H

HABEDINE, HABERDINE: Salted or sun-dried cod. The word is of Dutch origin. (John Nott, 1726)

HACK: to chop in pieces. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

HACKIN. This is one of Bradley’s most interesting regional recipes. According to A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, the word first came into written use in the 1670s and persisted in Cumberland well into the 18th century. In an undated manuscript the antiquarian John Aubrey (1626-97) confirmed that: ‘The hackin must be boiled by day break, or else two young men must take the maiden by the arms, and run her round the marketplace.’ (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HAIR-BAG, 54. This was made of horse hair, woven in the shape of a jelly bag on to a circular wooden frame.(Glasse, 1747)

HALFPENNY ROLE, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)

HALFPENNY WELCH DISH, 101t, was evidently a cooking recipient, large enough to take 2 lb of potatoes plus 1 pint milk and some other ingredients. Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary attributes the following to the west Somerset dialect: ‘Two sizes of brown cups or mugs with handles, made of cloam or coarse earthenware, are always called . . . Halfpenny or penny dish; they hold about a pint and quart respectively.’ The Welsh Folk Museum at St Fagans state (private communication): ‘Ewenny potteries in Glamorgan, SE Wales, were producing everyday domestic earthenware vessels suitable for dairy, kitchen and table use in the 18th century. The adjective “Welch” therefore may have been used to describe a dish made in Wales, or in the general sense of being foreign.’ They conclude that Hannah Glasse’s phrase may be taken at face value, the dish being earthenware, made in Wales and bought for a halfpenny. (Its capacity would have had to be bigger than the halfpenny ‘cup’ of Somerset; but this could be explained by supposing that the Welsh dishes did not have handles and were therefore cheaper.)(Glasse, 1747)

HARBERDINE, 381: haberdine, large salt cod (according to Cutting, 1955). (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HARLE: Haul. See LE 43. (John Nott, 1726)

HARSH: hash. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

HARSLETT, 145, also spelled haslet, now usually harslet. The word is derived from the Latin hasta, a spear, and originally meant a piece of meat suitable for spit-roasting. It then came to mean especially the pluck of a pig, ready for roasting, and then more generally the inner organs of an animal; but which and how many organs is not always clear. Dr Johnson (1755) defined the term as meaning ‘tine heart, liver and lights of a hog, with the windpipe and part of the throat to it’. Bradley (1732) had specified the liver, heart and crow (membrane covering the intestine), and had directed that they be put on the spit in a fixed order. May’s ‘Harslet of a bacon hog’ is certainly for spitroasting. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HARTICHOCKE, hartic: artichoke. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

HARTS-EASE: heartsease, wild pansy, Viola tricolor and Viola arvensis. The vernacular names of this pretty little plant, such as Leap up and kiss me, Love in idleness, etc, suggest that it brought ease to the heart in a romantic rather than a medical sense. However, Hannah Glasse includes the seeds of the plant in her recipe for Plague-Water along with scores of other ingredients. Recipes for Plague-Water were common in the 17th and 18th centuries. That in A Book of Simples (a manuscript book of receipts compiled during the first half of the 18th century and edited by Lewer, 1902) calls for ‘Pansie flowers leaves and all’.(Glasse, 1747)

HARTS-HORN, 205. Shavings of the antlers of a stag or hart were the source of a jelly. Nott (1726) is among the authors who explain how to make it. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HARTS-HORN: deerhorn, used as a source of gelatine. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

HARTSHORN: the shavings of a stag’s antlers were used to set a jelly. In Receipt 194 it is combined with isinglass (see below), a material that eventually superseded hartshorn in most cookery operations. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

HARTSHORN: See H 22. The receipt is self-explanatory. (John Nott, 1726)

HARTSHORN: a hart’s horn or antler, used as a source of gelatin. Pierre Pomet says that many remedies were prepared from hartshorn and mentions that hartshorn jelly was good against fainting and swooning fits, heartburn, convulsions, falling sickness, hysterical fits, and worms. (See volume II, p. 257.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HARTSHORN, HARTSHORN-JELLY. Hartshorn was formerly the main source of ammonia, and its principal use was in the production of smelling salts. But hartshorn shavings were used, in a different operation, to produce a special and edible jelly. In her recipe for a ‘Hedge-Hog’, 85, Hannah Glasse assumes that the reader will know how to make this. A full recipe is given by Nott (1726), and earlier authors.(Glasse, 1747)

HARTSHORN is deerhorn, used as a source of gelatine. (William Ellis, 1750)

HARTS-TONGUE, 450: a fern, Phylitis scolopendrium, with prettily curled fronds, which had medicinal uses. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HARTS-TONGUE, Hearts-tounge: fern. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

HART’S TONGUE, a fern, Scolopendrium vulgare.(Glasse, 1747)

HASH: ‘to stew any Meat that is cold’, says Randle Holme, adding that a hash ‘is a Dish-meat made of any kind of flesh minced or in Gobbets stewed in strong broth with Spices, and served up in a Dish with Sippets…’ (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HASHY: hachis, stew (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

HASLET is defined by Hannah Glasse, 160, as the liver, crow, kidney and skirts of a hog. Dr Johnson (1755) already gave as an alternative the modern spelling harslet and defined the term as meaning ‘the heart, liver, and lights of a hog, with the windpipe and part of the throat to it’. The spelling haslet persists in certain counties.(Glasse, 1747)

HASLET has come to mean a meat loaf or porky confection, especially in Lincolnshire. Ellis and his contemporaries, however, used it to describe the offal of a pig that might be roasted or cooked in one way or another. (William Ellis, 1750)

HASTY PUDDING, a simple, quickly mace pudding, almost omnipresent in early cookery books up to the 19th century. It was usually made of flour or oatmeal boiled in milk or water to produce a kind of thick batter. Hannah Glasse’s receipt, 111, is entitled ‘A Fine Plain Pudding’, but she refers to it as a Hasty-Pudding in the text. This recipe is one of the many which she copied from The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737), including the requirement for ‘laurel leaves’, which are to be treated with caution (see LAUREL LEAVES).(Glasse, 1747)

HAUTGOUT, hautgoust: when applied to foods, it means properly, even strongly, seasoned, and is often found next to, or in relation to, discussion of French or foreign dishes. Already, by the end of the seventeenth century, it was being used to denote ‘high’ in the sense that game is high (OED). In Acetaria, Evelyn also uses the word to denote a gourmet or man well versed in the art of cookery. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

HEATH-COCKS, 216, and HEATH POUTS, 214: the male and the young, respectively, of the black grouse, a bird formerly present in English heathlands but now found only in Scotland. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HEATH-COCK: Blackcock, black grouse. Tetrao tetrix. (John Nott, 1726)

HEATH-COCK, 162. The male of the species Lyrurus tetrix, the black grouse, also known as heath-cock (and as Canada grouse in North America). A heath-pout was a young specimen.(Glasse, 1747)

HEATH POUTS, 162, see HEATH-COCK and POUTS.(Glasse, 1747)

HERBS etc. The recipes call for angelica, aniseed, basil, bay leaves, caraway seeds, chervil, dill, fennel seeds, gill or ground ivy, hyssop, juniper tops, marjoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, ros solis, sage, savvy, and thyme. Bradley divided herbs, by which he meant all plants whose leaves or stems or flowers were used as food or for their scent and flavour, into two categories: ‘sallet herbs’ and ‘pot-herbs, and such as are commonly used for stilling’. The former category included borage blossoms, burnet, celery, chervil, corn salad, cowslips, cresses, dandelion, endive, lettuce, mustard, nasturtium flowers, purslane, radish, rape, ‘seed leaf’, sorrel, spinach, tarragon, turnips and violet flowers. The latter category included angelica, balm, camomile, carduus or thistle, clary, dill, dragons, fennel, hyssop, lavender, marjoram, mint, pennyroyal, rosemary, rue, sage (red sage and tea sage), tansy, thyme, and wormwood. (See New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718, pp. 159-74 ) (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HERMODACTYL is a medicinal root, usually of the crocus family. (William Ellis, 1750)

HERN, 153: presumably heron. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HERN: Heron. (John Nott, 1726)

HIERA PICRA is a purgative drug, usually made with aloes. (William Ellis, 1750)

HIGLER or higgler is an itinerant dealer who buys in the country to sell at market. (William Ellis, 1750)

HIPPOCRAS, HIPOCRAS BAG: a bag used in making hippocras, a medicinal drink consisting of spiced wines. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

HIPPOCRASE, HIPPOCRASS: Spiced and sweetened wine, red or white. A survival from the middle ages. It was usually served after dinner with the banquet or dessert course. The name came from the Hippocrates sleeve or long linen bag through which the wine and spices were filtered. (John Nott, 1726)

HIPPOCRATIC SLEEVE: a bag for straining, said to resemble Hippocrates’ sleeve, and ‘more probably shaped like the gown-sleeve of a medieval medical man’ (C. Anne Wilson). Hippocras, the sweet and spiced red wine, took its name from this implement. The wine was passed through the sleeve, which contained the spices, and absorbed their flavours during transit. One or more passes would be made to vary the degree of absorption before consumption. See D. Hartley, Water in England, p. 205 for commentary and illustration. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

HITCH, TO: to extend. Ellis’ use of the word does not seem to accord with OED. (William Ellis, 1750)

HOAR, TO, means to grow mould. (William Ellis, 1750)

HODGE-PODGE, 17. A word whose original form was hotchpotch, indicating a mixture of many ingredients. As Marian McNeill (1963) explains, the same thing is known in Scotland as Hairst Bree (Harvest broth), and ‘is made only when the kail-yard is in its prime, and the soup is fragrant with the juices of young growing things’. Hannah Glasse uses the broth as a medium for cooking veal, with the addition of many spices. Not a common recipe in this form. But there are 14th and 15th century recipes, e.g. in the ‘Forme of Cury’ and ‘Ancient Cookery’ (ea. Warner, 1791) for ‘Gees in hoggepot’ and ‘Goos in hochepot’.(Glasse, 1747)

HOG’S HARSLET (haslet): the entrails of a hog. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HOG’S LARD or HOG’S SEAM: the rendered and clarified internal fat of a pig’s abdomen. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HOGOE: See H 39. Probably from hautgout, highly seasoned. But the receipt, a stuffed cabbage made as much as possible in the shape of a duck with a real duck’s head stuck on the top, must be a survival from the middle ages when cooks were fond of creating fanciful beasts and birds out of all manner of ingredients. (John Nott, 1726)

HOGOO is a variant spelling of haut goût, words which spawned a bewildering collection of alternatives. (William Ellis, 1750)

HOLLY BUR, 342; HOLLYBURT, 346; HOLYBURT, 345. These are all variant spellings of what is now called halibut. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HOOP: wooden hoop or ring, used when baking cakes in the oven. Receipt 205 makes clear that the hoop was in some instances buttered, and there was a bottom paper, also buttered, to protect the tender cake mixture from the heat of the oven floor. The paper was sometimes a tin sheet. Receipt 207 suggests the cake maker might want to use a ‘panne’ or a ‘hoope’. Receipt 322 contains more instructions about varying the size of a hoop to fit the style of cake being baked, and attaching the hoop to the insulating papers on the bottom. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

HOOP is a wooden or tin hoop or ring used for baking cakes or pastry. The tin ones often came apart, as they do today, being joined together by a hinge and removable pin. (William Ellis, 1750)

HORE-HOUND: probably Marrubium vulgare, white horehound, used against coughs. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

HORN KEGG, 330. Probably the garfish, Belone belone, also known as hornbeak, and in Danish and Swedish as hornfisk. It is presented by May as an alternative to mackerel, and its cooking characteristics are not dissimilar. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

HORNY: hardened. (William Ellis, 1750)

HORSE BEAN: see under BEAN. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HORSE-BEAN is the broad bean but unimproved and grown as a field crop for fodder. (William Ellis, 1750)

HORSE-MINT is another name for water mint (Mentha aquatica). Gerard was eloquent about its smell (Grigson). (William Ellis, 1750)

HOT HERBS ON THE HOT BED, 165. The authors of Adam’s Luxury and Eve’s Cookery (1744) give a contemporary account of the use of beds prepared with hot dung, mainly for raising melons, cucumbers and kidney beans, but also for forcing mint, sorrel and tansy in January.(Glasse, 1747)

HOUSE-LAMB, see LAMB.(Glasse, 1747)

HOUSHOLD BREAD, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)

HOVE, TO, means to swell. (William Ellis, 1750)

HUMBLE-PIE: a pie made of umbles or numbles (deer offal). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

HUMBLES are innards – usually referring to deer, but Ellis concentrates on ‘hog’s humbles’. (William Ellis, 1750)

HUNGARY WATER is named after a queen of Hungary, which one is never revealed. It is a distillation of wine and essence of rosemary. (William Ellis, 1750)

HURDLE: a sieve, strainer, or colander. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

HYACINTH, CONFECTION OF: This must mean the dried and powdered roots of the wild hyacinth or bluebell, used for their balsamic properties. (John Nott, 1726)

HYPERICON, tutsan (from toute-saine, i.e. entirely wholesome): Hypericum androsaemum. Aromatic, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

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