A book of verses collected by me, R. Dungarvan, ca. 1630

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Manuscript Location
Folger Shakespeare Library, Manuscripts
Holding Library Call No.
V.a.125
Manuscript Cookbooks Survey Database ID#
75
Place of Origin
England ➔ Oxfordshire ➔ Oxford
Date of Composition
recipes ca. 1650-1700
Description
This book was begun as a collection of verses by Richard Boyle (1612-1698) around 1630, perhaps while he was a student at Christ Church, Oxford. At the time he was styled as Viscount Dungarvan; in 1664 he was created 1st Earl of Burlington by King Charles II. The book is in two parts, the second of which is written from the back of the notebook going toward the center and upside-down in relation to Part I. Verses are written from leaf 3r to leaf 54r of Part I, and from leaf 1r to leaf  20r of Part II. The poems are by or are attributed to H.B., William Basse ("Upon Poet Shakespeare," Part II, leaf 8r), William Browne, Thomas Carew, Richard Corbet, John Donne, John Earle, Owen Feltham, J.M., Ben Jonson, Henry King, George Morley, E.R., William Strode, and others. The poems are in several different hands. The name Tyrrell is penciled on leaf 2v of Part I. De Ricci notes that the volume is believed to be partly in the handwriting of James Tyrrell (1642-1718).

In both parts of the book culinary recipes have been written following the verses, from leaf 54v to leaf 117r in Part I, and from leaf 21r to 73r in Part II.

The culinary recipes in Part I are in a single hand except for a few intrusions after leaf 110r. The recipes are organized by type: an interesting collection of meat, fish, and vegetable pies is written to leaf 68v; fricasees, stews, hashes, collops, roasts, and other meat dishes are writen to leaf 81v; "porages" (thick soups) of cabbage, green pease, and yellow pease appear on leaves 82r to 83v; puddings are written to leaf 90v; and miscellaneous recipes, including  buttered loaves, curd puffs, additional puddings, preserved foods (among them ham and bacon), fish dishes, puff paste, tart paste, and tarts appear to the end. Particularly noteworthy are the detailed instructions for venison pasty, both crust and filling, on leaves 56r-57r, and the similarly detailed recipe for "Artichoake Pie," leaf 62v, which calls for 1 pound 6 ounces of the "botomes & ye meate yt is scraped from ye leaves." Also of interest is an early recipe for "Potatoe puding" (surely with sweet potatoes), on leaf 90v. The recipes for "quakeing puding" (leaves 87v and 89r), "To rost a shoulder of muton in blood" (79r), and "To make a tarte in a patey [patty] pan" (102r), as well as the artichoke pie referenced above, were all in their heyday in the second half of the seventeenth century. 

Part II contains recipes for fruit wines, mum, ale, metheglin, and mead, all in the same hand, to leaf 30 v, followed by miscellaneous recipes in several hands to leaf 35r and blank pages to leaf 39r. From leaf 39v to the end are written recipes for large cakes, small dessert cakes and biskets, dessert creams and butters, and possets, all apparently in the hand of the principal recipe writer in Part I. If the culinary recipes in this book are indeed of the second half of the seventeenth century, as they seem to be, "To make a Plum cake wth citron" (leaf 39v) is an extremely early recipe for a modern plum cake leavened by beating rather than yeast.