The English HousewifeMarkham reveals the "pretty and curious secrets" of preparing everything from simple foods to such elaborate meals as a "humble feast" - an undertaking which entails preparing "no less than two and thirty dishes, which is as much as can stand on one table." He instructs the housewife on brewing beer and caring for wine, growing flax and hemp for thread, and spinning and dyeing. As a housewife was also responsible for the health and "soundness of body" of her family, he includes advice on the prevention of everything from the plague to baldness and bad breath. No other source from this period provides the same richness of information in such a readable style. Michael Best's introduction and his abundant notes make The English Housewife readily accessible to the contemporary reader. |
Contents
| ix | |
| xi | |
Summary of Sources and Close Parallels | lvi |
Of the inward virtues which ought to be in every housewife And first of her general knowledges both in physic and surgery with plain approved me... | 5 |
Of the outward and active knowledge of the housewife and first of her skill in cookery as sallats of all sorts with flesh fish sauces pastry banqueting st... | 60 |
Of distillations and their virtues and of perfuming | 125 |
The ordering preserving and helping of all sorts of wines and first of the choice of sweet wines | 137 |
Of wool hemp flax and cloth and dyeing of colours of each several substance with all the knowledges belonging thereto | 146 |
Of the excellency of oats and the many singular virtues and uses of them in a family | 199 |
Of the office of the brewhouse and the bakehouse and the necessary things belonging to the same | 204 |
Appendix | 213 |
Collation | 217 |
Notes | 225 |
Picture Credits | 290 |
Bibliography | 291 |
Glossary | 297 |
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Common terms and phrases
aniseeds anoint aqua vitae bake barley beat beaten beer boil bread brewing broth bruise Burcot carbonadoes Celia Fiennes chafing-dish chapter cheese cinnamon clean cloth cloves cold colour cookery cream curd currants dairy disease dish distil doth dried drink edition eggs endive English Housewife fair water fire flax flowers fowl gallons Gervase Markham ginger grain half handful hath heat hemp herbs hogshead honey housewife's husbandman juice kiln limbeck liquor liquorice London mace malmsey malt marjoram Markham meat medicine milk morning mutton nutmeg oatmeal ounce paragraph pepper pint plaster pound powder Poynter quantity quart quinces recipe roast rose-water sallats salt sauce season seed seethe serve sippets slices sore spices spinach spoonful stir stone strain succory sugar sweet butter tart taste therein thereof therewith thick Thomas Tusser unto verjuice vessel vinegar wash white wine wool yolks