Historic Food Exploration

[Warpy]

26. Also check out "The Good Huswifes Jewell," published in 1596

and available online. http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/ghj1596.txt It's used extensively to produce the cuisine in "Tales from the Green Valley," one of the BBC "farm series" that is online and probably the best of the lot. The participants all agreed that what they'd feared was going to be horrible, bland cooking without spices was, in fact, delicious, the interplay of sweet, bitter, sour, and savory compensating for the lack of things like pepper.

Online friends in the UK have managed to get their hands on hard copies of this one and have had a great deal of fun trying some of the recipes.

My own favorite was one I found back in New England at a flea market, a solidly Victorian book whose name I've mercifully forgotten and which recommended all vegetables be kept at a full boil for at least an hour to make them digestible. Some of the pastry recipes, however, were stellar.