726)
BIRD-SPIT. A small spit suitable for impaling birds. There were various kinds.(Glasse, 1747)
BISK, 303, 304: the anglicized version of the French term bisque, which nowadays usually indicates a rich and creamy soup based on crustaceans such as the lobster or crab. In the 17th century it was (to take May's two recipes for Bisk of Carp) a highly complex soup with plenty of solid matter in it. May's Bisk of Eggs, 436, further demonstrates that the term embraced in his time dishes for which we would not now use it. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BISK: bisque. Note Receipts 319–21 for bisks and potages. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BISK: The anglicised version of bisque. The term is now applied mainly to creamy shellfish soups, but in the 17th and 18th centuries denoted what Nott called 'a Soop in Ragoo' to be made from pigeons, quails, chickens and so on. See B l00. (John Nott, 1726)
BISKET: Various small sugar cakes. Also sponge cakes. See B 95 and 96. In France a sponge cake is still a biscuit, in Spanish bizcocho. (John Nott, 1726)
BISKETS. A spelling used by Hannah Glasse for biscuit, which in the 18th century meant any of a variety of small cakes made with sugar. Recipes for Biskets (drop, common, and French) are given on 140. There seems to be no reference to what we would call ship's biscuits or crackers, even in the chapter for Captains of Ships (121-5). Eliza Smith (1727) had a recipe 'To make the hard Bisket', but Hannah Glasse left that one alone.(Glasse, 1747)
BISQUE (bisk): a rich soup made from boiling meat and birds or different kinds of fish. The recipe for a bisque of fish in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director (Part II, pp. I 29-35) is the grandest and most elaborate in the entire book. It is interesting to compare this bisque with Randle Holme's definition of the dish: 'a Rack of Veal, a Knuckle of Mutton, Pigeons, Chickens, a roast Capon minced: Sweet-breads, Marrow, Artichoks (and what you will) boiled or stewed together with Spices in water…' (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BISQUETS, 54, not Hannah Glasse's way of spelling biscuits (see Bisket, above), but a mistranscription of the word 'bisques' which occurs in The Whole Duty of a Woman, Hannah Glasse's source for 'A White Cullis', and in La Chapelle (1733), the source used by the compiler of The Whole Duty. However, the context is such that Hannah Glasse must have supposed, wrongly, that she was dealing with biscuits or something similar. See Stead (1983, Part 11, 19).(Glasse, 1747)
BISTORT: Polygonum bistorta. Medicinal uses. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BITE: an imposition or deception. (William Ellis, 1750)
BITTER-SWEET: woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. Purgative. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BITTERN, 153: a small or medium-sized kind of heron. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BITTERS: a general term for bitter medicines taken to promote digestion and appetite or against intestinal worms. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BITTONY. This is betony, Stachys officinalis, a herb on which Grigson (1955) comments that in Kent and Devon respectively the names bidny and bitny survive. The herb was widely used, both root and leaves. Culpeper (1669) described it as 'most fitting to be kept in a man's house both in Syrup, Conserve, Oyl, Oyntment, and Plaister'. Betony is still a common roadside plant in England.(Glasse, 1747)
BLACK CHERRY-WATER. The reference at 121 is explained by the recipe, 158, which is copied from 'Black cherry water for children' in Eliza Smith (1742).(Glasse, 1747)
BLADDER: a sheep's or ox's bladder used as an airtight covering. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BLADDER. This is specified for covering pickles, 101 and 132-3. First a bladder, then a leather. The use of two covers is probably to be explained thus. The bladder, being thin, would stretch well and give a tight seal. But a bladder is porous when wet, and not very strong. The leather fastened over it, being thicker, would not provide as good a seal but would give much greater protection against possible assaults by mice, insects etc.(Glasse, 1747)
BLADDERS, PULLETS IN: See P 257. This is not unlike a .great modern French speciality called poularde en vessie, a pullet enclosed in a pig's bladder and poached. In Nott's version the chicken is stuffed with oysters and other trifles, in the modern French one foie gras is used. (John Nott, 1726)
BLAIN is a sore or pustule, as in chilblain. In cattle, it describes specifically a swelling that erupts on the base of the tongue, stopping the beast from breathing. (William Ellis, 1750)
BLAMANGER, 297-8, BLANCHMANGER, 270. The modem word blancmange is the same, but now indicates something quite different, except for the white colour, from what bore the name in medieval times and the 16th and 17th centuries. Blancmange originated in the Arab world and reached Europe through Sicily and Spain. Its basic form involved capon flesh, teased into tiny strands, and almond milk or ground almonds, often with rosewater. In the 16th century a meatless version evolved, using cream, sugar and eggs. The capon and meatless versions coexisted in the 17th century, when Robert May was working, and his recipes show this; but towards the end of the century a new kind of blancmange was introduced—a jelly (calfs foot or hartshorn) with almond and rosewater flavouring, and perhaps including milk. It was this which in turn evolved in the direction of what Eliza Acton, for example, would have made in the 19th century, using arrowroot. Cornflour later replaced arrowroot. The 20th century commercial blancmange is a dismaying parody of its illustrious precursors. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLANCMANGERS: Nott explains what these are in B 106. His selection of receipts is representative of several centuries of European cooking and of a whole class of dishes which had come originally from the Arabs who occupied Spain and Sicily. Almonds were a constant in blancmangers. Perhaps the most typical version is the Italian one, P 112. (John Nott, 1726)
BLEW BOTTLE, 210: the cornflower, Centaurea cyanus, whose flowerheads produce a blue dye. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLEW-BOTTLES: cornflower, Centaurea cyanus. Medicinal uses (see Gerard). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLEW-BUTTONS: several medicinal plants have this name, either meadow cranesbill (Geranium pratense), periwinkle (Vinca major), believed to be aphrodisiac, field scabious (Knautia arvensis), good for skin troubles. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLEW-FIGS, 92, presumably from the colour of the fully ripened fruit, in contrast to the (unripe) green fig. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLINK: with reference to brewing, to turn slightly sour. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLOODWORT, 28: a name still applied to the red-veined dock, Rumex sanguineus, a perennial herb of the buckwheat family, found in woody places. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLOOD-WORT: probably dock, Rumex obtusifolius (bloodwort is Gerard's name for it). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLOODING: a black or blood pudding; cf. 'livering': a liver pudding. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BLOTE OVEN, 403. Obscure. Possibly a device connected with bloating or smoking fish (cf 'bloater'). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLOW, to: Ellis talks of butchers 'blowing' or inflating veal to make the meat seem white and fleshier, and soaking the joints in water. OED cites Balfour (c.1550) on the same practice, to 'cause it seme fat and fair'. (William Ellis, 1750)
BLUE BOTTLES: See F 33. A country name for cornflowers, but I wonder if here Nott did not intend borage or bugloss flowers. Fritters of borage flowers were common in Italian cookery. (John Nott, 1726)
BLUE VITRIOL STONE is made of copper sulphate – copper heated with sulphuric acid, then moistened. It is a desiccating agent. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOCLITES, 10. Not in OED, nor in any dialect dictionaries examined. From the context it is something for a salad, possibly bolete mushrooms. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BODKIN, 152. A long pointed instrument of various forms and uses. Hamlet could 'his Quietus make' with a bare one. Bodkins could be used as hairpins, or for piercing holes in cloth or foodstuffs. When Hannah Glasse says to 'job' with one she presumably means to 'jab'.(Glasse, 1747)
BOLE ARMONIAC or bole armeniac is an astringent clay-like earth formerly brought from Armenia, used as an antidote or styptic. Bole (from the Greek) meant clod of earth: another sort was brought from Lemnos. It behaved like fuller's earth. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOLONIA SAUSAGE, 36: a sausage of Bologna in Italy, from which the famous mortadella of Bologna is descended. The name was spelled in many ways; Rabisha (1682) has Polony Sassages. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BOLSTER: a surgical compress or pad of lint. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOORENCOLE (borecole): a loose, open-headed kind of cabbage, also called kale. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BORACHIO: a large leather bottle or bag used in Spain to contain wine or other liquors. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BOTARGO, 356: a Mediterranean delicacy made from the salted and dried roe of grey mullet. It is the modern Italian bottargo and French boutargue. Epulano (1598), the English translation of an Italian cookery book, had described it as 'a kind of Italian meat' and gave a recipe for making it from grey mullet roe. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BOTTOM DISH, see under SERVICE.(Glasse, 1747)
BOTTS: a parasitical worm or maggot. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOUCONS: Apparently a corruption of the Italian boccone, mouthfuls. The receipt, B 119, describes a good version of the dish. (John Nott, 1726)
BOULTER, 229: a cloth of varied closeness, through which ground com was sifted to produce different grades of flour. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BOULTER: bolter cloth, cloth sieve. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BOUTON: See B 120. A kind of terrine of forcemeat and bacon interspersed with sweetbreads, mushrooms and other small delicacies. The name is perhaps due to the round shape of the dish when cooked. (John Nott, 1726)
BRAGOT: ale boiled with honey. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BRAN / BRAND GEESE, 216-7: Brent goose or barnacle goose, the two being often confused (OED). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BRAWN, BRAWN, 149, 192-3. The term refers in a general sense to the meat parts of any animal. More particularly, a brawn was a male pig or boar. May used both senses. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BRAWN, brawne: flesh, suitable for roasting, usually the better bits, a citation in OED uses the word to distinguish the breast of fowl from its leg. Evelyn refers to the 'brawne of an hen' in his Receipt 16 for mangar blanch, echoing countless medieval recipes for similar dishes which likewise specify brawn of birds. Its restriction to meat from a pig was not then universal. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BRAWN. The word may be used in a special sense to denote boar's flesh, but its general meaning was meat, and in recent times it has come to mean a confection of potted meat. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BRAWN. The term originally meant (1) the flesh of a wild boar and by extension (2) the preserved meat preparation made therefrom, the fatty foreparts being usually chosen for the purpose. But even before the 18th century the 'boar pig' used for making brawn was a tame, not a wild, animal. See Wilson (1973, 88-9 and 103-4) for a full account and an Elizabethan recipe for preparing brawn. See also Henisch (1976, 130-1) for comments on mediaeval brawn. The term later came to have (3) the more general meaning of the fleshy part of a hind leg of an animal, not necessarily a pig. Nowadays, brawn just means (4) a kind of potted meat. See 161, where the first sense applies; and the recipe for Sham Brawn, 129, where the second sense is intended.(Glasse, 1747)
BRAWN: brined pork set in jelly, see Traditional Foods of Britain. (William Ellis, 1750)
BREAD figures frequently in May's recipes. The following were the main types:
Manchet, which was that made of the whitest, finest wheat flour;
Cheat, which was similar but of less good quality;
Ordinary or Household bread, made of coarser, wholemeal flour; and
French bread, which was enriched with milk and eggs, including what May called Pinemolet (pain mollet, soft bread, 34 and 422), for which he gives his own recipe, 239.
Where May specifies a penny manchet, 26, he means a manchet that cost a penny (its weight varied with the price of wheat). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BREAD: there were several sorts of bread current at the period, some of which are referred to below:(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
French bread: yeasted bread made with a dough enriched with milk and eggs. In Receipt 183 is a reference to both white and brown French bread. Receipt 273 states that if no French bread is available, a smaller quantity of good white bread should be substituted. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
French roule: presumably a small round loaf of 'French' bread. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Household bread: the standard bread, made from coarser flour than manchet, but usually with some bran removed. Referred to in Receipt 316. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Manchet: yeasted bread made from the whitest flour. Baked in a slightly cooler oven than household bread. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Penny loaf: a loaf which could be bought for a penny – which of course varied with the price of wheat, and the grade of flour, and so forth. Karen Hess expands on the theme, with the advice of Elizabeth David (see pp. 109-110 of Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery), with the suggestion that a penny loaf of white flour might have weighed between 12 and 16 ounces, and a penny roll or manchet of the very finest flour might have been half that size. The problem is that a size was understood, irrespective of the day-to-day variation in price. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Twopenny (topeny) loaf: cost twice as much and was twice as large. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BREAD. To achieve a full understanding of the terms used to describe loaves in the middle of the 18th century, see Elizabeth David (1977), especially 226 ff. The laws constituting the Assize of Bread were codified in 1266, and regulated the weight of a penny loaf in a manner which varied according to the prevailing price of wheat and also according to which of three different grades of wheaten flour were used: finely bolted, coarsely bolted or unbolted (the last being what is now called wholemeal). Despite the complications. of the system (compounded by regional differences in the weight of a bushel, etc), this system was workable while bakers bought their wheat direct from the farmers and paid a miller to grind it for them. But when milling began to develop into a separate trade, and flour was bought from the millers, the system started to break down. Eventually, in 1709, new laws were introduced which gave bakers a choice between selling bread under the old system (Assize Bread, of which the price was fixed while the weight varied) or baking loaves to a standard weight, with the price varying (in which case their bread was known, confusingly, as Priced Bread). It is thus 110 easy matter to work out what was meant in 1747 by 'a penny loaf, 'a halfpenny loaf', etc. However, Elizabeth David (op cit, 339-40) provides a note on 'The Penny White Loaf of the Cookery Books' which clarifies the matter. This reads, in part, as follows: '. . . it is clear that, regardless of the fluctuating weights of Assize bread, cooks knew that a penny white loaf – even if its actual cost was higher or lower – meant one made from the finest flour, enriched with milk and eggs, weighing from six to eight ounces, while an ordinary penny loaf meant one of slightly coarser flour milled from a secondary quality of wheat and probably weighing twice as much.' So much for loaves described by Hannah Glasse in terms of price. By 'French loaves' she probably meant light, enriched loaves, called French because in early mediaeval times the art of making them was more highly developed in France than in England. 'Puff' was an alternative name for this French bread. It was expensive, and often made up in the form of small cakes (cf Hannah Glasse's 'French loaf the size of an egg'). See Wilson (1973, 224-5); and Hess (1981, 114). By 'manchet' or 'French manchet' she meant bread of the finest quality. By 'household bread' she probably meant bread of the second quality described above. This is on the assumption that she was writing mainly for people in the south of England. Had she been writing for those of the north, whence she herself came, she could have meant coarser breads incorporating rye, pea flour, etc. In recreating Hannah Glasse's recipes it would be wrong to use modern commercially produced bread, and better to consult Elizabeth David (1977) and bake suitable loaves at home.(Glasse, 1747)
BREAD, FRENCH: To the English in the 18th century, French bread meant loaves or rolls made from a yeast-leavened dough enriched with eggs, butter and milk, the result being half-way between bread and brioche. (John Nott, 1726)
BREWES, 216: birds of some sort – the OED surmises a kind of snipe. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BREWICE, 43: a pottage, based on the juices of cooked meat, thickened with bread. By association, the word also meant the bread slices upon which joints of meat were served up. Brewis is still a culinary term in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BREWIS: Broth. (John Nott, 1726)
BRIMMING-TIME: the time a pig is in season. (William Ellis, 1750)
BRIMSTONE, sulphur.(Glasse, 1747)
BRIMSTONE: vernacular name for sulphur. (William Ellis, 1750)
BRISCUIT, a way of spelling brisket.(Glasse, 1747)
BROACH, 113: spit. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BROAD-THYME: Thymus pulegioides: broad-leaved thyme. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BROAD THYME, 159, was garden thyme,Thymus vulgaris, as opposed to wild thyme, T. serpyllum. Many varieties of thyme were recognized, e.g. nine by Parkinson (1629).(Glasse, 1747)
BROCKALA, BROCKELY: broccoli.(Glasse, 1747)
BRODO LARDIERO, 75 and (recipe) 109: a piquant Italian sauce composed of bacon, wine and spices. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BROOKLIME, brook lyme: Veronica beccabunga. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BROOKLIME: speedwell (Veronica beccabunga), growing near water, eaten as a salad plant, hot in taste. (William Ellis, 1750)
BROOK-LIME, 159: Veronica beccabunga, a salad plant often found with and eaten with watercress. May be spelled brooklime or brook lime. Culpeper (1653) described it as a 'hot and biting martial plant' and assumes in all his recommendations that it will be used in conjunction with watercress. He says that it may be called water- pimpernel (although it is closer, botanically, to the blue birds-eye or speedwell than to the scarlet pimpernel).(Glasse, 1747)
BROOME BUDS: buds of the broom, usually pickled, were used in place of capers. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BROOM-BUDS: Sarothamnus scoparius, diuretic. It flowers in May so a recipe involving broom buds must be made in Spring. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BROOM BUDS: Pickled broom buds were similar to capers. Evelyn says ashenkeys and broom buds 'being pickled are sprinkled among the sallets'. (John Nott, 1726)
BROWN-MAYWEED: several plants are called 'mayweed', cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), stinking mayweed (Anthemis cotula), which is powerfully irritant, and therefore unlikely, and moon-daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum). We cannot identify a brown mayweed. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BRUSOLES: B 14. Probably from the Italian brasuola, rib chops or bracia, live coal, braze. (John Nott, 1726)
BRYE: Brie (cheese). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUCKBEAN is a bog plant (Menyanthes trifoliata) with leaves that resemble a broad bean's. It had wide medicinal uses and could be a substitute for hops in beer. The name is a 16th-century homophone of the Dutch, which means goat's bean. (William Ellis, 1750)
BUCKORN: dried fish. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUGLOSS: vipers's bugloss, Echium vulgare, a herb of the sun, or common bugloss, Anchusa azurea, thought to be anti-depressant. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BULLACE: a wild plum (Prunus insititia), which is among the species categorized as damsons. It is still highly regarded as material for jams and chutneys. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BULLICE, a way of spelling bullace, a small plum (Prunus domestica ssp insititia) still common in English cottage gardens.(Glasse, 1747)
BUNT: the cavity or baggy part of a napkin when folded or tied as a bag. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUNTINGS: Small birds of the yellowhammer family. (John Nott, 1726)
BURDOCK roots, 158. Burdock, Arctium lappa and allied species, was used for medicinal purposes. The dried roots were supposed to be good for gout. The roots of A. lappa, the great burdock, are eaten as a vegetable in Japan.(Glasse, 1747)
BURGOO is a thick oatmeal porridge or gruel. Ellis thinks it identical to loblolly. The name derives (OED) from the Turkish burghul or bulgur. In N. America the name described a meat and vegetable stew or soup. (William Ellis, 1750)
BURNET: either great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), good for staunching blood, or salad burnet (Poterium sanguisorba), 'thought to make the hart merry and glad'(Gerard). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BURNT CREAM: See C 209. The receipt is from Massialot's book of 1692. (See Introduction, p.2). (John Nott, 1726)
BURRAGE, 271: borage. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BURRIDGE, a way of spelling borage, the herb.(Glasse, 1747)
BURTHEN: a quantity, here signifying no certain amount. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUSHEL, a dry measure equivalent to 4 pecks or 8 gallons (of wheat).(Glasse, 1747)
BUSHEL: a dry measure equivalent to four pecks or eight gallons (of wheat). (William Ellis, 1750)
BUTTER. Many of Bradley's recipes call for 'burnt' or 'brown' butter. This was the 18th- century term for what we call a 'roux'. Henry Howard, author of England's Newest Way in all sorts of Cookery, Pastry, and all Pickles that are fit to be Used, London, 1717 gives the following recipe (p. 156): 'To burn Butter for any Sauce Set the Butter over the Fire in the Sauce-pan, and let it boil 'till 'tis so brown as you like it; then shake in Flour, stirring it all the while; so use it for any sauce that is too thin.' Bradley took a keen interest in different ways of making butter in Holland and England. His observations that milk was still set in brass pans in many parts of England and that many farmers were ignorant of the churn's existence (see Part I, pp. 86-91) are amplified in The Gentleman and Farmer's Guide, For the Increase and Improvement of Cattle (1729), p. 157: 'It was in some Parts of the West of England, a few Years ago, very difficult to meet with one that knew what a Churn was; and I believe I was the first that introduced an Engine of that Kind into the neighbourhood of Exeter, as well as Laying aside the Brass Vessels of the Dairy, and exchanging them for those made of Earth. I found that it was not a little difficult to get over an old Custom; but at length they took the churning of Butter to be preferable to the old accustomed Way they had of raising Butter over the Fire in a brazen Kettle.' (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BUTTER, TO CLARIFY: See B 153. Clarified rather than fresh butter was much used for frying, as it still is or, for successful results, should be. All Nott's butter receipts are worth studying. (John Nott, 1726)
BUTTER-BUR roots, 158. The plant referred to is Petasites hybridus. 'Up in the north no rough little mountain stream is complete without Butterbur – so called from wrapping the big leaves around butter. "Butter Burre cloth bring foorth flowers before the leaves", wrote Gerard, "as Coltesfoot cloth"; and when the flowering stems push through the soil in early spring, they look like small button mushrooms of a livid and unusual colour . . . The leaf, to quote Gerard again, is "of such a widenesse, as that of itselfe it is bigge and large inough to keepe a man's head from raine, and from the heate of the sunne".' (Grigson, 1955) The dried roots had well known medicinal properties, especially against the plague.(Glasse, 1747)
BUTTER DISH: This probably refers to the pots or dishes in which butter was packed for sale. (John Nott, 1726)
BUTTER SQUIRT: A syringe for producing butter in ribbons or other decorative shapes. (John Nott, 1726)
C (top)
CABBIDGE CREAM: See C 1. Receipts for this dish of clotted cream in built-up layers to resemble cabbage leaves appears in several 17th century cookery books. It must have been quite difficult to achieve. (John Nott, 1726)
CABBIDGE-LETTUCE, 10, 116: the name by which a headed lettuce was known in the 17th and 18th centuries. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CAG, an old spelling of keg.(Glasse, 1747)
CALAMUS AROMATICUS: Sweet flag. The roots were candied and produced a sweetmeat with a pungent flavour midway between pepper and ginger They were also used as a flavouring in liqueurs and cordials. (John Nott, 1726)
CALFSNUT. The testicle of a calf.(Glasse, 1747)
CALL: a wedge; or caul (the membranous lining of the abdominal cavity), depending on context. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CALVER, 331. A 'calvered' salmon, according to the NSOED, was one which was fresh, or which had been 'prepared in a now unknown way' while still alive or newly dead. The term was used by many 17th and 18th century writers, usually but not always of salmon. May uses it at 346 of a flounder still alive; but at 344 he applies it to a turbot which has already been 'drawn' (gutted). The common factor seems to be that the fish is 'scotch'd', which means that gashes are cut in its side. In this respect, carver seems to mean the same as crimp, a term which came into use in the late 17th century, meaning to make gashes in a fish's side before the onset of rigor mortis, i e before death or very soon afterwards. It is tempting to suppose that the earlier term, carver, was gradually ousted by the later one, crimp; but the agnostic stance of the NSOED counsels caution. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CALVERED: cut in thin slices when fresh, then pickled. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CAMFARY LEAVES, referred to on 82, an unorthodox spelling of comfrey leaves.(Glasse, 1747)
CAMPAIGN OVEN: A portable iron or copper oven, originally developed for use on military campaigns and exercises. (John Nott, 1726)
CAMPHIRE ROOTS. Probably a misspelling of comfrey roots. These were used, e.g. in a couple of the numerous 'waters' for which Eliza Smith (1742) gives recipes. However, there is another possibility. Camphire was the usual spelling of camphor in the 18th century and earlier, and was still given as an alternative spelling by Law's Grocer's Manual in the 1890s. That same book has an interesting account of the extraction of camphor from the wood of the camphor tree (an oriental relation of the laurel and bay) and comments that the roots are the most productive pare of the tree in this respect.(Glasse, 1747)
CANARY: See Sack. (John Nott, 1726)
CANARY, see SACK.(Glasse, 1747)
CANDID LIMON: candied lemons. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CANDLEMAS: 2 February, the date of the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary (or presentation of Christ in the Temple), celebrated with many candles. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CANDLEMAS: February 2nd. (William Ellis, 1750)
CANICULAR DAYS: dog days. The hottest time of year (variously reckoned), associated with the rising of Sirius, the Dog-Star. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CANTIMPLORA: the word is Italian, in Spanish it is cantinplora. In the text, and the appended footnote, is information about these, but this letter from the late Elizabeth David to the present editor throws more light on their use and characteristics. 'I am amused,' she wrote, 'to hear that Evelyn was interested in these devices. A cantimplora was – still is – a glass vessel with a big belly and a long neck. Half up the body of the vessel is a deep pocket in which ice or snow is inserted, thereby indirectly cooling the wine in the vessel without diluting or in any way damaging it. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
'The cantimplora in Evelyn's drawing is lying on its side, and if one didn't already know what it's supposed to be it would be quite a puzzle. (I happen to own one from the days when I used to go from time to time to Malta, where these vessels were in common use.) Round about the 1660s, Tuscan nomenclature changed, and a cantimplora became the term applied to an ice bucket which was then a pretty new idea. I didn't know that the cork ice bucket was also called a cantimplora.'(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CAP OF THE STILL: see under ALEMBICK. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CAPER. 'The Caper has been propagated with great Care in our Green-Houses to very little purpose.' Thus Bradley in his New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (part III, 1718, p. 255). But by 1722 Bradley had been to Toulon, in France, where the caper grew profusely (Pierre Pomet remarked that "tis a certain Truth, that all the Capers eaten in Europe, except those from Majorca, come from Toulon'), had transported some seeds back to England, and had succeeded in naturalizing the plant to the English climate. Unfortunately, the plague was raging round Toulon in 1721 and Bradley was unable to obtain enough seeds to make the caper as common in England as he had planned. For further details and for Bradley's personal recipe for pickling caper flower buds, see ~ General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening, volume II, 1726, pp. 338, 418-19. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CAPERONS, 158: presumably a spelling of 'capers'. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CAPILOTADO, 81. The name clearly has affinities with capirotada, a word found in early Spanish cookery sources (notably Ruperto de Nola, Castilian edition of 1529), to which no precise meaning can be confidently given. Barbara Santich in PPC 12 has given translations of the two de Nola recipes and has pointed out that capirotada might mean something like 'pot-pourri' or might refer to a sauce. She also links the word with an Italian dish of 1661 called capirattata, to which Elizabeth David had drawn attention in PPC 8 and which certainly constituted a medley of ingredients.
It has been suggested that capilotado and capirotado were terms commonly used to indicate a dish of alternating layers of meat and bread, or meat and sauce. However, the examples in May's book, 'Capilotado Francois' and 'Capilotado, or Custard, in the Hungarian fashion', are unlayered and the latter has no meat.
The meaning of the term(s) has undergone considerable changes. A bread pudding known as capirotada features in the Mexican cookery of today. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CAPIVI: balsam of capivi is a resinous extract from the copaiba tree of Brazil. It was used in making lacquers, and in treating urinary disorders. Its taste is not pleasant. (William Ellis, 1750)
CAPON LARDED WITH LEMONS: See C 38. This curious receipt comes from a much older work, The Compleat Cook of 1655. The dish must surely be of Arab or Moorish origin. (John Nott, 1726)
CAPON PUDDING: This is the French boudin blanc, pounded chicken meat and eggs made up like sausages. (John Nott, 1726)
CARBONADE or to CARBONADO: 'is to cut and slash any cold joynt of Meat and Salt it and then broil it before the Fire' (Randle Holme). (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CARBONADOE, 166-8: a method of cooking meat by broiling, for example on a grid-iron before the fire or over hot embers, with prior slashing to increase the speed with which heat penetrates the meat. In Coriolanus, Shakespeare wrote: 'He scotcht him and notcht him like a Carbinado.' Some but not all of May's examples are explicit about the prior slashing. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CARDONES, 69, Cynara cardunculus: the cardoon. This thistlelike plant, which is related to the globe artichoke, was more widely eaten in England in the past. The main stalk and leaf-stalks were 'string'd' end boiled. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CARDOON: see Thistle. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CARDOONS: A thistle-like plant allied to the globe artichoke. The inner leaf stalks were eaten raw, like celery, or blanched and then stewed. Cardoons were much prized by the Italians and are still popular in Italy, where they always figure among the raw vegetables to be dipped into the hot anchovy, oil and garlic sauce called bagna calda. Braised or stewed cardoons made a popular entremets or 'intermess'. (John Nott, 1726)
CARDS SEWED ROUND: See AP 72. Cards were shallow moulds, usually of copper or tin-plate, but in this case perhaps of stiff parchment. Modern versions of cards are called sheets, e.g. bun sheets, sponge finger sheets, madeleine sheets. Instead of using one standing mould for each small cake or biscuit, sheets made of tin plate or aluminium are stamped out with say a dozen depressions in the shape required. (John Nott, 1726)
CARDUCE, CARDUS, CARDUUS, 158-9. The holy thistle, Silybum marianum, known to Evelyn (1699) as Carduus Mariae, Our Lady's milky or dappled thistle, whose white striped and speckled leaves were used medicinally to increase the flow of milk, and also as vegetable and salad. 'The young Stalk about May, being peel'd and soak'd in Water, to extract the Bitterness, boiled or raw, is a very wholsome Sallet.' Not to be confused with the blessed thistle, Cnica benedicta.(Glasse, 1747)
CARDUUS, 425: probably Cnicus (formerly Carduus) benedictus, the blessed thistle, an ingredient for things like plague water and carduus posses. It was regarded as a valuable medicinal plant. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CARDUUS BENEDICTUS: blessed thistle, a garden plant. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CARDUUS BENEDICTUS: The blessed thistle, cultivated as a medicinal herb. It appears to have been regarded as a kind of all-heal. (John Nott, 1726)
CARDUUS is the blessed thistle, Carduus (now Cnidus) benedictus, or it was the milk thistle (Silybum maritimum) which was more generally used as a food plant and to increase the flow of mothers' milk – its flavour was bitter, like the wormwood's. (William Ellis, 1750)
CARRAWAY-COMFITS: sugar-coated carraway seeds. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CARRAWAY OR CARAWAY CONFECTS: See Comfits
CARRAWAY-COMFITS, 141: carraway seeds coated many times with boiling sugar to produce small white 'comfits', Coriander seeds and aniseeds were similarly treated. Carraway comfits were often put into cakes or buns or used to decorate them. Hannah Glasse writes of 'rough' carraway-comfits, by which were meant ones which had been repeatedly coated with sugar boiled to a greater height than for smooth comfits. These were referred to by earlier authors as 'crisp and ragged coinfits'. See Wilson (1973, 302) for details of comfit-making. Modern forms of comfit include sugar-coated almonds; and aniseed comfits are still available in, e.g., parts of France, and in the guise of aniseed balls.(Glasse, 1747)
CARROT SOOP : See C 67. A good example of a sweet dish made from carrots and dried fruit. (John Nott, 1726)
CARVI (comfits): sugar-coated caraway seeds. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CASSEROLES: An excellent definition of a casserole as it was understood in John Nott's day is given in C68. (John Nott, 1726)
CAST OF ROLLS, 175: the quantity of rolls made at any one baking. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CATCHUP, see KETCHUP.(Glasse, 1747)
CAUDLE, a general term for a kind of thick drink. This was generally made from ale, sweetened and spiced, and thickened with egg yolk and often breadcrumbs or oatmeal or something similar. A caudle could also be made with water, milk, or wine (Hannah Glasse uses white wine in Brown Caudle, 120). It was used as a hot drink for invalids and was drunk out of a squat, round vessel which usually had two handles and a lid, called a caudle-cup. A hot caudle could be added to a pie, e.g. a wine caudle to a sweet meat pie.(Glasse, 1747)
CAUDLE: a warm drink of thin gruel mixed with ale or wine and sweetened, often for the sick-bed. (William Ellis, 1750)
CAUL: The inner membrane enclosing a calf foetus. In French, crepine. Cleaned, it makes an admirable natural packaging and is much used in French charcuterie to wrap mixtures of chopped pork, liver, and so on. Hence crepines and crepinettes, of which Nott's 'calves liver in a caul' is a version. (John Nott, 1726)
CAVEACH, used as a noun for Pickled Mackerel, 130, was also a verb. The term is found in many languages (French escabeche, Italian scapece, Spanish and Portuguese escabeche, etc), always meaning the pickling of cooked fish. (The similar term ceviche – also cebiche, seviche, etc – in use in parts of Latin America must surely have the same derivation, but refers to the 'cooking' of raw fish by the simple application of lime juice or something similar, which brings about many of the changes which real cooking would produce.) The OED gives the term caveach a Spanish derivation, but confusingly says that it means to pickle mackerel in the West Indian way, which suggests that it reached England from Spain via the West Indies. In fact its use in English goes back further than the OED realised; thus Hannah Glasse took her recipe for Caveached Mackerel from Mary Kettilby (1714) and there are 17th century examples. The origin of the word caveach seems to be the Persian 'sikbaj' (sometimes rendered 'sakbay'), meaning 'vinegar stew' (Perry, 1981). It would have entered the European vocabulary through the Arabs, via Spain.(Glasse, 1747)
CAWDLE: caudle, a warm, sweetened drink, of thin gruel, mixed with wine or ale. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CAWL (caul): the fatty membrane surrounding the intestines. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CEESE: Printer's error for cheese. (John Nott, 1726)
CELANDINE: Chelidonium majus. Good for eye problems. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CERSEVIL: chervil. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CERVELAS: A semi-cured sausage, for cooking. (John Nott, 1726)
CHADOCK (shaddock). Bradley thought it was 'the largest kind of Orange that is known'. This exotic fruit first excited his attention at Benjamin Whitmill's nursery garden at Hoxton. Mr Whitmill had 'received several Fruits of the Chadock Orange from Barbadoes' and used the seeds to raise plants in pots. (See the chapter devoted to the chadock orange in the Appendix to New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, 1726.) The shaddock, or pompelmoose or pomelo as it is also called, is the fruit of Citrus decumana. It resembles a grapefruit rather than an orange. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CHAFING DISH, 266: a portable brazier to hold burning coals or charcoal and designed to be set on a metal stand. Dishes of food could be finished or reheated over this, away from the fierce heat of the hearth. See Hess (1981, 22-4). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHAFING DISH: a portable brazier holding charcoal, set on a metal stand, that acted as a stove away from the heat of the main kitchen fire. 'A portable grate for coals' (Johnson's Dictionary). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CHAFING-DISH: dish to hold burning charcoal, portable grate. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CHAFING DISH OF COLES, COALS: A portable brazier or small furnace consisting of a receptacle for the burning coals or charcoal set in or on an iron, copper or brass stand. The receptacle for the coals was called a dish. Over this, food in another dish or pan was reheated, sauces finished off, and minor cooking operations carried out. An important piece of equipment—and one handed down among family heirlooms—since at least the 1 4th century, the 'chafing dish of cores' ultimately became the elegant silver-plated chafing dish set over a spirit lamp and used for the table cookery of Edwardian days. (John Nott, 1726)
CHAFFING-DISH, CHAFIN DISH. The chafing dish of coals referred to at 80 and 102 was a portable brazier to hold burning coals or charcoal and designed to be set on a metal stand. Dishes could thus be finished or reheated away from the fierce heat of the hearth. See Hess (1981, 22-4); and also David (in Nott, 198 reprint), who points out that 'the "chafing dish of coals" ultimately became the elegant silverplated chafing dish set over a spirit lamp and used for the table cookery of Edwardian dishes'. By then the 'dish' was the dish of food to be cooked or heated, not the dish containing the fire.(Glasse, 1747)
CHALDERON, chathern: chawdron, entrails. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CHALDRON, 183, 219, 220. This term can mean either a cooking pot (cf the word cauldron) or (usually in a culinary context) the entrails of an animal. 'Calves chaldron' clearly uses the term in the latter sense. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHAMBERLYE is urine. It softened the water. Ellis suggested in his book on brewing that it was used as an additive in London pale or amber malt drinks. More generally, it was the waste water from the house reycled to economize on soap. (William Ellis, 1750)
CHARDONE (cardoon): an edible thistle (Cynara cardunculus) cultivated for the fleshy stalks of its inner leaves. It is closely allied to the artichoke. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CHARDOONS, a vegetable, usually spelled cardoons nowadays. The plant, Cynara cardunculus, is like a thistle. The stalks and the thick leaf ribs are the parts eaten. Hannah Glasse's two recipes for chardoons, 97, come from The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737), which copied them from Carter (1732). It is interesting that both these earlier books thought it necessary to explain that 'Chardoons are a wild Thistle that grows in every Ditch or Hedge'; whereas Hannah Glasse omits the information, no doubt because it was superfluous for her audience, less lofty than Carter's.'(Glasse, 1747)
CHARRS are fish of the salmon family. They belong to the same genus as the brook trout, and may be sea or freshwater fish. Various landlocked freshwater populations are known, including the famous 'omble chevalier' of Lake Geneva, and colonies in Scottish, Irish and Welsh lochs. One such has for long existed in Lake Windermere in England and potted char (the modern spelling) from the Lake District was a traditional delicacy, sent down to London in shallow, decorated pots until the late 19th century. Hannah Glasse's recipe, 117, is not ascribed to the Lake District, and the recipe is common enough in the literature, but it may reflect her familiarity with the north of England.(Glasse, 1747)
CHAULDRON or chawdron is the general term for the entrails of a beast, most often a calf. (William Ellis, 1750)
CHEESE. Bradley's seven cheese recipes are of exceptional interest. They were indeed original and unpublished receipts he collected from the best dairies in England. Anyone wishing to pursue the history of 18th-century English cheese-making should also consult Bradley's main work on animal husbandry, The Gentleman and Farmer's Guide, For the Increase and Improvement of Cattle (1729) which contains recipes for Angelot-cheese, Cheshire-cheese, Cheddar, Cream-cheese, Morning-milk-cheese, Two-meal-cheese, and Fleet-milk or Flet-milk- cheese. It is worth noting that Nathan Bailey lifted all of Bradley's cheese recipes virtually verbatim for his Dictionarium Domesticum, being a new and compleat household dictionary. For the use both of city and country…, published by C. Hitch, London, in 1736. See also the entry under STILTON. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CHEESE MOTE: cheese vat. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CHERRIES. The recipes call for Kentish, Flemish, Cornelian, Morello, and Black cherries. Some of Bradley's most interesting comments about cherries are to be found in his General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening. At that time (c.1721) about ten sorts were available in the nurseries about London. Furthermore, red and white cornelian cherries were 'often gathered green, and put in Salt and Water, to imitate pickled Olives'. (See volume II, 1726, pp. 14, 121.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CHERRIES, KENTISH OR MAYDUKE: the May Duke cherry was first mentioned, as the Duke, by John Rea in 1665. This variety, and its cousins, was an English hybrid of the sweet Prunus avium and the acid Prunus cerasus. In France they were called 'Anglais'. (William Ellis, 1750)
CHERRIES. Hannah Glasse's list of varieties of cherries, 164-5, is not very extensive. She gives Duke cherries; Red Hearts; Flemish and Carnation cherries; the Morella ('Carnation Morella' should probably read 'Carnation, Morella'), Great Bearer, Morocco, Erigat and Begarreaux. The season apparently extended from April (when 'some' cherries were available) until July, i.e. all about a month earlier than in modem times, a discrepancy which applies to her fruits generally. Three of her varieties are still current. Duke cherries are hybrids between sour and sweet, which supposedly originated in the Medoc but received the name May Duke, later shortened to Duke, in England. Begarreaux, now Bigarreaux, constitute a main category of sweet cherries. It is noteworthy that Switzer (1724) equated 'Biggarois' with 'Heart Cherries' and included among them the 'bleeding Heart' and Gascoigne (probably one and the same, and possibly to be identified with Hannah Glasse's Red Hearts, although Switzer names Red Hearts too). Switzer, incidentally, also mentions the Carnation Cherry as 'a most delicate Fruit either for the Table or Conservatory'. The Morella (Morello) cherry, the third survivor, is well known.(Glasse, 1747)
CHERRIES, KERROON, also known as Caroon, were widely grown in Hertfordshire and Norfolk (Roach, Cultivated Fruits of Britain, 1985). (William Ellis, 1750)
CHESFAT: cheese vat, the mould in which the curds are pressed to make cheese. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CHEVIN, 324: chub. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHEWETS, 224, 232, 339, and (with an illustration) 378. A chewet was a kind of small round pie, containing meat or fish. See also 3, where we learn that it was taller than a marrow pie. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHIBBOLDS, green, 126. The name comes from the French ciboule, referring to Allium fistulosum, the welsh onion (nothing to do with Wales, the adjective means foreign). The leaves as well as the bulb of this species are eaten. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHIBBOLS: Shallots. (John Nott, 1726)
CHICKEN: at 214 we have 'turkey-chicken', which may be a large chicken or alternatively a confusion, since the recipe heading is 'Turkey, Chicken …', and pea-chicken (presumably small ones). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHICKEN-PEEPERS. A pleasant expression for young chickens.(Glasse, 1747)
CHIMBOL, 53, a way of spelling chibbols, meaning shallots (cf French ciboule).(Glasse, 1747)
CHINA, 454, and CHINA-ROOT, 455: the root of Smilax china, an Asian plant which is closely related to plants of North and Central America which are the source of sarsaprilla. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHINA BROTH: Quinine water. (John Nott, 1726)
CHINE: 'the whole or part of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining flesh' (SOED). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CHINE OF MUTTON: The backbone of the animal with its attached meat. (John Nott, 1726)
CHINE OF SALMON, STURGEON: The main middle cut. (John Nott, 1726)
CHIPPINS, 457: presumably chippings, in the sense of fragments of bread chipped off a loaf. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CHIRINGRATE, the title of a chicken dish, 39. The word seems to be connected with the French 'chingaras' or Italian 'zingaras', meaning gipsy style. The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737) has a short recipe for Chickens Chiringrate, no doubt taken from an earlier source.(Glasse, 1747)
CHITTERLANS, CHITTERLINGS. The smaller intestines of a pig, unless another animal is specified (as at 30, where there is a reference to calf's chitterlings).(Glasse, 1747)
CHOCOLATE-MILL. The reference, 145, is not to a grinding mill, but to a whisking mill, known also as a molinette, which was used to whisk chocolate drinks. These were often 'bound' with egg and constant stirring was necessary to prevent curdling or separation and to produce a good froth. See Maggie Black (1983) on this and on 17th and 18th century chocolate generally.(Glasse, 1747)
CHUB: Freshwater fish of the carp tribe. Also called chevin. (John Nott, 1726)
CHURDONES, another way of spelling chardoons.(Glasse, 1747)
CHURN-MILK, 117, another name for buttermilk.(Glasse, 1747)
CICATRIZE, to: Ellis writes of 'a wound that requires digesting, deterging, incarning or cicatrizing'. To cicatrize means to heal by forming a scar. (William Ellis, 1750)
CITRON: green-citron, Citrus medica. It has very thick peel and so was mostly used candied. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CITRON, GREEN: Two or three varieties of the citron were cultivated in southern Europe. The thick rinds were candied much as they are today and were also used as an aromatic flavouring for cordials and creams. Oil of citron peel was also used to perfume liqueurs. (John Nott, 1726)
CITRON, CITTRON. The thick rinds of the citron, which was grown in southern Europe, were candied, as they still are, and oil of citron was an article of commerce.(Glasse, 1747)
CITTERNS, 409: presumably citrons. Rabisha (1682) uses the same spelling. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CITTRON, citron: Citrus medica, see Davidson, Fruit, for a discussion of its virtues. It was usually employed, for instance in Receipt 140, for its peel. It is sometimes distinguished as 'green citron'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CIV: sieve. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CIVET, 274: a strongly scented substance produced by the African civet cat. Imported into England in powdered form, it was used, like musk, to give an exotic touch to food. (The 'civet' mentioned in the recipes for Pike, e g at 320, is a mix-spelling or misprint of 'rivet', the liver of the fish.) (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CIVET, a French term which means a way of preparing chicken or hare by first frying brown and then cooking in a broth. It entered the English language (in the sense here relevant – it was already present with other meanings) at the beginning of the l4th century (OED).(Glasse, 1747)
CLARRETT, clarret, claret, wine: claret. Although the usage that invariably linked claret to the wines of Bordeaux was current from about the year 1600 (OED), the earlier meaning, which distinguished wines of a claret colour (orange or light red, i.e. the French clairet) from white or fully red wines, was still found. See, for instance, the use in Receipt 129 where the maker of cherry wine is to add 'white or clarrett wine into each bottle'. Hess has a useful discussion of this point. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CLARY, 6, 172. Clary, Salvia sclarea, was used as a remedy for eye complaints (claws being the Latin word for clear), but also had culinary uses. It is slightly bitter and was used to add flavour to wine. Clary fritters, i e clary leaves fried in batter, were featured regularly in 17th century cookery books. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CLARY, clarie: clary, Salvia sclarea. Clary leaf fritters are specified in Receipt 311. Clary was otherwise used medicinally. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CLARY: Salvia Sclarea. The herb in flower was used to make a sweet wine with a muscatel flavour. Oil of clary is a perfume fixative. (John Nott, 1726)
CLARY LEAVES: the crinkled leaves of Salvia sciarea, or other plants such as celandine and species of fennel. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CLARY; CLARYE FRITTERS, 82; CLARYE LEAVES. Clary, the herb Salvia sclarea. Apothecaries interpreted the name as a form of 'clear-eye' and applied it to other plants which were thought to be beneficial to the eyes. It was more common in the 18th century to find recipes for clary wine than for clary fritters. Rabisha (1682) gave a longer recipe, To Fry Clary, which would also have produced fritters of a kind, but with an egg batter.(Glasse, 1747)
CLENGED, 2, 25, etc: North England dialect for 'cleansed'. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CLIVERS, an old spelling, which still survives in the West of England, for cleavers, the plant Galium aparine, more commonly known as goosegrass. It had and still has medicinal uses.(Glasse, 1747)
CLIVERS or (a later spelling) cleavers, is goosegrass – which cleaves or sticks to the clothing. (William Ellis, 1750)
CLOB-WEED: Grigson records this as a Gloucestershire dialect name for knap-weed; Ellis also suggests it might be knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). He seems to be describing batchelor's buttons, i.e. knap-weed. (William Ellis, 1750)
CLODDES: clots, or lumps. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CLOUTS, LINNING, 285: linen cloths, with various culinary uses. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CLOVE JELLY-FLOWERS, 160. Clove gilliflowers (or guillyflowers), Dianthus caryophyllus, now commonly known as 'pinks', belong to the carnation family. They are credited with a flavour and scent 'distinctly clove-like'. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CLOVE JULY-FLOWER, julyflower: clove-gillyflower (Dianthus caryophyllus) or clove-scented pinks. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CLOVE-GILLY-FLOWERS: clove-pinks or carnations. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CLOVE JULY-FLOWERS, GILLIFLOWERS: Carnations or pinks. (John Nott, 1726)
CLOVE GILLIFLEWERS, a name for pinks or carnations. The spelling gillyflowers is more usual.(Glasse, 1747)
CLOVE-JULYFLOWER (Clove-gillyflower): a clove-scented species of Pink (Dianthas caryophylius). (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CLOVE JULY-FLOWER or clove gillyflower is the clove-scented pink, the original of the carnation. (William Ellis, 1750)
CLOWNS-ALL-HEAL: Stachys palustris, named by Gerard as a healing herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
COALS: in most cases where this word is used, the meaning is charcoal – as might be employed in a chafing dish. There are references to wood fires, for instance in Receipt 151, where 'it must be very quick'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COAST of beef, lamb, etc, 122: side (cost, from French c8te) of beef, lamb, etc. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
COCHEREL, 127, CUTCHINELE, 203: cochineal, a brilliant red dye obtained from the dried and pulverised bodies of the insect Coccus cacti, a parasite of cacti in Central America. After the European colonization of America this product was adopted as a better source of red colouring than the 'sanders' (sandalwood) used in medieval cookery. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
COCHINEEL (cochineal): a brilliant scarlet dye-stuff made from the dried bodies of the insect Coccus cacti, so named because it is found on several species of cactus. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COCK TREADINGS, treads: opaque speck on the yolk of a fertilised egg, usually removed by straining. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COCK'S COMB (or coxcomb). The crest of a cock or cockerel, frequently used as a decorative garnish. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COCKSCOMBS. The crest of a cock or cockerel, often used as a decorative garnish.(Glasse, 1747)
COCK'S THREAD, 294: a dark speck on the yolk of a fertilised egg. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
COD: pod. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
COD-SOUNDS, the air-bladders which run alongside the spines of cod. Still regarded as a delicacy in some places, e.g. Newfoundland. The fact that they could be thoroughly dried, and would then keep perfectly, made them more important in the era before refrigeration than they are now.(Glasse, 1747)
CODDLE: to boil gently, to simmer. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CODDLE, 110, to boil or stew gently. The word survives in 'coddled eggs', but its general use (as in Sterne's pleasant phrase 'whilst dinner is coddling') has ceased.(Glasse, 1747)
CODLINS LIKE MANGO: Green unripe apples pickled to resemble pickled mangoes from India. (John Nott, 1726)
COFFINS: moulds or cases of raised hot-water paste, used as containers for any number of dishes, from meat pies to cheesecakes. Where they were made of coarse pastry, it is not inevitable that they would have been eaten. They were more a way of getting food through the baking process that anything else. In Receipt 154 are instructions for blind-baking a coffin for cheesecake. The pastry is pricked all over and filled with bran, rather than our current favourite of beans or ceramic beans. Receipt 244 says that you should butter your coffins before filling them with Naples biscuit mixture. In this instance, the word is used to describe a baking tin, rather than pastry case. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COFFIN: a mould of pastry for a pie. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
COFFINS: Pastry cases. (John Nott 1726)
COFFIN: a pie crust, shaped like a box or coffin. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COFFIN is a stout pastry case. (William Ellis, 1750)
COLERAPE: a green vegetable of the Brassica (cabbage) family. It is not clear exactly which species Bradley was referring to, but it may have been Brassica rapus, which today is just called rape. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COLIANDER: coriander. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COLLAR, 353: a length of meat or fish rolled up on itself and bound tight with 'tapes'. The flesh of a single pig could be trussed up in this way to make a very large collar, 197; or smaller pieces of the animal could be so treated. Collaring was the first stage in preparing meat or fish for pickling and sousing. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
COLLAR: a collar of beef, or any other meat, or fish, was a boned and rolled joint, bound with tapes, threads or cloths, that was usually pickled or brined before boiling. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COLLAR: to roll up meat, eels, or congers and tie them with string. Randle Holme says: 'Collar of Beef, is Beef half boiled and rowled up with Spices and sweet Herbs chopped small in it, and then baked in a Pot: Eels or Congers are so collared and souced.' (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COLLAR, to tie up in a roll and cook thus. Hannah Glasse gives a number of recipes for collaring fish and meat: see the Index. The practice survives, although it has waned in popularity.(Glasse, 1747)
COLLAR is a boned, rolled, bound, and tied joint of meat or fish. Collaring was a universal method of controlling floppy joints, as well as allowing them to be stuffed, spiced, then boiled without dissolution. (William Ellis, 1750)
COLLIFLOWER, a spelling of cauliflower.(Glasse, 1747)
COLLOP, 39, 117: slice (of meat). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
COLLOPS: thin slices of meat. In Receipt 232[bis], the collops are 'hacked' which usually means cut into smaller pieces. It almost seems as if the escalopes (note the phonetic, perhaps even philological, connection between the two words) have been cut further to become scaloppini. Compare with Hess's remarks on this word. Collops are still current usage in Scotland. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COLLOP, COLLUP. This word (of obscure derivation, says the OED, perhaps connected with coal) had from early times the primary meaning of a rasher of salt bacon, to be fried, often with eggs; 'a peculiarly British fashion of eating bacon, not known elsewhere in Europe'. The comment is from Anne Wilson (1973), who also quotes Piers Plowman on the subject and has drawn our attention to the view of Thomas Cogan (1612) that 'collops and egges, which is a usuall dish toward Shrovetide, can in no wise be wholesome meate'. Later, the term came to have the more general meaning of a slice of meat. Hannah Glasse's recipe for Collup and Eggs, 58, and her recipes for Scotch Collop, 13, illustrate this development in the meaning of the word. Scotch collops were a well-known dish from the 17th to the 19th centuries, although the manner of preparing them changed with the passage of time, as a comparison of Hannah Glasse's recipes with earlier and later ones clearly shows. It is still usual to speak of venison collops; and by extension the word seems to have acquired in some places the general meaning of thick slice (Mary Hanson Moore, 1980, records that her mother, in Yorkshire, served as 'collops' thick slices of potato which had been fried in dripping until golden brown). There was some confusion between the nouns collup (or collop) and scollop (or scallop). Indeed there still is. It is compounded by the circumstance that the French word for a slice of meat is escalope; and by the formation of a verb 'to scallop' which sometimes is and sometimes isn't connected with scallop shells. Hannah Glasse's recipe for making Collups of Oysters, 95, seems to be an early and pure example of the flowering of this confusion. It has nothing at all to do with collops, but requires the oysters to be put into scallop shells.(Glasse, 1747)
COLLOP is a small slice. (William Ellis, 1750)
COLLUPS: slices of meat, such as bacon. Randle Holme defines Scotch or Scots collups as thin, salted slices of mutton or beef, broiled and served with vinegar and butter. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COLLYFLOWER: cauliflower. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COLTSFOOT: Tussilago farfara, useful against coughs. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
COLUMBINE, collombine leaves: from Aquilegia vulgaris, are used in Receipt 184, although normally restricted to medicinal receipts. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COMFITT, comfit: sugar-coated grains, seeds, or small aromatic substances. Hence amber comfits in Receipt 61 were grains of ambergris coated in hard sugar. The most common were caraway comfits. Aniseed balls are their modern descendants. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COMFITS, CONFECTS: Sweets, usually aniseeds, carraways or coriander seeds repeatedly coated in boiling sugar until they were smooth and white, as in sugared almonds. Carraway comfit were often put into and used for decorations of cakes or buns, e. g. the original Bath buns. (John Nott, 1726)
COMFIT: a sweetmeat made from some fruit or root preserved with sugar. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COOM is the black stuff, comprising grease and dust, which works its way out of axles or bearings. (William Ellis, 1750)
COPPER. A large copper, to boil things in, would be built in to the brickwork of a large house. An establishment with a brewhouse would have a copper brewing vat in it. There would also be a laundry copper built into the kitchen or wash-house in smaller houses. In her recipe for Pork Hams, 13O, Hannah Glasse recommends using 'a Copper, if you have one', leaving open the question what sort. In Rules for Brewing, 149-50, she is referring to a brewhouse copper, which must have been a moveable one, since she says to pour the copper of water into the mashtub, not to draw it off.(Glasse, 1747)
COPPERAS is really the same as vitriol. The term embraced blue, green and white copperas, the salts of copper, iron and zinc respectively. Where it was used without qualification is usually referred to a salt of iron, ferrous sulphate, used in dyeing, tanning and making ink. (William Ellis, 1750)
CORBOLION, 301, 303: from the French court-bouillon (literally, 'short-boil'). 'Court' in this instance refers to the shallow depth of the liquid in which the fish was boiled, rather than to any length of time. La Varenne, a French contemporary of Robert May, included, in his Le Cuisinier françois (of which an English translation was published in 1653), several fish recipes 'au court-bouillon'. A typical court bouillon cited by La Varenne for use with a perch consisted of 'wine seasoned with all sorts of spices, such as salt, pepper, clove, peel of orange or lemon, "chibbolds", and onions'. May's corbolion was broadly similar. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CORDIAL: a medicine, food, or beverage which invigorates the heart and stimulates the circulation. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CORDICITRON: An error for candicitron ? (John Nott, 1726)
CORDONS, 9: see CARDONES. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CORINTHS: currants, also called raisins of Corinth. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CORKING PIN describes the largest size of pin. The epithet derives from the word calkin: either the turned-down edge of a horse-shoe so as to raise its heel from the ground, or the pins around the edge of the heel of a clog. (William Ellis, 1750)
CORN: green corn was used in tansies as a colouring agent. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CORN-SALLET, 160: corn salad or lamb's lettuce, Valerianella locusta, a small, perennial salad plant. It was particularly valued as a source of fresh greens in winter as it continued unaffected under frost and snow. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CORN OF SALT. Corn here means grain(s).(Glasse, 1747)
CORNER-PLATE, see SERVICE.(Glasse, 1747)
COURSE: see Service. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
COWAGE, 159, is an oddity. The tropical plant Macuna pruriens bears pods which have hooked, stinging hairs. These were thought to have medicinal virtues, and were taken in honey against worms, the idea being that the hooks would 'catch' the worms. So, as Geoffrey Grigson (private communication) has explained, cowage was the hairs-in-the-honey, to be bought ready for use. The name cowage comes from the Hindu kawanch, so the hairs may have been imported along with spices via the East India trade.(Glasse, 1747)
COWSLIP (or PEIGLE): Primula veris, a well-known plant with deliciously scented flowers, commonly found in pastures and grassy banks. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
COX (verb), 58. Obscure, possibly similar to 'to scotch' i.e. to cut. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CRAB CHERRIES: An error for crab apples. (John Nott, 1726)
CRACKLING CREAM: Another receipt from Massialot. (John Nott, 1726)
CRACKLING CRUST, see under PASTE, PASTRY.(Glasse, 1747)
CRAM is a ball of compressed food for cramming. Linguistically, the verb preceded the noun. (William Ellis, 1750)
CRAWFISH, 'the middling sort', 54. This reference occurs in one of the French sauce recipes, and is clearly a translation of ecrevisses, meaning freshwater crayfish, Astacus spp.(Glasse, 1747)
CRAYFISH. The recipe for A Crawfish Soop, 63, refers in the text to crayfish (200 of them, so it is quite clear that we are dealing with the small freshwater crayfish, of the genus Astacus, see above) and then again to crawfish. Thus Hannah Glasse used the two spellings interchangeably. She does not seem to have had any recipe for the spiny lobster, a larger creature which lives in the sea and is also, confusingly, referred to as both crawfish and (less often) crayfish in the general run of cookery books.(Glasse, 1747)
CREAM, FRIED: As above. (John Nott, 1726)
CREAM TOASTS: A version of pain perdu. See also Poor Knights. (John Nott, 1726)
CREED: [grain] softeneed by boiling. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CRIMP. This term, applied to cod and other fish, is not always properly understood. Its basic meaning is to contract or cause to contract. It used to be the practice to cause the flesh of cod to contract by cutting gashes in it before rigor mortis set in, i.e. shortly after or even before death. The word therefore came to mean the act of gashing rather than its consequence; and the idea that the gashing had to be carried out on live fish gained some currency among those who did not comprehend the connection with rigor mortis. Crimping fish was still a common practice in the 19th century, but is now rare.(Glasse, 1747)
CRINKLINGS are now better known as pork scratchings. (William Ellis, 1750)
CROW: the entrails or giblets of an animal. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
CROW, the mesentery of an animal, connected with the intestines. Thus the crow is given as a part of a bacon hog, 160.(Glasse, 1747)
CROW is the mesentery or giblets. (William Ellis, 1750)
CROW-GARLICK: a wild species of garlic (Allium vineale). (William Ellis, 1750)
CROWNPIECE, used as a measure of thickness, 56. Its thickness was approximately 3 mm or 1/9″.(Glasse, 1747)
CRUCIFIX PEASE, 92: unexplained by any dictionary or other reference work so far consulted. (Robert May, 1660/1685) [David Potter suggests that crucifix pease may be pickled nasturtium buds (the English version of capers) which are, of course, part of the genus named Cruciferae.]
CRUST, STANDING, BOTTOM AND TOP, 73 – 4, see under PASTE, PASTRY.(Glasse, 1747)
CUBILO: See P 135. Cubilo was a manner of writing, or perhaps pronouncing, cupola used by—among others—Celia Fiennes. (see p. 13). In the pike receipt the way of arranging the head and tail of the fish with toasts underneath was evidently supposed to resemble a cupola. (John Nott, 1726)
CUCURBITE: a gourd-shaped vessel; also a shallow vessel with a wide mouth, used for distillation. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CUE: the use of this word in Receipt 57 is not certain. In his instructions for mustard-making in Acetaria, Evelyn advises the cook to sieve (searce) through tiffany (fine silk). It is possible that the word is used here in the manuscript to denote a vessel, perhaps an abbreviation of cucurbit, which was a gourd-shaped glass used in distillation, the lower part of an alembic. The OED records Evelyn's recommendation in Kalendarium Hortense (1664) of the 'new-invented cucurbit-glass' as a trap to catch insects in the garden. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CULLEDAR, CULLENDER, CULLINDER. Colander is the preferred modern spelling for this useful piece of kitchen equipment. In the 18th century it would have been made either of earthenware (cheaper) or metal. Brass ones existed, such as that illustrated in the preceding column. Verral (1759) includes a 'pewter cullender' in his list of kitchen equipment. Massialot (1702) has a copper or tin one listed as equipment for the confectioner.(Glasse, 1747)
CULLIS: The favourite sauces of the 18th century. John Nott gives a good selection. The word came from the French coulis. A definition is in C 235, and there are brown, white, capon and general cullises, and various others under the heading of the main ingredients. (John Nott, 1726)
CULLIS, an anglicization of the French word coulis, meaning a preparation for thickening soups and stews. The directions given for making various cullises in the sauce chapter all come originally from French sources Jennifer Stead, 1983, Part 11, 17-19). The reference to a Veal and Ham Cullis (47) is not backed up by any recipe so entitled, but the two Cullises on 53 are veal and ham ones, as is that described on the first page of To the Reader.(Glasse, 1747)
CUMFERY, an old spelling of comfrey, the herb.(Glasse, 1747)
CURIOUS: meticulous. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CURRAN WATER: Redcurrant water for ices. (John Nott, 1726)
CURRANS, corrance: currants. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
CURRANS, an old spelling of currants.(Glasse, 1747)
CUTCHENELE, 203: see Cochineal. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
CYDER-PRESS, 149. Any household with several servants would have made their own beer and most would have had easy access to a cider press.(Glasse, 1747)
D (top)
DAMASCENS, the damson, or Damascene plum.(Glasse, 1747)
DAMASK PRUNE, 52: the large Damaske plum, imported in dried form from France. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
DAMSONS: Nott gives an excellent selection of receipts for this favourite fruit of the 1 8th century. An interesting one is 'damsons to keep for tarts', D 7. (John Nott, 1726)
DANE-WEED is dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus), an important medicinal plant. (William Ellis, 1750)
DAP CHICKEN, 216: dab chick, a small water bird, the little grebe, Podiceps minor. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
DEAL WINE: unidentifiable type of wine, thought to be Rhenish in origin (?imported via Deal, cf Romney wine). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
DEMIATIER: demi-setier, a measure of quarter-pint capacity. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
DETERGE, TO: Ellis writes of 'a wound that requires digesting, deterging, incarning or cicatrizing'. To deterge means to wipe off or cleanse an ulcer or sore. (William Ellis, 1750)
DIAPENTE is a medicament containing five ingredients. OED's citations mostly concern farriery, the medication being used to purge horses. (William Ellis, 1750)
DIAPER NAPKIN: referred to in Receipt 99, is a linen napkin woven with a characteristic diamond pattern. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
DIGEST, TO: Ellis writes of 'a wound that requires digesting, deterging, incarning or cicatrizing'. To digest means to 'promote healthy suppuration'. (William Ellis, 1750)
DISCUSSER is a medicine or substance that disperses humours. (William Ellis, 1750)
DISH-BUTTER, 83, was used for making pancakes. The recipe containing this term was copied whole by Hannah Glasse from The Whole Duty of a Woman (Stead, 1983, Part I, 20,). The term is explained in Wright's English Dialect Dictionary as meaning butter sold in lumps of 24 oz, a practice which survived in Cheshire into the 19th century.(Glasse, 1747)
DODDER OF THYME was also called hellbind in Hertfordshire (Grigson) and was a pleafless parasite that grew on thyme and other plants (Cuscuta epithymum). It was good for the itch or scabies, 'spleenful headaches' and other ills. (William Ellis, 1750)
DOG-PARSLEY (Æthusa cynapium), also called fool's parsley. This is not cow parsley, which is wild chervil. (William Ellis, 1750)
DORCASEE SEED: daucus seed, i.e. the seed of Daucus carota, the wild carrot. John Nott has a recipe for 'Another Purging Ale' which includes a vast number of bitter and strong agents, including 'Daucus-Seeds'. Gerard thought them a remedy for falling-sickness (Grigson, The Englishman's Flora). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
DOTTERELS. A species of plover, so guileless that it could be taken easily.(Glasse, 1747)
DOUBLE TRIPE, see TRIPE.(Glasse, 1747)
DOVES. Mention is made, 162, of turtledoves, ring-doves, and stock- or stock-dove. The turtle dove is Streptopelia turtur. It makes a melodious purr and serves as a symbol of fidelity (cf Chaucer's 'wedded turtel with hir herte trewe'). The ring dove, Columba palumbus, is now more commonly known as the woodpigeon, although the old name, which refers to the clasp of white feathers on the bird's neck, survives in parts of England. It is now the dominant member of the dove family in England, but was less common 200 years ago. The stock dove, Columba oenas, may also be called woodpigeon. It is smaller than the ring dove. The various explanations of the term 'stock' are discussed by Francesca Greenoak (1979), who does not, however, mention 'stack' as an alternative. Bradley (1736, I, 1-18) discourses on the various kinds of pigeon (dove), their use in carrying messages, and methods of preparing them for table; but he does not mention the importance of their dung as a fertilizer. Other authors make clear that this was a principal reason for maintaining a dovecote. This applied elsewhere too; as far afield as Persia, where many travellers remarked on the pigeon towers and the dung of the occupants was mainly used in growing melons.(Glasse, 1747)
DOWLET PIE: Perhaps a corruption of douillet, meaning 'daintie' tender, delicate'. (Cotgrave). (John Nott, 1726)
DRAGM, drachma: dram or drachm: see Weights and measures. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
DRAGONS: tarragon. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
DRAM, drachm is, for apothecaries, 1/8 of an ounce; avoirdupois, 1/16 of an ounce; as a fluid measure, 1/8 of a fluid ounce. (William Ellis, 1750)
DREDGE, DREGGING, 145: a mixture of breadcrumbs, typically with sugar and spice, used to coat meat. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
DRESSER: Working table or board. (John Nott, 1726)
DRESSER, 51. In the 17th and 18th centuries the dresser seems to have evolved from a simple board fixed directly to the wall, often with shelves above, into a sort of table with drawers and an undershelf as well as the shelves higher up (which were eventually incorporated into the unified piece of furniture which is called dresser nowadays). The basic purpose of the dresser was to provide a surface on which to 'dress', i.e. prepare, foods or dishes. For this the original simple board type sufficed. Hannah Glasse's recipe for Rabbits Surprise, in which the reference to a dresser occurs, can be traced back at least as far as Patrick Lamb (1726), complete with the phrase about the dresser, so it does not provide a basis for speculating about what sort of dresser she herself had or meant.(Glasse, 1747)
DRIPPING PAN, 69, 89. The illustration shows an elaborate one, with a circular well in the centre, surrounded by a grid which filtered out solid matter and covered with a protective cap. The pure juices would be ladled out of the well. Dripping was often given as a perquisite to the cook, who could sell it. It was not used in better class households, since it was inferior to butter and often had ash from the fire in it. Hannah Glasse's suggestion to sea captains that they make pastry of it, 123, is to be read in the light of her advice to the same audience on how to Pot Dripping, 122, and on its good keeping qualities (better than butter).(Glasse, 1747)
DRUDGE (to dredge): to sprinkle something with flour or powdered mixture. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
DRUDGE, an old spelling of the verb dredge.(Glasse, 1747)
DRYING STOVE: A kind of cupboard filled with wire racks or slats on which candied fruit and other sweetmeats were put to dry out. It was heated from below by a chafing dish of coals. Such stoves—in French étuves—were part of the stillroom and confectionery furnishings, not those of the kitchen proper
DUTCH BEEF, 129, 130, was clearly a form of salted beef, well known for 'slivering' easily. The recipe, 129, appears to come from Eliza Smith (1742), and it might have been thought that Dutch beef was something which had been introduced to England by William and Mary. However, Anne Wilson (private communication) has pointed out that there is a different recipe, without the sugar, for preparing Dutch beef in Rebecca Price (1681 ms, 1974 edition), and suggests that the Dutch must have pioneered a way of making salted beef so that it was tender, and that this product had been thought worth importing and copying. Another explanation, as Elizabeth David has pointed out to us, could be that Dutch meant German (Deutsch), probably referring to Hamburg beef.(Glasse, 1747)
DWARF-ELDER is also called dane-weed (Sambucus ebulus), an important medicinal plant. (William Ellis, 1750)
E (top)
EAST DUMPLINGS, 112, a reference to yeast dumplings. The word east was sometimes used for yeast.(Glasse, 1747)
EASTERLING. It would be interesting to know what bird Bradley meant. The name easterling was used in a general way to indicate people (or birds, and perhaps animals) coming from countries to the east of England, e.g. Holland and Germany. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ECHALOT or ESCHALOT: shallot, for which the French name is echalote, formerly eschalote. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
EEL POWTS, POUTS: Lota lota. Burbot, a freshwater fish. In French lotte, but not to be confused with the lotte de mer or angler fish. (John Nott, 1726)
EGG SLICE, 56. No illustration or description of an 18th century egg-slice has been located.(Glasse, 1747)
EGGS, ARTIFICIAL: See E 49, 60, 61. E 60 is an elaborate pretence from the days when eggs were forbidden on fasting days. In fact animal milk was also banned on those days, so originally almond milk must have been used. (John Nott, 1726)
EGGS TO BROIL: E 28. Cooking eggs on the end of an oven peel in a hot brick oven must have been a tricky operation requiring much practise and skill. (John Nott, 1726)
EGLANTINE: see sweet-bryar. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ELDER VINEGAR: wine vinegar that has dried elder flowers steeped in it, left to mature in the sun or by the fire (see receipt in John Nott). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ELDER VINEGAR: vinegar from elderberry wine. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ELECAMPANE: Inula Helenium. The roots were held to have medicinal properties, particularly in the treatment of pulmonary diseases. Also made into sweetmeats. See E 68 and 69. (John Nott, 1726)
ELECAMPANE or elicampane (Inula helenium) is an important medicinal root. Ellis advises it against the itch or scabies. Others recommend it against coughs and snake venom, convulsions, contusions and bad sight. It was also deemed effective against elves. (William Ellis, 1750)
ELECTUARY: a medical conserve or paste of powder mixed with honey, syrup, etc. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ELECTUARY is a medical conserve or paste of powder on a vehicle of honey, syrup, or treacle. Venice treacle (q.v.) was one of the most famous such electuaries. (William Ellis, 1750)
ELICAMPANE: elecampane, Inula helenium, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ELIXIR SALUTIS was the invention of Dr John Daffy (d. 1680) and consisted , more or less, of elecampane, liquorice, coriander, anise, senna, guaiacum, carraway, raisins, aniseed water, rhubarb and manna (The New Female Instructor, c.1810). (William Ellis, 1750)
ELLICKSANDER, see Alexanders. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ENDIVE. Cichorium intybus, known as endive in Britain and as endive, escarole or chicory in North America. The leaves can be blanched by keeping out the light. The reference to white endive, 96, must be to this practice, which had earlier been developed in France. A contemporary description of how to grow endive and how to blanch it by earthing is given in Adam's Luxury and Eve's Cookery (1744, 38-9). The authors say that it is to be used as 'a Sallet Herb in the Winter', but also give recipes for a Ragoo of Endives, very much simpler than that of Hannah Glasse. (The Belgian witloof endive, now perhaps the best known blanched variety, was not produced until about 1850.)(Glasse, 1747)
ERINGO, 455: sea holly, Eryngium mariamum. The root, pickled or candied, was widely eaten in the 17th and 18th centuries. It had a great reputation as an aphrodisiac. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ERINGO: sea holly (Eryngium maritimum), enjoyed primarily for its candied roots which, as Evelyn noted in his diary (see introduction), were a speciality of Colchester, and esteemed an aphrodisiac. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ERINGO ROOT: sea Holly, Eryngium maritimum. The roots were candied with sugar and orange-flower-water, and believed to be aphrodisiac. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ERINGO: Sea holly. Gerard says that the candied roots were 'good to be given to people that are consumed and withered with age'. See E 71 and 72. (John Nott, 1726)
ERINGO ROOT: the root of Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum). It used to be a common practice to pickle these roots and eat them. They had a reputation as an aphrodisiac. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ERINGO ROOT. The root of the sea holly, Eryngium maritimum, which was widely eaten, pickled or candied, in the 17th and 18th centuries. The candied root was a celebrated sweet and aphrodisiac (cf Shakespeare having Falstaff say 'Rain me eringoes . . .').(Glasse, 1747)
ERINGO is sea holly (Eryngium maritimum). The roots were often candied and were esteemed as an aphrodisiac. (William Ellis, 1750)
ESPARAGES: see sparages. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
EVELIN, MR: See P 81. Nott evidently had access to John Evelyn's Pomona, a treatise on Fruit trees in relations to Cider published as an appendix to his Sylva, 1664. (John Nott, 1726)
EYEBRIGHT: Euphrasia officinalis, good for the sight. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
F (top)
FAECES: dregs (Latin). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FARCE: stuffing. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
FARCE: to stuff with forcemeat, herbs, spices, etc. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FARSING, 89, 140-41: stuffing. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
FAST DAYS: the days, including the whole period of Lent, when the Roman Catholic Church required its adherents to abstain from meat as a way of mortifying the flesh and reducing carnal passions. In England this practice had been abolished as a popish institution under the Commonwealth. It is thus not surprising that almost all the mentions of fish and fast days in Bradley's cookery books occur in recipes from Roman Catholic parts of Europe. (Cf. Part I, pp. 26, 35, 60, 184.) In this respect he was attuned to the time. As C. Anne Wilson has recently pointed out, it is curiously anachronistic that the longest chapter (IX) in Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) consists of Fast day dishes. (See Petits Propos Culinaires, number 4, Prospect Books, 1980.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FASTING: 'every morning fasting' – Ellis often uses this word to indicate that you haven't eaten before doing whatever he advises. (William Ellis, 1750)
FASTING DAY, 25: a day on which no meat could be eaten. Such days were so frequent in the 16th and 17th centuries, although abolished under the Commonwealth (1649-1660), that the work of cooks was dominated to quite a large extent by the necessity to have menus for both meat and meatless days. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
FAT (noun): often for vat. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FAT: Cheese vat. (John Nott, 1726)
FEARCED: farced, stuffed. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FEARN: fern. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FEATHERFEW, 159. An alternative name for feverfew, Tanacetum (formerly Chrysanthemum) parthenium, a herb with pungent, bitter leaves which was considered to be a good remedy for fever and headaches. 'In the worst headache this herb exceeds whatever else is known', declared one 18th century author; and feverfew has recently been investigated as a means of relieving migraine.(Glasse, 1747)
FELFARE, 162, an old spelling for fieldfare, the bird.(Glasse, 1747)
FETCH is vetch. (William Ellis, 1750)
FETHERFEW: another name for feverfew, Chrysanthemum parthenium. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FILLETTING, filliting: tape for binding collars and other joints of meat. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
FILLETTING was tape for binding collars and other joints of meat. (William Ellis, 1750)
FIRKIN: a small barrel, whose size depends on the commodity stored. The ale firkin is 8 gallons: half a kilderkin, or a quarter of a barrel, but Receipts 3 and 4 show beers being made in firkins of varying sizes. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
FIRKIN is a small barrel. Its size depends on the material stored. (William Ellis, 1750)
FISH, 163-4, are (A) listed in their varieties and seasons, with (B) directions on how to choose them. A casual glance is sufficient to show that A and B are not coordinated. B is taken straight from The Whole Duty of a Woman, which had it from Eliza Smith (1727), and presents no problems. But A, the origin of which has not yet been traced, is full of puzzles. Some arise from the spelling, for example Bearbet for Burbot, Brile for Brill, Chare for Char, Guardfish for Garfish, Homlyn for the Homelyn ray, Tones for Tuna (?), and Wilks for Whelks. Kinson may conceivably be Kingston, a name cited by Couch (1877-8) for the Monkfish. But what are Crouch, Geare, Gullin, Rocket, Shafflins and Glout, and Tollis? It is doubtful whether Hannah Glasse herself knew, since list A (and for that matter list B) is not reflected in the limited range of species named in her recipes. Efforts to identify the mystery fish will continue.(Glasse, 1747)
FISH-KETTLE. To judge by 19th century examples, this would have been oval in shape and deeper than the kind now sold.(Glasse, 1747)
FISH SAUCE, 48. Hannah Glasse's statement that a Frenchman would order it for pheasant is no doubt based on the recipe for pheasant with carp sauce given by La Chapelle (1732), and copied by The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737). The fact that La Chapelle gives no fewer than 36 other recipes for fowl or game birds dressed with fish (sauce) must have made an indelible impression on everyone who read his book, as Hannah Glasse probably did (see Stead, 1983, Part II, 18-19).(Glasse, 1747)
FLAG: When used as an alternative to tape for tying meat into a collar, flag meant rush or read. (John Nott, 1726)
FLAIR or flare, the leaf or fat about a pig's kidneys. (William Ellis, 1750)
FLASHY means watery, frothy, unstable, sometimes insipid or tasteless. (William Ellis, 1750)
FLASKET, 370: a long and shallow basket. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
FLAY, TO, or flea means to skin. (William Ellis, 1750)
FLEAK, flake (of flesh) (Robert May, 1660/1685)
FLEAM is the lancet used in letting the blood of animals. (William Ellis, 1750)
FLEET is another word for skimmed. The verb describes the act of skimming. (William Ellis, 1750)
FLEUR DE FOIN: grass-seed (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FLITCH: the side of an animal, salted and cured. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FLITTING DISH: a broad dish used to lift cream off the milk, the word flitting deriving from fleet: to skim. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
FLOOTING ISLAND, 147. Floating island, one of the standard sweet dishes in the 18th century. It was an island of isinglass flummery (or other more solid material) set in a sea of jelly. See Anne Wilson (1973, 107).(Glasse, 1747)
FLORENCE FLASK: a bulbous-shaped glass bottle with a long narrow neck protected by a covering of wicker work or plaited grass in which wines and olive oil (Florence oil) were exported from Italy. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FLORENDEN: florentine, a kind of pie, of minced meats, currants, spices, etc., baked in a dish with a cover of paste; the shape of dish used for this. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FLORENTINE, FLORENDINE: A large round covered pie, the equivalent of the Italian torta and the French tourte. Nott's Egg Florendine E 55 appears, however, to be a kind of fruit and egg mincemeat baked without a crust. Cotgrave gives Florentine as the translation of tourte. (John Nott, 1726)
FLORENDINE, FLORENTINE. A large, top-crust pie, circular in shape, or the recipient in which it was baked. Wright's English Dialect Dictionary shows that in Scotland it was usually a dish of veal baked in a plate with a cover of paste, corresponding more or less to Hannah Glasse's recipe for a Florendine of Veal, 59; and that in Bedfordshire an 'Apple Florentine' was served at Christmas. The latter consisted of a large dish of pewter or similar metal filled with good baking apples, sugar and lemon, and covered with a rich roll of pastry, which was removed and cut up after the baking so that hot spiced ale could be poured over the apples. Some relationship can be discerned between this dish and Hannah Glasse's Florendine of Oranges or Apples, 113. The use of the term florentine for the big, round dish in which special apple pies were baked survived in the Yorkshire Dales until well into the 20th century.(Glasse, 1747)
FLORENTINE, florendine: a covered tart or pie, often of meat, made with puff paste, which was itself often connected by seventeenth-century cooks with the town of Florence. Karen Hess observes that many early florentines, even those of meat, contained a custard filling. The French equivalent is a tourte; the Italian, a torta. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
FLORENTINE: a kind of pie or tart. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FLORENTINE ARRACH-ROOT seems here to refer to the orris root: the edible iris, cultivated particularly around Florence. His spelling, 'arrach', might indicate orach, the wild spinach, but that was known for its leaves, not its root; nor was it especially Florentine. (William Ellis, 1750)
FLOUR. The specific requirement for Hertfordshire white flour, 151, is interesting. William Ellis (The Country Housewife's Family Companion, 1750) deals extensively with agricultural matters and associated subjects like breadmaking, with frequent references to Hertfordshire, but does not say that that county's flour was exceptional. Indeed he explains at length how to make Hertfordshire Barley-Bread 'to eat like Wheaten-Bread'.(Glasse, 1747)
FLUMMERY: A creamy confection baked on oatmeal, barley, or wheat bran. Rice flour was also used for flummery, and hartshorn flummery was stiffened with jelly made from shavings of hartshorn boiled in water and cleared with egg whites. See H 22. One of Nott's flummery receipts, F 20, seems to be nothing more than a baked custard decorated with currants. (John Nott, 1726)
FLUMMERY (Hartshorn; Oatmeal 146: French 147). A confection resembling a blancmange, usually made by steeping oatmeal or wheat bran in changes of water and boiling the liquid until it became a jelly. Hartshorn flummery, 146, a recipe from Mary Kettilby (1719), was helped to gel by hartshorn shavings. The recipe for French flummery, 147, uses isinglass, although according to Barbara Wheaton (1983) the French had largely abandoned isinglass in favour of 'corne de cerf' curing the 17th century.(Glasse, 1747)
FLUMMERY is a confection whereby oatmeal or wheat bran is steeped in water, the liquid then boiled until it became a jelly. (William Ellis, 1750)
FONTINEAC, 148. The wine Frontignac, a muscat wine made at the French town of that name and often called for in English 18th century recipe books. However, imports of French wines were at a low ebb for most of the century, because of the frequent wars, and efforts were made to imitate Frontignac among other French wines. Gooseberry wine was sometimes known as 'English Frontiniac', and Jane Grigson (private communication) has drawn attention to the affinity justifying this. Frontiniac is delicious with dessert gooseberries; and gooseberry wine, especially when flavoured with elderflower, is indeed reminiscent of the real Frontiniac.(Glasse, 1747)
FOOL: It will be seen from Nott's receipts that in his day a Fool was something like a modern trifle but made with bread instead of cake. Norfolk Fool, F 22, consists of layers of fine bread covered with a very rich custard and decorated in typical Stuart fashion with dates stuck upright and 'carved sippets' round the dish. Westminster Fool, W 67, is very similar. Whitepots, W 75 to 85, are mostly baked versions of the same dish, but Norfolk whitepot is what Robert May (see p.l) called Norfolk Fool. Nott's Gooseberry Fool, G 34, is closer to our own fruit fools but made with a rich custard rather than cream. (John Nott, 1726)
FORCE, to farce, to stuff.(Glasse, 1747)
FORCED MEAT (forcemeat): finely chopped, spiced, and highly seasoned meat, for use as a stuffing or garnish. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FOSSETS, faucets.(Glasse, 1747)
FRAMAGE, A LA. Framage is a curious way of spelling fromage, the French for cheese.(Glasse, 1747)
FRANK: a sty. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FRANK: pen or sty, usually used for fattening. (William Ellis, 1750)
FRAZE or FRAIZE or FROIZE (froise or fraise): a kind of pancake or omelet, often containing slices of bacon. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FRAZE(S), 82. A word spelled in many ways by various authors, e.g. fraize and froize. It means a kind of pancake or omelette, often containing slices of bacon.(Glasse, 1747)
FRENCH-COWSLIP: either Pulmonaria gallorum, a kind of lung-wort, presumably considered medicinal; or the auricula (Primula auricula). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
FRENCH LOAF, ROLLS: See Bread, French. (John Nott, 1726)
FRENCH LOAVES, 36, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
FRICANDOES, 45. Included in the list of culinary terms given by Massialot (1702): 'a sort of Scotch Collops, made of thin slices of Veal well larded and farced, which are afterwards to be dress'd in a Stewpan, close cover'd, over a gentle Fire.'(Glasse, 1747)
FRICASEE (fricassee): Randle Holme defines this as 'varieties of Meat boiled together in a Broth'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FRICASEY. A 17th century definition of this was 'varieties of Meat boiled together in a Broth'. But the word developed a wider meaning and could refer to slices of meat fried or stewed; also to a dish of sliced, hard-boiled eggs, of chicken, rabbit, fish, etc. Originally, the preparation was always started by frying the chopped-up ingredients in butter, then adding liquid and thickening with eggs or flour. See Wilson (1973, 101); and Rebecca Price (1681 ms, 1974 edition, 74, 94, etc).(Glasse, 1747)
FRITTER MOULDS: Iron or brass moulds hammered out in fanciful openwork shapes such as the 'coats of arms' called for in F 34, and fixed on the end of long handles. The way in which they were used—and no doubt still are—is explained in F 34. The idea was that the cooked fritters, when detached from the irons or moulds, would appear as escutcheons, rosettes, stars, and so on. Fritter irons had been introduced to France, I think from Italy, (one is illustrated in Scappi's famous Opera of 1570), at some time during the 17th century, and are one of the most fussy and maddening of culinary utensils. (John Nott, 1726)
FRITTERS OF ARMS, 306: fritters which were made by pouring batter on to hot metal shapes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
FRITTERS, WATER: These are made from an early version of choux paste. (John Nott, 1726)
FROISE, 224. Fraise became the more usual spelling of this term. It meant a kind of pancake or omelette, often containing slices of bacon. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
FRUITS. There are references in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director to the apple, apricot, barberry, berougella, bullace, cherry, crab apple, currant, damson, fig, gooseberry, grape, lemon, lime, mango, melon, mulberry, orange, passion fruit, peach, pear, pineapple, plum, prune, quince, raspberry, and shaddock. Bradley's main works on fruit growing were: New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718; New Experiments and Observations, Relating to the Generation of Plants, I724; and The Fruit Garden Display'd…, 1732. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FULLER'S EARTH, 150. A fine clay used for cleaning purposes, especially for the removal of grease, which it absorbs readily. The best was said to be of a dull grey-green colour and to come from Buckinghamshire and Surrey.(Glasse, 1747)
FUMETORY, 159. The plant fumitory, Fumaria officinalis, whose names are derived from the Latin fumus, meaning smoke. There are various explanations of this, one being that the plant was engendered in a mysterious way, like smoke, and another that it makes people weep as smoke does. Its leaves were used with roses to make a syrup which had medicinal uses.(Glasse, 1747)
FUMETTE: French for flavour, bouquet, scent, or the high smell of meat. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
FUMITORY is the plant Fumaria officinalis. (William Ellis, 1750)
FURMETY, 420: frumenty, an ancient dish of which the basis was hulled wheat grains boiled until they burst and then treated in the way described by May, or even further enriched. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
FURMETY, FRUMETY, FRUMENTY: A richly flavoured and highly nutritious dish of very ancient origin. Whole wheat grains are hulled and lengthily cooked in water until the grains burst, forming an almost jelly-like framework in which the grains are held in suspension. Various enrichments of milk or cream, eggs or saffron, spices and sugar or dried fruit, were added and the frumenty was briefly recooked. At early medieval feasts it was the obligatory accompaniment to venison, or porpoise on fish days. Later it became, in some parts of the country, a Christmas dish. In others it was eaten at mid-Lent. Barley grains were often used instead of wheat. Nott's rice frumenty, R 41, would make only a poor substitute for wheat or barley. Nott's direction in F 40 'take two quarts of hull'd boil'd wheat' probably indicated that the ready-boiled wheat was bought in from a local market. (Farmers' wives prepared and sold the boiled wheat in basins, either from their own market stalls, or to dairy shops and even from door to door, so that townspeople were saved the lengthy preparatory processes of hulling and boiling the grains). (John Nott, 1726)
FURMITY. Hannah Glasse's spelling of frumenty, a preparation thus described by Elizabeth David (in Nott, reprint, 1980). 'A richly flavoured and highly nutritious dish of very ancient origin. Whole wheat grains are hulled and lengthily cooked in water until the grains burst, forming an almost jelly- like framework in which the grains are held in suspension. Various enrichments of milk or cream, eggs or saffron, spices and sugar or dried fruit, were added and the frumenty was briefly recooked. At early mediaeval feasts it was the obligatory accompaniment to venison, or porpoise on fish days. Later it became, in some parts of the country, a Christmas dish. In others it was eaten at mid-Lent. Barley grains were often used instead of wheat.'(Glasse, 1747)
FURMITY, frumenty: whole-husked grains, cooked in water, then often enriched with cream, eggs, spices, sugar and dried fruits, or a combination of these. (William Ellis, 1750)
FURNACE: The anglicised version of the French fourneau, the built-in cooking stove which was a late 17th century innovation. When Nott gives directions to 'make an end of cooking it on the furnace' he means that a sauce, fricassee, ragoo, etc. was to be finished off over the stove rather than on the old chafing dish of coals. (John Nott, 1726)
FUS, fuzz (of mussels, i.e. the byssus, 135).(Glasse, 1747)
G (top)
GALANGAL, GALINGAL: Alpinia officinarum, the Lesser Galangal. The roots taste something like ginger. They were imported from Java and much used as a spice in European cookery. (John Nott, 1726)
GALINGALE: Roots of the sedge, chufa nuts. But the word is often used when galangal is meant. (John Nott, 1726)
GALLENDINES, 43, 144, 153: the same word as galantine, but with a meaning different from the modern usage. As May's recipes show, 17th century galantine in England was a dark-coloured sauce made with vinegar, breadcrumbs, cinnamon and sometimes other spices. Earlier, in medieval times, a galantine had been a jellied dish of fish or fowl or meat; and it was this version, which lingered longer in France and eventually crossed in a somewhat new form to England at the beginning of the 18th century, which evolved into our present galantine. See C Anne Wilson (1980). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GALLENDINE: galantine, but meaning, as in Robert May, q.v., a deep red sauce, not the more familiar cold, jellied meat confection. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
GALLIMAUFRY: See G I and 2. The receipts are much simpler than one might expect from the name. (John Nott, 1726)
GALLIPOT, a small earthen glazed pot, mostly used by apothecaries for storing drugs and ointments, also by artists for mixing colours. The reference to small, high gallipots shaped 'like a Sugar-loaf at Top', 143, suggests that Hannah Glasse meant gallipots with conical ends, the inversion of which would produce the 'steeple' shape of Steeple Cream.(Glasse, 1747)
GALLIPOT is a glazed earthenware jar. (William Ellis, 1750)
GALLY-POT, 164: a small pot of glazed earthenware mainly used by apothecaries, but also serving in the kitchen, e g to stew preserves. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GALLY-POT: small earthen-glazed pot, used especially by apothecaries for ointments and medicines. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GALLY POTT: glazed earthenware pots. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
GALLYPOT (gallipot): a small earthen glazed pot. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GAMBON: gammon, a smoked ham. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GARAVANZAS: chick-peas (Spanish). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GARBIDG, 348: garbage, meaning entrails. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GARGET may describe a swelling in an animal's throat, but Ellis uses it to define a hard swelling in, or inflammation of a cow's udder. (William Ellis, 1750)
GELLY: jelly. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GENTIAN ROOT: the root of certain plants of the family Gentianaceae. The one most used for its bitter, tonic, and cleansing effects was that of Gentiana futea, which had to be imported. But there were related plants in England which could be put to the same purpose. See Geoffrey Grigson for an account thereof. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GERMANDER can refer to several species of plant. It is most likely that here it is the speedwell or bird's eye (Veronica chamaedrys) – a rather sinister number, according to Grigson. (William Ellis, 1750)
GIAM, RASPBERRY. Raspberry jam. Jam, as we know it, seems to have evolved around the latter part of the 17th century. Earlier confections of fruit and sugar were boiled until of a glue-like consistency and then dried and stored in boxes. The same applied to early marmalades. During the 17th century marmalades began to be made in a less solid form and were kept in jars. This development was widened in scope to include jams. The first published recipe for a jam of this new kind seems to have been that of Mrs Eales for Apricock-Jam (1718). She had ones for 'Rasberry Jam' and Cherry-Jam too. But the distinction between jams and marmalades at that time was obscure. Massialot's recipe for Apricot Marmalade (1702) was like that of Mrs Eales, but he said that you could either put the product in jars or go on and dry it and store it in the traditional way. The origin of the word jam is itself uncertain, as Dr Johnson (1755) remarked, but some have thought it derived from the French j'aime (I like). The earliest use of the word 'jam' seems to be that by Rebecca Price (1681 ms, 1974 edition), where 'Jam of damsons' is given.(Glasse, 1747)
GILL or GROUND IVY: a bitter, aromatic herb with bluish purple flowers and kidney- shaped leaves. It was the chief bitter before the general adoption of hops and widely used as a medicine. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GILL or jill is a quarter of a pint. (William Ellis, 1750)
GILLIFLOWERS: Wallflowers. See also clove gilliflowers. In Nott's receipts the latter are intended. (John Nott, 1726)
GINET-MODS, gennet-mod: see Apples, Ginet-moils. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GINNEY BEANES: presumably this refers to beans from the New World, Phaseolus spp. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
GIRKENS, a spelling of gherkins.(Glasse, 1747)
GLASSES, DOUBLE, 164. These were glass storage vessels, of large capacity. People drank from goblets or cups. If they drank from a glass, they called it a drinking-glass. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GLASS; GLASSES, WIDE-MOUTHED. See under MEASURES.(Glasse, 1747)
GLEAN: the placenta or after-birth, especially of a cow. The verb denotes the act of shedding the after-birth. (William Ellis, 1750)
GOATSBEARD (goat's-beard) or TRAGOPOGON: a herb, Tragopogon pratensis, which was also known as 'Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon', since it closes up at that time. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GODIVOE, GODIVEAU: Forcemeat of veal, chicken, fish. The receipts come from French sources and are self-explanatory. (John Nott, 1726)
GOODWETS, 162: Godwits, marsh birds of the genus Limosa, not unlike the curlew, but smaller. They had a high reputation as table fare. Sir Thomas Browne, writing about the natural history of Norfolk (1662-8) observed that they 'were accounted the daintiest dish in England and I think, for the bignesse, of the biggest price'.(Glasse, 1747)
GOOSE POWDERED: Salted goose. (John Nott, 1726)
GOOSEBERRIES TO KEEP: From this receipt it can be seen that almost modern methods of bottling fruit were already practised in Nott's day. (John Nott, 1726)
GOOSEBERRY. Bradley, in New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (part III, 1718, p. 45), enumerated the most commonly grown gooseberries as: the large White Dutch Gooseberry, which produces an excellent Fruit for eating; the large Amber-Gooseberry, which I think is better for baking while they are Green, than to be kept 'till they are ripe; the Walnut-Gooseberry, which exceeds all others for the Largeness of its Fruit, which may be gather'd for baking sooner than any other; and the Champain-Gooseberry, which is ripe at least a Fortnight before any of the rest; and besides these, the Black Hairy-Goosberry is pleasant enough. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GOOSEBERRY TANSEY: G 39. Tansey in this case is an error for wine. (John Nott, 1726)
GRAILINGS, GRAYLING: Nott probably intended the freshwater grayling. (John Nott, 1726)
GRAINS OF PARADISE: Melegueta pepper, Guinea grains, Guinea pepper. The seeds of afromomum, a plant related to cardamom, but indigenous to those parts of tropical West Africa once known as the Guinea coast. Grains of Paradise were freely used, or at any rate called for, in early medieval and renaissance cookery. The small black seeds are contained in an oval pod usually discarded before the seeds are used. In Eastern cookery the whole pod is often put into lentil dishes, pillaus and so on to scent and flavour the dish, but is not eaten. (John Nott, 1726)
GRAINS OF PARADISE or Melegueta pepper is the fragrant seed of an African fruit widely used in traditional medicine, or as a stimulant (in its home territories), as an ingredient of hippocras, or as a fraudulent boost to the strength of ales. It has something of the taste of cardamom. (William Ellis, 1750)
GRAPES. The following kinds are mentioned in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director: Black Cluster, Fronteniac (black, blue, red, white), Lombardy, Muscadella, Muscadine (white), Raisin, St. Peter, Warner. Interestingly, this list bears very little relation to the grapes Bradley advocated growing in New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (part III, 1718, p. 2): 'The kinds which I find ripen best in England are, the July grapes, the Black Currant Grape, the Early sweet Water Grape, lately brought from the Canaries, the Arbois or French sweet Water Grape, which are all ripe with us by the middle of August, if rightly managed and the season be kind, and after them the Muscadines, Parsley Grapes, Fronteniacs, Claret and Burgundy Grapes: I have seen all these in great perfection with us… See also the entries under VINES/VINEYARDS and WINES. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GRAPES. The varieties named by Hannah Glasse, 165, number three only: Cluster, Muscadine and Cornelian grapes. Otherwise she refers only to categories, such as 'all the forward Kind of Grapes' which appear in forcing frames in June; 'Some . . . Grapes' appearing in July: and just 'Grapes' in September. The three named varieties are ascribed to August. Lawrence (17t5) had written: 'There are several Sorts of grapes, and most of them in some good Years will ripen in England; but I think the White Muscadine and the Black Cluster-Grape are the only sorts that one may depend upon . . .' No other mention of the Cornelian grape has been traced.(Glasse, 1747)
GRASS, asparagus.(Glasse, 1747)
GRASS, HONEYSUCKLE, is white clover. (William Ellis, 1750)
GRASS, LADYFINGER, is birds-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). (William Ellis, 1750)
GRASS, RAY, is presumably rye grass. (William Ellis, 1750)
GRASS, TYNE, tyne, or tine, is a wild vetch or tare. Ellis likens it to the cliver as a strangling weed in the wheatfield, yet persists in naming it and ladyfinger grass as his two favourite meadow grasses (Modern Husbandman). (William Ellis, 1750)
GRASS LAMB, see LAMB.(Glasse, 1747)
GRASS-ONIONS: Avena elatior, a species of wild oat, so called from the rounded nodes of the root-stock. (William Ellis, 1750)
GRAVELINS, 216: some kind of waterfowl, says the QED; but their identity is elusive. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GRAVES are a by-product of making tallow, the meat or skin residue after melting animal fat, often used as animal feed. (William Ellis, 1750)
GRAVEY: Randle Holme defines this as 'the fat as runs from Beef, or other Meat, in roasting'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GREATTS: groats. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
GREEN FISH: Gadus Virens. Fish of the cod family, eaten fresh. (John Nott, 1726)
GREEN-GEESE: a goose under four months old. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GREEN SAUCE: a green-coloured sauce made from herbs such as sorrel or sour dock and eaten with meat. See the article by Jennifer Stead in Petits Propos Culinaires, number 3, Prospect Books, London, 1979. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GREEN TRUFFLES, see TRUFFLES.(Glasse, 1747)
GRENADE: A mixture made up to look like a pomegranate. See G 57. (John Nott, 1726)
GRENADINE: A more elaborate version of a grenade. See G 58. (John Nott, 1726)
GRID-IRON: a framework of parallel metal bars, used for grilling flesh or fish over a fire. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GRIDIRON. A framework of parallel metal bars, used to support meat or fish being grilled over a fire. This could be more or less elaborate. The example in the drawing is a very elegant one.(Glasse, 1747)
GRISKINS. The lean parts of the loin of a bacon pig.(Glasse, 1747)
GRISLES, Gristle.(Glasse, 1747)
GROAT: a coin, last issued for circulation in 1662, valued at four pence. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GROMWELL, 159: Lithospermum officinale, referred to as gromel by Culpeper (1653), who drew attention to the hard, stony seeds which gave the plant a reputation for curing 'the stone'. Grigson (1955) suggests that Gromwell was the lithospermum, or 'stone seed', of Dioscorides.(Glasse, 1747)
GROSS PEPPER, 306: coarse pepper. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GROSS, GROSSE, PEPPER: coarsely ground or cracked peppercorns. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
GROUND-IVY: Glechoma hederacea, bitter medicinal herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GROUND-PINE is the plant Ajuga Chamæpytis, so called from its resinous smell. (William Ellis, 1750)
GRUMELSEEDS: gromwell, Lithospermum officinale; the seeds were much used in the seventeenth century for kidney-stones and urinary troubles. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
GRUNDS, 149, in the phrase 'clenged from the grunds', applied to oysters. From the context one might suppose that this meant 'cleaned from their shells', but the word 'grunds' itself is mysterious, unless perhaps it means 'oyster grounds' and the thought is that the oysters would be taken from these grounds and immediately cleaned. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GRUTS. Groats: hulled, or hulled and crushed, grain, usually oats but sometimes wheat, barley or maize.(Glasse, 1747)
GUBBINGS, 126: small pieces, fragments – see the NSOED on gubbin. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GUM-ARABACK and GUM DRAGON, 286 and 177. Gum arabic and gum tragacanth were two similar substances used in cookery and medicine for their ability to stabilize, thicken and emulsify. The former is a secretion exuded by certain shrubs of the genus Acacia. The latter is obtained from shrubs of the genus Astralagus, and is inferior except for laundry work.
In his recipe for a boiled pudding, 177, May uses only gum tragacanth. The Piramedis Cream recipe, 286, in which he uses both, was taken from The Queen's Closet Opened (1655), Part 1, and may not have represented his personal practice. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
GUM ARABIC: A gummy substance obtained from trees of the acacia family. When dissolved in cold water Arabic gums form a stiff mucilage. (John Nott, 1726)
GUM-ARABIC: a viscid secretion exuded by certain species of the genus Acacia. It hardens in drying but is soluble in water. According to Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia (London 1741): 'It is very transparent, glutinous upon the tongue, almost insipid to the taste, and twisted somewhat in manner to a worm.' (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GUM-ARABICK, 143. A viscid secretion exuded by certain species of the genus Acacia. It dries hard, but is soluble in water and has for long been used in making confectionery. It is the best of the natural gums for stabilizing, thickening and emulsifying, and was a standard ingredient in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was also regarded as having intrinsic value as a food, and there were legends about its ability to provide complete nourishment. A certain Hasselquist, who wrote about his journeys in the Levant, stated that 'the Abyssinian caravan of 174' ran out of provisions and that a thousand people then subsisted for two months on a diet of nothing but gum arable.(Glasse, 1747)
GUM DRAGON, gum dragon water: gum tragacanth, obtained from the shrub Astralagus and used to stabilize, thicken and emulsify. Thought inferior to gum arabic, and used for laundry work. (Glossary to Robert May)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
GUM-DRAGON: Gum tragacanth. A stabiliser or stiffener. Obtained from partially soluble gums exuded by various species of Astragalus, low spiny bushes growing in Crete, Turkey, Greece, Persia and commonly known as goat thorn. (John Nott, 1726)
GUM-DRAGON (tragacanth): a 'gum' or mucilaginous substance obtained from several species of the genus Astralagus in the form of whitish strings or flakes. It is only partially soluble in water. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
GUM DRAGON, 143. An alternative name for gum tragacanth, a mucilaginous substance obtained from shrubs of the genus Astralagus. Used like gum arable, but inferior to it except in laundry work.(Glasse, 1747)
GUM GUAIACUM is the resin obtained from the American tree Guaiacum officinale, often called lignum vitae. (William Ellis, 1750)
GUM-WATER, 138, a solution of gum arabic in water or orange-flower water.(Glasse, 1747)
GUTTS: puddings, for instance the liver pudding described in Receipt 41, were often boiled in intestines or guts rather than pudding bags. Robert May suggests that marrow puddings, when done in this way, should be toasted before the fire after boiling. John Nott explains how to fill the guts using a funnel. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
H (top)
HABEDINE, HABERDINE: Salted or sun-dried cod. The word is of Dutch origin. (John Nott, 1726)
HACK: to chop in pieces. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
HACKIN. This is one of Bradley's most interesting regional recipes. According to A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, the word first came into written use in the 1670s and persisted in Cumberland well into the 18th century. In an undated manuscript the antiquarian John Aubrey (1626-97) confirmed that: 'The hackin must be boiled by day break, or else two young men must take the maiden by the arms, and run her round the marketplace.' (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HAIR-BAG, 54. This was made of horse hair, woven in the shape of a jelly bag on to a circular wooden frame.(Glasse, 1747)
HALFPENNY ROLE, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
HALFPENNY WELCH DISH, 101t, was evidently a cooking recipient, large enough to take 2 lb of potatoes plus 1 pint milk and some other ingredients. Wright's English Dialect Dictionary attributes the following to the west Somerset dialect: 'Two sizes of brown cups or mugs with handles, made of cloam or coarse earthenware, are always called . . . Halfpenny or penny dish; they hold about a pint and quart respectively.' The Welsh Folk Museum at St Fagans state (private communication): 'Ewenny potteries in Glamorgan, SE Wales, were producing everyday domestic earthenware vessels suitable for dairy, kitchen and table use in the 18th century. The adjective "Welch" therefore may have been used to describe a dish made in Wales, or in the general sense of being foreign.' They conclude that Hannah Glasse's phrase may be taken at face value, the dish being earthenware, made in Wales and bought for a halfpenny. (Its capacity would have had to be bigger than the halfpenny 'cup' of Somerset; but this could be explained by supposing that the Welsh dishes did not have handles and were therefore cheaper.)(Glasse, 1747)
HARBERDINE, 381: haberdine, large salt cod (according to Cutting, 1955). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HARLE: Haul. See LE 43. (John Nott, 1726)
HARSH: hash. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
HARSLETT, 145, also spelled haslet, now usually harslet. The word is derived from the Latin hasta, a spear, and originally meant a piece of meat suitable for spit-roasting. It then came to mean especially the pluck of a pig, ready for roasting, and then more generally the inner organs of an animal; but which and how many organs is not always clear. Dr Johnson (1755) defined the term as meaning 'tine heart, liver and lights of a hog, with the windpipe and part of the throat to it'. Bradley (1732) had specified the liver, heart and crow (membrane covering the intestine), and had directed that they be put on the spit in a fixed order. May's 'Harslet of a bacon hog' is certainly for spitroasting. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HARTICHOCKE, hartic: artichoke. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
HARTS-EASE: heartsease, wild pansy, Viola tricolor and Viola arvensis. The vernacular names of this pretty little plant, such as Leap up and kiss me, Love in idleness, etc, suggest that it brought ease to the heart in a romantic rather than a medical sense. However, Hannah Glasse includes the seeds of the plant in her recipe for Plague-Water along with scores of other ingredients. Recipes for Plague-Water were common in the 17th and 18th centuries. That in A Book of Simples (a manuscript book of receipts compiled during the first half of the 18th century and edited by Lewer, 1902) calls for 'Pansie flowers leaves and all'.(Glasse, 1747)
HARTS-HORN, 205. Shavings of the antlers of a stag or hart were the source of a jelly. Nott (1726) is among the authors who explain how to make it. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HARTS-HORN: deerhorn, used as a source of gelatine. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
HARTSHORN: the shavings of a stag's antlers were used to set a jelly. In Receipt 194 it is combined with isinglass (see below), a material that eventually superseded hartshorn in most cookery operations. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
HARTSHORN: See H 22. The receipt is self-explanatory. (John Nott, 1726)
HARTSHORN: a hart's horn or antler, used as a source of gelatin. Pierre Pomet says that many remedies were prepared from hartshorn and mentions that hartshorn jelly was good against fainting and swooning fits, heartburn, convulsions, falling sickness, hysterical fits, and worms. (See volume II, p. 257.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HARTSHORN, HARTSHORN-JELLY. Hartshorn was formerly the main source of ammonia, and its principal use was in the production of smelling salts. But hartshorn shavings were used, in a different operation, to produce a special and edible jelly. In her recipe for a 'Hedge-Hog', 85, Hannah Glasse assumes that the reader will know how to make this. A full recipe is given by Nott (1726), and earlier authors.(Glasse, 1747)
HARTSHORN is deerhorn, used as a source of gelatine. (William Ellis, 1750)
HARTS-TONGUE, 450: a fern, Phylitis scolopendrium, with prettily curled fronds, which had medicinal uses. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HARTS-TONGUE, Hearts-tounge: fern. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
HART'S TONGUE, a fern, Scolopendrium vulgare.(Glasse, 1747)
HASH: 'to stew any Meat that is cold', says Randle Holme, adding that a hash 'is a Dish-meat made of any kind of flesh minced or in Gobbets stewed in strong broth with Spices, and served up in a Dish with Sippets…' (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HASHY: hachis, stew (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
HASLET is defined by Hannah Glasse, 160, as the liver, crow, kidney and skirts of a hog. Dr Johnson (1755) already gave as an alternative the modern spelling harslet and defined the term as meaning 'the heart, liver, and lights of a hog, with the windpipe and part of the throat to it'. The spelling haslet persists in certain counties.(Glasse, 1747)
HASLET has come to mean a meat loaf or porky confection, especially in Lincolnshire. Ellis and his contemporaries, however, used it to describe the offal of a pig that might be roasted or cooked in one way or another. (William Ellis, 1750)
HASTY PUDDING, a simple, quickly mace pudding, almost omnipresent in early cookery books up to the 19th century. It was usually made of flour or oatmeal boiled in milk or water to produce a kind of thick batter. Hannah Glasse's receipt, 111, is entitled 'A Fine Plain Pudding', but she refers to it as a Hasty-Pudding in the text. This recipe is one of the many which she copied from The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737), including the requirement for 'laurel leaves', which are to be treated with caution (see LAUREL LEAVES).(Glasse, 1747)
HAUTGOUT, hautgoust: when applied to foods, it means properly, even strongly, seasoned, and is often found next to, or in relation to, discussion of French or foreign dishes. Already, by the end of the seventeenth century, it was being used to denote 'high' in the sense that game is high (OED). In Acetaria, Evelyn also uses the word to denote a gourmet or man well versed in the art of cookery. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
HEATH-COCKS, 216, and HEATH POUTS, 214: the male and the young, respectively, of the black grouse, a bird formerly present in English heathlands but now found only in Scotland. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HEATH-COCK: Blackcock, black grouse. Tetrao tetrix. (John Nott, 1726)
HEATH-COCK, 162. The male of the species Lyrurus tetrix, the black grouse, also known as heath-cock (and as Canada grouse in North America). A heath-pout was a young specimen.(Glasse, 1747)
HEATH POUTS, 162, see HEATH-COCK and POUTS.(Glasse, 1747)
HERBS etc. The recipes call for angelica, aniseed, basil, bay leaves, caraway seeds, chervil, dill, fennel seeds, gill or ground ivy, hyssop, juniper tops, marjoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, ros solis, sage, savvy, and thyme. Bradley divided herbs, by which he meant all plants whose leaves or stems or flowers were used as food or for their scent and flavour, into two categories: 'sallet herbs' and 'pot-herbs, and such as are commonly used for stilling'. The former category included borage blossoms, burnet, celery, chervil, corn salad, cowslips, cresses, dandelion, endive, lettuce, mustard, nasturtium flowers, purslane, radish, rape, 'seed leaf', sorrel, spinach, tarragon, turnips and violet flowers. The latter category included angelica, balm, camomile, carduus or thistle, clary, dill, dragons, fennel, hyssop, lavender, marjoram, mint, pennyroyal, rosemary, rue, sage (red sage and tea sage), tansy, thyme, and wormwood. (See New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718, pp. 159-74 ) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HERMODACTYL is a medicinal root, usually of the crocus family. (William Ellis, 1750)
HERN, 153: presumably heron. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HERN: Heron. (John Nott, 1726)
HIERA PICRA is a purgative drug, usually made with aloes. (William Ellis, 1750)
HIGLER or higgler is an itinerant dealer who buys in the country to sell at market. (William Ellis, 1750)
HIPPOCRAS, HIPOCRAS BAG: a bag used in making hippocras, a medicinal drink consisting of spiced wines. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
HIPPOCRASE, HIPPOCRASS: Spiced and sweetened wine, red or white. A survival from the middle ages. It was usually served after dinner with the banquet or dessert course. The name came from the Hippocrates sleeve or long linen bag through which the wine and spices were filtered. (John Nott, 1726)
HIPPOCRATIC SLEEVE: a bag for straining, said to resemble Hippocrates' sleeve, and 'more probably shaped like the gown-sleeve of a medieval medical man' (C. Anne Wilson). Hippocras, the sweet and spiced red wine, took its name from this implement. The wine was passed through the sleeve, which contained the spices, and absorbed their flavours during transit. One or more passes would be made to vary the degree of absorption before consumption. See D. Hartley, Water in England, p. 205 for commentary and illustration. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
HITCH, TO: to extend. Ellis' use of the word does not seem to accord with OED. (William Ellis, 1750)
HOAR, TO, means to grow mould. (William Ellis, 1750)
HODGE-PODGE, 17. A word whose original form was hotchpotch, indicating a mixture of many ingredients. As Marian McNeill (1963) explains, the same thing is known in Scotland as Hairst Bree (Harvest broth), and 'is made only when the kail-yard is in its prime, and the soup is fragrant with the juices of young growing things'. Hannah Glasse uses the broth as a medium for cooking veal, with the addition of many spices. Not a common recipe in this form. But there are 14th and 15th century recipes, e.g. in the 'Forme of Cury' and 'Ancient Cookery' (ea. Warner, 1791) for 'Gees in hoggepot' and 'Goos in hochepot'.(Glasse, 1747)
HOG'S HARSLET (haslet): the entrails of a hog. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HOG'S LARD or HOG'S SEAM: the rendered and clarified internal fat of a pig's abdomen. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HOGOE: See H 39. Probably from hautgout, highly seasoned. But the receipt, a stuffed cabbage made as much as possible in the shape of a duck with a real duck's head stuck on the top, must be a survival from the middle ages when cooks were fond of creating fanciful beasts and birds out of all manner of ingredients. (John Nott, 1726)
HOGOO is a variant spelling of haut goût, words which spawned a bewildering collection of alternatives. (William Ellis, 1750)
HOLLY BUR, 342; HOLLYBURT, 346; HOLYBURT, 345. These are all variant spellings of what is now called halibut. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HOOP: wooden hoop or ring, used when baking cakes in the oven. Receipt 205 makes clear that the hoop was in some instances buttered, and there was a bottom paper, also buttered, to protect the tender cake mixture from the heat of the oven floor. The paper was sometimes a tin sheet. Receipt 207 suggests the cake maker might want to use a 'panne' or a 'hoope'. Receipt 322 contains more instructions about varying the size of a hoop to fit the style of cake being baked, and attaching the hoop to the insulating papers on the bottom. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
HOOP is a wooden or tin hoop or ring used for baking cakes or pastry. The tin ones often came apart, as they do today, being joined together by a hinge and removable pin. (William Ellis, 1750)
HORE-HOUND: probably Marrubium vulgare, white horehound, used against coughs. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
HORN KEGG, 330. Probably the garfish, Belone belone, also known as hornbeak, and in Danish and Swedish as hornfisk. It is presented by May as an alternative to mackerel, and its cooking characteristics are not dissimilar. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
HORNY: hardened. (William Ellis, 1750)
HORSE BEAN: see under BEAN. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HORSE-BEAN is the broad bean but unimproved and grown as a field crop for fodder. (William Ellis, 1750)
HORSE-MINT is another name for water mint (Mentha aquatica). Gerard was eloquent about its smell (Grigson). (William Ellis, 1750)
HOT HERBS ON THE HOT BED, 165. The authors of Adam's Luxury and Eve's Cookery (1744) give a contemporary account of the use of beds prepared with hot dung, mainly for raising melons, cucumbers and kidney beans, but also for forcing mint, sorrel and tansy in January.(Glasse, 1747)
HOUSE-LAMB, see LAMB.(Glasse, 1747)
HOUSHOLD BREAD, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
HOVE, TO, means to swell. (William Ellis, 1750)
HUMBLE-PIE: a pie made of umbles or numbles (deer offal). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
HUMBLES are innards – usually referring to deer, but Ellis concentrates on 'hog's humbles'. (William Ellis, 1750)
HUNGARY WATER is named after a queen of Hungary, which one is never revealed. It is a distillation of wine and essence of rosemary. (William Ellis, 1750)
HURDLE: a sieve, strainer, or colander. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
HYACINTH, CONFECTION OF: This must mean the dried and powdered roots of the wild hyacinth or bluebell, used for their balsamic properties. (John Nott, 1726)
HYPERICON, tutsan (from toute-saine, i.e. entirely wholesome): Hypericum androsaemum. Aromatic, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
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JACK: Jackfish. Young pike. (John Nott, 1726)
JACK-IN-THE-HEDGE, that caused so much trouble to the lady that gathered it in error, was probably Alliaria petiolata or hedge garlic, its name deriving from 'jakes' on account of its offensive smell (said one botanist, see Grigson). (William Ellis, 1750)
JACK-JUMP-ABOUT is a folk name for ground elder, as well as for wild angelica. But the most likely candidate for this lady's discomfiture (was she the same lady as picked jack-in-the-hedge?) is birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculata). (William Ellis, 1750)
JAGGING-IRON: an instrument for ornamenting pastry etc., usually made in the form of a wheel with teeth, set in a handle. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
JAM, see GIAM (Glasse, 1747)
JAMAICA PEPPER: Pimenta officinalis. Pimento berry or allspice. (John Nott, 1726)
JAMAICA PEPPER: allspice. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
JAMAICA PEPPER, 133, see PEPPER.(Glasse, 1747)
JAMAICA SPICE, Jamaica pepper is allspice. (William Ellis, 1750)
JANACKS: a type of bread made from fine oatmeal. Not for the first time, though rarely acknowledged, Ellis is quoting Gervase Markham (d. 1637), a further instance of his relying on books written during the previous century rather than current manuals. (William Ellis, 1750)
JAMBALS and JEMELLOES, 274: both terms are derived from the French 'jumelles, twins. Biscuits so called from the way in which the paste was twisted into double loops, as in pretzels. Alternatively called jumbles.' (Elizabeth David, 1980) May also has jumballs, 271. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
JARMANDER, 159. An old spelling of germander. The reference is to wall germander, Teucrium chamaedrys, a medicinal plant of central and southern Europe introduced to England in the Middle Ages. Margaret Savile (c. 1680 ms) and Eliza Smith (174t) have 'waters' which include this germander.(Glasse, 1747)
JELLY, CALVES FEET: See JE 9. Note the whites of la eggs for clarifying and 3 pounds of sugar for sweetening. Also the swanskin jellybag for filtering. (John Nott, 1726)
JELLY, HARTSHORN: See H 22 and 23. The hartshorn was used in shavings. (John Nott, 1726)
JELLY BAG: Receipt 195 refers to a flannel bag; Receipt 209 to a double bag. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
JEMELLOES: From jumelles, twins. Biscuits so-called from the way in which the paste was twisted into double loops, as in pretzels. Alternatively called jumbles. (John Nott, 1726)
JENNATINGS, JENNETINGS, see under APPLES.(Glasse, 1747)
JOG is a protuberance or swelling. Ellis' use is the only citation in OED (though from The Modern Husbandman, not The Country Housewife, indicating how much the one book leaned upon the other for text and information). (William Ellis, 1750)
JOLE, jowl (of pickled salmon, 89).(Glasse, 1747)
JORDAN ALMONDS: not from Jordan, but deriving from the word jardin, i.e. cultivated, large almonds, normally supplied from Spain. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
JORDAN ALMONDS: Jordan is a corruption of jardin, garden. (John Nott, 1726)
JOWL: the head of a fish. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
JUGG. A 'jug' for jugged hare would have been such that it could be stood in a larger pan of boiling water without risk of the water getting into it. So far as can be ascertained there was no 'jug' specifically designed for the purpose of jugging hare. The hare was of course in pieces when jugged.(Glasse, 1747)
JUJUBES: fruit of various species of Zizyphus, including the Spina-christi. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
JULIAN: ?Julienne. (John Nott, 1726)
JULY FLOWER, julyflower: see Clove July flower. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
JUMBALLS: sweet cakes or biscuits, usually in the form of rings or knots, originally interlaced. The name comes from 'gemmel', twin finger-ring. See Wilson (1973, 269).(Glasse, 1747)
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KECKS or kex (in OED) is the generic term for the hollow stem of any umbelliferous plant such as wild angelica or hogweed. Grigson gives it as a particular name of hogweed (cow parsley). (William Ellis, 1750)
KERMES: A red colouring and dye made from the dried bodies of the pregnant female insect called in Arabic qirmiz. The tiny kermes insect feeds on evergreen oaks and was formerly believed to be a berry. Kermes was used to colour cordials and liqueurs, as in the Italian alkermes. (John Nott, 1726)
KETCHUP. The name ketchup was derived from the Indonesian kecap (formerly spelled ketjap), which means soy sauce. A sauce made from mushrooms, with excellent keeping qualities, was thought to resemble soy sauce and thus gained its name. In the time of Hannah Glasse ketchup was always mushroom ketchup. Her reference to 'foreign ketchup', 156, is interesting. It seems likely that she meant ketchup as made on the continent (? in Holland) and that, since the addition of only one more ingredient (mum, q.v.) to her own recipe would create the right effect, this was not very different. See also the recipe for ketchup for use at sea (to keep 20 years, enough for the longest voyage!), 121. This last recipe is closely related to that in The Lady's Companion (1743, II, 193-4).(Glasse, 1747)
KETLE: kettle. An open metal pot used to boil food. The word is still current with this meaning in North American cookery. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
KIBE-HEEL: kibes are chilblains, especially on the heel. OED suggests the word may stem from the Welsh. (William Ellis, 1750)
KICKSHAWS: Corruption of quelque chose. Term applied to fancy food, usually in contempt. But see K 2. (John Nott, 1726)
KICKSHAWS. A word derived from the French 'quelque chose' and meaning a fancy dish, a 'little something'. The term denoted an 'elegant, dainty dish' in the 16th century, but later was often used in a derogatory sense (thus Addison, writing in the Tatler in 1709, referred to 'That Substantial English Dish banished in so ignominious a Manner, to make way for French Kick-shaws'). However, the recipe 'To Make Kickshaws', 84, is quite straightforward.(Glasse, 1747)
KILDERKIN: 16 gallons of beer. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
KILDERKIN, a cask holding 16 to 18 gallons.(Glasse, 1747)
KITKEYS, 162: properly kite-keys, the 'keys' or fruit of the ash tree. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
KIVER, kive, keever: a large vessel for fermenting liquors; a mashing tub. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
KIVER is a shallow trough or tub, often describing that used for kneading dough, or for storing milk before skimming. (William Ellis, 1750)
KNEADING TROUGH: the wooden trough designed for kneading and maturing of bread dough is shown in Dorothy Hartley's Food in England, p. 499. Receipt 11 has a cake, not bread, being prepared in the trough, though the compiler registers that it may, in this instance, be a pan (presumably of earthenware – a crock). Wooden troughs were not invariably free-standing. Many were smaller, table-top versions, hewn out of a single large chunk of wood. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
KNOTS, 162. The knot, Calidris ranutus, also called red sandpiper (or 'grey plover' when in its winter plumage), is a bird of the snipe family. It breeds within the Arctic Circle, but is common on British coasts in late summer and autumn.(Glasse, 1747)
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LADE, LADY: a noun and verb. The verb lade, in Receipt 172 written 'ladying', means to draw water or to empty by 'lading', with a lade or ladle (OED). OED cites more uses relating to brewing than anything else, although one eighteenth-century book on dairying uses it in the same manner as Evelyn. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
LADY-DAY. Now only 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation (and also, until 175t, the first day of the Civil or Legal Year in England). Formerly also 8 December, the Conception of the Virgin; 8 September, the Nativity; and 15 August, the Assumption.(Glasse, 1747)
LADY DAYS IN HARVEST: feasts of the Virgin, 8 September (Nativity) and probably, though not certainly, 15 August. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LAMB. Hannah Glasse refers to both house lamb and grass lamb, 160. House lambs were produced all the year round, being intensively reared under cover and sold at 8 to 10 weeks old. Grass lambs, however, being reared out of doors, were seasonal. It seems that, for the production of these, 'Dorset ewes' were favoured. They would be bought in October and bear their lambs about Christmas. The lambs, after being fed on turnips in the spring, would be sold in April and May (at 20s a head, according to one 18th century source).(Glasse, 1747)
LAMBSTONES: lambs' testicles. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
LAMBSTONES. Lamb's testicles.(Glasse, 1747)
LAMPRY, 347. Now spelled lamprey, an eel-like fish taken in rivers, notably the Severn. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LANG DE BEEF, 95, 452: ox (beef) tongue (French langue de boeuf). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LARD, 167, also LARDONS: strips of fat or lard which were threaded into pieces of meat etc to keep them from drying out when spit-roasted. The threading was done with a kind of needle, the 'larding prick'. Even something as small as an oyster would be larded (390-1). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LARDEVIS: strips of bacon or salt pork used for larding. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LATIN BOX: a metal biscuit box. Latin here is latten, an alloy of copper and tin. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LATON, latton, latten: a utensil made of thin brass, or mixed metal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LAUREL LEAVES. It is notorious that even in modern cookery books the French word laurier, which means bay (leaf) is sometimes mistranslated as laurel (leaf); and that laurel leaves are toxic, with a bitter almond flavour. Hannah Glasse uses laurel leaves four times, for: Ratafia Pudding, 111; Ratafia Cream, 144; a Fine, Plain, Baked Pudding, 109; and a Fine Plain Pudding, 111. Of these recipes, the first comes from either Eliza Smith (1742) or The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737), the second and third from Eliza Smith, and the fourth from The Whole Duty. In the first two recipes a bitter almond (ratafia) flavour is clearly desired. The laurel leaves are used to provide this, and then discarded. In the third and fourth recipes, where it is not obvious that a ratafia flavour is desired, she starts by putting six laurel leaves into a quart of milk. In the fourth, but not in the third, she takes them out again almost at once. The explanation of this discrepancy is that the instructions which she copied from The Whole Duty are more explicit than those she copied from Eliza Smith. Although it is hard to be sure that Hannah Glasse gave any thought to recipes which she simply transcribed verbatim, it seems reasonable to suppose that she did mean laurel leaves in all these instances, and that she should have advised removing them in all four. In savoury dishes she calls for bay leaves.(Glasse, 1747)
LAWN-BAG: bag made of linen. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LAWN SIEVE, 77. A very fine sieve, made of lawn, a kind of fine linen.(Glasse, 1747)
LAWNE SIEVE, SIV: a sieve with lawn or fine linen as the mesh. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
LEACH, 194, 209: as a verb, to cut in slices, e g 'leach your brawn'. The word was also a noun, referring to a wide variety of dishes consisting of sliced up material, from almond jelly to gingerbread. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LEACH: usually called leach of cream in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A leach was a set hard enough to be sliced, the word leach itself originally meaning slice. White leaches were usually made with almonds, but there were some recipes, as Receipt 215, that omitted this ingredient. See Hess for some useful observations. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
LEAF is the layer of fat round the kidneys of a pig, but was then generalized to describe the internal fat of any animal. (William Ellis, 1750)
LEAR, 235, and LEIR, 73. This word shares the same derivation as the French 'lier', to bind, and refers to a thickened sauce. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LEATHER, used for covering pickles, 132. This was a common practice, since leather gave better protection than the piece of bladder often used under it (see under BLADDER).(Glasse, 1747)
LEE. Boiling lee is used in the receipt for getting rid of Buggs, 166. It seems more likely that this was lye rather than lees (of wine or vinegar).(Glasse, 1747)
LEMBICK, alembic, an apparatus used in distilling.(Glasse, 1747)
LEMONS, MARMALADE OF: A preserve midway between a jelly and a paste, not marmalade as we know it. See L 38. (John Nott, 1726)
LENITIVE means laxative. A lenitive electuary is a thick syrup that will ease the motions. (William Ellis, 1750)
LETTICES. Lettuces. Hannah Glasse uses in her recipes, or lists (164-5) the following varieties: Cabbage, Cos, Dutch Brown, Imperial, Romaine, Royal and Silesia. Cabbage, the common, round, hearted lettuce, is the one which she uses most often. The long-leaved Cos lettuce, of which Silesia and Romaine (or Roman, as other writers had it) were varieties, was also popular from the 17th century onwards, and had been known even earlier. Its name is said by most writers (and by the OED) to come from the Greek island of Kos, but no one has explained satisfactorily why that island should have been the eponymous producer. Bradley (1728), in the course of giving a longer list of lettuces than Hannah Glasse's, observes that: 'we have several Sorts of Lettuce, which are brought from Turkey, which the Gardeners call Chos Lettuce, but should rather be call'd Chos only, because . . . Chos is the Turkish and Arabian name for Lettuce; …' Bradley, incidentally, counts the Roman as a cabbage lettuce; and also so lists Imperial and Royal, along with Tennis-Ball. Adam's Luxury and Eve's Cookery (1744) has a business-like section on lettuce-growing, which names all Hannah Glasse's varieties except Imperial and Royal, and adds Green Capuchin.(Glasse, 1747)
LEVERIDGE PUDDING, 184. Lever is an archaic spelling of liver, a principal ingredient of the pie, and this is probably the explanation of the name. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LEVIGATE, TO, means to pound in a mortar to a fine powder. (William Ellis, 1750)
LICQUORAS, 275: liquorice, an extract from the root of the plant Glycyrrhiza glabra. Introduced to England in medieval times for medicinal purposes, it came to have culinary uses. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LIÉ: thickened (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LIGNUM-CASSIAE, cassia: a coarser form of cinnamon, made from thicker pieces of the bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, a tropical tree. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LIGHTS: lungs. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
LIGHTS, lungs.(Glasse, 1747)
LIMBECK: vessel for distillation, alembick. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LIME, LIME JUICE: To judge from the large quantities sometimes called for, this must have been preserved lime juice imported from the West Indies and carried in ships as an antiscorbutic. See L 30. Also carrot pudding sauced with lime juice and sugar, C 65. (John Nott, 1726)
LIMES. It is interesting that Hannah Glasse says, 135: 'you pick them off the lime-trees in summer.' Although some tropical limes (Citrus aurantifolia) were being grown in greenhouses in the 18th century, it seems clear that she was referring to the small globe seeds of Tilia cordata, the small-leaved linden tree of Europe. These would have been pickled like ash keys.(Glasse, 1747)
LISBON SUGAR: Sugar imported in loaves via Portugal. Initially from the Azores, later from Brazil. (John Nott, 1726)
LISBON WINE: 'Red and white wines of the valley of the Tagus, down to the Atlantic from Lisbon were fortified and shipped to England in large quantities during the eighteenth century'. (A. L. Simon). (John Nott, 1726)
LITH: smooth, thick. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LIVERWORT, LIVERWORTH (ash-coloured, ground, 166, also 159). This is the plant Peltigera canina, English liverwort or Dog lichen, which grows in moist shady places and is used for liver complaints and, in some European countries, as a red dye.(Glasse, 1747)
LIVERWORT can refer to several plants, all thought beneficial to the liver. Agrimony is one, stone liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha) is another, Anemone triloba is a third, dog lichen (Peltigera canina) a fourth. Ellis does not specify. (William Ellis, 1750)
LIVER-WORTH: Agrimonia upatoria, agrimony. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LOACH: Small silvery river fish. (John Nott, 1726)
LOAF SUGAR: Sugar was bought in tall conical loaves and pieces were cut from them with special sugar-cutting implements. Well-to-do households bought whole sugar loaves, but smaller quantities could be bought from the apothecaries (originally sugar was treated as a spice) and later from grocers. (John Nott, 1726)
LOBLOLLY is the same as burgoo (q.v.). (William Ellis, 1750)
LUCATELLUS BALSAM is the same as Locatelli's balsam which figures in later recipe-books, for instance The New Female Instructor, c.1810. It was an emollient ointment, or could be taken internally, for wounds and sores, or against coughs. It was coloured red (often from red saunders) and its main ingredients were wax and turpentine. (William Ellis, 1750)
LUMBER PIE, 224. The name may be a corruption of Lombard. It was a savoury pie made of meat (or fish) and eggs. May's two versions called for a filling consisting of separate little puddings or forcemeat balls, but the longer recipe given by Rabisha (1682) for 'Lumbard pie' did not have this requirement; the pie filling was put altogether into the 'coffin'. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LUMBER PYE: Lombard pie. A large covered pie filled with a variety of ingredients, often a mixture of dried fruit and fish for fasting days, meat and poultry or game for meat days. When the pie was baked the crust was removed, a thickening of egg yolk and wine or cream poured in, the crust replaced, and the pie returned to the oven until the thickening was set. A survival from medieval cookery. (John Nott, 1726)
LUMBER-PIE: according to Randle Holme, this is a dish 'made of Flesh or Fish minced and made in Balls or Rouls, with Eggs and hard Eggs, and so Baked in a Pye with Butter'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
LUMP, 363: the lumpfish, Cyclopterus rumpus. Sir Thomas Browne (1662, the year when May's book was first published) recorded that it was 'esteemed by some as a festival dish, though it affords but a glutinous jelly …' In fact there is a great difference between the flesh of a male (which is palatable) and that of the female (which at some seasons is quite inedible). In the Scandinavian countries, where this fish is eaten, there is a different name for each. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
LUMP: ? Lump fish. This fish, Cyclopterus rumpus, in French lompe, also lievre de mer or sea hare, is the one from which the roes are taken to produce a feeble imitation of caviar
LUNG-WORT: Pulmonaria officinalis, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LUPINES: Bradley meant 'the flowring Stalks of Turnips'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
LUTE: to close with a flour-and water paste, to adhere. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
LYE: An alkaline solution used especially for washing clothes, but also used in preserving as a neutraliser of acids in fruit peels. (John Nott, 1726)
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MADLING CAKES, 141, are a perplexing item. Jennifer Stead (private communication) has pointed out that madling in dialect can mean perplexing, and has ingeniously suggested that, since Hannah Glasse directs that the currants must be concealed within the cakes, they were intended to be a puzzle or surprise and that that is how they got their name. However, the currants are optional, so this seems unlikely. The OED, on the other hand, believes madling to be a corruption of the French madeleine. But the differences between madling cakes and the famous madeleines of Commercy are considerable. Apart from anything else, the former are raised by yeast, the latter not. No other recipes for Madling cakes have been traced. But Richard Briggs (1794, 454) reprints Hannah Glasse's recipe almost unchanged, calling it Maudling cakes. Maudling is a version of Magdalen, of which the French is Madeleine; so if Briggs knew what he was about the OED could be right, and we would have to suppose that, not for the first time, a term of French origin had changed its meaning in England. Alternatively, we could look for some evidence, at present lacking, that Madling/Maudling cakes were a little-known English institution associated with Saint Mary Magdalene's Day.(Glasse, 1747)
MAGMA: grounds. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MAID-SWEET is sweet cicely. (William Ellis, 1750)
MAIDEN-HAIR: possibly Clematis vitalba. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MAIDS: M 5. Labrus mixtus. Cuckoo wrasse. In French Demoiselle. A Mediterranean fish used mainly for soups and fish stews. (John Nott, 1726)
MALAGA-WINE: sweet fortified wine, imported via Malaga in Andalusia. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MALLOW STALKS: See M6 and 7. Marsh mallow stalks were considered a great delicacy by the Romans. Sir Kenelm Digby (see p. I ) gives a detailed recipe for candying them, adding that in Italy 'these tender stalks of Mallows are called Mazzocchi, and they eat them boiled tender in sallets, either hot or cold, with Vinegar and Oyl, or Butter and Vinegar, or juyce of Oranges'. Marsh mallow was much cultivated in gardens for its many medicinal properties. (John Nott, 1726)
MANCHET, see Bread. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MANCHET: roll, or small loaf of fine white bread. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MANCHET BREAD: Fine bread made from the best wheat and the whitest flour available. Made in small loaves weighing 6 to 8 oz. Manchet was the bread of the privileged. (John Nott, 1726)
MANCHET, FRENCH MANCHET, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
MANCHET is the fine white enriched loaf of medieval and early modern bakery. Johnson defines it as 'a small loaf of fine bread'. (William Ellis, 1750)
MANGO. C. Anne Wilson says that jars of pickled mango first reached Britain in the second half of the 17th century 'and were copied with the aid of home-grown cucumbers or melons, and even onions or peaches'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MANNA is the subject of an encyclopaedic definition by Johnson. It is the exudation or juice (then solidified) of the manna-ash (Fraxinus ornus), grown in southern Italy – a variant, from the larch, came from France – it was mildly laxative. (William Ellis, 1750)
MANTLE when describing beer, is the froth. (William Ellis, 1750)
MARBLE MORTAR. This would presumably have been used for pounding substances which would taint or discolour in metal.(Glasse, 1747)
MARCHPANE, 271: marzipan. But the word meant something more than that in the 16th and 17th centuries: an elaborate confection of marzipan, usually gilded and often spiked with candied fruits, which served as the centrepiece for the 'banketting stuffe' which constituted dessert for the Elizabethans and in early Jacobean times (see Banquetting Stuffe, ed C Anne Wilson, 1991). By the time when May wrote, marchpane was already on the way out, making way for the later, more modest, role of marzipan as what goes on top of a fruit cake. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MARCHPANE: Marzipan. Decorated with icing and gold leaf, marchpanes were the most important of all the sweetmeats served at the banquet or dessert course. (John Nott, 1726)
MAREMAID PYE, 220-21: mermaid pie described by the OED as 'a sucking pig baked whole in a crust'. This dish is also in Rabisha (1682), the source cited by the QED. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MARIGOLD FLOWERS, 13. The petals were used both as a yellow colouring agent and as an ingredient in salads. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MARKING IRON, used in making tarts, 75. This was presumably some sort of shaped cutter or jagging wheel, such as was referred to by Ann Cook as 'eager-iron, or what is commonly term'd Runners (see Burnet, 1940, 129). These are still available, in boxwood.(Glasse, 1747)
MARLE. The reference, 162, is clearly to a bird, and the OED quotes a source of 1700 as giving: 'Marrel. A bird about the bigness of a Knot . . .' Marrel was the spelling used by Eliza Smith (1742). It is curious that the 1767 edition of Mrs Glasse's book has Marle indexed as 'Marie, a fish, how to chuse'. However, on looking up the page cited, one finds that the reference, as in the 1st edition, is quite clearly to a bird. The OED records the later spelling 'marl', but still does not identify the bird.(Glasse, 1747)
MARMALADE: a fruit conserve, originally of quinces, made much stiffer than today, thus justifying Evelyn's comment in Receipt 18. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
MARMALADE: A thick, smooth preserve. The name derived from the Portuguese marmelo, quince. It was from that fruit that all marmalades were originally made. Later, cherries and apricots were also much used for marmalades. Orange marmalade was known towards the end of the 16th century but was, again, a smooth preserve nearly always mixed with apple jelly. Nott's marmalade of oranges is unusual in that it is made only from oranges, but it is still a jelly-like confection, not orange marmalade as we know it today. Marmalades were stored in round or oval wooden boxes, not jars, and cut into lozenges or other fancy shapes for serving at dessert. (John Nott, 1726)
MARINATE: to salt or pickle, and then preserve in oil or vinegar. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MARROW: invariably bone marrow, not the vegetable. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
MARSHMALLOWS: Althaea officinalis, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MARSH-TREFOIL-ROOT is buckbean (OED), although Ellis seems to be treating the two names as distinct plants. (William Ellis, 1750)
MARYGOLDS, CONSERVE OF: M 14. This seems to be more of a medical preparation than a sweetmeat. (John Nott, 1726)
MASHING-TUB, MASH-TUB. A tub in which malt was mashed to produce wort, in brewing.(Glasse, 1747)
MASSEREAU, 104, for serving a watertansey. This word was corrected in later editions to massereen, a form of MAZARINE.(Glasse, 1747)
MASTERWORT, Peucedanum ostruthium, an umbelliferous plant formerly used as a pot herb and in medicine (against boils and the like, as a purlfier, and against poison). The name was also applied to other plants, including pellitory of Spain.(Glasse, 1747)
MAUKIN or malkin, a mop for swabbing the oven floor. The word had more vulgar meanings too. (William Ellis, 1750)
MAUSE, 'mouse-piece': a small muscle in the shoulder. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MAW is stomach. (William Ellis, 1750)
MAYWEED, maidweed or maythe, is stinking camomile, Anthemis Cotula. (William Ellis, 1750)
MAZARENE DISH: A plate or silver serving dish fashionable during the late 17th century. It is thought to have been named after Hortense Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin, later the celebrated Duchesse de Mazarin who settled in London and died at Chelsea in 1699. (John Nott, 1726)
MAZARINE, a deep dish or plate, usually of metal. An ordinary pan is given as an alternative, 51, and a patty pan as another, 83. But in both instances Hannah Glasse is copying a recipe from earlier books, complete with the suggested alternative, so the credit for these practical tips is not hers and the recipes do not provide evidence that she had a mazarine herself. Elizabeth David (in Nott, 1980 reprint) comments on the 17th century meaning of 'Mazarene dish' and the derivation of the term. As she has since pointed out to us, mazarine had another meaning in the middle of the 18th century, and perhaps earlier. Judith Bannister's essay on 'The Bristol Family Silver at Ickworth' (Country Life, 4 September 1980) shows a silver fish dish with a pierced oval 'mazarine', or draining plate, which fitted into it, by Kandler, 1751.(Glasse, 1747)
MEAD or MEATH: 'a drink made of Ginger, Sugar, Honey and Spring water boiled together' (Randle Holme). In The Country Gentleman and Farmer's Monthly Director, second edition, 1727, p. 20, Bradley praised mead as 'an excellent nourishing Drink', but wondered why it was 'not more frequent seeing how easily it may be had'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MEADSWEET, Mead-sutt: meadowsweet. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MEAGER SOUP, 76. Like the French Soupe maigre, a soup suitable for use on meatless days.(Glasse, 1747)
MEASURES. Those given by Hannah Glasse for weight, such as two pounds or one ounce, correspond to modern usage. In dealing with formal cook's measures of liquid capacity it is necessary to remember that the British imperial pint was not introduced until the 19th century, so that Hannah Glasse's pint was equivalent to 16 fluid ounces, which is what the American pint was in her time and still is. Informal, because without a legal definition, measures of capacity are more difficult to construe. What did Hannah Glasse mean by 'a glass', 'a spoonful', and 'a teaspoonful'? Such questions have a familiar ring, because they pose themselves also in connection with much more recent recipe books; and a cook with experience, and willingness to experiment a little, should have no real problem here. However, it is worth pointing out that: a teaspoon seems to have been a larger measure in the 18th century, when its main use was for measuring rather than stirring, than the standard teaspoon of the late 20th century (see Stead, 1983, Part II, 23), so that 'a large teaspoonful' (? meaning a heaped teaspoon) might be the equivalent of a modern tablespoon measure (unheaped); 'a spoonful' is best interpreted as somewhere between I and 2 modern tablespoons (see Hess, 1981, 517); and the meaning of a glass no doubt varied in the 18th century as it does today, but it seems that the 'glasses' commonly in the kitchen at that time were sweetmeat and jelly glasses and that the capacity of these was something like 100-150 ml (in the region of 4 fl oz).(Glasse, 1747)
MEATH: mead. Small meath (Receipt 203) was weaker, just as small beer was the weaker of beers. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
MEDULLES, medullosus: having the texture of pith. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MEER SAUCE, 230-31. May explains how to make a sauce of this name, but the name itself is a puzzle. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MELACATTON, 249, 251 -2: now melocoton, a kind of peach. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MELLILOT or melilot, is a plant of the clover family (Melilotus altissima). In some places (cit. OED) is grew in cornfields to such an extent as to impart a rank flavour to the bread of the district. (William Ellis, 1750)
MELLIPEDES, common woodlice, used frequently in 17th century medicine, but dropped from the pharmacopeiae in the 18th century. The use of them by Hannah Glasse, 159, for Hysterical Water no doubt represents traditional practice. The recipe was taken from Eliza Smith (1742).(Glasse, 1747)
MELOLETT is a way of spelling melilot, Melilotus altissima, a plant of the clover family, probably introduced to England in the 16th century. It was used for making plasters and poultices, as well as in the traditional receipt for Plague-water, 159.(Glasse, 1747)
MELT, milt: the soft roe of the male fish, therefore the'fine melt carpe' in Receipt 23, is the same as Robert May's 'special male carp' (Accomplisht Cook, p. 301). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
MELTS, milt, the soft roe of a (male) fish.(Glasse, 1747)
MERERY, GREEN. The word merery, 159, cannot be traced. It may be a misprint for mercury, Chenopodium bonus-henricus, otherwise known as Good King Henry, which is mentioned by Evelyn (1699) and many other authors as a pot herb and salad ingredient.(Glasse, 1747)
MERRYGOLDS, marigolds.(Glasse, 1747)
METHEGLIN, 276, 'confected from honey with warm aromatic herbs, was a particular drink of the Welsh' (Wilson, 1973). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
METHEGLIN: 'a drink made of all sorts of wholesom Herbs boiled and strained with Honey and Water, and set to work with Bearm, as Ale of Beer' (Randle Holme). (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MICHAELMAS: September 29. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MICHAELMAS: 29th September or, more generally, autumn. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
MILT, MILTS: The roes of male fish. In mammals, the spleen. (John Nott, 1726)
MILT: the soft roe of a (male) fish. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MISERERE PSALM: Psalm 50: as unit of time approximately 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MITHRIDATE, 159, an expensive medicine in the form of an electuary, made up of many ingredients and considered to be a universal antidote against poisons and infections. It took its name from King Mithridates, who was reputed to have made himself immune to poisons by constantly taking very small doses of them as antidotes.(Glasse, 1747)
MITHRIDATE is an electuary considered effective against poisons and infections. It was named after Mithridates, King of Pontus, who himself was a master of counteracting poisons – by dosing himself with small amounts to build up resistance. (William Ellis, 1750)
MITTONNER: simmer (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MONASTICK: M 38. An elaborate dish of rice and chicken. The name is a puzzle. A Monastick was a monastic order, also a monk. There seems to be no reason for singling out this dish as of particular monastical origin or association. (John Nott, 1726)
MORILS, MORELS: In French morilles, highly-prized mushrooms with honeycomb-like caps which appear in spring and again in autumn. It is to be doubted that Nott or his readers had much first-hand experience of morels. Nowadays morels can be bought dried—at a price— and are excellent. (John Nott, 1726)
MORILLE or MORILL (morel): Bradley was particularly partial to this edible fungus and tried to promote knowledge of it in many of his writings. In The Country Gentleman and Farmer's Monthly Director, second edition, 1727, pp. 71-2, he said that morels were 'so single a rarity' that he could not avoid 'acquainting the Farmer of their excellence, that he may not pass them by as things to be disregarded, for they make an excellent Dish either broil'd or stew'd'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MOSSES: M 45. These appear to be purely decorative. (John Nott, 1726)
MOTHER: to become mouldy, feculent. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MOTHER OF WINE: lees. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MOTHER OF TIME, 22. Along with 'running time' and 'creeping time', a name given in Gerard (1633) for wild thyme, Thymus serpillum. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MOTHER-THYME: wild thyme, Thymus serpyllum: thought of as a hot dry herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MOTHERWORT. This is Leonorus cardiaca, a medicinal plant introduced into England in the Middle Ages for use in connection with heart trouble and difficult childbirth.(Glasse, 1747)
MOULDS, BRASS, OF COATS OF ARMS: Fritter moulds, or batter irons. See Fritter. (John Nott, 1726)
MOUNTAIN is mountain wine, fortified wine from Malaga grown in the mountains immediately to the north of that city. (William Ellis, 1750)
MOUNTAIN WINE, 121, a variety of Malaga wine made from grapes grown on the mountains. Referred to simply as Mountain, 124.(Glasse, 1747)
MOUSE EAR: hawkweed, Hieracium pilosella. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MOY, TARTS OF: Bone marrow tarts. Moy is a corruption of moelle, marrow. (John Nott, 1726)
MOY, TART DE, 74. A bone marrow tart, moy being a corruption of moelle, the French word for marrow.(Glasse, 1747)
MUDGELL-HOLE is not defined by OED, but perhaps means standing water in a yard that is 'muddled' by ducks and geese, or one that is an outlet for drains. (William Ellis, 1750)
MUGGET 25 220: the intestines of a cow or sheep. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MUGGET is the intestines of a calf or sheep. (William Ellis, 1750)
MUGWORT: Artemisia vulgaris, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MUGWORT-WATER. Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, was one of the best known medicinal plants, reputed to drive away evil spirits as well as simple corporeal ailments and even travellers's weariness. The juice of mugwort was used for certain purposes, as were the roots and a decoction prepared from the leaves. It seems clear that the reference at 158 is to a decoction.(Glasse, 1747)
MUKEFIED 51, a mistake for MUSKEFIED, 147: flavoured with musk (see below). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MUM: See M 53. A somewhat more complex beverage than would be suggested by the C.O.D's definition: 'kind of beer originally brewed in Brunswick'. (John Nott, 1726)
MUM: a kind of beer brewed in Brunswick, Germany, imported in large quantities into England in the 17th and 18th centuries. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MUM, a liquid which, if added to mushroom ketchup, makes it taste like foreign ketchup, 156. Dr Johnson (1755) gives a definition: 'Ale brewed with wheat'; one quotation which shows that mum was brewed at Brunswick in Germany; and another (from Pope) to illustrate its effects: 'The clam'rous crowd is hush'd with mugs of mum, / Till all tun'd equal send a general hum.' Anne Wilson (1973) writes: 'Brunswick mum, a heady and potent herbal ale matured for two years before drinking, was popular in the late seventeenth century, and for a time was retailed at special mum-houses.' Her references for this passage include one to Houghton (1681), who gives the recipe for making it.(Glasse, 1747)
MUM is a kind of beer originally brewed in Brunswick and imported during the 17th and 18th centuries (OED). However, John Nott gives a recipe and refers to English mum-makers: the beer was aged and complex, full of aromatics and flavourings. (William Ellis, 1750)
MUMMY. The word, which occurs most often in the expression 'boiled to a mummy', e.g. at 52, meant a pulpy substance or mass. In medicinal usage it meant an unctuous, gummy substance, which took its power from the embalming drugs used to conserve a corpse, and was meant to do the same for the patient who ingested it. It is noteworthy in this connection that Egyptian mummies were powdered for medicinal use, but that, as the supply was limited, criminals were embalmed and then ground to 'mummy' for sale to druggists.(Glasse, 1747)
MURK: Corruption of marc, the husks and pips of grapes and apples left after the fruit has been pressed for wine or cider. (John Nott, 1726)
MUSCADEL, MUSCADINE: Sweet wines made from muscat grapes, originally imported from Cyprus and Crete, later from Italy. John Evelyn mentions the rare Muscatello for which Mont Alcino in Tuscany was famous Muscadel grapes were also at one time grown in England and wine made from them. In 1621 James Howell recorded mustatel grapes and wine made from them, sent every year to the King from Mr. Daniel's estate at Long Melford in Essex (Familiar Letters 1645)
MUSCLE, an old spelling of mussel. It is interesting that in two places, 95 and 116, Hannah Glasse bids one pick out the crab if any. She is referring to a tiny crab, Pinnotherespisum, which lives inside mussel shells. Unlike Pinnotheres ostreum, the American oyster crab, which is a delicacy, it seems not to be edible.(Glasse, 1747)
MUSCOVY: musk stork's bill, Erodium moschatum, a sweet-smelling herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MUSHROOMS. These were one of Bradley's main gastronomic enthusiasms and he did everything he could to persuade English gardeners and nurserymen to adopt the French method of constructing mushroom beds, which ensured a constant supply all the year round. (For further details of this campaign, which started around 172l, see A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening, volume I, 1726, chapter 5.) Later, in 1726, Bradley noted that his observations concerning the raising of mushrooms had been 'so well receiv'd, that there is now hardly a Garden of any Note near London without them, or where there has not been Attempts made to produce them in every Month of the Year…'. (See the chapter on truffles in the Appendix to New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, 1726.) See also the entries under MORILLE and TRUFFLE. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
MUSHROOMS. These are referred to, 164, as being grown on hot beds. The practice was already familiar to Evelyn (1699).(Glasse, 1747)
MUSK, 27, MUSKEDINE, 275. Musk, a substance with a distinctive and strong scent, is secreted by a gland common to several animals, notably the musk deer. A similar scent was detected in some plants, e g the musk-mallow, the muscat grape, and the musk melon (May's musk-mellon'). May used muskedine as a noun which could denote either a biscuit flavoured with musk, 181, or a sweetmeat similarly flavoured, 275, or the wine used for wassel', 296. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
MUSK: the perfume extracted from a gland (the size of an orange) in the male musk-deer, filled with a dark brown or chocolate-coloured secretion which is the consistence of 'moist gingerbread' when fresh, but dries to a granular texture after keeping (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition). Much used in cookery, see Receipt 37 for example, although Karen Hess argues that by the time this ms was compiled both musk and ambergris were out of fashion and more honoured in the breach than the observance of the recipes wherein they figured.. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
MUSK: Highly scented substance secreted in the abdominal glands of the male musk deer. Used in perfumery, confectionery, creams, cakes, often in conjunction with rosewater. In M 71 Nott explains how to make musk-scented sugar. (John Nott, 1726)
MUSK, a scented substance secreted in the abdominal glands of the male musk deer. Used in confectionery.(Glasse, 1747)
MUST: new wine. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
MUTTON, 161. Ram-mutton and ewe mutton need no explanation. Weather mutton was meat of a castrated male sheep.(Glasse, 1747)
MUTTON, CHINE OF: See Chine
MUTTON, GAMMON OF: See M 83. Mutton hams or gammons were once quite common. Nott's formula is very fanciful. Designed perhaps to disguise the strong smell of elderly sheep. (John Nott, 1726)
N (top)
NAILS (of roses): the white junction of petal and flower. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
NAPLES BISCUIT: a biscuit similar to a macaroon, but made with ground pine nut kernels rather than ground almonds. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
NAPLES BISKETS: Naples biscuits, sponge fingers. In Receipt 162, the compiler refers to 'a role of napell bisket' cut in thin slices. This may imply that 'Naples biscuit' sometimes described the sponge mixture, made into whatever shape was most convenient, rather than the fingers themselves as we now buy or make. Although A Queens Delight suggests that Naples biscuit is the same as macaroon mixture, with the addition of pineapple seeds, there is a recipe in John Nott that may fairly be said to represent the norm: 'take a Pound and half of fine Flour, and as much double-refin'd Sugar, twelve Eggs, three Spoonfuls of Rose-water, and an Ounce and half of Carraway-seeds finely pownded, mix them all well together with Water; then put them into Tin-plates, and bake them in a moderate Oven, dissolve some Sugar in Water, and glaze them over.' See also Receipts 244 and 332 for Evelyn's own recipes. As support for the view of A Queens Delight, however, note the recommendation of Receipt 40, reiterated in Receipt 41, that the cook should 'grate in two or three maqueroons or Naples biscuits without seeds' when preparing a pudding of entrails. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
NAPLES BISKETS: The original sponge fingers, lady fingers. Sometimes also a small macaroon made with pine nuts. (John Nott, 1726)
NAPLES BISKETS. 'The original sponge fingers, lady fingers. Sometimes also a small macaroon made with pine nuts.' (Elizabeth David in Nott, 1980 reprint)(Glasse, 1747)
NAPLES-BISKETS are the original of sponge-fingers, sometimes also a small macaroon made with pine-nuts (E. David, glossing Nott, Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary, 1726). (William Ellis, 1750)
NASTURTIUMS: Both leaves and flowers went into salads. The buds were pickled to resemble capers. (John Nott, 1726)
NASTURTIUM BUDS. These occur with remarkable frequency in 17th and 18th century cookery books. Both flower buds and young seed cases were pickled. Like Eliza Smith (1727), Hannah Glasse has 'Buds' in the title of her recipe but then calls for seeds in the instructions. Eliza Smith says: 'gather your little knobs quickly after your blossoms are off.' The purpose of this pickling was to provide a cheap substitute for capers.(Glasse, 1747)
NAVETS: turnips (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
NEAT, now an archaic term for the domestic ox or cow. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
NEAT: ox. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
NEAT: Ox. Hence neat's foot, tongue etc. (John Nott, 1726)
NEAT'S TONGUE: an ox-tongue. Bradley gives a recipe for potting neats-tongues in the north of England in The Gentleman and Farmer's Guide, 1729, p. 181. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
NEATS TONGUES, ox tongues.(Glasse, 1747)
NECROMANCER. This unusual device, described by Hannah Glasse under 'A Neck of Mutton, call'd, The hasty Dish', 51, and apparently also used without being named in the curious note at the top of 21, presents a mystery which has been explored by Jennifer Stead (1983, Part I, 22-3). She concludes, inter alia, that the Hasty Dish was 'an infamous example of a rogue recipe' that crept into Hannah Glasse's book; that it was rightly ridiculed by Ann Cook; and that the antecedents of the puzzling procedure can be traced back beyond the John Rich to whom Hannah Glasse gives credit for its invention, to Richard Bradley. It is interesting to compare what is said about the Necromancer with the measured judgment of Eliza Acton (drawn to our attention by Elizabeth David and here reproduced) on what appears to be its descendant, the Conjuror.(Glasse, 1747)
NECTARINES. The varieties listed, 165, are Primodial (July) and Muroy, Tawny, Red Roman, little Green Cluster and Yellow (August). Parkinson (t629) had listed Red Roman and Yellow, and the former was still prominent in the USA at the end of the 19th century. But new and larger varieties of this fruit have now ousted the old ones.(Glasse, 1747)
NEPE, 455: probably the same as nep, meaning catmint. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
NITRE: potassium nitrate, also known as saltpetre. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
NODDY PUDDING: Noddy probably meant shaking, quaking. See P242. A charming receipt. (John Nott, 1726)
NUTMEGS TO CANDY: The nutmeg we know is the inner kernel of an oval fruit about the size of a peach. In Malaysia the inner wall of the fruit is preserved as a sweetmeat. According to Burkill this nutmeg fruit candied or preserved in syrup was once exported to Europe in quantity, in the same way as ginger. This explains the occasional receipt to be found in English cookery books of the 17th century for candied nutmegs. Confectioners and cooks were attempting to reproduce the imported sweetmeat at home. If they were using nutmegs as we know them it is hard to imagine that the process would have worked or the nutmegs been edible, so some form of dried nutmeg fruit must have been imported. (John Nott, 1726)
O (top)
OAK OF JERUSALEM: Chenopodium botrys. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
OATS, DECOTICATED, 68: decorticated (husked) oats. Ann Cook (1754) described them as 'half-shelled oats . . . which will give those with a sore throat a great pain': this as part of her campaign to bring Hannah Glasse's recipes into disrepute.(Glasse, 1747)
OLIO PODRIDA, 1. The Latin word olla, meaning cooking pot, passed into Spanish unchanged (and into Portuguese as olha), and gave rise to the Spanish term 'olla podrida', meaning a spiced stew of various meats and vegetables. In England, changed to olio, this became an accepted culinary term during the 17th century. An olio always had a large range of ingredients, and sometimes a very large range indeed; see May's Olio Royal, 5, and Olio of Sturgeon, 380, and the remarkable olio given by Nott (1726), which Elizabeth David (1980) termed 'a real Noah's Ark mixture'. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
OLIO, oglio: a generic term for a stew, derived from the Spanish olla (podrida), a spiced stew of various meats and vegetables. Note the remarks on olios in The Compleat Cook (pp.92–3): 'I am utterly against those confused Olios, into which men put almost all kinds of meats and Roots'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
OLIO: From the Spanish olla podrida, a compound dish of meats, sausage, beans, chick peas and so on. The name came from the olla, the pot in which the mixture was cooked. Nott's olio is a real Noah's Ark mixture. (John Nott, 1726)
OLIVES/OLINES. The familiar fruit, the olive, appears as a salad ingredient, 158. But May used the word more often in a sense similar to that of the modem 'beef olives', referring to a thin slice of meat rolled up round a stuffing; thus olives of veal, 142. Such 'olives' could be made into an Olive Pye, 225. The 'olines' (olives) of sturgeon, 372, are more unusual.
Olive could also mean a kind of bird, an oystercatcher, as at 216, 261, 460. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ONIONS, onyons: although the usual form of onion is the one most often referred to, there are also 'green onions', presumably spring onions, young onions, or scallions. Receipt 183 talks of using the blades of young onions, as we would use the tops of spring onions. There is also one reference to 'small green skallions', and a handful to shallots. It may be significant that three of the four uses of shallot are found in recipes of decidedly French influence. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ONION: 'a root more generally used in the kitchen than any other: Of this there are two kinds worth the Gardener's Care; the first is the Spanish Onion, which affords a large sweet-tasted Root; and the other the Strasbourg Onion, which is more biting, and lasts good much longer than the former…' (New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718, p. 133.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ORANGADO, 158: candied orange peel, a familiar ingredient of the time and still current in the 18th century. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ORANGEADO: Candied orange peel. Also orange syrup. (John Nott, 1726)
ORANGEADO. Candied orange peel. An orangeado pye and orangeado syrup are both referred to, 114.(Glasse, 1747)
ORANGES. Seville (bitter) oranges and Bermudas are both referred to, 152. The former were often mentioned in 17th and 18th century books, the latter rarely. The best passage occurs in The Garden Book of Sir Thomas Hanmer Bart (see under Rohde), as follows. '. . . The best kinds wee know here in England are the China Orenge, a sort lately had from Portugall, whither it came not many yeares since from China. This hath the rind soe pleasant and free from bitterness that it may bee eaten as well as the meate which is sweete, and 'tis the best to preserve whole. The Sevill Orenge, which is of two sorts, sweete and sharpe, and comes from Spain, and the Bermuda Orenge which is brought from the Island soe called in the West Indies, and is the greatest and best, I thinke, of Orenges.'(Glasse, 1747)
ORANGE WHEY, 144. An interesting item, since there seems to be no other contemporary recipe for this beverage. Anne Wilson (1973) remarks that whey became a fashionable drink in the 17th century, when whey- houses were opened for its consumption; and that herb juices were sometimes added to it for home consumption as a healthful drink, especially in the spring.(Glasse, 1747)
ORDINGAL PEPPER, 131, see PEPPER.(Glasse, 1747)
ORGAN: oregano. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ORRIS-POWDER, 271. This was prepared from the root of the iris. It gave a fragrant scent, not unlike that of violets, to confections with which it was prepared. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ORRIS-ROOT: orris, edible iris, Iris florentina. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ORRIS ROOT: Orris is the blue iris. The dried powdered root was used to give the scent of violet to sweet confections, syrups and perfumes. Florence orris was the most prized. (John Nott, 1726)
ORT is a word to describe scraps or left-overs, be they for humans or for animals. Ellis is advising his housewife on the true economy of the kitchen. (William Ellis, 1750)
ORTOLAN: a small, delicately flavoured bird, Emberiza hortulana, known in England as the garden bunting and greatly esteemed in France and Italy as a table delicacy. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ORZAT, ORGEAT: An almond drink. See O 68. (John Nott, 1726)
OSEILLE: sorrel (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
OUTWORKS: Anglicised version of hors d'oeuvre but served as small dishes outside the main part of each service, not at the beginning of the meal as now. LE 41, to farce lettuce, is a good example of such dishes, but the 'outworks' could also contain sweet things such as custards and creams. They were left on the table while the main dishes were served. (John Nott, 1726)
OVEN: the ovens in this text are brick or stone, where the fuel is burnt on the oven floor to heat the fabric, the ashes are raked out, the food substituted for the fire, and cooked with a door tight closed. There are many references to the desired heat of the oven: 'for bread', 'for manchet', 'for pigeon pye', and so forth. In Receipt 172 there is a recommendation that the oven should be heated with one faggot only (the usual, but not inevitable fuel), with some directions about the length of time a faggot takes to burn; in another, there is instruction on how to tell the correct temperature of the oven. The ovens were used for much more than just bread, but it was always slightly trial and error to attain the right heat: experience would be the steadiest guide. See Tom Jaine, Building a Wood-fired Oven for Bread and Pizza (1996) for more information. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
OVEN LID: Cloche-shaped cover with a flattened top. The lid fitted over pie and cake pans and other fairly shallow dishes and coals would be piled on top and round the sides. It was an excellent method of cooking. Heat from above and below meant that whatever was under the 'oven lid' cooked from the top as well as from below; pies, creams, custards and so on would acquire a good brown glaze without the risk of overheating or curdling. The term 'oven lid' also sometimes means the door of the brick oven, which was taken down when it was required to bake something which needed to be watched, such as Naples biscuits or sponge fingers, meringues and other delicate confections. (John Nott, 1726)
OVEN PEEL, 440: a broad flat blade of wood or iron, on the end of a pole, which was used for putting loaves of bread in and out of the oven. In this instance, as it had to be red hot, it must have been of the iron kind. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
OVEN PEEL: The long-handled wooden implement with a spade-like head used for loading bread and pies into the oven. There were also peels with iron heads. See E 28, 'to broil eggs on an oven peel' for a tricky use of one of the latter. (John Nott, 1726)
OVERTHWART, e g at 344: from side to side, crosswise, transversely. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
OXE-EYS, 216: small hedge-birds, such as the great tit. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
OX PALATE S. Small pieces of the palate (roof of mouth) of an ox were used as garnish.(Glasse, 1747)
P (top)
p, p.: an abbreviation for 'pound'. The full extension, within square brackets (e.g. p[ound]), has usually been inserted into this transcription. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PACKTHREAD: stout thread or twine. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PACKTHREAD, a strong kind of thread or twine suitable for tying up bundles or packs.(Glasse, 1747)
PAINS: Stuffed loaves. Partridge pains, P l0, is an example of a side dish. Gammon pain, P 9, however, is an Inter-mess. (John Nott, 1726)
PALLATS, PALLETS, 100. The palate, not to be confused with the tongue, is the roof of the mouth. The softer parts, to the rear, were those used in cookery. May brackets palates with lips and noses for recipe purposes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PALLAT, palate, taste.(Glasse, 1747)
PANADA: dish made on a basis of stewing bread in water. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PANADO: A kind of pap. See P 1 and 2. The receipts are self-explanatory. (John Nott, 1726)
PANADO, a pap, which could be plain or, as in the recipe at 120, spiced. A favourite recipe of the 17th and 18th centuries.(Glasse, 1747)
PANS. References to saucepans and preserving pans need no comment. The earthen pan, 65, sounds like a pancheon: a big, bread-mixing bowl, with straight, sloping sides.(Glasse, 1747)
PAP: anything of a soft or semi-liquid consistency. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PAPER: kitchen paper was bought in great quantities by the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century cook. Receipt 210 mentions 'halfe brown' paper. Receipt 322 seems to indicate how several thicknesses were used to protect a cake from both bottom and top heat in the oven, as well as discussing the creation of a flow-proof baking vessel out of paper and a wooden baking hoop so that the cake batter would not leak during the initial stages of cooking. Receipt 46 specifies 'clean white paper' with which the cook wraps up some hard lard, placing the parcel on a fork and lighting the paper – the burning fat bastes the roasting turkey and plumps up the flesh. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PARBOIL: to boil thoroughly, or to part-boil. The two opposing meanings were concurrent in the early modern period, although the first was the original. The second, which seems to have gained acceptance merely because it sounded like 'part-boil' and has no philological basis,became the more common usage. The examples in OED are ambiguous: it is difficult to be certain what is meant. In Receipt 69 Evelyn states that neats' tongues should be 'half boiled'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PARIETARY: Parietaria diffusa, good for the stone and urinary problems. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PARK: hunting-preserve, specifically deerpark. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PARMIZAN: Parmesan cheese. In Receipt 7, Evelyn describes it as 'most rare'. Pepys buried his cheese, along with his wine, during the Great Fire of London Evelyn was impressed enough by it during his travels in Italy to mention it twice. In Receipt 15 he suggests a method of preserving it in oil. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PARSLEY ROOTS: Roots of the Hamburg or turnip-rooted parsley. Much called for in European cooking from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The flavour is good and rather peppery. (John Nott, 1726)
PARTRIDGE A BIBEROT: See Biberot. (John Nott, 1726)
PASSION TREE. There are several species of this, all natives of either the West Indies or China. At least two of them bear edible fruits. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PAST: pastry; but it may also mean a paste. A variety of types of pastry are called for, see the index. See also Coffins. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PASTE (pastry). Most of the recipes are vague about what sort of pastry to use and how to make it. Mrs Peasly, however, does provide recipes for sweet paste, hot paste, puffpaste, and paste for meat pies or pasties. (See Part II, pp. 127-8.) It is worth noting that she eschews egg as a binder and does not use any rising agent. Mrs Peasly's pastry recipes are simpler and cheaper than those provided by aristocratic and court cooks of the period. For interesting comparisons see Henry Howard's England's Newest Way in all sorts of Cookery, Pastry, and all Pickles that are fit to be Used (London, 1727), Robert Smith's Court Cookery or, The Compleat English Cook (London, 1723), and Patrick Lamb's Royal Cookery or, The Compleat Court-Cook (third edition, 'with considerable additions', London, 1726). (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PASTE, PASTRY. Hannah Glasse gives recipes for, or refers to, several sorts. Standing crust 73, and again 'top and bottom' 74, was the standard pastry for dishes baked in crust. Karen Hess (1981, 81-2) has written on its history and ways of reproducing it. In addressing the Captains of Ships, Hannah Glasse gives advice on how to make a good, thick crust of the same sort, suitable for both pork and apple pies, 123-4. The recipe for crackling crust, 76, follows that of John Nott (1726) who echOED the instructions given earlier by Massialot (Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures …) for Pate croquante, to be used in making the base for open tarts, and for decorations on top. The original French suffered slightly in the translation. Those English authors who adopted the recipe (including Mrs Eliza Johnston in The Accomplish'd Servant-Maid, 1747, a very rare book) failed to make entirely clear, as Massialot had done, that the same paste which is used for the bottom crust is used for the decorations. They do not give the impression that they had tried the recipe, or really understood it. The facts that the title of the recipe is a straight translation from the French, and that there is no recipe at all for crackling crust in a number of important English cookery books of the period, also suggest that it may not have represented any English practice. Puff-paste crust, 122, is another whose history has been dealt with by Karen Hess (1981, 156-8). It would appear that, mutatis mutandis, Hannah Glasse's puffpastry was not so different from more modern versions. Instructions for a paste for making 'vermicella' (vermicelli) are also given, 155.(Glasse, 1747)
PATTIES, TIN, 75: presumably little tins for baking small, individual pies.(Glasse, 1747)
PATTY-PAN, 125, 256: a small tin pan or shape for baking small pies or pasties. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PATTY PANS: see Receipt 185 where they are called 'potipan moules'. Patt pans were tin moulds such as we might use for small tarts. See, for example, the entries relating to 'Princess Patty Pans' in the York Castle Museum Kitchen Catalogue.Other references envisage larger items. Receipt 263, has a patty pan that is thought middle-sized when it takes a pastry crust made with a pound and a half of flour. The summer squash called the pattypan was christened by American settlers, presumably because of its flat, round shape. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PATTY PAN: a small tin pan or shape for baking little pies or pastries. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PAULS-BETONY: see betony. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PEACHES. The varieties listed by Hannah Glasse, 164-5, are sufficiently numerous to suggest a high degree of interest in this fruit. July and August were evidently the best months for peaches, but 'late peaches' were obtainable in October. Phillips (1823) gives a similar season, observing that it extends from 'the small nutmeg peach, which ripens in July, to the large October peach, which is more agreeable to the sight than to the palate'. Most of Hannah Glasse's peaches have disappeared or fallen into obscurity. Varieties of Nutmeg were still being grown in the latter part of the 19th century; and her Newington, Violet and Muscal can be tentatively identified with varieties still current then under the names Old Newington, Violette Hative and Red Magdalen.(Glasse, 1747)
PEAR. Almost a score of varieties are named by Hannah Glasse in her monthly lists of fruits, 164-5; and pears figure in every month of the year except June. The first variety she names, for January, is Winter Purgomat, which sounds like some neoStalinist building in Moscow, but is evidently a form of the famous Bergamot group of pears. Bon Chretien was and still is a generic name for a whole group of pears distinguished by their shape, like that of a pilgrim's gourd. These pears were known in France in the 15th century and in England almost as early. The winter Bon Chretien was regarded by many in the 16th and 17th centuries as the finest of all fruits. The Black Worcester, according to Batty Langley (1729) was a common variety, much used for baking. Bradley (1728) considered it to be the same as Perkinson's Warden. Many of the varieties named by Hannah Glasse are not, however, found in earlier or later books.(Glasse, 1747)
BELL-ORANGE, is the variety most favoured by Ellis. Perhaps it was related to the Bergamot pears, of which there were several. (William Ellis, 1750)
BLACK WORCESTER, is a famed baking pear (see Traditional Foods of Britain). (William Ellis, 1750)
BON CHRISTIAN, bon-chrétien (Williams type). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
CADILLIAC, was also known as Cadillac or Catillac, and was a cooking variety oriiginally, as were so many, from France. (William Ellis, 1750)
WARDEN, a near-local type, being named for the Bedfordshire abbey of Warden. (William Ellis, 1750)
PEAR-PLUMBS, WHITE, 107, and four varieties of pear-plumb listed at 165 (unless some of them are pears – the list is confusing). The OED says simply that pear-plums are'pearshaped plums', which no doubt they are or were; but any other information about them is elusive.(Glasse, 1747)
PEAR PUDDING: A mixture of pounded pears and pounded chicken made up in the shape of pears. Today's nouvelle cuisine chefs are fond of using a puree of pears in conjunction with equally unexpected ingredients, e.g. spinach. (John Nott, 1726)
PEAS. Two kinds are mentioned in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director: the Ronceval (also known by contemporaries as the Egg peas or Dutch Admiral) and the Spanish Mooretto. Both were large varieties. There is also a particularly interesting paean of praise for the Gourmandine or Glutton's pea (Part II, p. 15); this being what we now call the mange-tout pea. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PEASE. Hannah Glasse refers to'Roncival and Winged Pease', 165. The former have been tentatively identified as marrowfat peas by Lovelock (1972), who also cites the 'probably apocryphal' explanation of the name as a corruption of the French name Roncesvalles. Winged peas are not mentioned by the authors of Adam's Luxury and Eve's Cookery (1744), a full survey of the kitchen garden in which peas are given their due of attention; nor in the chapter on peas in Lisle (1757), although his observations are very precise and he refers to numerous varieties. But they do appear as 'winged crown or rose pease' in the list of 20 varieties given by Switzer (1727), and 'Rouncivalls' had also been mentioned by Cotgrave (1611) as being the same as 'Pois ramez'. Elizabeth David suggests (private communication) that it was the 'rames' or branches which made these peas rouncival, and that the name may be connected with 'ronce' or 'ronciata' (wild, brambly – like the sort of tangle into which pea plants can get). She wonders whether, later, they could have inspired Edward Lear's runcible spoon.(Glasse, 1747)
PEASE, GREEN, TO KEEP: An early bottling method. (John Nott 1726)
PEASECODS, 267: pea-pods. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PECK: a dry measure, equivalent to a quarter of a bushel, or two gallons. As a measure of weight, 14 pounds. See also Weights and measures. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PECK: Measure of weight. 14 lb. (John Nott, 1726)
PECK, a dry measure of capacity. Two gallons (of wheat) made a peck; 4 pecks a bushel.(Glasse, 1747)
PECK: two gallons of wheat make a peck, four pecks a bushel. As a dry measure, it was 14 pounds. (William Ellis, 1750)
PEEL, OVEN: See Oven. (John Nott, 1726)
PEEPERS, 8: a name for very young birds, especially pigeons and chickens. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PEGGINGS are defined in the OED only by reference to Ellis. In his Modern Husbandman he describes them as the chaff which is swept off the heap of corn after winnowing. (William Ellis, 1750)
PELLITORY OF THE WALL: see parietary. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PELLOW, PELOW, pilau. The OED gives the first use of this word in English as 1612, but the dish denoted by the term did not enter the English repertoire until later. Hannah Glasse's recipes, 52 and 123, are unusual for their time and no source for them has been traced, although something comparable had been appearing in cookery books since the time of The Compleat Cook (1655) under titles such as 'A Turkish Dish', and The Ladies' Companion (1743) gave a recipe, quite different from any of Hannah Glasse's, for 'A Pillaw of Veal'.(Glasse, 1747)
PENNY-GRASS is probably yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), a grassland weed. (William Ellis, 1750)
PENNY LOAVES, PENNY WHITE LOAVES: The question of how large a loaf was to be had for a penny could only be answered with certainty if it were known exactly when any given receipt was first formulated. Originally the price of a loaf remained stable but its weight varied according to the price of wheat. In bad harvest years a penny loaf might weigh as little as 3 or 4 oz. and probably no white bread would in any case have been made for sale. In average years, during the period covered by the receipts in Nott's book, the penny white loaf would have been about 6 oz., and that is probably what was intended in the majority of the receipts. White, of course, is a relative term. The loaves in question would have been made from flour fairly finely bolted but the bread would not have looked white as we understand the term. A penny brown loaf would have weighed about three times as much as a white one. (John Nott, 1726)
PENNY LOAF, or PENNYWORTH, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
PENNYROYALL: pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), a small-leaved mint. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PENNYROYAL: A herb of the mint family, used more medicinally than in cooking. It was thought to be efficacious in the treatment of whooping cough, asthma and indigestion. (John Nott, 1726)
PEPPER. When Hannah Glasse refers simply to pepper, without specifying white or black, she may have meant either. She also refers to: red India pepper, which was presumably cayenne pepper (see Anne Wilson, 1973, 293), mentioned as Cayan pepper in the added recipe for dressing a turtle, 167; Jamaica pepper, which was allspice; and Ordingal pepper, 131, mentioned as a kind of 'whole black Pepper'. It is a mystery, unless Ordingal is a corruption of Portingall, meaning Portugal. There seems to be no mention in her book of long pepper or cubeb pepper, but the former appears in the added recipe for India pickle, 168.(Glasse, 1747)
PEPPER, CUBEB: Piper cubeba. Small brown corns, aromatic but a little milder than ordinary pepper. Exported from Malaysia to Europe since about the 7th century A.D. (John Nott, 1726)
PEPPER, GUINEA: See Grains of Paradise
PEPPER, JAMAICA: See Jamaica. (John Nott, 1726)
PEPPER, LONG: Piper longum. Native to India. A vine pepper which produces fruit which looks rather like a very small dark brown catkin. It was the most important of the various peppers of European cooking, perhaps the first. According to Burkill, in the time of Pliny in Rome, long pepper was worth twice as much as black pepper. Until the 18th century its use in European cooking was very widespread but has now almost died out. (John Nott, 1726)
PERRY: A variation of cider made with pears. See P 81. For Nott's reference to John Evelyn in this receipt see Evelin. (John Nott, 1726)
PETER-SALT, 199: saltpetre, q v. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PETER-SALT. It might be thought that this was saltpetre. But both peter-salt and saltpetre are referred to in the same line, 128, so they are apparently not the same. The explanation may be that indicated by the OED quotation, under Petre, of an early 18th century definition: 'Nitre, while . . . in its native state, is call'd Petre-Salt; when refin'd, Salt-Petrel' (See also SALPRUNELLA.)(Glasse, 1747)
PETRE-SALT is defined by Woodward (1728): 'Nitre, while…in its native state, is called petre-salt, when refin'd, salt-petre.' It is potassium nitrate. (William Ellis, 1750)
PETTY-TOES, pig's feet. In earlier times the term had included other parts of the pig.(Glasse, 1747)
PEWTER DISHES: Occasionally Nott—and numerous cookery books of the 17th and 18th centuries—directs the use of a pewter dish or other vessel over a chafing dish of coals. Readers should be warned that most pewter dishes melt when subjected to direct heat. No doubt there was at the time a heat-resistant alloy used for culinary dishes but it is risky to make the experiment. (John Nott, 1726)
PEWTER. This metal was much used in the 18th century kitchen, and its idiosyncracies well understood, e.g. that it was liable to melt if subjected to excessive heat, and that it turns pears purple, 84.(Glasse, 1747)
PHILIPENDULA: dropwort, Spirea philipendula. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PHYSICAL: medicinal, health-giving. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PICKLED PORK AND BACON. Bradley ate some delicious pickled pork at the house of one of his correspondents and immediately begged him for the recipe. This was published in Bradley's Monthly Writings in the form of memoranda, c. 1721-2. (See A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening, volume I, 1726, chapter 4, pp. 112-15.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PIGEON, see DOVES.(Glasse, 1747)
PIGEONS: The large number of receipts for pigeons given by Nott, surprising to modern eyes, is accounted for by the dovecots maintained in the grounds of every great mansion and almost all manor houses, great and small. Pigeons constituted a valuable source of fresh food in the winter when the cattle had been killed off. (John Nott, 1726)
PIGEONS. Much of Bradley's disquisition on the pigeon is lifted from The Ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton in the County of Warwick, as enlarged and translated from Latin by the naturalist John Ray (London, 1678). See book II thereof, chapters 14 and 15. Bradley had not read the classical authorities he quotes so blithely, but the interesting details about carrier pigeons and their use in communication are his own. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PIGNATA: normally, a dish made with pine nuts: perhaps here a kind of pot used to heat pine-cones to get the nuts out (Italian). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PILL: peel(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PILLA-COCHIA is a medicine, a purge: its composition is unknown. (William Ellis, 1750)
PILOTORY OF THE WALL, pellitory of the wall, Parietaria diffusa, a herb which thrives an old, damp walls and was used for troubles of the bladder, the stone, etc.(Glasse, 1747)
PIMPERNEL: probably scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PINCUSHIONS: 'Hertfordshire pincushions' are squares of paste which puff like pincushions when boiled. (William Ellis, 1750)
PINEAPPLE SEEDS: Pine nuts or kernels. English receipts have called for them since early medieval days. They are obtained from the cones of the Mediterranean stone pine, pinus pinea. How much pine nuts were actually used in English kitchens is a matter for speculation, but they were certainly on sale at apothecaries' shops, although perhaps more frequently in the form of comfits than fresh. Pine kernels are oily and are poor keepers. Nowadays they can be stored in the refrigerator, but formerly must often have been stale. (John Nott, 1726)
PINEAPPLE. Bradley was the first English cookery writer to publish recipes for this esteemed and highly prized fruit. The instructions for making pineapple marmalade and pineapple tarts (Part II, pp. 94 and 99) are thus of considerable historical interest. Although the pineapple first reached England in the 17th century—Charles II was presented with a queen pine from Barbados in 1661 and the Earl of Portland was trying to grow it in 1690 it was not induced to bear fruit until 1719. Bradley's account of this horticultural feat (which was performed by Sir Matthew Decker's ingenious gardener Henry Telende at Richmond, Surrey) can be read in A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening, volume II, 1726, chapters 2 and 3. Bradley, like his contemporaries, thought that the soft, tender, and delicate fruit of the 'ananas' excelled 'all the Fruits in the World in Flavour and Richness of Taste'. He must have been delighted to see Telende's success soon repeated by many members of the gentry and nobility. According to the Hoxton nurseryman, John Cowell, the pineapple was to be 'found in almost every curious garden' as early as 1730. (See The Curious and Profitable Gardener, London 1730, chapter 2.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PINE APPLE SEED, 279: a 'pine nut' (or pine nut kernel), the small, edible, nutlike seed of pine cones of various species of pine, especially the Mediterranean stone pine; not anything to do with pineapple, the fruit. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PINE-MOLET, see Bread. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PINES, 165. Pineapples. This fruit first reached England in the 17th century, and there is a good account in Phillips (1823) of how the royal gardener succeeded in causing a plant to fruit in England for the first time in 1661 (an event which is commemorated in a famous painting at Kensington Palace) and of how its cultivation was established in the early part of the 18th century. It then became a feature 'of every curious garden' and Bradley (1736, Part II, 94, 99) gives the first English recipes for cooking pineapples.(Glasse, 1747)
PINT: The old 16 oz. pint. (John Nott, 1726)
PIONY, a spelling of peony, whose seeds had been used in mediaeval England for both culinary and medical purposes. By the 18th century they were used only for medicine. Hannah Glasse, 158, calls for the roots, presumably dried and ground.(Glasse, 1747)
PIPKIN, 333: a small, round, usually earthenware, cooking pot. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
PIPKIN: small saucepan. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PIPKIN: a round pot. Elizabeth David, in her glossary to John Nott, states that such a pot is usually handled. In the main, it was earthenware, although the word might refer to a metal pan. In Receipt 67, Evelyn advises 'a new or very cleane pipkin', which could imply earthenware. Though the sound of pipkin is diminutive, the vessel could be large. A 'great pipkin' was used to make the Spanish olio in Receipt 90. It needed to contain 4 lbs beef, a piece of bacon and pork, neck of mutton, knuckle of veal, a pullet and a couple of pigeons, besides the broth. There are frequent signs of care in the selection of pans, to save food from being tainted for instance. Thus, when making the jelly described in Receipt 67, having boiled up the stock in a new pipkin, it was then strained into an earthen dish. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PIPKIN: A handled cooking pot, usually thought of as essentially rather a small one. In JE 2, however, Nott specifies a pipkin that will hold a gallon and a half
PIPKIN, 25. A cooking pot with handles, usually fairly small and made of earthenware. The shape varied, and it might or might not have a lid. It was most often used for boiling or stewing, but could also serve as a temporary storage receptacle. Elizabeth David, in her John Nott glossary, draws attention to his use of a pipkin holding a gallon and a half.(Glasse, 1747)
PISTACCIO: pistachio nut. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PITCHCOCK. Properly spitchcock, a verb referring to a way of preparing eels by cutting them into pieces, dressing them with breadcrumbs and chopped herbs and then grilling or frying them. Thus the OED. Hannah Glasse, 92, omits the herbs and takes the word to mean grilling pieces of eel, since she gives a similar but separate recipe for frying eel. (There was another word, spatchcock, apparently of Irish origin and meaning a way of grilling pieces of fowl.)(Glasse, 1747)
PITCHCOT (to pitchcock): see under SPITCHCOCK. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PITH: spinal cord. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PITH (of an ox), the spinal marrow or cord.(Glasse, 1747)
PLAISTER OF PARACELSUS: plaisters or plasters were an adhesive salve spread on muslin or skin. Paracelsus (d.1541) promoted mineral substances as healing agents and thought the body produced its own healing balsam. (William Ellis, 1750)
PLANTING, 159: probably plantain, Plantago major, a plant of medical and magic powers.(Glasse, 1747)
PLUCK, the heart, liver and lungs of an animal.(Glasse, 1747)
PLUMBS. Plums. Hannah Glasse lists about a dozen varieties, 165, as coming into season from July to October, together with Bullaces (October and November). She also mentions Damsons in her recipes. A few of her names find no echo in the longer list published by Bradley (1728) or in later literature, but most can be identified with varieties already familiar before Hannah Glasse's time and many still survive now. She seems not to have noticed Perdrigon, Bonum Magnum (unless her Imperial was Red Magnum Bonum), or the Green Gage (except in the fifth of the added recipes, 168).(Glasse, 1747)
PLUMP: to make plump; to fill out or fatten up. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PLUMS. The following varieties are mentioned in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director: Bonum magnum, bullace, damson, Egg, Imperial, Mussel, Royal Dolphin, White Holland. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PLUM POTTAGE: P 188. Compare with plum pudding P 243. It is often said that plum pottage or porridge was the original plum pudding. From the numerous variations of both to be found in the books of the 17th and 18th centuries it seems rather that the two concoctions co-existed for a very long time. On occasion both were even served at the same meal. (John Nott, 1726)
POIX CHICHES: chickpeas (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
POLLARD is bran. (William Ellis, 1750)
POLYPOD: 'polypody of the oak, a common fern growing in sheltered places, old walls, roots and stumps of trees' (E. David, glossary to John Nott). The root was used in medicine (see also Sir Kenelm Digby). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
POLYPODY OF THE OAK: A common fern growing in sheltered places, old walls, roots and stumps of trees. The dried roots were used medicinally. (John Nott, 1726)
POMATE: mash. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
POMECITRON, 66: a citron (pome here means 'fruit of'). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POMEWATER. A variety of apple, large and juicy, which was listed by Gerard (1699) (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POMPION, PUMPION, 27, 224: pumpkin. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POOR-JOHN: salted, dried hake. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
POOR KNIGHTS: See P 193. More usually Poor Knights of Windsor. The English version of the very ancient pain perdu, lost or waste bread. The name comes from the Poor or Alms-Knights of the Garter. From the inception of the Order by Edward III, every Knight Companion was entitled to nominate an Alms-Knight, chosen from among indigent and worthy military veterans, and endowed by the Order so that they might live 'gentily as became a military condition'. (Elias Ashmole The Institution , Laws and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. 1672). The Poor Knights, dressed in red mantles embroidered with the scutcheon of St. George but without the encircling garter, marched in the Garter processions and attended the services in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. How the venerable dish of left-over bread, steeped in cream or wine and beaten eggs, fried in butter and be sprinkled with sugar and rosewater, came to be particularly associated with the Poor Knights I have not discovered. (John Nott, 1726)
PORK. In construing Hannah Glasse's pork recipes it is necessary to remember that the pigs available when her book was first published were much more like wild boars than the pigs we know now. The introduction of the Chinese pig, which was responsible for a radical change in the commercial breeds, did not occur until the 1770s.(Glasse, 1747)
PORRINGER, porrenger: a bowl used for eating. The Compleat Cook (p.93) comments that he would rather a broth was 'drunk out of a Porringer, than … eaten with a spoon.' The word is still current in Scotland to describe a bowl for eating porridge. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PORRINGER: a small basin made out of metal, earthenware, or wood, from which soup, broth, porridge, children's food, etc. is eaten. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PORRINGER. A small bowl of metal, wood or earthenware, sometimes with one or two handles at the side, from which porridge, broth, soup, etc was eaten.(Glasse, 1747)
POSNET. A three-legged metal cooking pot. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POSNET, possnet, possenet: a porringer. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
POSSETT, possett pott: possetts were drinks made with hot milk curdled with wine or other liquor, together with various flavourings. They were made by heating alcohol in one bowl or pan and the milk or cream in another, then pouring the milk into the liquor from a great height. This was left to froth up and separate outby the side of the fire before drinking. The possett pot in such a production would presumably be the bowl in which the possett reposed, rather than the brass saucepan used to boil up the milk. See also Syllabub. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
POSSETS: The numerous receipts for these comforting and restorative beverages are self-explanatory. (John Nott, 1726)
POSSET. A hot drink made of milk curdled by the addition of an acid (wine, ale, citrus juice) and often spiced. Ordinary eating posses was made by adding breadcrumbs to beer or ale posses. Rich eating posses for the gentry was made with cream and sack or brandy with eggs, beaten almonds and grated Naples biscuit. A rich posses of this sort was partly eaten, partly drunk. Hence posses pots or cups with spouts; there was always a thin whey at the bottom of the posses, and this could be drunk through the little spout.(Glasse, 1747)
POSSET is a hot drink made of milk curdled with an acid (wine, ale, citrus juice). (William Ellis, 1750)
POSTLE: this word is used by Evelyn, in Receipt 68, to describe the sinewy part of the leg of venison. The derivation of the word is unknown. Postil or postle means a marginal comment (OED). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
POTATO. Bradley was an early promoter of the potato as a cheap and delicious foodstuff. In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Late Severe Winter (1729, p.17) he advocated growing potatoes in cattle-rearing areas specifically for the benefit of the poor who were to eat them boiled or ground down as 'an agreeable baked Bread'. The potato recipes in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director are a great deal; more elaborate than this, reflecting Stephen Switzer's view that potatoes were an 'exceedingly useful and delightful food, not only for the vulgar, but also for the tables of the curious' and 'that which was heretofore reckon'd a food fit only for Irishmen, and clowns, is now become the diet of the most luxuriously polite'. (See Switzer's The Practical Husbandman and Planter, volume I, 1733, pp.78-88.) Those interested in the culinary history of the potato and in Bradley's ideas about it should also consult John Cowell's The Compleat Fruit and Flower Gardener (third edition, corrected, 1733) to which was added an appendix by Bradley containing 'proper directions for ordering and dressing it after various manners for the table'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
POTATO PIES: It will be seen from the few receipts in which potatoes appear that they were still far from common. Cookery book receipts usually of course lagged behind practice, but half a century after the publication of Nott's book, Gilbert White recorded in a letter to Daines Barrington, dated January 8th 1778, that 'potatoes have prevailed in this little district (Selborne in Hampshire) within these twenty years only much esteemed by the poor, who would scarce have ventured to taste them in the last reign'. (The Natural History of Selborne. 1789). We know—see Introduction—that Nott worked in a number of houses in the south and south-west of England, and I think we can take it that his employers there probably did not go in for potato growing. The potatoes which went into his pies might even have been sweet ones. (John Nott, 1726)
POTT (pot): to preserve salted or seasoned food in a pot or jar. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
POTTAGES: These, as can be seen from the receipts, are mostly hefty hodge podges of meat, poultry, game and so on, not soups as we understand them. (John Nott, 1726)
POTTAGE: 'is the Broth of Flesh or Fowl, with Herbs and Oatmeal boiled therin' (Randle Holme). The recipe for plum pottage or Christmas pottage (Part II, p. 147) does not contain oatmeal and herbs but spices and fruit. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
POTTLE, occurring in many recipes: a measure equivalent to half a gallon or two quarts, used for com and flour as well as liquids. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POTTLE, potle, pottell: half a gallon (SOED).See Weights and measures. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
POTTLE: a measure of two quarts. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
POTTLE measures two quarts. (William Ellis, 1750)
POUNGARNET, 3: pomegranate. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POUPIETS, PAUPIETTES: Slices of meat wrapped round a stuffing. (John Nott, 1726)
POURPIER: purslane (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
POUT, 214: a young bird, as in pheasant-pout and heath-pout. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POUTS, a term for young birds. Thus we have pheasant, heath and turkey pouts.(Glasse, 1747)
POWDER, POWDERED. To powder is to sprinkle, as at 110 (with bay-salt), and powdered meat was meat sprinkled with salt, or perhaps saltpetre, to preserve or season it. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
POWDER: to powder meat, i.e. to dry cure it with salt or spices. This was done in powdering tubs, a frequent item in inventories of early kitchens. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PRECIPITATE is mercury reduced to a powder by solution in acid. Precipitation is the opposite of sublimation. The powder is corrosive. (William Ellis, 1750)
PRESS FOR GRAVY: G 55. This kitchen implement, a version of which is nowadays associated mainly with pressed duck, was a very ancient one. (John Nott, 1726)
PRO ARDORE URINAE: lit. 'for burning of the urine', i.e. to cool painful urination (Latin). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PRUENS, prunes.(Glasse, 1747)
PUFF-PASTE CRUST, see PASTE.(Glasse, 1747)
PUFFS: although puff often meant a light form of bread, and was used to describe light, butter-filled pastry, it was also two sorts of generic dish of which several examples exist in this manuscript. There were curd-based puffs mixed with flour and shaped then usually fried like fritters, and cream-based boiled puff puddings. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
PUGIL: ex pugillum (Latin), a pinch. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PUN: to beat, to pound as in a mortar. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
PUNCH FOR CHAMBERMAIDS: See P 268. If this was their tipple, 18th century chambermaids were certainly not the downtrodden creatures they became in Victorian days. (John Nott, 1726)
PUNCHIN (puncheon): a large cask for storing liquids, salted fish, etc. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
PUPTON, POUPETON: These are worth studying. One or two of the fish puptons, such as pupton of salmon, might be adapted for today. They seem rather like the hot fish terrines recently made popular by the more progressive French chefs. The French poupeton probably came from the Italian polpettone, a meat roll, or polpa, a hash. (John Nott, 1726)
PURGING ALES: These concoctions were blood-cleansing tonics rather than purges in the modern sense. (John Nott, 1726)
PURSLANE: Portulaca oleracea. A good salad herb, with a thick, fleshy and cool-tasting leaf. We could well do with a revival of purslane. Nott's pickle was for winter salads. (John Nott, 1726)
Q (top)
q.s., qua: s:, q.ss.: quantum sufficit, as much as is sufficient; see also Weights and measures. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
QUARTERN, occurring often: a quarter in various kinds of measure. A quartern loaf was one baked from 3 1/2 lb or a quarter stone of flour. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
QUARTERN: a quarter of anything. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
QUARTERN, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
QUARTERNE: a quarter of anything. Its use in Receipt 16 is ambiguous, it may mean a quarter of a pound. In Receipt 84, he talks of 'a quarterne and a half' of butter, which presumably means either three-quarters of a pound or six ounces. There are also instructions to take 'half a quarter', which must indicate two ounces. (See Weights and measures.)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
QUARTERS. Fourth parts of a year, especially as divided by the recognized Quarter Days. Hannah Glasse refers to Candlemas, Midsummer, Michaelmas, and Christmas. In England, Ireland and Wales the Quarter Days are: Lady Day, 25 March, Midsummer, 24 June, Michaelmas, 29 September, Christmas, 25 December. In Scotland, they are Candlemas, 2 February, Whitsunday, 15 May, Lammas, 1 August, Martinmas, 11 November. So Hannah Glasse appears to have followed Scottish practice for one Quarter and English for the rest. Perhaps she took Candlemas from her Scottish mother-in-law.(Glasse, 1747)
QUAVIVER: A kind of sea perch called sea dragon or dragonet, araneus dracaena. (John Nott, 1726)
QUEEN OF HUNGARY WATER: A toilet water believed to have multiple virtues, particularly as a hair rinse. One of its main ingredients was rosemary. Hungary water is still made. (John Nott, 1726)
QUELQUE CHOSE, 446-7: a French term, correctly spelled by May, which seems to have meant, in a culinary context, a dish of no great consequence. May leaned heavily on the French author La Varenne for his egg recipes. The term 'quelque chose) faded from view in Britain after being turned into an English word, kickshaw, meaning (sometimes in a derogatory way) minor fancy foods, especially in the 18th century. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
QUICKSILVER is mercury. (William Ellis, 1750)
QUIDDANY: A corruption of cotognata, the clear but solid quince sweetmeat or marmalade which was originally a speciality of Genoa and which spread to France as cotignac. The word cotognata came from the Italian mela cotogna, a quince. Before the widespread cultivation of quince trees in England, cotognata was a luxury sweetmeat, imported from Italy and called variously codinniack, chardecoynes (quincemeat), quindiniack and so on. Eventually settled as quiddany, the term was applied to preserves of many other fruits such as plums, raspberries, cherries and apricots. (John Nott, 1726)
QUIL. Quill, used as a measure of thickness, 119, where the reader is told to pull a chicken into pieces 'as thick as a quil'. Goose quills are about a quarter-inch hick.(Glasse, 1747)
QUINCE: a hard, acid, yellowish, pear-shaped fruit. Several kinds are noted in Bradley s Dictionarium Botanicum (1728): the ordinary yellow quince which looks like a cross between an apple and a pear and 'is sour, harsh, and of an unpleasant Taste, to eat fresh, but being scalded, roasted, baked, or preserved, becometh very pleasant'; the large yellow Portugal quince which 'is so pleasant, being fresh gather'd, that it may be eaten like an apple without offence'; the smaller Barbary quince; the Lyon's quince; and the almost round Brunswick quince. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
QUINCE, PORTUGAL, is among the most important and most popular quince varieties, identified by John Gerard and still grown today. (William Ellis, 1750)
QUODLE: to boil (coddle). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
QUODLING, 33: codlin or coaling, an apple of distinctive character, green and tapering, which was normally boiled. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
R (top)
R.: abbreviation for Recipe (from the Latin: the imperative form of recipere, to receive), or its English equivalent, 'Take', often placed at the outset of instructions. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
RABBIT. Rarebit. Scotch, Welsh, and (two) English versions are given, 97. The origin of this dish and the much debated question 'rabbit or rarebit?' are both insoluble problems. For what it is worth, the OED traces Welsh rabbit back to 1725 and Welsh rarebit only to 1785. What does seem clear is that the Welsh demonstrated a fondness for roasted cheese (caws pobi) from very early times. See Bobby Freeman (1980), who quotes the famous tale in Andrew Boorde (1547) of how all the Welshmen in Heaven were tricked into leaving by cries of 'Cause Babe'. It seems reasonable to leave the Welsh with principal credit for the dish, and to take Hannah Glasse's collection of recipes as interesting evidence of the extent to which it had gained popularity elsewhere in Britain by the middle of the 18th century.(Glasse, 1747)
RABET: rabbit. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RACE: root (of ginger). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
RACE: root, of ginger (raceme). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RACE: Root, a root of ginger. (John Nott, 1726)
RACES, RASES. Racemes or rhizomes of ginger, often referred to as ginger roots although this is not botanically correct.(Glasse, 1747)
RADDLE is red-ochre. Rams wear a raddle (ruddle, reddle) or harness of coloured earth strapped to their chests so as to mark any ewes that they have tupped. (William Ellis, 1750)
RAGOO. An anglicized version of the French word ragout, meaning a sort of stew to which a highly flavoured sauce was added near the end of the cooking time. From the 17th century onwards this was often thickened with fried flour. The English translator of Massialot (1702), who provided a glossary of culinary terms as a preface to the work, simply says: 'Ragoo, a high season'd Dish, after the French way.'(Glasse, 1747)
RAGOUT: a dish of meat cut in small pieces, stewed with vegetables and highly seasoned. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
RAIES: Possibly reeves, small birds, the females of ruffs. The old form of the word ree. (John Nott, 1726)
RAISINS OF THE SUN, a frequent ingredient: sun-dried raisins. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
RAISINS, reasons: sun-dried grapes, sometimes called raisins-of-the-sun to distinguish them from raisins of Corinth, i.e. currants. In Receipt 105, they are called 'malago raisins'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
RAISINS OF THE SUN meant simply sun-dried grapes. The phrase had been in use from mediaeval times to distinguish true raisins from raisins of Corinth, which were currants (and also sun- dried). (Glasse, 1747)
RAMOLADE: An early version of sauce rémoulade, now more usually made on a basis of mayonnaise. (John Nott, 1726)
RAMPONS, 160: now known as ramsons, or broad-leaved garlic, Allium ursinum. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
RANCH-SIEVE: perhaps a sieve mounted on a stand, from rance, ranse, a prop. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RAND, 332, 367-8: a side of fish; the head and shoulders were called the jole. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
RAND: a strip or slice of meat cut from the margin of a part, or from between two joints. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RAND OF SALMON, STURGEON: A rend is a strip or long slice. (John Nott, 1726)
RANDAN is the coarsest wheat flour. Other citations in the OED define it as bran ground as fine as flour. (William Ellis, 1750)
RANGE: A sieve on a stand. (John Nott, 1726)
RANSOLES, 65, and RANSOLS, 66. May describes in detail how to make these (evidently Italian) filled dumplings (if that is the right description). It is tempting to see a connection with ravioli. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
RAP VINEGAR, see VINEGAR.(Glasse, 1747)
RAPE, Brassica napus and B. campestris, one of the most ancient and coarse members of the cabbage family. (Glasse, 1747)
RAPE VINEGAR: vinegar made from the stalks of grape clusters, or refuse of grapes from which wine has been expressed (OED). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
RAPE VINEGAR: Rapes were the husks of grapes pressed for wine. See V 53. (John Nott, 1726)
RASP: to scrape or rub in a rough manner. Hence raspings of bread are large breadcrumbs. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
RASPAS, 254, 279: raspberry. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
RASPP'D BREAD, RASPINGS OF BREAD: breadcrumbs.(Glasse, 1747)
RATAFIA: A cordial or liqueur. The word, of uncertain origin, came to denote almost any alcoholic and aromatic 'water'. Flavourings varied widely, from the original ratafia of morello cherry kernels to such herbs as angelica. Some ratafias were distilled, others, as in Nott's receipts, were made by infusion of spices, herbs and fruits in brandy or eau de vie. For cherry ratafia see C 105. Ratafia biscuits are tiny almond or apricot kernel macaroons. (John Nott, 1726)
RATAFIA: a cordial or liqueur flavoured with the kernels of peaches, apricots, or cherries. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
RATAFIA. As used by Hannah Glasse, 111, the word indicates a flavour of almonds. Its meaning can be more general embracing the flavours imparted by the kernels of peaches, apricots and cherries. The cordial or liqueur called ratafia may be flavoured with any of these. Ratafia cakes and biscuits may be similarly flavoured; or they may be so called because they are intended to be eaten with the liqueur.(Glasse, 1747)
RAVENS: John Evelyn writes of Lady Huet's cheese that the best time to make it is when the 'cows go in Ravens.' This term is a variant of the word rowan or rewain and refers to the second crop of grass after the hay has been cut. Cheese made from this late crop seems to have been softer than many. Notes from Karen Hess, Malcolm Thick and C. Anne Wilson in PPC nos 56 et seqq. elucidate the matter. (John Evelyn, Cook, 17th century)
RED DOCK: Rumex. In Acetaria, Evelyn recommends using the roots of the sharp-pointed dock for brewing. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
RED HERRINGS. A famous speciality of Great Yarmouth, since the 16th century (when Thomas Nashe extolled its merits in his poem Lenten Stuffe, or the Praise of the Red Herring) or earlier. The story is that a Yarmouth fisherman who, having caught so many herrings that 'tree wist not what to do with all', hung them from the rafters of his hut over a smoky fire and noticed a few days later that they had turned red and were tasty. The process developed into a threefold procedure. The herrings, ungutted and unsplit, were first soaked in brine and saltpetre added; then hung up to dry; and finally smoked for 24 to 48 hours over oak, beech and turf. Red herrings keep for a while, but not long.(Glasse, 1747)
RED-NETTLES: red dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RED SAUNDERS (red sanders): red sandalwood or rubywood, from the tree Pterocarpus santalinus. This belongs to the Madras region of India, and is used in dyeing, for making a cosmetic powder, and as an astringent end tonic in medicine. It is not to be confused with Santalum album, the true sandalwood. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
REDDISH PODS, the seed-pods of the radish plant. Eliza Smith (1741) had used the modern spelling in her 'Radish pods pickled', a different recipe. So had Evelyn (1699) in commenting that 'the Seed-Pods' of the radish 'are a pretty Sallet'.(Glasse, 1747)
REDONY. The recipe 'To Make Hysterical Water', 158, has two misprints in the first line. Instead of: 'Take Redony, Roots of Sovage, . . .', it should read: 'Take Zedoary, Roots of Lovage, . . .', as in Eliza Smith's (1727) recipe for 'Hysterical Water', which Hannah Glasse otherwise copies (save for another misprint near the end and the addition of the final instruction to 'bottle it up'). Zedoary, Curcuma zedoaria, is a perennial herb of eastern India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia, whose rhizomes are dried like those of ginger and used for flavouring purposes. It is sometimes confused with turmeric and with plants of Kaempferia spp. It has a pungent, bitter taste.(Glasse, 1747)
REDSHANKS: A kind of snipe
REED TRIPE, see TRIPE.(Glasse, 1747)
REIFS, 49, not a reference to the birds of prey of that name, but a way of spelling reeves, copied by Hannah Glasse from The Whole Duty of a Woman (1741), which copied it from Carter (1732). See RUFFS.(Glasse, 1747)
RENNET-WORT is probably lady's bedstraw (Galium verum), used to curdle milk in the absence of calf's rennet. OED, following Richard Bradley (a regular source for Ellis too), suggests it is Galium aparine, goosegrass or clivers: unlikely here. (William Ellis, 1750)
RESTY: reasty, rancid. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RHENISH, 143: Rhenish wine, i.e. Rhine wine, imported into England even in Roman times. Its popularity fluctuated during the 15th to the 18th centuries, as trade tariffs were changed and wars took place, but it remained familiar. Anne Wilson (1973) remarks that it was customary to sugar it before consumption and that: 'As late as 1762 the wine list at Vauxhall Gardens included "old hock with or without sugar" . . . and "rhenish and sugar".'(Glasse, 1747)
RIBWORT: Plantago lanceolata. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RICE, FLORENDINE: R 42. The decoration of this dish is another of the typically Stuart fancies recorded by Nott. (John Nott, 1726)
RIDDER SIEVE is the largest sort of wheat sieve. (William Ellis, 1750)
ROACH: A freshwater fish of the carp tribe
ROCOMBOLES: See Nott's definition in R 47. Allium Scorodoprasum. For salads John Evelyn advised 'the gentler rocombole' instead of garlic. (John Nott, 1726)
ROCAMBOLE: a species of leek (Allium scorodoprasum) indigenous to northern Europe, used as an alternative to garlic or shallot in the early 18th century. In his New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (part III, 1718, p. 237), Bradley lamented that: 'The Rocambole, for its high Relish in Sauces, has been greatly esteem'd formerly, but now a-days is hardly to be met with', adding that 'considering how small a Quantity of it is sufficient to give us that Relish which many onions can hardly give, it ought to be prefered'. According to his Dictionarium Botanicum (1728), only the head or little bulbs growing on the head were used in sauces. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ROCAMBOLE. Best described as a form of garlic, Allium sativum, since it is used in the same way, although milder. Evelyn (1699) preferred 'the gentler rocambole' to ordinary garlic in salads. However, many authorities classify it as Allium scorodoprasum, a separate species often referred to as the 'sand leek'.(Glasse, 1747)
ROCAMBOLE is Allium scorodoprasum or sand leek, a milder form of garlic. (William Ellis, 1750)
ROCCOMBO: rocambole (Allium scorodoprasum). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
ROCH, roach, the fish.(Glasse, 1747)
ROCHET, 324: the red gurnard, Aspitrigla cuculus (the NSOED, apparently in error, identifies this common European species as Chelidonichthys kumu.) (Robert May, 1660/1685)
ROCK ALLUM, 85. The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (vol 1, 1769) describes alum as 'a peculiar kind of salt', sometimes found pure but often having to be separated from the stone or earth in which it occurs. A description is given of how, at Whitby in Yorkshire, stones from quarries were processed. After the alum had been extracted and crystallized, 'it is thrown into a pan, called the roching pan, and there melted', then condensed and cut into chips. 'This is what we commonly call roche or rock alum, as being prepared from stones cut from the rocks of the quarry; and stands contradistinguished from the common alum, or that prepared from earths.'(Glasse, 1747)
ROCK-WATER, see WATER.(Glasse, 1747)
ROLE TRIPE, see TRIPE.(Glasse, 1747)
ROLL BRIMSTONE is presumably a piece of brimstone formed into a ball or roll. (William Ellis, 1750)
ROLLS, FRENCH: See French. (John Nott, 1726)
ROMAN VITRIOL is sulphate of copper. It is also called blue vitriol. (William Ellis, 1750)
ROMAN WORM-WOOD: Artemisia arborescens. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ROS SOLIS or ROSA SOLIS: the plant sundew, Drosera rotundifolia. Ros means dew. See Geoffrey Grigson for an interesting account of its history since the 16th century and of its use in making a once celebrated liqueur. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
ROSA, AROMATIC: This seems to mean rose sugar. See Roses, sugar of.:
ROSA SOLIS: The herb sundew. Drosera rotundifolia. Originally the Italian cordial rosolio was prepared wholly from the juice of the plant. As in the case of ratafia, rosolio came to denote a whole class of cordials and liqueurs. There are many variations in the spelling. Potter says that sundew is so called because of the numerous red hairs on the leaves upon which the moisture settles and does not disperse even on the hottest day. The sun shining on the hairs produces a dew-like effect. (John Nott, 1726)
ROSA SOLIS OF MARROW: M 21. The name appears to be an error for raviolis. See Spinnage Rosa solis. Sweet raviolis were once quite common, and raviolis were not and are not necessarily encased in paste. (John Nott, 1726)
ROSES, SUGAR OF: The receipt is self-explanatory. Many such perfumed sugars were popular in Stuart days. (John Nott, 1726)
ROSIN. The solid residue after distillation of spirits of turpentine from its crude state, used for sealing bungs and corks etc.(Glasse, 1747)
ROUELLE: a rolled piece of veal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
ROWEL is a circular piece of leather or other material, with a hole in the centre, placed between an animal's flesh and its skin to provoke and permit the discharge of humours or pus. (William Ellis, 1750)
ROWS, roes (of carp, 86).(Glasse, 1747)
RUFFS. Birds of the species Philomachus pugnax. The female is known as a reeve. The ruff has a long- feathered ruff, erected when he is displaying to the reeve, but there seems to be no etymological connection between ruff, the name of the bird, and ruff, the article of clothing. Only a few ruffs and reeves survive in Britain now, in conservation areas on the Ouse Washes. 'This is a far cry from the Lincolnshire of the eighteenth century when a single fowler could net no less than seventy-two Ruffs in a single morning, and a man might expect to take at least forty to fifty dozen between April and Michaelmas which, after being fattened, would fetch two shillings or half-a- crown as table birds.' (Greenoak, 1979) Hannah Glasse's display of regional knowledge in describing ruffs and reeves as Lincolnshire birds is at second-hand, since her recipe, 49, is copied from earlier books. See REIFS.(Glasse, 1747)
RUNDLET, rundlett: runlet. A cask or barrel – small runlets contained between a 'pint and a quart and 3 or 4 gallons' (SOED). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
RUNLET: a small barrel. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RUNDLET: Variant of runlet. A cask of no fixed capacity. (John Nott, 1726)
RUNNET: rennet. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
RUNNET, rennet.(Glasse, 1747)
RUSSEL, OIL OF: it is not clear what this is. It is possibly a variant spelling of rosil which is rosin, solid resin after the distillation of turpentine. (William Ellis, 1750)
RUST, TO, is the verb that describes turning rusty or resty, i.e. rancid. (William Ellis, 1750)
RUSTY: Rancid. (John Nott, 1726)
RYE MEAL: Used for the pastry crust for venison pies, and other large pies, especially those made for keeping and to be taken on journeys. The crust was made very thick—at least two inches according to some 17th century receipts — and was intended more as container and packaging material than for consumption, although sometimes the crust was put into pottages and soups instead of bread. (John Nott, 1726)
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SACK, sacke: white Spanish or Canary wine. Gervase Markham wrote (cited in OED), 'Your best Sacks are of Seres in Spaine, your smaller from Galicia and Portugall; your strong Sacks are of the Islands of Canaries, and of Malligo.' The ms qualifies the word in Receipt 126 where it calls for 'best malago', and Receipt 209 where the need is for Canary. Receipt 54 called for 'sacke or other strong wine' indicating that these wines were fortified in the manner of sherry. Sherry is denoted once in these receipts (243). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SACK: According to A. L. Simon sack was mentioned for the first time in a Proclamation fixing the retail prices of wine, 1532. Sack came mostly from Cadiz or Herez, later also from Malaga and the Canaries. Simon says it was a dry amber wine, occasionally sweetened with honey or sugar. (John Nott, 1726)
SACK, SACK-LEES. Sack was a dry, amber wine imported from Spain and the Canaries, and often drunk with sugar added. Sack-lees were the residue in the cask.(Glasse, 1747)
SACK is a generic name for fortified wine from Spain or the Canaries: it might be Malaga, Sherry, Canary or Palma (Majorca). The word (Robinson) may derive from the Spanish for export (sacas), rather than from the French for dry (sec). (William Ellis, 1750)
SAFFRON: this brilliant yellow spice was widely used in medieval cookery as a seasoning and dye-stuff. But by the early 18th century its popularity had declined, partly because brightly coloured food had fallen out of fashion, and partly because marigold petals provided a satisfactory and cheap alternative source of colour in making butter and cheese. These considerations, however, did not stop Bradley from making enthusiastic attempts to revitalize the saffron-growing industry in Cambridgeshire and the north of Essex. He wrote about saffron culture extensively in both The Country Gentleman and Farmer's Director and The Country Housewife and Lady's Director (the men were to plant the stuff and the women were to dry and sell it). He also tried to enlist the support of his fellow members of the Royal Society. In November 1726, for example, Bradley wrote to Sir Hans Sloane that: 'I have & Saffron Kiln of the best Sort In London, it is now At the Four Swans in Bishopsgate Street in the Warehouse belonging to the Wellington Wagon. I bought it in My progress throw Cambridgeshire. If you think proper to have it, please to send for it in my name and it will be delivered…I think it would do well at the Royal Society as a pattern for those who Cultivate Saffron in the west or south parts.' (Sloane MS 4048, folio 212.) Although we do not know Sloane's reaction, we do know that another member of the Royal Society, James Douglas, published an account of saffron culture in the Philosophical Transactions of 1728. Bradley was, however, unable to arrest the industry's decline: according to Richard Griffin Braybrooke's The History of Audley End (London, S. Bentley, 1836), saffron growing had virtually disappeared from Cambridgeshire and Essex by 1790. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SAGE OF VIRTUE is the 'narrow hoary-leaved sage' (Abercrombie), a variety of Salvia officinalis. (William Ellis, 1750)
SAGO: The powdered or granulated form of starch obtained from the trunk-pith of various Malaysian and Indian palms. (John Nott, 1726)
SAINGARAZ: A number of receipts are so denominated. The more usual spelling is the Italian zingara, meaning gypsy woman. Strips of ham in the sauce are a common factor. Escalopes of veal à la zingara still appear in French restaurant cooking. (John Nott, 1726)
SAINT JOHN'S WORT: Hypericum perforatum; medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SAINT MENEHOUT: The nomenclature indicated, as it still does in French cookery, something egg-and-breadcrumbed and then fried or broiled. A good number of Nott's receipts, all of French derivation, call for this treatment. Sainte-Menehould is a small town in the Champagne district. Whether the method of cookery is called after the town or the saint herself is not recorded. (John Nott, 1726)
SAINTE MENEHOUD. Sainte-Menehould is a district in the Marne famous for its charcuterie, especially pigs' trotters. Alexandre Dumas (1873, here quoted in the abridged English edition, 1978) draws on Le Viandier by Taillevent for the origin of dishes 'a la SainteMenehould'. It will be seen that Hannah Glasse's recipes, 25 and 37, include the same elements but change the sequence of operations. One evening, following a great battle against the English, King Charles Vll . . . came to lodge for the night in the little town of Sainte-Menehould, in which only five or six houses survived, the town having been burned. The king and his suite were dying of hunger. The ruined and ravaged countryside was latking in everything. Finally, they managed to get hold of four pig's feet and three chickens. The king had with him no cook, male or female; so the wife of a poor edge-tool maker was charged with cooking the chickens. As for the pig's feet, there was nothing to do but put them on the grill. The good woman roasted the chickens, dipped them in beaten egg, rolled them in breadcrumbs with fines herbes, and then, after moistening them with a mustard sauce, served them to the king and his companions, who devoured the pig's feet entire and left only the bones of the chickens.(Glasse, 1747)
SAINTFOIN, or more properly, sainfoin, is the forage plant Onobrychis sativa. The word meant not 'holy' hay, but 'healthy' hay. (William Ellis, 1750)
SAL VOLATILE is an aromatic solution of ammonium carbonate, smelling salts. (William Ellis, 1750)
SALAMANGUNDY: The receipts are self-explanatory. (John Nott, 1726)
SALAMONGUNDI, 59. In writing about salads of the 17th century, Anne Wilson (1973) explains the term thus. 'Sometimes an egg and herb salad was further enhanced by the addition of cold roast capon, anchovies and other meat or fish delicacies. Late in the seventeenth century the name of salamagundi was applied to mixtures of this type, and was subsequently corrupted to "Solomon Gundy".' The latter name has survived in North America. The earlier name was derived from the old French salmigondis, of unknown origin according to the OED.(Glasse, 1747)
SALARY, celery.(Glasse, 1747)
SALIVATE, TO: it was a tactic of early medicine to provoke excess salivation, as you might provoke a sweat. The usual agent was mercury and the process was part of the traditional cure for the venereal pox. (William Ellis, 1750)
SALL PRUNELLA: salprunella. If saltpetre (nitre) is fixed by burning with charcoal, it becomes salprunella: a nitrite instead of a nitrate (see glossary to Hannah Glasse). It colours pickled meats. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SALLAD, SALLETT, GRAND: See S 6. A wondrous extravaganza. Such salads were made only for show on important occasions. (John Nott, 1726)
SALLADS, SALLAT. The ingredients of a salad are listed, 165, and may be compared with the list given by Evelyn (Acetaria, a Discourse on Sallets, 1699). Evelyn also throws light on Hannah Glasse's surprising recipe To Raise a Sallat in two Hours at the Fire, 158. In the course of a passage about hot beds he recommends for those whose tastes demand early or forced growths the practice of 'a very ingenious Gentleman whom I knew; That having some Friends of his accidentally come to Dine with him, and wanting an early Sallet, Before they sate down to Table, sowed Lettuce and some other Seeds in a certain Composition of Mould he had prepared; which within the space of two Hours, being risen near two Inches high, presented them with a delicate and tender Sallet . . .' Evelyn does not, however, say that this astonishing growth took place at the fireside.(Glasse, 1747)
SALLERY: celery. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SALMON, CHINE, JOLE, RAND OF: See the relevant entries. Also pupton. (John Nott, 1726)
SALMY or SALMY-GUNDY: defined by Randle Holme as 'an Italian dish-meat made of cold Turkey and other ingredients'. The name is derived from the French word salmis, and later became Solomon Gundy, in which form it still survives in Canada. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SALOP: More usually salep. A starch from the dried tubers of various orchidaceous plants. In Turkey and Egypt used as the basis of a milk drink and a milky ice. Nott's receipt S 37 would presumably make a kind of pap. Salep is often confused with saloop. See sassafras. (John Nott, 1726)
SALPICON: See S 38. A highly complex mixture, a kind of liquid stuffing for a very large roast joint. (John Nott, 1726)
SALPRUNELLA, 117. The subject of Dr Johnson's criticism, that Hannah Glasse was misguided in drawing a distinction between saltpetre and sal-prunella, the latter being merely the former burned on charcoal. The doctor was himself misguided in supposing that there is no significant difference between the two substances. Saltpetre is a nitrate of potassium or sodium. It was sometimes simply called 'nitre'. Salprunella is 'fused nitre cast into moulds' (OED), i.e. a nitrite made into cakes or balls and used in medicine and preserving. The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768-71) gives a dramatic description of its preparation. 'Take the purest sal-petre in powder; put it into a large crucible, which it may but half fill; set the crucible in a common furnace, and surround it with coals. When it is red hot the nitre will melt, and become as fluid as water. Then throw into the crucible a small quantity of charcoal dust: the nitre and the charcoal will immediately deflagrate with violence; and a great commotion will be raised, accompanied with a considerable hissing, and abundance of black smoke.' The process is repeated until nothing more happens, when the product remaining is 'nitre fixed by charcoal, i.e. a nitrite instead of a nitrate, and called salprunella. The use of nitrites in preserving produces a red colour and is attended by greater risks than the use of nitrates (shade of Dr Johnson, please note).(Glasse, 1747)
SALPRUNELLA is saltpetre burnt over charcoal, melted and cast into moulds. (William Ellis, 1750)
SALSIFIE (salsify): Tragopogon porrifolius, a root vegetable shaped like a long, thin carrot and with a skin reminiscent of the parsnip. It is also known as Purple Goat's- beard. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SALT: there were different sorts of salt available, see Elizabeth David, Spices, Salts and Aromatics in the English Kitchen (1970), and the glossary to Hannah Glasse for some discussion:(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BAY-SALT: salt made from the evaporation of seawater in salt pans by the natural heat of the sun. This was usually imported from the hotter climes of southern Europe. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WHITE SALT: salt made by the evaporation of seawater and brine (for instance from the brine springs of Cheshire) by artificially heating it. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SALT. The choice of salt was important. Hannah Glasse mentions four kinds, as follows.
WHITE SALT was prepared from seawater on the east coast of England and Scotland and from brine springs in Worcestershire and Cheshire. (The Cheshire salt mines were started in 1670, when deposits of rock salt were discovered near Northwich. The salt produced there was sent to the west coast to be heated and dissolved in brine and recrystallized, thus making what was celled 'salt upon salt'.)
YORKSHIRE SALT would have been a kind of white salt, from the Yorkshire coast.
MALDERN (i.e. MALDON) SALT was white, sea salt from Maldon in Essex, which remains popular and is still marketed under that name. Incidentally, Hannah Glasse preferred Suffolk butter because Maldon salt was used in its preparation. For salting meat, however, she seems to have preferred a Cheshire salt, that from Nantwich which was called Lounds's salt.
BAY SALT, according to Webster (1861), 'is obtained from the sea water by evaporating it in large shallow reservoirs by the heat of the sun only. None is made strictly by this method in Britain, the climate being scarcely warm enough; but large quantities are manufactured on the southern coasts of Europe, as France, Spain, and Portugal, and from thence it is imported into this country. It is very large or coarse-grained, in consequence of the slowness of the evaporation, and more or less impure, being brownish, grey, or reddish, according to the colour of the clay which formed the bottom of the pans in which it was made…. The more slowly the water has been evaporated, the larger are the crystals of salt, and the more perfect and pure they are. Bay salt is generally considered to be stronger than white salt; but this opinion is erroneous; its superior operation is rather by dissolving slower on account of the large size of its crystals; and hence it is more useful in salting sea stores.' ('Sea salt' differed from 'bay salt' in that it was evaporated by artificial means, but Hannah Glasse does not refer to sea salt as such; it is but one kind of her 'white salt'.)(Glasse, 1747)
SALTPETER: potassium nitrate, used as a preservative of flesh. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SALT-PETER (saltpetre): potassium nitrate, a crystalline substance with a saline taste. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SALTPETRE: potassium or sodium nitrate. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SALTPETRE, potassium or sodium nitrate: see SAL-PRUNELLA.(Glasse, 1747)
SALTPETRE is potassium nitrate. It may be obtained by mixing decaying nitrogenous matter with lime (alkali), air and water, adding to the solution wood-ash or potassium, then crystallizing the result. (William Ellis, 1750)
SALUP. Since Hannah Glasse, 120, refers to this as a hard stone ground to powder, it is evident that she means what is now spelled salep, the substance from which the beverage saloop is made. Salep is not a powdered stone, but the pulverized root of plants of the orchid family, Orchis latifolia, O. mascula and related species, which grow in parts of Europe and in Asia. According to Webster (1861), the roots of O. mascula were the principal source, and were imported from Turkey, Persia, Syria and the East Indies. The roots had been baked in ovens until semi-transparent, then dried. They arrived as oval pieces, yellowish-white, sometimes clear, and always hard and horny, so that pulverizing them was not easy. Salep was supposed to have great nutritional powers. The drink saloop began to enjoy a vogue towards the end of the 17th century. Anne Wilson (1973) records that the powder was stirred into water until it thickened, then sweetened and seasoned with rosewater or orange-flower water (not used in Hannah Glasse's recipe). It was often made up with milk. 'At the height of its popularity salop was served in the coffee-houses as an alternative to coffee or chocolate; and salop-vendors peddled the drink in the streets, or sold it from booths.'(Glasse, 1747)
SAMPHIER, sampier: rock samphire (Crithmum maritimum), rather than the marsh samphire with which it is often confused. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SAMPHIRE: Crithium maritimum. A plant which flourishes on rocks and sea cliffs. In French, herbe de St. Pierre and perce-pierre, from the manner in which its roots strike deep into rocky crevices. A popular pickle for winter salads in the 16th and 17th centuries in England, France, and most south European countries. The pickle was also served with boiled meats. In the spring and early summer months, fresh samphire is good boiled and eaten with butter. John Evelyn wondered that it had never been cultivated in English kitchen gardens as it was in France. Shakespeare, in a famous line from King Lear (IV.6) tells us that gathering samphire was a 'dreadful trade', by which he meant perilous. (John Nott, 1726)
SAMPIER, 10: samphire. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SAMPIER: samphire, Crithmum maritimum, a herb which grows by the sea, e.g. on cliffs, and which used to be pickled as a standard relish for meat, fish or salads.(Glasse, 1747)
SAND was used for preserving eggs, as were meal, bran and wood-ashes.(Glasse, 1747)
SAND-HEAT: heat applied by means of heated sand. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SANDERS, occurring in various contexts: a dye from the red sandalwood tree which was imported from the Orient. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SANDERS, red sanders: a dye obtained from the red sandalwood tree. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SANICLE: Sanicula europaea; medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SASSAFRAS: the imported bark of a North-American tree, Sassafras albidum. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SASSAFRAS: A small tree native to Florida, discovered there by the Spaniards in 1528. Also called sassafras laurel and ague tree. The dried bark was used medicinally. Sassafras tea, called saloop, was supposedly possessed of many healing virtues. (John Nott, 1726)
SASSAFRAS is the bark of the sassafras laurel, native to America. The oil was made from the roots of the tree. (William Ellis, 1750)
SAUCEPAN: Receipt 317 specifies that the saucepan or stewpan be tinned when potting pigeons. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SAUCEPAN. The varieties referred to by Hannah Glasse are copper, brass (135), and silver 'if you have one' (143). She says (10): 'Use no Iron Pans etc for they are not proper.' This advice was ridiculed, with some justice, by Ann Cook (1752).(Glasse, 1747)
SAUNDERS, SANDERS: Red and yellow colourings, obtained from two different varieties of sandalwood. (John Nott, 1726)
SAVORY, 23 and in numerous other recipes. Winter savory (Satureja montana), sharper and spicier than summer savory (S hortensis), is sometimes specified, as at 108 and 321. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SAVORY: Satureia montana and s. hortensis, respectively winter and summer savvy. The former was probably intended in Nott's receipts. A pungent herb used in forcemeats, ragoos and the like. (John Nott, 1726)
SAXAFRAS: sassafras, a tree native to Florida. The bark was used in medicine and to make a calming tea (E. David, glossary to John Nott). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SAXAFREG. Saxifrage, a perennial herb of which there are many species. It takes its common and botanical name (the family is Saxifragaceae) from its reputed ability to break through stones or rocks. It was for this reason that it was thought to be a medical remedy for 'the stone'.(Glasse, 1747)
SCABIOUS: field scabious, Knautia arvensis, used for skin troubles and against the plague. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SCALD-BERRY is the blackberry. (William Ellis, 1750)
SCALD-HEAD is a skin disease, usually ringworm, but it may cover a multitude of scalp conditions, from pustules to scurf. (William Ellis, 1750)
SCATE: skate (or ray – the two terms are in effect interchangeable). Hannah Glasse regularly refers (78, 93, 163) to 'scate or thornback'. The latter is Raja clavata, considered to be the best fish of the family and still called thornback.(Glasse, 1747)
SCEMING DISH: skimming dish. A flat, perforated brass skimmer. These were used in the production of clotted cream, among other things, but Evelyn also noted the use of a flat wooden trencher to skim the cream off the milk in Normandy (Receipt 100).Receipt 172 also calls for a wooden trencher in making a 'clouted cream'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SCHUCHENEL: cochineal, the familiar red food-dye, prepared from the dried bodies of a scale insect, Coccus cacti.(Glasse, 1747)
SCOLLOP, 400: scallop (the mollusc). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SCOLLOPS, SCOLLUPS-SHELLS, scallops, scallop-shells.(Glasse, 1747)
SCOOPE, SMALL. Apple scoops were made of wood or bone. They were not unlike modern apple corers in design, but usually decorated with initials and a date.(Glasse, 1747)
SCORDIUM, water germander, Teucrium scordium, a herb which smells like garlic and has medicinal uses.(Glasse, 1747)
SCORZONERA: Scorzonera hispanica, a root vegetable shaped like salsify, but with a brownish-black skin. It is also known as black salsify. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SCORZONERA. Black salsify, Scorzonera hispanica, a plant whose roots are consumed like those of ordinary salsify. It was introduced to England in the 17th century.(Glasse, 1747)
SCOTCH: to score a piece of meat or fish with the tip of a knife, nothing to do with Scotland. The word scarify is used in Receipt 125 for eels, for roughly the same act. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SCOTCH CHICKENS, 40. Hannah Glasse took this recipe from The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737), whose compiler took it from Charles Carter (1732). There is no recipe like it in Mrs McLintock's Receipts (1736), the first cookery book to be published in Scotland although she does have an interesting recipe for Chicken Pye, involving gooseberries and sounding like a regional dish. Nor is Hannah Glasse's recipe echOED by Mrs Maclver (1789), Meg Dods (1826) or Mrs Dalgairns (1829). An adapted version of the recipe occurs in Briggs (1788), but there is no reason to think that he had any special knowledge of Scottish dishes.(Glasse, 1747)
SCOTCH PILL was a physic which killed by frequent application, its composition was mainly aloes, jalap, gamboge and anise. (William Ellis, 1750)
SCOTS COLLUPS: see under COLLUPS. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SCRAIG, 33. Scrag, the crop. Wright's Dialect Dictionary gives 'neck and scrag'as an alternative to the more familiar 'neck and crop'. The OED says: 'The lean and inferior end of a neck of mutton (or veal)'. 'Inferior' is ambiguous. The scrag is the upper part, and the OED is referring to quality rather than position.(Glasse, 1747)
SCRAPED SUGAR: scraped with a knife off the block, which was the form it entered the household, rather than the powdered sugar we have today. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SCROW: scraps of hide to be boiled for glue(Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SCURVY GRASS, 161: Cochlearia officinalis, a cruciferous plant whose fleshy leaves were eaten, e g by sailors, for their anti-scorbutic qualities. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SCURVY-GRASS: Cochlearia officinalis, thought generally wholesome. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SCURVY-GRASS, scurvy grasse: Cochlearia officinalis. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SCURVY-GRASS. The plant Cochlearia officinalis, whose leaves were infused as a preventative against scurvy. Culpeper (1826 edition) says, of the ivy-leaved variety: 'A distilled water and a conserve are prepared from the leaves, and kept in the shops; and its juice is frequently prescribed, together with that of Seville oranges, by the name of antiscorbutic juices.'(Glasse, 1747)
SCURVY-GRASS is Cochlearia officinalis. (William Ellis, 1750)
SCURVYGRASS ALE: Scurvygrass, cochlearia officinalis, as its name indicates, was believed to be an antiscorbutic. The plant is also called spoonwort. Scurvygrass ale was drunk as a blood-cleansing tonic. (John Nott, 1726)
SEA DUCK: Some sort of waterfowl other than the numerous ones (see S 74, 75) for which Nott gives a portmanteau receipt. Perhaps a coot or moorhen. Or perhaps an alternative term for the spoonbill duck or shoveller. (John Nott, 1726)
SEA-LARK: a local name for various small birds frequenting the sea-shore. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SEA-SPIDER. This is an unusual name for the pea crab or oyster crab, a diminutive resident in the shells of living bivalves such as mussels and oysters. Bradley erred in supposing that it was these little creatures which made people ill after eating mussels. On the contrary, they are themselves a delicacy. See Davidson, Alan, North Atlantic Seafood, Macmillan, London, 1979, and Viking Penguin, New York, 1980. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SEA TURTLE. The three recipes for dressing sea turtle provided by 'a Barbadoes Lady' are of great historical interest. Not only do they shed new light on the cookery of the early British colonists in the West Indies, but they also are the first sea turtle recipes to appear in an English cookery book. Later on in the 18th century, recipes for turtle soup (or mock turtle soup, made with a calf's head) became part of the usual stock of cookery writers. The dish had become so popular that cold mock turtle soups were even sold in London pastry-cook shops. In r732, however, when Part II of The Country Housewife and Lady's Director was published, the sea turtle was quite a novelty. Only a small number had been transported in tanks from the West Indies to England, and only a few travellers had written about them. Richard Ligon, author of A true and exact history of the island of Barbados (1657), had praised the Green Turtle for its 'wholesomenesse, and Rarenesse of Taste'. But although he described the method used to kill turtles and alluded to the revolting pickled turtle served to Negroes and servants on the Leeward Islands, he provided no culinary details. Hans Sloane, in volume I of his Natural History of Jamaica (1707), was similarly uninformative, perhaps because he thought turtles 'infect the Blood of those feeding upon them, whence their Shirts are yellow, their Skin and Face of the same colour, and their Shirts under the Armpits stained prodigiously'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SEA-WORM-WOOD: Artemisia maritima; aromatic. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SEADRINK. Referred to, 154, as an ingredient in Plague Water. A mystery. The term is unknown to the Editors of the OED. So far as can be ascertained, no other author who gives a receipt for plague water cites this ingredient. But the receipt given by Eliza Smith (1742) includes scordium, which Hannah Glasse leaves out. It has been suggested by Anne Wilson (private communication) that seadrink might just possibly be a faulty transcription of scordium. The recipes for Plague Water in The Lady's Companion (1743) are quite different, but they also include scordium.(Glasse, 1747)
SEAME, SEAM: fat or grease. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SEAMY: the word seam, meaning fat or grease, survived until towards the end of the 17th century. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SEAMEY: Nott used this term of mustard, meaning strong-tasting. (John Nott, 1726)
SEAR-CLOTH or cerecloth was a cloth impregnated with wax or sticky salve. It might be used as a winding sheet, or as a medicinal plaster. (William Ellis, 1750)
SEARCE, searse, serse: to sift or sieve. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SEARCE, 21, 64, etc (and participle 'searsing', 106): to sift or sieve. According to the OED our culinary term sieve was used mainly in agricultural contexts at this time. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SEARSE, searce: a fine sieve; to sieve. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SEARSE or searce is the sieve or strainer. The verb is the action of sieving or straining. (William Ellis, 1750)
SEATON or seton (from the medieval Latin for bristle, and also silk) is a thread or tape drawn through the skin next to a wound or sore to keep open an issue, to stop it entirely healing over. (William Ellis, 1750)
SEGO, 120. Sago, introduced to England from the orient in the latter part of the 17th century. An invalid food, also used as an addition to elegant pottages, especially clear chicken broth.(Glasse, 1747)
SELF-HEAL: Prunella vulgaris, a wound-herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SEMEY, VENISON: See Venison. (John Nott, 1726)
SENA or senna are the seeds of the cassia shrub, used as an emetic or laxative. (William Ellis, 1750)
SENTORY: centaury, Centaurium minus, a bitter herb used for medical purposes, 'identified with the kentaurion of Greek medical writers, so named because it was discovered by Chiron the centaur'. (Grigson, 1955)(Glasse, 1747)
SERVICE: a self-contained stage in a meal, or an individual dish. In Receipt 185 the patties or pasties can either act as garnish or, if they are made with puff paste, 'they are a service by themselves served alltogether in a dish.' Meals originally consisted of one or more services of several dishes, of contrasting, opposing or complementary flavours.The ms uses the word in both its accepted senses.The words service and course may be interchangeable. Receipt 21 has venison served at the second course; Receipt 37 is for a lobster pie for the second service. Receipt 301 talks of sending stewed apples 'in with the dessert'. Charles Carter's The Complete Practical Cook (1730) has many plans of dinner tables which reflect usage at the end of Evelyn's life. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SERVICE. A feature in many earlier (and some later) cookery books is a series of plates showing how dishes were disposed on tables. Hannah Glasse does without these, but uses the terms which such plates illustrate, e.g. Corner plates and Side, Bottom, Middle and Top dishes. Side dishes and Corner plates, which might remain present on the table throughout a formal meal, were of subsidiary importance. They were often preserves, which could go back into the larder and then be brought out again for a subsequent meal, with any damage repaired. Bottom, Middle and Top dishes were what would now be called main courses; but the custom was to serve a number of alternatives for each course (or 'service'), in quantities scaled down accordingly, and to arrange them in carefully devised positions on the table. The criteria by which Bottom, Middle and Top dishes were differentiated are not easy to discern, but it seems that certain dishes such as soups and fish, which it would be desirable to remove as soon as dealt with, would be likely to be at the end of the table; whereas a handsome joint or a bird which had been carved and reconstituted would be in the centre, and side positions would be occupied by dishes low in height. One of Hannah Glasse's recipes, that for Beans and Cabbage, 100, is remarkable in that it could provide a Bottom, Middle or Top, or indeed a Side, dish. Alice Smith (1760) has an illuminating passage on the disposition and number of dishes to be served and the ideal shape of table for each number. This is quoted in full in 'TheJohn Trot Fault' in Petits Propos Culinaires, No. 15, Prospect Books 1983. There is also an interesting account in Bradley (1736, Part 11, 169-70), attributed to 'G. S. Esq.' of the construction of a 'fashionable table'. This was circular, in two tiers, the upper one revolving in the Chinese manner, so that each person, by turning it, could have access to any of the dishes on it. Finally, Nott (1980 reprint, the last item in the book) has an interesting section on the service of desserts.(Glasse, 1747)
SETFOYL, 159, a mystery, unless it is cinq(ue) foil, Potentilla replans, a herb taken against pestilential fevers, which was distilled, both alone and with other herbs.(Glasse, 1747)
SEWET: suet. Try'd suet, 75, is suet rendered or melted from its membranes.(Glasse, 1747)
SHALLOTS: see Onions. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SHAMBLES: a market where meat, and occasionally fish, were sold. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SHEPHERD'S-POUCH, shepherd's-purse are two names for the Capsella bursa-pastoris, a common weed also called 'Naughty Man's Plaything' (Grigson). (William Ellis, 1750)
SHERBET: See S 78. This curious receipt is derived from one called sorbec d'Alexandrie which appeared in the book translated in 1682 by Giles Rose (see Introduction p. 1). The likelihood is that it was administered to invalids and the elderly, and perhaps in consumptions, as a strengthening or reviving draught. A concentrated meat broth sweetened with a great deal of sugar would have been considered very beneficial to health. (John Nott, 1726)
SHIELD is the thick skin on the flanks of a boar that makes up the outside of the joint called brawn. (William Ellis, 1750)
SHOCK is a group of sheaves of wheat or corn stood up in the field before gathering and storing in the barn or rick. The word itself derives from medieval German and was a collective noun meaning sixty. (William Ellis, 1750)
SHOVEL. A clear shovel, 52, is simply a clean shovel. A red-hot shovel, 82, is used as a simple substitute for a salamander to glaze the top of a dish.(Glasse, 1747)
SHOVELLER, 153: a name probably applicable to several species of wading bird with spoon-shaped bills, more commonly called spoonbills. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SHREAD, shred.(Glasse, 1747)
SIBBOULETS: Welsh onions. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SIEVE. Hannah Glasse refers to various kinds of sieve which she assumes a cook will have, such as a wicker sieve and a hair-sieve which, like a HAIR-BAG, was made of horsehair.(Glasse, 1747)
SIMPER: simmer. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SIPPET, SIPPIT, passim: a thin slice of white toast, often used to garnish a dish. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SIPPET, Sippett: slices or small triangles of fried, dried or toasted bread, or sometimes puff pastry, used to ornament a dish. In Receipt 91 they should be of manchet 'roasted crispe by a quick fire'. The word is the diminutive of sop, also used by Evelyn, e.g. in Receipt 72. See Karen Hess, p. 40, for a short discussion. Receipt 8 seems to imply that sippetts are creatures of fashion: 'the Sippetts now in use wherewith this must be served…'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SIPPET: a small piece of toasted or fried bread, usually served in soup or broth, or with meat, or used for dipping into gravy. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SIPPETS. Small sops of fried or toasted bread used to garnish broths, soups, gravy or meat.(Glasse, 1747)
SIV: sieve(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SIVES: chives. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SKELLET, skillet. Hannah Glasse refers at 131 to a bell-mettle skillet and also to a copper one. See comments under BELL-METTLE SKILLET.(Glasse, 1747)
SKERRET (skirret): a root vegetable from the plant Sium sisarum, a species of water parsnip. Bradley cultivated the skirret for his own consumption from 1709 to 1718. In New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (part III, 1718, pp. 129-30) he commented that: 'The Skirret has a very agreeable Root, altho' it is propagated but in a few Gardens; and it may be, the Rarity of it is owing to the Want of the right way of cultivating it.' (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SKERRIT, skarrett: skirret (Sium sisarum), a species of water parsnip cultivated for its root. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SKILLET: a sturdy metal pot, with legs, basin and handle cast as one piece. It could be stood right in the fire. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SKILLET, skellet: a metal cooking pot, often with legs to stand in the fire, cast in one piece. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SKINKE, 115: an excellent pottage, says May. Rabisha (1682) also has a 'skinck', made in a generally similar manner with a basis of beef. There is clearly a connection with the traditional Scottish term 'skink' meaning a 'stew-soup', as Marian McNeill (1929, revised 1963) explains. However, what is probably the best known Scottish skink, cullen skink, is made with Finnan haddock. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SKIRRET: Sium sisarum, a species of water parsnip. In appearance something between salsify and the parsnips we know, but less pronounced in flavour than the latter. (John Nott, 1726)
SKIRRET, SKIRRIT. Sium sisarum, a sweet rooted plant which used to be cultivated and eaten, but has now lapsed into the wild state and near-oblivion. Elizabeth David, who was still able to find it on sale in London in about 1960, has described it thus in her John Nott glossary: 'In appearance something between salsify and the parsnips we know, but less pronounced in flavour than the latter.'(Glasse, 1747)
SKIRRITS: water-parsnip Sium sisarum. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SLATES: Used for the drying of fruit and candied delicacies, in the drying stove or, optimistically, in the sun. (John Nott, 1726)
SLUTS-PENNIES are hard pieces in dough caused by imperfect kneading. The definition in OED is derived solely from this reference in Ellis. (William Ellis, 1750)
SMALLAGE is Apium graveolens, wild or primitive celery. (William Ellis, 1750)
SMALLAGE: wild celery Apium graveolens; medicinal herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SMALL EDGE: smallage (Apium graveolens), wild or primitive celery. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SMOKING CLOSET. A description of the smoking-closets used for curing ham and bacon in and around Hamburg and Westphalia in west Germany was sent to Bradley by his friend John Warner of Rotherhithe. This was published in Bradley's Monthly Writings of 1721-2. (See A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening, volume I, 1726, pp. 115-16.) See also the entries under WESTPHALIA HAM and WARNER. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SNAILS. According to C. Anne Wilson, snails were a French taste that never crossed the channel, except for a brief period from the late 17th century to the 17305. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SNAKE-ROOT is the root or rhizome of one of several American plants deemed fine antidotes to snake's venom. (William Ellis, 1750)
SNITE, 103: an archaic spelling of snipe, the bird. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SOAL, sole.(Glasse, 1747)
SODDE, sod: boiled. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SOPPS: see Sippetts(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SOSA ROLIS: S 51. Error for Rosa Solis. q.v. (John Nott, 1726)
SOUCE, 195: souse, meaning to preserve in pickle, e g diluted and spiced white wine (as in one of May's recipes) or vinegar. The 'souse drink made of whey and salt', 194, was another such preserving liquid. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SOUCE, souse: drink, pickle. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SOUCE, souse, sowce: a pickling liquid, often referred to as a 'sousing drink'; also a verb, meaning to pickle or to immerse in a pickle. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SOUCING or sousing is pickling. Souce-drink is pickle or brine. (William Ellis, 1750)
SOUSING-LIQUOR, 129. Any kind of pickling liquid, e.g. vinegar. A sousing-pan, 128, was used to hold this.(Glasse, 1747)
SOVAGE, 158, a misprint for lovage.(Glasse, 1747)
SPANISH FLY is cantharides, from the beetle also called blister beetle. It is dried to a powder and its active agent is cantharidin. Applied externally, it blisters; internally, it is an emetic, as well as promoting tumescence. A little goes far. (William Ellis, 1750)
SPARAGES, esparages: asparagus. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SPARIB, SPARRIBS, a pleasing contraction of spareribs.(Glasse, 1747)
SPICES. Bradley mentions allspice, aniseed, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, fennel seeds (also referred to as sweet fennel seeds), Jamaica pepper (another name for allspice), mace, nutmeg, and pepper. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SPINNAGE FLORENDINE: S 123. A very Italian mixture of spinach, curd cheese and currants. (John Nott, 1726)
SPINNAGE ROSA SOLIS: Rosa Solis is here an error for raviolis. (John Nott, 1726)
SPIRE, TO, describes the shooting upwards of corn or grain in a field in wet or adverse conditions. (William Ellis, 1750)
SPITCHCOT-EEL (spitchcock-eel): an eel cut into three or four pieces, dressed with bread crumbs and chopped herbs (with its skin on) and boiled or fried. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SPLEENWORT: hartstongue fern, Asplenium scolopendrium. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SPOONFUL, see MEASURES.(Glasse, 1747)
STAMP, passim: pound. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
STAMPE, stamp: crush, grind. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
STATION FLOURS, nasturtium Howers.(Glasse, 1747)
STEAN, STEIN: Stoneware pot. (John Nott, 1726)
STEEL, SALT OR POWDER OF, is 'usually' (OED) iron chloride but may be sulphate of iron. 'Flowers of steel' were obtained by heating iron with sal-ammoniac. It may also be called copperose of Mars or vitriol of Mars. (William Ellis, 1750)
STEEN or stean is an earthenware jar. (William Ellis, 1750)
STEEPLE CREAM, 143. A confection of stiffened cream moulded into tall pointed shapes in special pots (see GALLIPOTS). Hannah Glasse's recipe came from Eliza Smith (1742).(Glasse, 1747)
STEW PAN. An oval stew pan is mentioned, 91. Round ones were the common sort.(Glasse, 1747)
STICKING-PIECE: the lower part of the neck of a carcass of beef. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
STILL (verb): to distill. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
STILL: an apparatus for distillation, consisting of a closed vessel (alembick) in which the subject to be distilled is heated, and another vessel for collecting the condensation of the vapour produced. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
STILTON CHEESE: Bradley first published his recipe to make Stilton in A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening (volume I, 1726, p. 118), i.e. c. 1721-2. He explained that Stilton was in Lincolnshire on the coach road to Lincoln from London and that he had received the recipe from the Sign of the Bell, 'the Man of that House keeping strictly to the old Receipt, while others thereabouts seem to leave out a great part of the Cream, which is the chief Ingredient'. The recipe ran as follows: 'Take ten Gallons of Morning Milk, and five Gallons of sweet Cream, and beat them together; then put in as much boiling Spring-water, as will make it warmer than Milk from the Cow; when this is done, put in Runnet made strong with large Mace, and when it is come (or the Milk is set in Curd) break it as small as you would do for Cheese-Cakes; and after that salt it, and put it into the Fatt, and press it for two Hours.
Then boil the Whey, and when you have taken off the Curds, put the cheese into the Whey, and let it stand half an Hour; then put it in the Press, and when you take it out, bind it up for the first Fortnight in Linen Rollers, and turn it upon Boards for the first Month twice a Day.'
The same recipe was reprinted when A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening appeared later as a book, in three volumes (see volume I, 1726, p. 118). It was again reprinted, with due attribution, in John Laurence's A new system of agriculture (1726). Laurence, who shared Bradley's publisher Thomas Woodward, could not refrain from remarking (quite correctly) that Stilton was not in Lincolnshire, 'but a great way off in Huntingdonshire'. Bradley later made some additions to the recipe in The Gentleman and Farmer's Guide (1729), pp. 141-4. He explained that the mace needed to be boiled with the rennet liquor rather than infused, suggested moistening the cheese with sack, and stated that the perfect Stilton should be about 7 inches in diameter, 8 inches in height and 18 pounds in weight. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
STOCK FISH: (unsalted) dried cod. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
STOCK-FRITTERS, 172 (Italian). It may be that 'stock' is here used in the sense of a standard range of things, in this case the forms illustrated with the recipe. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
STOECHAS or Lavendula stœchas is the French lavender. The Iles d'Hyères were called the Stœchades due to the quantities of the plant found there. It was an expectorant (among other things). (William Ellis, 1750)
STONE, 102: testicle. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
STONE is a measure, usually weighing 14 pounds. However, Ellis also refers to the eight-pound stone – which was the measure for sugar and spice (OED). (William Ellis, 1750)
STOVE, DRYING: See Drying. (John Nott, 1726)
STOVE. A verb, meaning to stew, e.g. 'pigeons stoved', 44.(Glasse, 1747)
STRENTS, 216: these are clearly birds, but have not been identified. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
STROAKINGS: the last milk drawn from a cow; strippings. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
STROAKINGS: the milk that is taken from the cow when stripping the udder at the end of milking. It is richer than other milk. It was sometimes called afterings. In The Compleat Cook (p. 78), it says, 'Take a gallon of Stroakings, and a pint of Cream as it comes from the Cow, and put it together with a little Rennet,' in order to make angelot cheese. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
STROAKINGS or strokings are well defined by Ellis. They are the afterings, the last milk taken from the cow's udder, and the richest. Smollett's Roderick Random was treated to choice bits from the cook and stroakings from the milkmaid. (William Ellis, 1750)
STRUMMED [wine]: a strum was a wicker sieve used in brewing to keep the malt in the mashing tub from fouling the tap and bunghole. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
STUBBLE GOOSE, 152-3: a goose which has been fattened by feeding on the stubble left in the herds after the wheat has been harvested. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
STUBBLE-GOOSE: adult goose, as distinct from green goose; turned into stubble fields to feed, and eaten in late autumn. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
STUMP PYE: See P 272. Presumably this had some relation in appearance to the raised embroidery called stump work so popular in the Jacobean period. I think the idea was to arrange sweetmeats in a pattern on the top of the filling before covering them with a protective crust. When the pie came to table the crust was lifted off, carved into triangles or other decorative shapes, and planted upright round the inside of the pie. The decoration on top of the filling then became visible. A carnation or other ornamental flower was sometimes stuck upright in the centre. (John Nott, 1726)
STURGEON, 92. Never a common fish in British rivers, the sturgeon, Acipenser sturio, was already a rarity in the 18th century, and any sturgeon taken were the property of the Crown. But recipe books continued to feature sturgeon recipes, and in the 19th century too. Such recipes seem to have been an anachronism for cooks but a status symbol for cookery writers. It is fair to add, however, that sturgeon can be taken at sea, and that Richard Bradley (1736, Part II, 20-21) has an interesting paragraph (copied almost verbatim by Hannah Glasse, 163) in which he indicates that they were more common in 'the Northern Seas' than in rivers. It is also noticeable that Bradley's sturgeon recipes, of which all but one (that for preparing caviar) are attributed to a place or person, are detailed and sound convincingly 'real'.(Glasse, 1747)
STURGEON, WELCH: This turns out to be a receipt for potted beef. Why Welsh ? A puzzle. Perhaps some long forgotten joke or jibe. (John Nott, 1726)
SUBLIMATE MERCURY is mercury that has been heated, vapourized, then resolidified into a white powder. (William Ellis, 1750)
SUCCORY, 22: chicory. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
SUCCORY: chicory (Cichorium intybus). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SUCCORY: old form of chicory; medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SUCCORY: Chicory. (John Nott, 1726)
SUCCORY (chicory): the plant Cichorium intybus. It has bright blue flowers, and its bitter leaves and root were formerly used both medicinally and as food. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SUCCORY is chicory (Cichorium intybus). (William Ellis, 1750)
SUCKERY, succory, chicory.(Glasse, 1747)
SUCKETS: Sweetmeats. Fruit, roots, lettuce and mallow stalks preserved in syrup were wet suckets. When candied or crystallised they were dry suckets. (John Nott, 1726)
SUET: the solid fat round the loins and kidneys of certain animals, such as ox and sheep. It is chopped up for use in cooking. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SUET, TRY'D: Rendered suet. (John Nott, 1726)
SUGAR: There were many sorts of sugar at this period. See the entry in the glossary to Hannah Glasse. C. Anne Wilson's Food and Drink in Britain is useful on the types of sugar available in the seventeenth century. See also the glossary to Richard Bradley. Double refined sugar: sugar was refined in the country of origin but this was often insufficient for European taste, so local refineries were established that produced the white loaves of sugar familiar from contemporary still-lifes. Double refined sugar is therefore particularly white. Loaf sugar: describes the conical form in which sugar was produced after its refinement in England or Europe. A discussion and illustration are to be found in Elizabeth David, English Bread and Yeast Cookery, 1977. Where the recipe calls for sugar to be 'beat', this refers to the fact that most sugar entered the household in loaf form. After detaching lumps with cutters designed for the purpose, they have still to be ground in a mortar, or through a sieve, into usable powder.Sometimes a recipe calls for sugar to be 'grossly' beaten, others for it to be finer. Treble refined sugar: mentioned in Receipt 156 is even whiter. It is sometimes called royal sugar. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SUGAR: the recipes call for a bewildering variety of sugars, including brown sugar, double-refined loaf sugar, fine sugar, Lisbon sugar, loaf sugar, white sugar candied, finely powdered sugar, and white sugar candy. To make sense of all these and to decide what modern types of sugar to use in their place, it is necessary to understand that sugar normally came in loaf form in the 18th century (it was dried and transported thus) and that there were six basic grades of refinement. (The whiter the sugar, the more expensive and prized it was.) The different stages of refinement were as follows: crude sugar or muscovado—raw, untouched sugar straight from the cane. This was virtually never used in cooking. Strained or brown sugar—similar to muscovado, except for being slightly lighter in colour and harder. Earthed or white powder sugar—brown sugar that has been further whitened by removing impurities from it. Refined sugar—white sugar. This was sold in both powder and loaf form. Royal or double-refined sugar—the finest refined sugar. White/brown/red sugar candy—refined sugar clarified and crystallized by slow evaporation. Brown sugar candy was made by using brown sugar rather than white, and red sugar candy was achieved by the addition of Indian fig juice. In addition, sugar was sometimes classified according to its place or origin (e.g. Brazil sugar) or by its main entrepot (e.g. Lisbon sugar). The latter was a soft, not so white, sugar that was considered inferior to sugar imported from Jamaica and Barbados. For further information see Pierre Pomet, Jean- Baptiste Labat, and Ephraim Chambers. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SUGAR. Various kinds of sugar were available in the 18th century, with names indicating either the extent of the processing which they had undergone or the manner of presentation for sale. It normally came in a 'loaf, of a conical shape. Besides loaf-sugar, Hannah Glasse calls for: sixpenny sugar 134 double-refined sugar 143 treble-refined sugar 154; fine Lisbon sugar 147; coarse Lisbon sugar 157; fine dry powder sugar 148; lump sugar 149; sugar-candy 154. Some of these terms are self-explanatory, while others are readily understood in the light of early methods of refining sugar. These were succinctly described by the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus after visiting Alderman Lindstedt's sugar factory at Norrkoping on 19 May 1741. 'Here the coarse and unrefined raw sugar was pulverized and boiled in water, diluted with limewater, mixed with ox blood or egg white, skimmed and poured into inverted cone-shaped moulds, perforated at the tip; from these a syrup trickled down into a bottle; this was repeated, and then the mould was covered with a white, dough- like French clay like a lid. It is strange that there should be no such clay in Sweden, but it has to be imported.' What Linnaeus witnessed was sugar refining. The purpose of the clay, stated most simply, was to filter water down through the sugar, thus removing impurities. Ordinary refined sugar was likely to be yellow. Double-refined sugar, the result of reboiling, recrystallization, and a second refining, was off-white. Triple-refined or Royal sugar was more expensive and whiter. Clay was also used, in a similar way, to prepare the raw sugar which was shipped from the West Indies, often via Lisbon, to the refineries. Thus the terms 'clayed sugar' and 'Lisbon sugar' meant the same thing, an unrefined (yet somewhat purified) sugar. For a fuller and more precise account, see Elizabeth David (1977, 142). Lump sugar was just lumps broken off the loaf, whereas powdered sugar had been grated from the loaf. The name candy sugar, from 'khanda', the Sanskrit word for 'a piece', applied and still applies to large crystalline pieces of sugar grown on threads suspended in a saturated solution of refined sugar. The six stages successively reached by sugar when boiled had been defined by Massialot (1702) in terms echoed by Carter (1732). These, with corresponding modern terms, are: 1. smooth, thin thread (or smooth); 2. pearled, thick thread ; 3. blown, soft ball ; 4. feathered, hard ball ; 5. cracked, light- or hard-crack ; 6. caramel, caramel. Hannah Glasse evidently recognized something like this system, although the recipes in The Art of Cookery, 154-5, mention four stages only: numbers 2 and 3, plus 'in hairs' and 'to a candy height' (? both corresponding to 1).(Glasse, 1747)
SUGAR BOILING: Nott's directions concerning this branch of the pastrycook's and confectioner's art are very sound – and detailed. (John Nott, 1726)
SUGAR, THIN: A thin syrup. (John Nott, 1726)
SUPERFICIES: surface. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SURFEIT-WATER: a 'water' or medicinal drink to cure excessive indulgence in food and drink. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SURTOUT: Coat, surcoat. A number of receipts are so described, e.g. pigeons in surtout. A surtout was also a rather grand ornamental table centrepiece. (John Nott, 1726)
SURTOUT. Literally, 'covered all over'. Thus in 'Pigeons surtout', 44, the birds are covered with a slice of veal and breadcrumbs; and the snipes, 49, are smothered in forcemeat. In the latter recipe, but not the former, the birds are also cooked in a surtout, meaning a tureen.(Glasse, 1747)
SWANSKIN JELLY BAG.Swanskin was a strong, dense, white flannel.(Glasse, 1747)
SWEET-BRYAR: Rosa rubiginosa. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SWEET HERBS. The reference, 46, to a branch of sweet herbs must have meant something very close to what is called a bouquet garni nowadays, i.e. parsley, thyme etc. 'Sweet' was specified to exclude bitter herbs, which were more in use then than now.(Glasse, 1747)
SWEET-OAK: possibly the oak fern Dryopteris, or, a species of teucrium whose leaves, which are scolloped around the edges, bear some resemblance to baby oak. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
SWEET-SAUCE, 7, is always to be served with venison. It would have been based on redcurrant jelly, or a preparation of red wine, as suggested in Different Sorts of Sauce for a Hare,(Glasse, 1747)
SWEETMEAT: any sweet food, such as sugared cakes, preserved or candied fruits, sugared nuts, etc. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SWEETMEATS, 84. This term, as used in the 18th century, referred to a wide variety of edibles: preserved, candied fruits; sugared seeds and nuts; sugared cakes and pastries; sugar boiled with pulp of various fruits, or flavourings, and fashioned into little flat cakes, lozenges, drops, etc.(Glasse, 1747)
SWERD: Rind of ham, bacon, pork. (John Nott, 1726)
SYLLABUB: there are several recipes for syllabub (for instance numbers 175, 216 and 217) which speak of various bits of equipment for this dish – see Wooden cow, below, for one of them – and a variety of techniques for making it curdle or to whip up a foam. The accepted way that milk should be added to a syllabub is seen in the near invariable use of the phrase, 'milk the milk to…'. Receipt 139 calls for the cream to be poured into the syllabub pot through a funnel from on high. Receipt 265 repeats this instruction, and adds a rider emphasising the need to pour the cream from a high spot to make it 'curdle the better'. Some syllabub glasses had spouts on them to draw or drink off the whey from the curds; others were simply glass bowls in which the syllabub could be mixed without tainting the milk; still more seem to be churns or stoppered glass vessels (for instance, that mentioned by Elinor Fettiplace). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
SYLLABUB: a drink or dish made with milk or cream curdled by the addition of wine or cider and often sweetened and flavoured. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
SYRINGE, 82. A piping tube. Syringes, small and larger, had been in use medically since at least the Middle Ages. The larger sort, or something very similar, was used by cooks to make syringed fritters or biscuits. Massialot (1702) says that syringes specially made for marchpane and biskets are part of the confectioner's equipment. La Chapelle (1733) has syringed almond paste ('having pass'd it through the syringe, let it be fried in a pan').(Glasse, 1747)
T (top)
TAFFATA TART: taffeta was a word applied to a cream dish, taffeta cream, and to a tart. The two coexist in John Nott's Cooks Dictionary. Elizabeth David, who compiled the glossary for the 1980 facsimile of that work, suggested the creams were so called because their lustrous surface matched the sheen of taffeta silk. However, she was unable to make the link between a simple egg cream and (in the case of John Nott) a tart of high-flavoured apple purée. The OED connects the word in its culinary sense with the figurative usage, for example Shakespeare's 'taffata phrases, silken tearmes precise', when it means bombastic, florid, highly decorated. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
TAFFATY CREAM: This must have been so-called in reference to the glossy or lustrous appearance, resembling silk taffeta, of the cooked cream custard. Taffaty tarts, TA 2, however, are much more difficult to explain. The receipt is for a yeast-leavened dough fashioned into pie shapes, spread with an apple puree scented with rosewater, and enhanced with quince marmalade and candied orange peel plus a sprinkling of rose or violet essence after baking. This might well be delicious. (John Nott, 1726)
TALMOUSE, 290: an antique French term, which is used by pastrycooks to indicate something close to what would now be called a cheesecake, although sometimes of triangular shape. Joseph Favre (c 1905, reprint 1978) gives etymological, historical, and culinary details deploring the deterioration of the product in the 19th century by comparison with medieval times. May applies the term to the tart-case rather than the whole product. Rabisha (1682) does not use the term talmouse, but does have one, long and detailed, recipe for cheesecake (in a 'coffin'). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
TAMARA, 114-5: a powder going by that name in Italy, of which nothing else seems to be known. May does explain how it is composed, 115. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
TAMARIS: leaves of the tamarisk tree were used in medicinal decoctions and, in Receipt 128, in ale which was in fact described as 'medicinal'. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
TAMARISK: Tamarix anglica: introduced in the sixteenth century as a medicinal herb; recommended by Gerard against disease of the spleen. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
TANSY, TANSEY: This ancient dish has many variations. The herb tansy, tanacetum vulgare, has a bittertasting leaf and its use in food can be traced back, it seems, to ancient Jewish passover customs. In English custom, tanseys were eaten mainly at Easter-time as an antidote and blood-cleanser after all the salt fish of Lent. Tansey the dish was a cross between an omelette and a pancake, a batter-mixture of many green leaves and eggs, cooked in a frying pan and strewn with sugar. Apart from tansy leaves— which were eventually left out of the dish to which their name had been given—spinach, violet, strawberry and primrose leaves, green wheat, cowslip leaves and blossoms were among the ingredients which went into tansies. Apple tansey was another favourite. Nott gives tanseys cooked like custards and finished off in the oven or over a chafing dish of coals. A tansey was essentially a green dish prettily strewn with white sugar, as evoked in a couple of lines from a 17th century poem on a great frost in 1654: 'wherever any grassy turf is view'd/It seems a tansie all with sugar strew'd'. (John Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities 1777) Almond Tansey, A 40, appears to be a beverage. (John Nott, 1726)
TANSEY. In mediaeval times tansy was a fried mixture of eggs flavoured with the bitter juice of tansy leaves, eaten at Easter in remembrance of the 'bitter herbs' of Passover. Anne Wilson (1973) states that early in the 17th century the traditional tansy was thickened with breadcrumbs, cream and spices, and served with sugar scattered over it. Gradually, as more crumbs, Naples biscuit, and sugar were added, it became a sweet pudding, baked or boiled, still including chopped tansy, but now coloured green with spinach juice.(Glasse, 1747)
TANSIE, 174-5, otherwise tansy or tansey: the name of both a herb and a dish. The herb, Tanacetum vulgare, is a bitter one which was extensively used in the past for both medical and culinary purposes. The dish was described by Elizabeth David (1980) as 'a cross between an omelette and a pancake, a batter-mixture of many green leaves and eggs, cooked in a frying pan and strewn with sugar'. The tansy leaves which gave their name to the dish were later discarded in favour of other ingredients; but they are still present in all May's tansy recipes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
TANSY: a flat omelette, sometimes thickened with crumbs, and coloured green with juice of vegetables and herbs (tansy). Variations, like apple, also exist. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
TARNRISE PLOUGH is the turnwrest plough or the Kentish plough where the mould-board is shifted from one side to the other at the end of a furrow (OED). (William Ellis, 1750)
TARRASS is a waterproof mortar made of tarrass, a sort of pumice imported from Germany. (William Ellis, 1750)
TARTAR: tartaric acid. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
TARTS DE MOY: See Moy. (John Nott, 1726)
TEA. There are references to herb, Green, and Bohea (black) tea. Bradley was against the importation of teas because he thought they were unhealthy, but his promised treatise on the subject never materialized. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
TEA, BOHEA, is black tea, fermented before drying. (William Ellis, 1750)
TEA, GREEN, is distinct from black tea in that the leaves are dried immediately after picking and are not fermented (Davidson). (William Ellis, 1750)
TEA SPOONFUL, see MEASURES.(Glasse, 1747)
TENCH: A freshwater fish, today considered too bony and muddy to be of much value. (John Nott, 1726)
TENCH. The phrase 'slime your tenches', 86, is arresting. Removing the slime from the skins of these fish may be done with a knife or with salt.(Glasse, 1747)
TENT: A Spanish red wine. A. L. Simon says it is the darkest of all Spanish red wines. (John Nott, 1726)
TERRINE: An excellent definition of this term is given by Nott. See T 25. (John Nott, 1726)
THETCHES are vetches. (William Ellis, 1750)
THISTLE: in Receipt 78[bis] for a thistle salad, Evelyn may be referring to the cardoon, although when this recipe reappeared in Acetaria he changed his introductory description from 'the great thistle' to 'the milky thistle'. In a letter printed in Bray (Wheatley), volume III (p. 359), Evelyn tells the Earl of Sandwich, then ambassador at Madrid, that 'I think I was the first that ever planted Spanish Cardôns in our country for any culinarie use, as yr Excy: has taught the blanching; but I know not whether they serve themselves in Spaine with the purple beards of the thistle, when it is in flower, for the curdling of milk, which it performes much better than reinet, and is far sweeter in the dairy than that liquor, which is apt to putrifie.' (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
THREEPENNY LOAF see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
THRUM THREAD describes short odds and ends of thread, specifically strong yarn such as was used for the warp: the thrums were the ends of the warp not actually woven, trimmed off after taking from the loom. (William Ellis, 1750)
TIFFANIE, tiffany: fine silk or lawn used as a mesh for sieving and straining, or as cloth to make up a spice bag. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
TIFFANIES, TIFFANY: Silk or fine lawn. Used for sieves and for making little bags to tie spices and small puddings in See also A 78. (John Nott, 1726)
TILLS are lentils. Worlidge (1640) says that Hampshire people thought the word lentils indicated the season of Lent, so they left out the first syllable as 'not agreeing with the matter' (OED). (William Ellis, 1750)
TIN BOX. The use of a tin box, made watertight, for cooking spinach, 99, is an ingenious variation on the principle of cooking things within things in cauldrons.(Glasse, 1747)
TIN OVEN. The reference to a tin oven, 91, is to the 'Dutch oven' which was in common use and which stood in front of the fire. The food being cooked was exposed to direct heat and also to reflected heat from the polished tin interior. A door in the back could be opened to permit viewing and basting.(Glasse, 1747)
TOMATOES: It will perhaps be noticed that in Nott's book these are conspicuous by their absence. Although tomatoes are described in Gerard's Herbal of 1597, tomato sauces did not get into the cookery books until the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. (John Nott, 1726)
TOP DISH, see SERVICE.(Glasse, 1747)
TORCULAR: a press used in making wine. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
TORMENTIL: Potentilla erecta, used against colic and diarrhoea. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
TORT, tart.(Glasse, 1747)
TOURTIERE: a covered pie dish (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
TREADLES, TREDDLES, TREDS. Treds, or cock-treadings, are the coloured spots on the yolks of fertilized eggs. A treadle is not the same thing. It is the thread or string holding the yolk in position. In preparing a pale dish one would be especially concerned to remove the beds; in making a smooth-textured dish, the treadles.(Glasse, 1747)
TREADS, treds: see Cock treadings. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
TRENCHER: a piece of stale bread cut from a large oblong loaf (see Karen Hess) used as a plate in the medieval and early modern period. The word derives from the French trancher (to slice, cut or hack) and indicated at root the surface upon which meat or food was sliced or cut. The bread trencher is thus a specialised form and in fact any flat board or plate used for this purpose could be called a trencher. By extension, the term was used for flat boards, for cutting or not. In Receipt 100, Evelyn describes a wooden trencher, held on the thumb like a painter's palette, used to skim cream off milk. Here, he is recalling a French method of working, but in Receipt 172 he is using the instrument in an English kitchen: 'a wooden trencher made round and thin'. In Receipt 68, a weighted trencher is placed on top of a joint of potted venison to hold it below the surface of the butter that will preserve it. Again, this would have been a flat wooden or metal platter, not a piece of dry bread. See also Sceming dish. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
TREUFFLES: truffles. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
TRIFFEL, 292: trifle. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
TRIPE. Hannah Glasse's recipes for tripe either call simply for 'tripe' or specify 'double tripe'. But in her list of foodstuffs, 160, she names three kinds. These are:
DOUBLE TRIPE. This term (for which the French equivalent is gras double, although that term may be used with other meanings) usually refers to the first of the four stomachs of a ruminant animal. This is the biggest, and its smoothly seamed exterior and inside lining are clearly distinct. (The inside lining is often called blanket tripe.) Thick-seam tripe is another term used for double tripe.
ROLE TRIPE, a term no longer used, seems likely to mean either blanket tripe (see above) or possibly reed tripe (alternatively leaf or Bible tripe), belonging to the third stomach.
REED-TRIPE, a term still in use, applies to the fourth and smallest stomach. Hannah Glasse seems not to have noticed honeycomb tripe, that of the second stomach, or reticulum; but since this is often attached to the double tripe she may not have thought it necessary to make the distinction. Eighteenth century authors in general had little to say about tripe or what kind to choose. For example, Elisabeth Moxon (c 1755) had but two tripe recipes and for them she simply recommended the whitest, or thickest and whitest, 'seam tripe' (double tripe) that was available.(Glasse, 1747)
TRIVET: a tripod for resting a pan on before the fire. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
TROCHES: Pastilles, lozenges, intended for medicinal use. (John Nott, 1726)
TROUT, VIRGINIA: This odd receipt appears in earlier works. The name is a puzzle. (John Nott, 1726)
TRUFFLES: It may be doubted that the quantities of truffles which appear in Nott's receipts were ever used by him or anyone else in England, unless in some preserved or pickled form. Truffles were not much known about in England until the end of the 17th century. John Chamberlayne, whose translation of the 16th century Italian work called Il Tesoro della Sanita by Castor Durante appeared in 1686 as A Treasure of Health, wrote that he thought it useful to describe truffles 'because they are but lately known about in England'. John Evelyn, who had eaten truffles in France in 1644 and found them 'an incomparable meate' was rather prim about them when some fifty years later he came to write his Acetaria. The supposedly aphrodisiac qualities of these mysterious fungi or tubers caused him to refrain from discussing them or placing them among 'our innocent sallet furniture'. He does however reveal that truffles were not seldom found in England, particularly 'in a Park of my Lord Cotton's at Rushton or Rusberry in Northamptonshire'. Savernake Forest in Wiltshire was another source of English truffles, and they were also to be found in Sussex. (John Nott, 1726)
TRUFFLES. Elizabeth David has kindly drawn my attention to some early references. John Evelyn wrote in his diary for 30 September 1644, when he was at Vienne in the Dauphine, this passage: 'here we lay, and supp'd; having (amongst other dainties) a dish of Truffles, which is a certaine earth-nut, found out by an hog", train'd up to it, & for which those creatures, are sold at a grease price: It is in truth an incomparable meate:…' So truffles were a novelty to an English traveller in 1644. Later in the century (1686) an English translation by John Chamberlayne of Castore Durante da Gualdo's Il tesoro della sanita was published as A Treasure of Health; and this said of truffles that 'because they are but lately known in England, it will not be amiss to give a short description thereof…'. And later still (1699) we find in Evelyn's Acetaria a reference to them as 'rank and provocative Excrescences', which were none the less sent for from France 'and not seldom found in England'. From Bradley's other writings it is clear that truffles were little known and appreciated in England at the beginning of the 18th century, although the cognoscenti were prepared to pay a guinea for a pound of freshly gathered ones. There was also considerable botanical confusion as to what the truffle was (a plant of something else?) and how many kinds there were. Bradley, who was familiar with what Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and Etienne-François Geoffroy of the Academy of Sciences at Paris had written on the subject, did his best to clear this confusion. He also provided his fellow Britons with invaluable tips (based on his personal experience) on how to track down the great delicacy. (See the Appendix to New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, 1726, and the Dictionarium Botanicum, 1728.) It is worth noting that in the latter work Bradley scorned dried truffles, which then sold at 30 shillings a pound, insisting that only the fresh ones were really 'worthy of a Prince's Table'. See also the entries under MORILLLE and MUSHROOMS. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
TRUFFLES. There is an interesting passage in the Appendix to Richard Bradley's Dictionarium Botanicum (1728), in which the author says: 'It is a sort of Underground Mushroom, of great Esteem in Italy and France, from whence we learnt the use of it, and as a Delicacy, pay about thirty Shillings per Pound for the dry'd ones; but in those which we have dried, I own I am not Epicure enough to distinguish any Thing extraordinary; while they are fresh, indeed they make a very agreeable Dish, worthy a Prince's Table: And for that Reason, I have taken some Pains to search for them in England, and have found them in many Places, in Woods especially, in Surrey, Middlesex, Kent, Essex, in Hertfordshire, and Northamptonshire, and I guess, we have very few old Woods in England without them. The Morille likewise, which is a kind of Companion to the Trufle, I have met with in all the aforesaid Countries; but I suppose they have not been taken Notice of by the People, for want of Knowledge of their Virtues.' The species of truffle found in England is not the same as either of the two principal edible species found in France and Italy, although still worth eating. Truffles in general were still largely unknown in England in the early 18th century. The fact that Hannah Glasse almost invariably bracketed truffles and morels in her lists of ingredients is explained by Bradley's remark that they tend to occur together (or possibly because the French authors from whom many of her recipes are ultimately derived so bracket them). She seems to have used truffles more freely than any of her English predecessors in the realm of cookery books. What is not clear is whether she usually meant English truffles, or had in mind the expensive imported, dried ones. Since English truffles were no doubt also dried, her reference on one occasion to green truffles, 53, does not provide evidence on this point, but it does suggest that whatever truffles she used were commonly in dried form. (Green must mean fresh, since no edible truffles are green in colour. Cf the tragic tale of the stewpan containing a dish of 'green morels', accidentally thrust into the washing up: Verral, 1759.) A passage in Evelyn (1699) provides evidence that truffles were imported from France 'at no small charge', but also refers to their being 'not seldom found in England'. The matter remains doubtful, as does the question of the season for English truffles and whether it could have overlapped with that of morels, which is the late spring. Florence White (1952) has assembled interesting material which could help further study of these questions; and she does remark that truffles and morels could both be found at Batheaston.(Glasse, 1747)
TRUSS: 'is the dressing and ordering of the Fowl for the Pot or Spit, by turning up the Legs and Wings' (Randle Holme). The trussing instructions at the end of Part II of The Country Housewife and Lady's Director appear to be unique in the history of 17th- and 18th-century English-language cookery books. Bradley first tried out the idea of publishing material about trussing by a professional poulterer in his Weekly Miscellany of 1727. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
TRY'D, TO TRY: See Suet
TUNNING-TUB, 150, the tub in which fermented ale is stored when racked off.(Glasse, 1747)
TURNIPS: See H 2 for an interesting comment on English turnips not being as good as in Holland. It was from Holland that turnips had been imported to England in the previous century. (John Nott, 1726)
TURNOVER TART. Hannah Glasse, 25, gives the instruction to 'close the two ends of your paper as you do a turnover tart'. Such a tart was what would now be called a pasty in Britain, e.g. Cornish pasty. The term turnover is still in use in North America, and to a limited extent in Britain.(Glasse, 1747)
TURNSOLE, TURNSOLE PURPLE: A violet blue or purple colouring matter obtained from the plant crosophora tinctoria. 'Obtained by grinding the plants to a pulp in a mill, when they yield about half their weight of a dark green juice which becomes purple by exposure to the air. Acids possess the property of changing the juice of turnsole, or an infusion of it, red'. C.O.D. Turnsole was used as a food and beverage colouring throughout the middle ages, and in all European cookery, and continued in use until well into the 18th century. Such vegetable dyes for food were to be obtained ready prepared from the druggists. The earlier name of turnsole was heliotropium, also Small Tornesol. The plant grows wild in Mediterranean regions and was cultivated in southern France for its root, the main source of the purple colouring agent. (John Nott, 1726)
TURKEY POULT: a name for a young turkey, poult being derived from the French poulet. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
TURKEY-POUTS, see POUTS.(Glasse, 1747)
TURNIP. According to Bradley's New Improvements of Planting and Gardening (part III, 1718, p. 128), turnips were 'more generally propagated about London than any other Root'. The yellow French turnips specified in the recipes were a recent import from France. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
TWOPENNY LOAF, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)
TYFFANY-BAG: bag of fine silk or gauze. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
U (top)
UMBLES, 191 the edible innards of an animal. Randle Holme (1688) defined umble pie as 'a Pie made of the Intrals of a Deer, as Heart Liver etc.'. This was regarded as inferior food, to be served to people of lowly rank. Hence the expression 'to eat humble pie'. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
UMBLES: The inner edible parts of the deer. (John Nott, 1726)
UMBLES: the edible inward parts of an animal. Randle Holme defines umble pie as 'a Pie made of the Intrals of a Deer, as Heart Liver, etc.'. This was regarded as inferior food, to be served to lowly people. Hence the expression 'to eat humble pie'. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
UNCIA: an ounce, often expressed by a symbol in the ms, but printed in this transcript in full . One twelfth of a pound troy. An ounce avoirdupois is 437 grains, an ounce troy 480 grains. (See Weights and measures.)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
UNDERLINE or underling, meaning weak (of animals, people or plants). OED cites Ellis as the only instance of this spelling. (William Ellis, 1750)
UNLUCKY: Ellis' usage means not so much full of misfortune as mischievous and bad-tempered. OED cites the agricultural author John Mortimer (d.1707) who so describes a stallion. (William Ellis, 1750)
Usq. ad Putrilaginem: until disintegrating (Latin). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)(Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
V (top)
VEAL GLUE or CAKE SOUP: an early name and form of the stock or bouillon cube. See The Receipt Book of Mrs Ann Blencowe, A.D. 1694 (Guy Chapman, London, 1925, p. 23) for an earlier description of making this convenience food. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
VEGETABLES. Those mentioned in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director include the artichoke, asparagus, bean, beet-card or beat-chard, beetroot, borecole, broccoli, cabbage, cabbage lettuce, cardoon, carrot, cauliflower, celery, chicory, colerape, cucumber, endive, eringo root, fennel, garlic, goat'sbeard or tragopogon, horse- radish, kidney-bean, morel, mushroom, nasturtium flower, lupine, onion, parsnip, pea, potato, rocambole, salsify, scorzonera, shallot, skirret, sorrel, spinach, truffle, and turnip. See also the entry under HERBS. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
VELDIFER, 215: a dialect version of fieldfare, the bird. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
VELLICATE, TO, means to irritate. Usually, as here, deployed to describe the action of an astringent medication. (William Ellis, 1750)
VENICE TREACLE, 158. An interesting term, explained by Anne Wilson (1973, 304-5). 'The name "treacle" originated in the ancient world, for it came from the Greek theriaca antidotos (i.e. antidote for the bite of wild beasts). The Romans applied the term to a medical electuary . . . which comprised a huge number of drugs and spices reduced and combined in a honey emulsion. It was considered a powerful specific for all poisons, and continued in use throughout the Middle Ages under the name theriaca or triacle. For a long time Venice was the main centre of production, supplying most of western Europe.' Sugar syrup or molasses came to be used as the base; and when the supply of the latter outstripped 'medical' needs it was sold as a cheap sweetener. It was called molasses in North America, but in Britain the theriac tradition resulted in its being called first 'common treacle' and then just 'treacle'.(Glasse, 1747)
VENICE TREACLE was an electuary on a honey (later, molasses) base, especially good against venom, but with many other properties. First developed in Italy, then exported throughout Europe from Venice, hence its name. (William Ellis, 1750)
VENICE TURPENTINE: common turpentine consisted of oleo-resins that exude from many types of conifers (the French cluster-pine in the Landes district the most important). Venice turpentine was the particular product of larch trees in the Tirol. (William Ellis, 1750)
VENISON, 433: a term which could formerly have a much wider meaning than now; it could refer to all game animals as a group. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
VENISON-POT: This turns out to be one of those receipts in which one kind of animal meat was supposedly made to taste like something grander, in this case hare being treated to resemble venison. Venison was the preserve of the privileged, so much effort was put into producing imitations. (John Nott, 1726)
VENISON SEMEY: Semey in this case appears to mean subtle or seemly. A rarely used term. (John Nott, 1726)
VERJUICE, verdjuice: sour juice from unripe grapes or crab apples. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
VERJUICE: An important condiment made from the fermented juice of the acid green or verjuice grape, or from other unripe green grapes. In England, when vine cultivation declined, verjuice was made from crab apples instead of grapes. See V 52. For a use of the debris of crab apples left after the making of verjuice see W 7, 'to keep walnuts all the year'. (John Nott, 1726)
VERJUICE: the acid juice of green or unripe grapes, crab apples, or other sour fruit. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
VERJUICE is the fermented juice (in England) of crabs or sour apples; elsewhere it was made of acid green or unripe grapes. (William Ellis, 1750)
VERJUYCE, passim: sour juice from unripe grapes or crab-apples. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
VERJUYCE: vinegar-like condiment, made from the juice of unripe grapes. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
VERMESELLA, VERMICELLA, 63/9: vermicelli. This was introduced into England after the Restoration (1660) as an article of food for the gentry, for whom it was added to the thinner meat soups which were now becoming fashionable. It is interesting that Hannah Glasse gives directions, 69, for making this form of pasta at home and declares the result superior to the imported product; a foretaste of views now being voiced.(Glasse, 1747)
VINEGAR, in the 18th century as now, could be of various kinds. Hannah Glasse refers to five. Beer- vinegar was the most common. Rap vinegar was produced form the refuse of grapes after wine-making. Vinegars were also made from wine itself; and of these white wine vinegar was a superior kind. Distilled vinegar was freed of impurities by distillation, the result being a colourless dilution of acetic acid. Hannah Glasse also explains sugar- vinegar 'of your own making', 135.(Glasse, 1747)
VINES/VINEYARDS: Bradley had a life-long enthusiasm for viticulture and spent a great deal of energy trying to persuade farmers and land-owners living in the south of England that it was worth planting vines and making wine from the resulting grapes. He did not have much success in this project. However, his works are worth consulting for the light they shed on the limited viticulture of the period. See part III of New Improvements in Planting and Gardening (1718) and volume II of General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening (1726). The latter book contains a heart-breaking account of the way Bradley tried and failed to transport French vines to England, where he planned to plant vineyards on barren land. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
VIOLETS, SYRRUP OF. Nott (1726) is among those who give a recipe for this.(Glasse, 1747)
VIPER SOUP: this was thought to be nourishing and invigorating. Its main vogue was in the early 18th century. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
VIRGINIA POTATO, 158: a term which reflects the misconception that the potato, which reached England and Ireland from the New World at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, came not from Peru (its true home) but from the colony of Virginia in North America. A majestic and comprehensive account of this mistaken idea, for which the chief blame attaches to Gerard (1597), is contained in Salaman (1949). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
VIRGINIA SNAKE-ROOT: the root of Polygala senega or Aristolochia serpentaria. It was supposed to possess properties antidotal to snake-poison. Pierre Pomet said it was 'also very proper against all epidemical Diseases' such as measles, smallpox, spotted fever, the plague, and burning fevers. 'We commonly give it in Powder from six Grains to a Scruple; in an Infusion as strong as Wine, Brandy, or Water, will extract, from a spoonful to four', he added (volume I, p. 26). (Richard Bradley, 1736)
VISNEY: a liqueur like cherry brandy. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
VITRIOL: spirit of vitriol is the distilled essence of vitriol – sulphuric acid (OED). This authority also quotes the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1771, which states, 'if the vitriolic acid contain much water', it is spirit of vitriol. Its taste was both acid and salty. Receipt 217 uses it by the drop. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
VITRIOL is a sulphate of metal, i.e. metal acted upon by acid. Unqualified, it usually refers to sulphate of iron (copperas) – green vitriol. Spirit of vitriol is a distilled essence of sulphuric acid. (William Ellis, 1750)
VOCVAIN, probably vervain, Verbena officinalis, a herb thought to have curative powers for many complaints.(Glasse, 1747)
VOLAILLE: poultry (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
W (top)
WAFFERS, wafer: wafers, waffles, gaufres: crisp honeycombed pancakes ('hollow biscuits', Receipt 210) made in a wafer iron. See the index for mentions of this implement in the text, and note the instructions for ways of greasing and handling it. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WALES, TO MARINATE: The half pound of rosemary called for in this receipt might well go some way to drown the taste and smell of whale-meat. (John Nott, 1726)
WALL-REW: a small fern, Asplenium ruta-muraria. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WALLOPS describe the bubbling of water when coming to the boil, i.e. 'boiled a few wallops'. Ellis' use seems archaic, most of the citations by OED are early. (William Ellis, 1750)
WALM (a variant of WARM), 49, 50, 52-3, etc: a distinctive Robert May usage, though it does occur in works by other authors. Phrases such as 'give them a warm' or 'a warm or two' abound, and seem usually to mean to heat / boil for just a short period. It is curious that in the early part of his book May used the spelling 'warm' and later on switched to 'warm'. See the other references to this word for a more exact definition. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
WALM: a bubble in boiling; a boiling-up. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WALME, walm: the heaving action of boiling. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WALNUTS. White walnuts, 154, were peeled young ones, pickled in distilled vinegar or preserved in sugar. A recipe is given for white walnut pickle, 131, plus recipes for 'Wallnuts green and black'. Green ones were peeled and preserved in layers of vine leaves with vinegar, greened in a copper pan. Black were the fully ripe ones, pickled with alum, spites and vinegar.(Glasse, 1747)
WARDENS, 240-42, and WARDONS, 35: winter cooking pears, usually put into pies. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
WARDENS: Winter cooking pears. Usually put into pies. (John Nott, 1726)
WASH is, generally, liquid food for animals, but usually it denotes refuse, kitchen or brewery swill, given especially to pigs (hogwash). (William Ellis, 1750)
WATER: many of the receipts specify the type of water to be used, or at the least insist it should be 'fair' water, which in this context means pure. Compare Dorothy Hartley's comments in her Water in England, and Hilary Spurling's in her edition of Elinor Fettiplace. Receipt 62 uses fountain water to mix an orange drink; Receipt 67, for jelly of veal, demands fair conduit water, while 243, for calves foot jelly, says spring water; Receipt 145, for collar of beef, suggests the hardest pump water obtainable; and Receipt 186, for currant wine, advises spring water. Alan Davidson wrote an entertaining piece about Thom. Cocke's Kitchin Physick (1676) in Twelve Times a Year, March 1985, which is a book that puts water (and watergruel, see for instance Evelyn's Receipt 30) in perspective. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WATER-COD, 91, a mysterious term which may refer to the practice of keeping cod alive in salt water until the time came to sell them; or it may just mean fresh as opposed to salt cod.(Glasse, 1747)
WATER-DOCK-ROOT is debatable. It may refer to the butterbur (Petasites hybridus), called the water-docken in Cumbria, and known as a plant whose leaves were good for wrapping butter (as was dock). The root was a febrifuge (Grigson). (William Ellis, 1750)
WATER FRITTERS: See Fritters. (John Nott, 1726)
WATER SOKEY, 90, water-souchy, from the Dutch 'waterzootje'. This dish, popular in England since the 17th century, was fish (properly perch) boiled and served in its own liquor. The spelling varied. Bailey (1736) gave 'Soochy', defined as: 'A water soochy, a dish of perch dressed after the Holland fashion.'(Glasse, 1747)
WATER SOOCHY (water-souchy). Bradley seems to have been the first person in England to publish this Dutch recipe for preparing perch. It was picked up by later 18th-century cookery writers such as Nathan Bailey, Hannah Glasse, and Elizabeth Raffald and became a very popular dish. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
WATERS of various kinds are mentioned, 159. Some are simply categories of plain water: rock water, from underground rock deposits (sometimes considered too 'hard' because of the minerals present); spring water; fair water (clean water); and stilled water (distilled, therefore purified). Others are medicinal preparations. Hannah Glasse gives a restricted selection of these, copying them mostly from Eliza Smith (1742), who had in turn taken them from earlier authors. These special distilled 'waters', such as hysterical water, plague-water, surfeit water, and treacle water had enjoyed a long vogue, but were gradually making their exit from cookery books. It is noticeable that Mrs Raffald (1769) had pared the number down to one: milk water. Mrs Cole (1791), although appending a lengthy section called 'The Family Physician' to her cookery book, dropped all the old faithfuls in favour of waters prepared from rose-petals, lavender, etc.(Glasse, 1747)
WEAVERS: Spiny Mediterranean fish.Trachinus araneus. In French vives. (John Nott, 1726)
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES: many of the words used to denote size, weight or volume in this manuscript are given their own entry in this glossary.
However, the first page of the original volume containing these receipts is an ornamental title page, headed 'receipts medicinal'. It contains tables of weights and measures, and notes of the symbols used for minerals, aspects and astrological signs. The weights and measures defined are as follows:
'General: Granum or a Barley Corne out of the midst of ye Eare; Scrupulus a Scruple or 20 Barley Cornes; obolus or 10 Gr.; Drachma or 3 Scruples; Uncia or 8 Dragmes; Libra or a Pound containing 12 oz.; Manipulus or a great handfull; Pugillum or a small handfull; Aña, of each alike; q.s., quantum sufficit, as much as is sufficient.
[This set of measurements is based on the troy pound of 12 ounces or 5,760 grains, used by apothecaries and in bullion transactions. The avoirdupois pound was 7,000 grains and 16 ounces and was used in markets and everyday kitchens. The presumption has to be that most of the culinary receipts, as opposed to those for medicines, or perhaps still-room concoctions, used avoirdupois. Note, however, that the measures employed in Receipt 2 are troy ounces of 8 drams, not the avoirdupois ounce of 16 drams. It is most likely that the Evelyn kitchen did not own weights for the ounce avoirdupois, only the ounce troy. There are several instructions, for example in Receipt 80, to take 'half a quarter', where we would have written '2 ounces'.]
'The measure of liquids: A Pinte; a Quart is two pints; a Pottell is two Quarts; a Gallon is two Pottells.
'The measure of arids: A Pecke is 2 Gallons; a Bushell 4 Peckes; a Coumb 4 Bushells; a Quarter 2 Coumbs.
'Ale measure: Ale measure to wine measure is in proportion as 33 to 28, or in lesse terms is 16 1/2 to 14. Therefore one quart of Ale should conteine one quart, & 7 tenths of a quart so that if the ale qrt conteine 2 wine qrts it is too great by 3 tenths of a quart. The surest way therefore will be by weight, for a true ale quart must conteyne in water 2 pound 6 ounces.'(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WESTMINSTER POOL: See Fool. (John Nott, 1726)
WESTPHALIA HAM: This Prussian ham was much prized in the 17th and 18th centuries for its delicate flavour, due to the fragrant woods over which it was smoked and the diet of acorns on which the pigs were fed. The cookery books of the period all give painstaking receipts for imitating Westphalian ham. (John Nott, 1726)
WESTPHALIA HAM. From his letters to James Petiver it seems that Bradley was interested in the secret of salting, drying, and blackening bacon, gammon, or ham in the west German way as early as 1714. The method of preparing this great 17th- and early 18th-century delicacy eluded him, however, until his great friend John Warner of Rotherhithe actually went to Germany and wrote him a letter on the subject in about 1721: 'Friend Bradley, Thy Favour of the 30th ult. I receiv'd; in Answer to which, I send thee the Method used to cure Bacon in and about Hamburgh and Westphalia, which is after this Manner: Families that kill one, two, or three Hogs a Year, have a Closet in the Garret joyning to their Chimney, made very tight and close, to contain Smoke, in which they hang their Bacon to dry out of the Reach of the Heat of the Fire, that it may be gradually dried by the Smoke only, and not by Heat; the Smoke is convey'd into the Closet by a Hole in the Chimney near the Floor, and a Place made for an Iron Stopper to be thrust into the Funnel of the Chimney about one Foot above the Hole, to stop the Smoke from ascending up the Chimney, and force it through the Hole into the Closet. The Smoke is carried off again by another Hole in the Funnel of the Chimney above the said Stopper, almost at the Ceiling, where it vents itself. The upper Hole must not be too big, because the Closet must be always full of Smoke, and that from Wood Fires; for Coal, or Turf, or Peat Smoke, I apprehend will not do so well.
The Manner of Salting is no other than as we salt Meat in common; sometimes they use our Newcastle Salt, or St. Ubes, or Lisbon Salt, and a Salt that's made at Nuremberg (not so good as Newcastle) made from Salt Springs; in those Parts they do not salt their Bacon or Beef so much as we do in England, because the Smoke helps to Cure, as well as the Salt; for I have seen when dry'd Flesh hath no hang'd long enough in the Smoke, it would be green within, when if it had hung its Time, it would have been red quite through; for as the Smoke penetrates, it cures the Flesh, and colours it red without any Salt-Petre, or any other Art.
As to the Feed of their Swine, I saw no difference between their Feed and ours here; if any have the Preference, I believe the English, and our Bacon would be full as good, if not better than the Westphalia, if cured alike.' (A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening, volume I, 1726, pp. 115-16)
At least one of Bradley's friends pounced on this valuable information on how to avoid producing over-salted, rusty coloured hams. For in The Gentleman and Farmer's Guide (1729, p. 106), Bradley related that 'my learned and curious Friend, Dr Corbet of Bourn-Place near Canterbury, has built a Bacon House capable of drying… sixty large hogs at one Time'. See also SMOKING CLOSETS. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
WHEAT EARS. Small birds, of the species Oenanthe oenanthe. They had the reputation of turning up to help eat the wheat harvest, but their common name has nothing to do with that, being derived from 'white arse' in allusion to their white rumps.(Glasse, 1747)
WHISK: although there are suggestions that eggs and similar substances should be whisked with a piece of wood split into four (for instance Receipts 132 and 168), there is also (Receipt 210) a mention of the action of whisking with no comment on the tool itself. John Nott, in his recipe for Snow Cream, suggests that the cook rolls a cleft stick between his or her hands to effect the whisking motion, and The Compleat Cook advises you to roll between your hands a whisk made of a bundle of reeds tied together. Receipt 32 specifies a whisk of dry birch twigs, with a bunch of rosemary and a sliver of lemon peel tied into the bundle to impart their special fragrances to a whipped cream. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WHITE-ASH-HERB is probably ground elder. (William Ellis, 1750)
WHITE POTS: These seem to have been the ancestors of Victorian bread and butter pudding. They are also very similar to the bread and cream fools of Nott's period. See Fool. (John Nott, 1726)
WHITE-POT. Together with trifles and fools, white-pot was among the dishes using cream which became increasingly popular during the Tudor and Stuart periods. Hannah Glasse's two recipes for it, 79, may be compared with the 11 in Nott (1726) and with numerous other earlier versions. Her first recipe echoes, but in summary form, one of those already current. Her second is virtually identical with one which can be traced back to Eliza Smith (1742), John Nott (1726), and Mary Kettilby (1719), whose version may be the earliest.(Glasse, 1747)
WHITE-WORT: perhaps feverfew, Chrysanthemum parthenium. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WHITPOTT: whitepot: a custard or milk pudding, mainly in Devonshire (OED). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WHOPPER, 215: ['a whooping] … anyway, a sea bird of some sort. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
WIG is a small cake of lightly spiced and sweetened bread dough, or more simply (for a harvest-man's beaver) just a small cake of dough. (William Ellis, 1750)
WIGEONS, widgeons.(Glasse, 1747)
WIGGS: Enriched yeast-leavened dough originally baked in wedges. The name comes from the Dutch wig, wedge. Nott's first receipt is unusual in that coriander seeds replace the more usual caraways as a flavouring. Wiggs were once a Lenten speciality. (John Nott, 1726)
WIGS, 141. 'Wigs . . . were small cakes of lightly spiced and sweetened bread dough, sometimes containing caraway seeds; and had been known under that name since late medieval times. Like currant buns they became associated with Lent, and wigs and ale were a Lenten supper in Pepys' day. There are many eighteenth century recipes for them in varying degrees of richness. Economical wigs, with neither eggs nor butter in the paste, accompanied the harvest workers' four o'clock beaver (drink) of ale, or were dipped in a bowl of ale for his supper.' (Anne Wilson, 1973, 266) Wigs were originally wedge-shaped, being made as large round cakes crossed so as to be easily divided into quarters. (Cf the recipe by Florence White, 1932, 74-5.)(Glasse, 1747)
WILLD-DRAGONS: wild tarragon. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WINE QUART: a measure – one quarter of a wine gallon, the equivalent of the US gallon, smaller than the imperial gallon. (See Weights and measures.)(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WINES (ENGLISH). Bradley thought 'all, our English Wines should be encouraged, because they are wholesome, and will come at little Expence'. Accordingly, in The Country Gentleman and Farmer's Monthly Director (second edition, 1727, p. 140), he promised to publish a large number of recipes for country housewives. In fact he only published eleven. These were for wines made out of apricots, black elderberries, cherries, currants, gooseberries, honey, quinces, raspberries, red elderberries, red gooseberries, and white elderberries. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
WINES (IMPORTED). There are thirteen different kinds of imported wines mentioned in The Country Housewife and Lady's Director: Canary wine, a light sweet wine from the Canary Islands off the west African coast; claret, a word used in Bradley's time as a general term for red wine, not as applying only to the red wines of the Bordeaux region; Cyprus wine; Florence wine; Fronteniac, a muscat wine made at Frontignan in France; Hermitage, a French wine produced near Valence; Madera, a white wine produced on the island of Madeira and fortified by brandy for the sea voyage to England; Malaga, a wine imported from the seaport of that name in the south of Spain; Mountain, a variety of Malaga wine made from grapes grown on the mountains; Port, a strong (fortified), dark-red and sweet wine from Portugal; Rhenish wine, i.e. wine produced in the Rhine region; Sack, a general name for a class of white wines imported from Spain and the Canaries; and Tockay, a rich, sweet wine with an aromatic flavour made near Tokay in Hungary. See also the entry under VINES/VINEYARDS. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
WIVERS, 342: weevers, small sea fish with venomous spines, which are present in British waters but are caught and eaten more in the Mediterranean, so figure more naturally in French recipes than English ones. It is likely that the presence of no fewer than seven weever recipes in Nott (1726) reflected nothing more significant than a borrowing from a French book not available to earlier authors. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
WIVOS ME QUIDOS, 438. It seems clear that this has to be a Spanish name for an egg dish, which May had heard said but had not seen in writing. Thus 'huevos' (eggs) comes out as 'wivos'. The other two words might correspond to one word, mezclados, meaning 'mixed', or almizclados, meaning 'musky'. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
WOOD-ASHES. Eggs used to be preserved by various means, which included keeping them in sand, meal or bran. The use of wood ashes, t61, which is similarly effective, was one method commended to ships' cooks by La Chapelle (1733), who advised layering them with good ashes in a cask and commented: 'in case any one of them breaks, the ashes presently stop the hole, and hinder the other from being spoiled.'(Glasse, 1747)
WOOD-BETTONY: bugle, Ajuga reptans, a wound-herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WOOD-BIND: woodbine, bindweed. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WOOD-SORREL: Oxalis acetosella: pleasantly sharp, like sorrel. John Evelyn includes it as a kitchen-garden plant. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WOODEN COW: some syllabubs were made by drawing the milk directly from the cow on to alcohol and/or acids. If you lacked a cow, you could replicate the effect as Sir Kenelm Digby advises in his receipt: 'Take a reasonable quantity (as about half a Porrenger full) of the Syrup, that hath served in the making of dryed plums; and into a large Syllabub-pot milk or squirt, or let fall from high a suficient quantity of Milk or Cream.' To achieve the 'squirt', an instrument, presumably like a syringe, was available. It was called a wooden cow. In one of John Nott's recipes for syllabub he recommends you to 'squirt them into the Pot with a wooden Cow made for the Purpose, which you may buy at the Turners.' The cow is suggested in the Evelyn ms as an aid to making buttermilk curds, Receipt 158. See also C. Anne Wilson, pp. 170–1. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
WOODEN COW: A dairy utensil from which milk was poured or squirted so as to fall foaming into a basin. (John Nott, 1726)
WORMWOOD. Roman wormwood and just plain wormwood are mentioned, 159. The former is Artemisia absintha, the latter A. pontica.(Glasse, 1747)
WORT: an infusion of malt which after fermentation becomes beer. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
WORT: brewer's wort, unfermented beer, an infusion of grain or malt.(Glasse, 1747)
Y (top)
YARROW: Achillea millefolium, a wound-herb. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
YELLOW SAUNDERS: a form of alexanders (qv), perhaps earthed-up and blanched, which was certainly done, to reduce bitterness. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
YELM is a bundle of straw laid straight for thatching. (William Ellis, 1750)
YELT is a young sow or gilt. (William Ellis, 1750)
YEST: yeast. Yeast was not then supplied in dried cake form, nor did it derive, as now, from molasses or distillers' activities. Rather was it ale yeast, often barm, the froth taken off the top of a fermenting vat of ale, hence the large measures required – pints or more – to leaven a particular batch of dough. Evelyn and his fellow compilers do not refer to barm, only to yeast. If a quantity of barm is left standing, the yeasts will fall as sediment. This can then be extracted, washed or diluted and used as a liquid or a semi-solid. See Elizabeth David, English Bread and Yeast Cookery for more information. Receipt 322 is more specific: 'the yest must be neither bitter nor thin nor with the drink but indifferent thick and light.'(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
YETTED: Ellis speaks of 'yetted barley', he may mean barley infused or soaked in water or milk. There is no parallel for his employment of the word. (William Ellis, 1750)
Z (top)
ZEDOARY: Curcuma zedoaria. According to Burkill this species of turmeric is native to north-east India. The rhizomes somewhat resemble ginger in flavour. Used in medicine rather than cookery, the rhizomes were distilled for their oil. Stobart says that the plant is a native of south-east Asia. (John Nott, 1726)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl