The “ Liber Cure Cocorum,” which is apparently extant only in a fifteenth century MS., is a metrical treatise, instructing its readers how to prepare certain dishes, con- diments and accessories; and presents, for the most part, a repetition of what has already occurred in earlier and more comprehensive undertakings. It is a curious aid to our knowledge of the manner in which the table of the well-to-do Englishman was furnished in the time of Henry VI., and it is so far special, that it deals with the sub- ject more from a middle-class point of view than the “ Regulations for the Royal House- hold,” and other similar compilations, which I have to bring under notice. The names, as usual, are often misleading, as in blanc manger , which is very different from our blanc- mange ; and the receipt for “ goose in a hoj? 6o Cookery Books. pot ” leaves one in doubt as to its adaptability to the modern palate. The poetical am- bition of the author has proved a source ot embarrassment here and there; and in the receipt “for a service on a fish-day” the practitioner is prayed within four lines to cover his white herring for God’s sake, and lay mustard over his red for God’s love, be- cause sake and love rhyme with take and above. The next collection of receipts, which exists in a complete and homogeneous shape, is the “ Noble Book of Cookery,” of which an early MS. copy at Holkham was edited in 1882 by Mrs. Napier, but which had al- ready been printed by Pynson in 1500, and subsequently by his successor, John Byddell. This interesting and important volume com- mences with a series of descriptions of certain royal and noble entertainments given on various occasions from the time of Henry IV. to that of Edward IV., and then proceeds to furnish a series of directions for the cook of a king’s or prince’s household ; for, although both at the outset and the conclusion we are told that these dishes were calculated for all Cookery Books. 6 1 estates, it is abundantly obvious that they were such as never then, or very long subse- quently, reached much lower than the court or the aristocracy. There is a less complete copy here of the feast at the enthronement of Archbishop Nevile. I regret that neither of the old printed copies is at present acces- sible. That of 1500 was formerly in the library at Bulstrode, and I was given by the late Mr. Bradshaw to understand that the same copy (no other being known) is probably at Longleat. By referring to Herbert’s “ Typo- graphical Antiquities,” anyone may see that, if his account (so far as it goes) is to be trusted, the printed copy varies from the Holkham MS. in many verbal particulars, and gives the date of Nevile’s Feast as 1465. The compilation usually known as the “ Book of St. Albans,” i486, is, perhaps, next to the “ Noble Book of Cookery,” the oldest receptacle for information on the subject in hand. The former, however, deals with cook- ery only in an incidental and special way. Like Arnold’s Chronicle, the St. Albans volume is a miscellany comprehending nearly 6 2 Cookery Books.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The “ Liber Cure Cocorum,” which is apparently extant only in a fifteenth century MS., is a metrical treatise, instructing its readers how to prepare certain dishes, condiments and accessories; and presents, for the most part, a repetition of what has already occurred in earlier and more comprehensive undertakings. It is a curious aid to our knowledge of the manner in which the table of the well-to-do Englishman was furnished in the time of Henry VI., and it is so far special, that it deals with the subject more from a middle-class point of view than the “ Regulations for the Royal Household,” and other similar compilations, which I have to bring under notice. The names, as usual, are often misleading, as in blanc manger , which is very different from our blancmange ; and the receipt for "goose in a hot pot" 6o Cookery Books. pot ” leaves one in doubt as to its adaptability to the modern palate. The poetical ambition of the author has proved a source ot embarrassment here and there; and in the receipt “for a service on a fish-day” the practitioner is prayed within four lines to cover his white herring for God’s sake, and lay mustard over his red for God’s love, because sake and love rhyme with take and above. The next collection of receipts, which exists in a complete and homogeneous shape, is the “ Noble Book of Cookery,” of which an early MS. copy at Holkham was edited in 1882 by Mrs. Napier, but which had already been printed by Pynson in 1500, and subsequently by his successor, John Byddell. This interesting and important volume commences with a series of descriptions of certain royal and noble entertainments given on various occasions from the time of Henry IV. to that of Edward IV., and then proceeds to furnish a series of directions for the cook of a king’s or prince’s household ; for, although both at the outset and the conclusion we are told that these dishes were calculated for all Cookery Books. 6 1 estates, it is abundantly obvious that they were such as never then, or very long subsequently, reached much lower than the court or the aristocracy. There is a less complete copy here of the feast at the enthronement of Archbishop Nevile. I regret that neither of the old printed copies is at present accessible. That of 1500 was formerly in the library at Bulstrode, and I was given by the late Mr. Bradshaw to understand that the same copy (no other being known) is probably at Longleat. By referring to Herbert’s “ Typographical Antiquities,” anyone may see that, if his account (so far as it goes) is to be trusted, the printed copy varies from the Holkham MS. in many verbal particulars, and gives the date of Nevile’s Feast as 1465. The compilation usually known as the “ Book of St. Albans,” i486, is, perhaps, next to the “ Noble Book of Cookery,” the oldest receptacle for information on the subject in hand. The former, however, deals with cookery only in an incidental and special way. Like Arnold’s Chronicle, the St. Albans volume is a miscellany comprehending nearly 6 2 Cookery Books.

Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine