“As the whole of this collection has cost me
much pains and a thirty years’ diligent appli-
cation, and I have had experience of their
use and efficacy, I hope they will be as kindly
accepted, as by me they are generously
offered to the publick : and if they prove to
the advantage of many, the end will be an-
swered that is proposed by her that is ready
to serve the publick in what she may.”
4
COOKERY BOOKS.
PART II.
SELECT EXTRACTS FROM AN
EARLY RECEIPT-BOOK.
HE earliest school of English Cookery,
which had such a marked Anglo-Nor-
man complexion, has been familiarised to us
by the publication of Warner’s Antiquitaies
Culinaricz , 1791, and more recently by the
appearance of the “Noble Book of Cookery”
in Mrs. Napier’s edition, not to mention other
aids in the same way, which are accessible ;
and it seemed to be doing a better service,
when it became a question of selecting a few
specimens of old receipts, to resort to the
representative of a type of culinary philo-
sophy and sentiment somewhere midway be-
Early Receipts.
99
tween those which have been rendered easy
of reference and our own. I have therefore
given in the few following pages, in a classi-
fied shape, some of the highly curious con-
tents of E. Smith’s “ Compleat Housewife,”
1736, which maybe securely taken to exhibit
the state of knowledge in England upon this
subject in the last quarter of the seventeenth
century and first quarter of the succeeding
one. In the work itself no attempt at arrange-
ment is offered.
I.— MEAT, POULTRY, Etc.
To make Dutch-beef: — Take the lean part
of a buttock of beef raw ; rub it well with
brown sugar all over, and let it lie in a
pan or tray two or three hours, turning
it three or four times ; then salt it well with
common salt and salt-petre, and let it lie a
fortnight, turning it every day ; then roll it
-very strait in a coarse cloth, and put it in a
cheese-press a day and a night, and hang it
to dry in a chimney. When you boil it, you
must put it in a cloth : when ’tis cold, it will
cut out into shivers as Dutch-beef.
h 2
100
Early Receipts.
To dry Mutton to cut out in Shivers as
Dutch-Beef : — Take a middling leg of mutton,
then take half a pound of brown sugar✪ Dutch-beef, and
rub it hard all over your mutton, and let it
lie twenty-four hours; then take an ounce and
half of salt-petre, and mix it with a pound of
common salt, and rub that all over the mutton
every other day, till 'tis all on, and let it lie
nine days longer ; keep the place free from
brine, then hang it up to dry three days,
then smoke it in a chimney where wrood is
burnt ; the fire must not be too hot ; a fort-
night will dry it. Boil it like other hams, and
when ’tis cold, cut it out in shivers like
Dutch-beef.
To stuff a Shoulder or Leg of Mutton with
Oysters: — Take a little grated bread, some
beef-suet, yolks of hard eggs, three anchovies,
a bit of an onion, salt and pepper, thyme
and winter-savoury, twelve oysters, some
nutmeg grated✪ Stuffed Shoulder or Leg of Mutton with Oysters ; mix all these together, and
shred them very fine, and work them up
with raw eggs like a paste, and stuff your
mutton under the skin in the thickest place,
or where you please, and roast it; and for
Early Receipts. ioi
Page 31 · 3 recipe records on this page
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
“As the whole of this collection has cost me much pains and a thirty years’ diligent application, and I have had experience of their use and efficacy, I hope they will be as kindly accepted, as by me they are generously offered to the publick : and if they prove to the advantage of many, the end will be answered that is proposed by her that is ready to serve the publick in what she may.”
PART II.
SELECT EXTRACTS FROM AN EARLY RECEIPT-BOOK.
HE earliest school of English Cookery,
which had such a marked Anglo-Norman complexion, has been familiarised to us by the publication of Warner's Antiquitates Culinaria , 1791, and more recently by the appearance of the “Noble Book of Cookery” in Mrs. Napier’s edition, not to mention other aids in the same way, which are accessible ; and it seemed to be doing a better service, when it became a question of selecting a few specimens of old receipts, to resort to the representative of a type of culinary philosophy and sentiment somewhere midway be-
Early Receipts.
tween those which have been rendered easy of reference and our own. I have therefore given in the few following pages, in a classified shape, some of the highly curious contents of E. Smith’s “ Compleat Housewife,” 1736, which maybe securely taken to exhibit the state of knowledge in England upon this subject in the last quarter of the seventeenth century and first quarter of the succeeding one. In the work itself no attempt at arrangement is offered.
I.— MEAT, POULTRY, Etc.
To make Dutch-beef: — Take the lean part of a buttock of beef raw ; rub it well with brown sugar all over, and let it lie in a pan or tray two or three hours, turning it three or four times ; then salt it well with common salt and salt-petre, and let it lie a fortnight, turning it every day ; then roll it -very strait in a coarse cloth, and put it in a cheese-press a day and a night, and hang it to dry in a chimney. When you boil it, you must put it in a cloth : when ’tis cold, it will cut out into shivers as Dutch-beef.
h 2
Early Receipts.
To dry Mutton to cut out in Shivers as Dutch-Beef : — Take a middling leg of mutton, then take half a pound of brown sugar, and rub it hard all over your mutton, and let it lie twenty-four hours; then take an ounce and half of salt-petre, and mix it with a pound of common salt, and rub that all over the mutton every other day, till 'tis all on, and let it lie nine days longer ; keep the place free from brine, then hang it up to dry three days, then smoke it in a chimney where wrood is burnt ; the fire must not be too hot ; a fortnight will dry it. Boil it like other hams, and when ’tis cold, cut it out in shivers like Dutch-beef.
To stuff a Shoulder or Leg of Mutton with Oysters: — Take a little grated bread, some beef-suet, yolks of hard eggs, three anchovies, a bit of an onion, salt and pepper, thyme and winter-savoury, twelve oysters, some nutmeg grated ; mix all these together, and shred them very fine, and work them up with raw eggs like a paste, and stuff your mutton under the skin in the thickest place, or where you please, and roast it; and for
Early Receipts. ioi
Records on this page
Dutch-beefDry Mutton as Dutch-BeefStuffed Shoulder or Leg of Mutton with Oysters