Items
Details
Title
English cookery and medicine, 1700? [manuscript].
Created/published
England, circa 1600s - 1700s.
Description
1 volume ; 20 x 16 cm
Associated name
Jackson, Sarah, 1688 -1755, associated name.
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance
Genre/form
Manuscripts (documents)
Cookbooks.
Cookbooks.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271774 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "(MANUSCRIPT: English cookery and medicine.) Mrs Sarah Iackson. 1688. [-1755 ]. 20cm x 15.5cm. 88 leaves (numbered in pencil in a later hand). Contemporary black morocco, covers paneled in gilt, gilt-stamped floral motifs at the inside and outer corners of the panels, gilt double-fillet around sides, spine richly gilt in five compartments, corners bumped and some wear to hinges, slight remains of ties on upper and lower boards, some holes to title page where the ink from where the ownership inscription “burned” through, marbled endpapers, edges gilt, ruled in red throughout, some leaves with pin-prick holes where recipes have been inserted (some of these have been preserved), light spotting throughout (mostly in margins). A very interesting recipe book, bound in a handsome contemporary binding, with a wide range of medical and cookery recipes started in the late 17th century and continuing into the first half of the 18th century. The title page is inscribed in a very large hand: “Mrs Sarah Iackson, 1688.” Presumably, Jackson was the first owner of the manuscript and the earliest recipes are from her. Interestingly, the hands, and periods, of the recipes are intermixed throughout the second half of the manuscript, though one of the earliest hands, possibly of Mrs Jackson, continues intermittently till near the end. (I would estimate at least eight different hands in total.) On leaf 56, there is a prescription written out (in one of the later hands) that is dated October 9th, 1755; this is the latest date that we could find in the manuscript. Some of the earlier recipes include “To make a Goos or Turckey Pye;” “To Preserve Orrenges” (using sugar, lemon juice, and a jelly made from “John-apples”); “A Receipt to make a Friggesie of Chickens or Rabittt;” “To make French Chiscakes;” “To make a Hare Pye;” “How to make a Lumber pie” (with veal, eggs, spices, and sugar); “A Turkish dish of meat;” “for a swelling in ye privy parts;” “To Make the Yellow Salve;” and “Luckantelles Balsame” (a.k.a. Lucatellus Balsam, a remedy very much favored by Newton – see Brewster’s Memoires of...the life of Sir Isaac Newton). The recipe for gingerbread calls for “Treackle of Citron, Orange, & Lemon, whole Coriander seeds...[and] two penny worth of Ginger.” This recipe ends with “Probatum est” – it is proven. One of the last recipes, which is in a later hand, is for curry to be made with rabbit, chicken, or fish (leaf 83v); this is quite interesting as Hannah Glasse is credited with printing the first curry recipe in 1747. Chocolate originated in Mesoamerica and came to England via English pirates who had contact with Spain in the late 16th century. By the late 17th century, it was a popular drink in England with a wide variety of recommended recipes. Jackson’s manuscript includes an unusual such recipe on the recto of leaf 5: To Make Chocolate Let your Almonds be beat as for the March pan Royall [the preceding recipe] and the shugar so boyld, and the almonds so boyled in the shugar, and beat it in the mortar, and to the quantity of a quarter of a pound of almonds put in ye yolks of two Eggs or more then the white of one, beat them well to ye shugar & put in a quarter of a pound of Chocolate, a little musk & ambergreas, beat it wth fine shugar to a stiff paest it must be beat very well. On the verso of leaf 21, there is a pinned-in “Receipt for Orgeot From Georges Chocolate House.” The recipe calls for melon, pumpkin, cucumber, blanched almonds, and sugar ground up, then beaten into a paste to be added to water. Today, orgeat is a syrup that is usually added to cocktails. The establishment referred to may be GeorgesCoffee House in the Strand, which was in operation as early as 1723.1 At this time, coffee houses were the primary proprietors for a variety of speciality drinks including chocolate, tea, and sherbert.2 A few early recipes are of particular interest because they include attributions. One is “The Ladye Jasons Receipt for Fitts” (leaf 37v) which has edits to the portions of the ingredients written in a slightly later hand. On the same leaf is a recipe for “My Aunt Aubreys Cake.” On leaf 43 is a cure-all, “the balsam of ye Governor of Bearne...it cures all sorts of ulcers, cancers, & chancres: cures ye biting of venomous creatures & mad dogs, is good to prevent ye marks of ye smale pox by rubing ye pimples as they appear upon ye face it is excellent for ye piles, inflammation of ye eyes, pains of ye stomach.” A couple of the older attributed recipes are for “Mrs Moyers yellow Salve” (leaf 57r); “Mrs Powels receipt for the Hams” (leaf 71r); and “the Duke of Portlands Gout powder” (leaf 86r). Some of the medicinal recipes indicate dosages specific to men, women, and children. One wonderful remedy is “To Make Gaskings Powder” (leaf 35r): “Take of pearle of Redd Corrall of Crabs eyes or harts horn of whit amber of each a like quanittity being all severally beaten into very fine powder.” The author specifies that the crab parts should be obtained only when they are in season “and itt is either in the month of May or September.” Although we have been unable to find out anything related to Mrs Jackson and her family, we have found evidence of one known family from the 18th century. On the recto of leaf 57, there is a recipe for “Mrs Moyers yellow salve.” On the verso of the same leaf, in a later hand, there is “A Recipe for a Horses Cough from Mr Heathcote” (which includes the exotic ingredients of Spanish liquorice and liquorice powder). The Moyers and Heathcotes were linked via Moyer’s House at Leyton in Essex: Benjamin Moyer’s (d. 1759) daughter Lydia (d. 1822) was married to John Heathcote (c. 1727-95), M.P. for Rutland, and the Heathcote family inherited the Moyer estate. There is also a recipe for “Docters Russils receipt for the tincture of Rhubarb for Benj:n Moyer Esq: for an Abilious humour in his Stomach & bowels” on the verso of leaf 71. Perhaps further research might uncover a connection between Mrs Jackson and the later Heathcote and Moyer family. The manuscript is unusual in that most of the early culinary recipes are surprisingly detailed, giving the particulars of how things are to be cooked, the cooking times, and, in some cases, what utensils are needed. In some places, the manuscript also includes what appear to be authorial corrections made as the recipes were written,with wordscrossed out and, in some cases, corrected. A handsome and extensive Englishrecipe manuscript. It should be noted that it is unusual to find 17th-century English cookery manuscripts bound in such ornate bindings. " Ordered from: Ben Kinmont D9355, 2019-10-10, email quote.
Folger accession
271774