Manuscript Location

Folger Shakespeare Library, Manuscripts

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

ca. 1650-ca. 1662

Description

This book of 86 leaves (171 pages) is in at least five different hands. Most of the book (through leaf 69r) is given over to medical remedies, a number of which are for wounded persons. A prayer to be recited by a sick person is included. However, the recipes written on the final fifteen leaves of the book are predominantly culinary. These recipes appear to be in the same sprawling hand as the inscription on the inside front cover of the book: "Katherine Brown her Booke given to her."

Katherine Brown was active in 1650-1662, and the dishes she outlines are typical mid-seventeenth century English fare. They include plum broth, various puddings ("boiled," hasty, and quaking), meat pies, "pig sawse," jugged rabbit, two sauces for fish, cucumber pickles, tansy, and a yeast-raised plum cake. The recipes are somewhat carelessly composed but are decipherable.

Former owners of the book include Thomas Pybone and Katherine Abill.