Abstract
Early modern manuscript recipe books have become increasingly popular sources for historical research over recent years. Extensive compilations of food recipes, medicinal remedies and household tips, these manuscripts provide rich, multi-faceted opportunities for historical study and discussion. This paper utilizes recipe books as a means to examine contemporary food preservation practices. Through detailed textual analysis of these manuscripts, and the reconstruction of early modern preserving recipes, I explore the explicit and tacit ‘domestic knowledge’ required for food preservation. I argue that, rather than being a straightforward activity, this was a complex process requiring significant judgement, intuition and experience on the part of the housewife. Preservation was an experimental practice that might be considered under the umbrella of early modern natural philosophy, and the housewife was a legitimate actor in the associated knowledge production.
Highlights
Preservation was an experimental practice that might be considered under the umbrella of early modern natural philosophy, and the housewife was a legitimate actor in the associated knowledge production
The first section of this paper focuses on reconstruction as a means to identify the ‘tacit’ domestic knowledge needed for food preservation in the early modern kitchen
Food preservation involved much more than the recipes recorded in recipe books
Summary
Food preservation involved much more than the recipes recorded in recipe books. Householders needed a variety of knowledges, skills and techniques to preserve foods. I have not come across mention of a colander as such in the recipe books, there are references made to a ‘strainer’, so there must have been a similar sort of utensil in use in the early modern period.[32] the walnuts were boiled (figure 3), in some recipes multiple times. The early modern housewife would need to be able to judge the quality of ingredients, as well as knowing where to source them, as we have already seen Another example can be found in the recipe ‘To pickle greane walnutts’. The recipe ‘To pickle walnuts’ in MS.2990 instructs that, when making the pickle, the cook should ‘put in white pepper, ginger, Cloves & Mace of each a like quantity enough to make it strong of the spice’.37 This indicates that the senses needed to be utilized: smell and perhaps taste, in order to ensure that the pickle was ‘strong’. Had I experience in making this recipe, I would have known that this was the correct method
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