Manuscript Location

Folger Shakespeare Library, Manuscripts

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

ca. 1675

Description

Lettice Pudsey announced her contribution to this book on leaf 7v, where she wrote "Lettice Pudsey Her Booke of receipts these following written with my own hand." She wrote most of the recipes from leaves 8r through 39r, as well as many between leaves 56v and 64r. Other individuals, including W. Oldfeld and E. Jackson, wrote the recipes on leaves 1r through 7r, on leaves 40v through 56r, and on the final leaf (65), as well as some recipes that appear in the parts of the book mainly composed by Lettice Pudsey. The sources acknowledged by Pudsey in some recipes suggest that she may have belonged to the Pudsey family of Seisdon, Staffordshire.

At least half of Lettice Pudsey's receipts are medical or cosmetic. Her culinary receipts particularly focus on banqueting stuff, primarily fruit preserving and fruit confectionary, secondarily little cakes (such as macaroons and sugar cakes), sweet biscuits, and dessert creams (including gooseberry fool and syllabub). She outlines an uncommon recipe for the sweetened, spiced banqueting wine called hippocras, which calls for sack in addition to the usual white wine (leaf 21v). Pudsey does include a few recipes for principal dishes, including "For a ffridays dish of meat" (leaf 8r), which is an omelet with diced turnips and carrots, and a receipt for fattening fowl. 

The recipes in hands other than Lettice Pudsey's are mostly culinary. They primarily concern dishes served in the two principal courses of dinner (meat dishes, puddings, and vegetable pickles), though there are also a fair number of sweet wines and other drinks. One of the more interesting recipes in the alternative hands is "To make a curious Sheep's Pudding" (leaf 2r), a black pudding made with coarse oatmeal, (sheep's) suet, and just enough sheep's blood "to color it red." The mixture is presumably stuffed into sausage casings, although the recipe does not say this. There is also a noteworthy recipe for the primordial type of English treacle gingerbread (leaf 47r), which was extremely hard. A note at the end of the recipe reads: "doe not keep them in a moyst place for they will goe softer of themselves." The recipe "To pickle cucumbers" (leaf 56r) is crossed out, with this note: "This receipt is good for nothing."