Manuscript Location

Library of Congress, Rare Book/Special Collections Reading Room (Jefferson LJ239)

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1641

Description

This book of 69 leaves contains culinary and medical recipes. It is inscribed with the author's name and the date 1641 on the cover. Josias Cotton was a yeoman in the scalding-house of King Charles I, who came to the English throne in 1625 and was executed in 1649. The scalding house was an office of the kitchen, where animal carcasses, particularly birds, were scalded to soften the skin and loosen fur and feathers in preparation for skinning or plucking,