BACK, e g at 324: bass, i e the sea bass, Dicentrarchus Wrax. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BAGNIO is a Turkish bath as well as a place of doubtful resort. (William Ellis, 1750)
BAIN-MARIE, TO MAKE: See B 8. The receipt is for a kind of bollito misto or a very ample pot-au-feu. The name refers to the method of cooking, i.e. the pot containing the ingredients stands in a bath of barely simmering water. (John Nott, 1726)
BAKING COVER: A common kitchen utensil in Nott’s day. A copper or earthenware cloche with a flattened top on which coals could be placed, so that the dish underneath cooked with heat above as well as beneath. (John Nott, 1726)
BAKING PAN: Receipt 297 contains several references to the use of a baking pan to make marchpane. It advises that the sheets of marchpane should be laid on a table and a baking pan cover put over them, ‘with charcoale lighted very clear’. Kenelm Digby records different details, but points up the function of the baking pan: ‘You must have a pan like a tourtiere, made to contain coals on the top, that is flat, with edges round about to hold in the coals, which set over the Cakes, with fire upon it. Let this remain upon the Cakes, till you conceive, it hath dryed them sufficiently for once; …pull the Papers [on which the marchpane was laid] …and turn them upon new Papers…remove the pan…to dry their other side.’ The baking pan, therefore, was like a Roman clibanus, a vessel that could have coals heaped on all sides, and on the top, in the hearth to replicate the function of an oven – like the pot ovens used in western districts of the British Isles. Most contemporary recipes for marchpane include reference to the baking pan, though not all of them specify how it should be used. For example, A Queens Delight states that the marchpane should be baked ‘in an Oven, or in a Baking-pan’. There is a mention in Sir Hugh Plat’s Delightes for Ladies of an instrument he calls a ‘campaign stove’ which must have been akin. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BALM (as a verb), 438: probably the same as warm/warm, q v. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BALNEUM: a vessel filled with water or sand, in which another vessel is placed to be heated (bain-marie). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BALNEO, a way of spelling balneum, meaning bain-marie.(Glasse, 1747)
BALSAM is, literally, natural oleo-resin from trees or plants. The meaning was extended to an oily or resinous preparation (often using turpentine) in which various substances were dissolved or combined, usually for external application. (William Ellis, 1750)
BALSAM OF PERU was the resin of the tree Myroxylon Pereirae which grew in San Salvador. Though fragrant, it has no specifically medicinal virtues (says Britannica). (William Ellis, 1750)
BALSAM OF TOLU. Balsam, in the sense relevant here, is a compound of resins mixed with volatile oils, insoluble in water. This was originally obtained from the Near and Middle East, as Balsam of Gilead or of Mecca, and was mainly used for medicinal purposes. (Balsam is sometimes termed balm, e.g. balm of Gilead, but is not to be confused with the plant called balm.) The discovery of the New World added Balsam of Peru and of Tolu (a place in Colombia, now Santiago de Tolu) to the list. Balsam of Tolu is produced by collecting the resin from incisions in the bark of the plant Myroxylon balsamum (formerly M. toliuferum) and letting it harden into cakes in the sun. It can be used as an alcoholic tincture or dissolved in water with the aid of mucilage or egg yolk, and has been valued chiefly for its agreeable flavour. It was used by Hannah Glasse in the exotic recipe for Artificial Asses’ Milk, 121.(Glasse, 1747)
BANBURY CAKE: In the 17th century a Banbury cake was a very rich and highly spiced fruit mixture enclosed in a yeast-leavened pastry, rather like the Scotch Black Bun of later days. (John Nott, 1726)
BARBARY SUGAR, 257: presumably sugar from North Africa. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BARBERRY, passim: Berberis vulgaris, a fruit which was commonly in use for flavouring and colour, and which figures in many of May’s recipes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BARBERRY: Small translucent red fruit of berberis vulgaris, an ornamental garden shrub. Barberries were much used both for their decorative qualities and for their pleasant sweet-sour flavour. The fresh berries in bunches were scattered over cooked meats, and as we see from Nott’s receipts (B 16-25) they were also candied, pickled, and made into jellies and syrups. (John Nott, 1726)
BARBERRY (pipperage or pipperidge): ‘a pleasant Shrub, bearing beautiful Branches of yellow Flowers in the Spring, and no less delightful Clusters of red Berries towards the Autumn: The Fruit is of a sharp Taste when it is ripe, and seldom us’d any other way than in sauces.’ (New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718, p. 51.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BARK is the bark of the cinchona tree, from Peru. It contains quinine. (William Ellis, 1750)
BARLEY. Pearl barley (barley which has been husked and milled) is still an article of commerce. French barley, 107, is a term often used in 17th and 18th century cookery books. Recipes for Barley Cream, for example, bid one ‘take your French barley, and add cream’, suggesting that French barley was simply a plump variety and that it too came in husked form. But Margaret Saville (1682) has a recipe for French Barley Cream which says: ‘Tye your ffrench barley in a cloth, and dippe itt in water, then beet itt till ye huskes bee clean off. . .’ So perhaps the French variety could be had either husked or unhusked.(Glasse, 1747)
BARLEY, FRENCH: a form of pearl or pot barley. OED quotes the Family Herbal of 1789 which defines French barley as being skinned, with the ends ground off. Pearl barley is a further refinement of the grain. Elinor Fettiplace describes in her receipts the preparation of French barley by soaking barley corn, beating it with a beetle in a sack, then rubbing, winnowing and wetting it again before drying the grains in the oven. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BARM, and LEAVEN, 171, 173. Barm is a specific term, meaning the actively fermenting substance which can be taken as froth from the top of brewing ale. Leaven is a general term which covers berm, yeast, or dough that contains yeast. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BARM: yeast. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BARM: the froth that forms on top of fermenting malt liquors; used to leaven bread and to ferment other liquors. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BARM, see ALE-YEAST.(Glasse, 1747)
BARROW-HOG is a castrated boar. (William Ellis, 1750)
BARTHOLOMEW-TIDE was 24 August, Saint Bartholomew’s Day. The religious and trading fair which took place at his shrine in Smithfield from early mediaeval times developed into a purely popular festival by the 17th century and then into ‘a carnival of the grossest kind’ (Chambers, 1864). It expired in the 19th century.(Glasse, 1747)
BASEL: (?) basil. Although this word occurs in Receipt 191 (To pickle salmon), it is not certain it is an accurate transcription, nor may it ever have been the intended meaning. It is added above the line, apparently qualifying the word ‘spices’ and it seems an unexpected element in the recipe. No other occurrence of the herb exists in the manuscript. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BASILICON, BLACK is a description of a family of ‘sovereign’ (from the Greek) healing ointments: ingredients not disclosed. Ellis’ favourite doctor, John Quincy (d.1722) called it a tetra-pharmacon (four ingredients). (William Ellis, 1750)
BASSE: bass, bast, a string or tape of straw or bark, specifically of lime or linden, used here to bind up a collar of bacon (Receipt 20). The word bast is found today in stitchery, and in raffia-work. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BASS. This is the inner bark of the lime or linden tree, the name is sometimes applied to similar fibres, such as split rushes or straw. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BATALIA PIE, 211. The NSOED derives the name, via French béatilles, from the Latin beatillae, meaning small blessed objects; and explains that a battalia pie is therefore a pie containing tidbits such as cockscombs and sweetbreads. Nott (1726) gives two recipes, one for Battalia Pye and the other for Battalia Pye of Fish. The latter incorporates battlements and towers in the pie-case, which might have suggested an alternative origin for the name, if the true one had not been established. Nott’s first pie has sweetbreads, but his fish version lacks tidbits of the sort suggested by the NSOED. See also ‘Deciphering Culinary Allusion and Illusion in Robert May’s “ExtraOrdinary Pye”’, by S.M.Pennell in the forthcoming Look and Feel (Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1993) (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BATLDORE: battledore. One used battledores to smash shuttlecocks over the net. In other words, the battledore was a paddle-like instrument, used primarily in the laundry, to beat things with. Receipt 210, for wafers, in which this implement figures is interestingly detailed in matters of equipment and method. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BATTLE-DOOR: wooden tool shaped like a paddle. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BAULME: balm, Melissa officinalis, medicinal. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BAY SALT: See Salt. (John Nott, 1726)
BAY-SALT, see SALT.(Glasse, 1747)
BAY-SALT is made by natural evaporation in the sun in southern Europe. It is large and coarse-grained and was thought stronger than common salt but in fact it is a better material for use in salting meats, etc., because it is slower in dissolving. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEANS. There are references to the broad Windsor bean, the French or kidney bean, and the horse bean. The last was not normally eaten; it was ploughed into the land to improve stiff clay soils. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BEANS, FRENCH: Phaseolus spp, beans of the New World, of which P coccineus, the runner bean, and P vulgaris, whose numerous common names include French bean, haricot bean, and kidney bean are the most familiar. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BEANS, GARDEN: Faba vulgaris, the broad bean of the Old World. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BEARBIND: Grigson records this as a Home Counties name for bindweed (Calystegia sepium), though it was also used to name other sorts of convolvulus. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEARING: the OED defines this as the external parts of animals which are involved in parturition, citing ‘The teats and external female parts…called by farmers the bearing’ (1779). Ellis, however, seems to be describing a prolapsed womb. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEAT: stamp (q.v.) or grind, e.g. ‘beat mustard seed’. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BEATEN means pounded when applied to ingredients such as mace.(Glasse, 1747)
BEATILES, beatilia, battalia: tit-bits (e.g. cockscombs or sweet-breads) in a pie. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BEATILLO: derived from the French béatilles, which word denotes, according to Larousse Gastronomique (1938 edn.), small articles such as cockscombs, chicken kidneys, and lambs’ sweetbreads that are used as fillings for vol-au-vents, tourtes and bouchées. Robert May calls his beatillo pie batalia. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BEAT-ROOT, BEATS, beetroot, beets.(Glasse, 1747)
BEAVER, or more commonly bever, is a snack between meals. Ellis’ description, repeated in his Modern Husbandman, is ‘they eat wholly on this [cheese] and bread at one time of the day, which they call their beaver and this is commonly about four of the clock in the afternoon.’(William Ellis, 1750)
BEEFER, 126: an animal bred for beef. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BEET, beete: Beta vulgaris, the leaf beet (red, white or black), not the root, is often meant when, as in Receipt 40, Evelyn suggests adding beetes along with potherbs. White beets are suggested in Receipts 182 and 184. These are what we call Swiss Chard (see Acetaria). (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BEET-CARDS or BEAT-CHARDS: white beetroot leaves. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BELL-METTLE SKILLET, 131. Bellmetal is a kind of bronze consisting of approximately four parts of copper to one of tin, the proportions being such as to make the product particularly suitable for use in bells and, for example, Chinese gongs. In the kitchen it was regarded as superior in certain respects to plain copper or tinned copper, probably because it was less likely to affect flavour than the former and more durable than the latter. But members of the (UK) Historical Metallurgy Society have commented (private communications) that any such conclusions should be regarded as tentative, especially as the term ‘bell metal’ has often been used rather loosely.(Glasse, 1747)
BELONY SAUSAGES, 126: Bologna sausages, i.e. the kind of salami for which the Italian city of Bologna was already famous. In later editions Hannah Glasse adopted the spelling Bolognia. Cf the recipe ‘To make Bologna Saucidges’ in Lamb (1726); and that ‘To make Polony Sassages to keep all the year’ in Rabisha (1682); etc.(Glasse, 1747)
BERBERIES: barberries, Berberis vulgaris. Culinary and medicinal uses. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BERMUDAS, see ORANGES.(Glasse, 1747)
BEROUGELLA: a mystery fruit. It does not seem to be mentioned in any of Bradley’s other works, nor in any dictionaries or other works of reference where one would expect to find it. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BETONY: Stachys officinalis. Believed to be diuretic and cleansing. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BETONY: Stachys officinalis. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BETONY: Stachys Betonica. A woodland plant held to have multiple healing and medicinal properties. (John Nott, 1726)
BETONY: Stachys officinalis, believed to be diuretic and cleansing. (William Ellis, 1750)
BEZOAR, 453: a stone-like concretion found in the stomachs or intestines of certain ruminant animals, especially the wild goat of Persia. It was supposed to have medicinal qualities. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BIBEROT: See P 12. ‘To dress Partridges a biberot’. A biberon is a baby’s bottle. The name of the receipt probably refers to the pappy nature of the dish. (John Nott, 1726)
BIRD-SPIT. A small spit suitable for impaling birds. There were various kinds.(Glasse, 1747)
BISK, 303, 304: the anglicized version of the French term bisque, which nowadays usually indicates a rich and creamy soup based on crustaceans such as the lobster or crab. In the 17th century it was (to take May’s two recipes for Bisk of Carp) a highly complex soup with plenty of solid matter in it. May’s Bisk of Eggs, 436, further demonstrates that the term embraced in his time dishes for which we would not now use it. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BISK: bisque. Note Receipts 319–21 for bisks and potages. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BISK: The anglicised version of bisque. The term is now applied mainly to creamy shellfish soups, but in the 17th and 18th centuries denoted what Nott called ‘a Soop in Ragoo’ to be made from pigeons, quails, chickens and so on. See B l00. (John Nott, 1726)
BISKET: Various small sugar cakes. Also sponge cakes. See B 95 and 96. In France a sponge cake is still a biscuit, in Spanish bizcocho. (John Nott, 1726)
BISKETS. A spelling used by Hannah Glasse for biscuit, which in the 18th century meant any of a variety of small cakes made with sugar. Recipes for Biskets (drop, common, and French) are given on 140. There seems to be no reference to what we would call ship’s biscuits or crackers, even in the chapter for Captains of Ships (121-5). Eliza Smith (1727) had a recipe ‘To make the hard Bisket’, but Hannah Glasse left that one alone.(Glasse, 1747)
BISQUE (bisk): a rich soup made from boiling meat and birds or different kinds of fish. The recipe for a bisque of fish in The Country Housewife and Lady’s Director (Part II, pp. I 29-35) is the grandest and most elaborate in the entire book. It is interesting to compare this bisque with Randle Holme’s definition of the dish: ‘a Rack of Veal, a Knuckle of Mutton, Pigeons, Chickens, a roast Capon minced: Sweet-breads, Marrow, Artichoks (and what you will) boiled or stewed together with Spices in water…’ (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BISQUETS, 54, not Hannah Glasse’s way of spelling biscuits (see Bisket, above), but a mistranscription of the word ‘bisques’ which occurs in The Whole Duty of a Woman, Hannah Glasse’s source for ‘A White Cullis’, and in La Chapelle (1733), the source used by the compiler of The Whole Duty. However, the context is such that Hannah Glasse must have supposed, wrongly, that she was dealing with biscuits or something similar. See Stead (1983, Part 11, 19).(Glasse, 1747)
BISTORT: Polygonum bistorta. Medicinal uses. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BITE: an imposition or deception. (William Ellis, 1750)
BITTER-SWEET: woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. Purgative. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BITTERN, 153: a small or medium-sized kind of heron. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BITTERS: a general term for bitter medicines taken to promote digestion and appetite or against intestinal worms. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BITTONY. This is betony, Stachys officinalis, a herb on which Grigson (1955) comments that in Kent and Devon respectively the names bidny and bitny survive. The herb was widely used, both root and leaves. Culpeper (1669) described it as ‘most fitting to be kept in a man’s house both in Syrup, Conserve, Oyl, Oyntment, and Plaister’. Betony is still a common roadside plant in England.(Glasse, 1747)
BLACK CHERRY-WATER. The reference at 121 is explained by the recipe, 158, which is copied from ‘Black cherry water for children’ in Eliza Smith (1742).(Glasse, 1747)
BLADDER: a sheep’s or ox’s bladder used as an airtight covering. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BLADDER. This is specified for covering pickles, 101 and 132-3. First a bladder, then a leather. The use of two covers is probably to be explained thus. The bladder, being thin, would stretch well and give a tight seal. But a bladder is porous when wet, and not very strong. The leather fastened over it, being thicker, would not provide as good a seal but would give much greater protection against possible assaults by mice, insects etc.(Glasse, 1747)
BLADDERS, PULLETS IN: See P 257. This is not unlike a .great modern French speciality called poularde en vessie, a pullet enclosed in a pig’s bladder and poached. In Nott’s version the chicken is stuffed with oysters and other trifles, in the modern French one foie gras is used. (John Nott, 1726)
BLAIN is a sore or pustule, as in chilblain. In cattle, it describes specifically a swelling that erupts on the base of the tongue, stopping the beast from breathing. (William Ellis, 1750)
BLAMANGER, 297-8, BLANCHMANGER, 270. The modem word blancmange is the same, but now indicates something quite different, except for the white colour, from what bore the name in medieval times and the 16th and 17th centuries. Blancmange originated in the Arab world and reached Europe through Sicily and Spain. Its basic form involved capon flesh, teased into tiny strands, and almond milk or ground almonds, often with rosewater. In the 16th century a meatless version evolved, using cream, sugar and eggs. The capon and meatless versions coexisted in the 17th century, when Robert May was working, and his recipes show this; but towards the end of the century a new kind of blancmange was introduced—a jelly (calfs foot or hartshorn) with almond and rosewater flavouring, and perhaps including milk. It was this which in turn evolved in the direction of what Eliza Acton, for example, would have made in the 19th century, using arrowroot. Cornflour later replaced arrowroot. The 20th century commercial blancmange is a dismaying parody of its illustrious precursors. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLANCMANGERS: Nott explains what these are in B 106. His selection of receipts is representative of several centuries of European cooking and of a whole class of dishes which had come originally from the Arabs who occupied Spain and Sicily. Almonds were a constant in blancmangers. Perhaps the most typical version is the Italian one, P 112. (John Nott, 1726)
BLEW BOTTLE, 210: the cornflower, Centaurea cyanus, whose flowerheads produce a blue dye. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLEW-BOTTLES: cornflower, Centaurea cyanus. Medicinal uses (see Gerard). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLEW-BUTTONS: several medicinal plants have this name, either meadow cranesbill (Geranium pratense), periwinkle (Vinca major), believed to be aphrodisiac, field scabious (Knautia arvensis), good for skin troubles. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLEW-FIGS, 92, presumably from the colour of the fully ripened fruit, in contrast to the (unripe) green fig. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLINK: with reference to brewing, to turn slightly sour. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLOODWORT, 28: a name still applied to the red-veined dock, Rumex sanguineus, a perennial herb of the buckwheat family, found in woody places. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLOOD-WORT: probably dock, Rumex obtusifolius (bloodwort is Gerard’s name for it). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BLOODING: a black or blood pudding; cf. ‘livering’: a liver pudding. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BLOTE OVEN, 403. Obscure. Possibly a device connected with bloating or smoking fish (cf ‘bloater’). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BLOW, to: Ellis talks of butchers ‘blowing’ or inflating veal to make the meat seem white and fleshier, and soaking the joints in water. OED cites Balfour (c.1550) on the same practice, to ‘cause it seme fat and fair’. (William Ellis, 1750)
BLUE BOTTLES: See F 33. A country name for cornflowers, but I wonder if here Nott did not intend borage or bugloss flowers. Fritters of borage flowers were common in Italian cookery. (John Nott, 1726)
BLUE VITRIOL STONE is made of copper sulphate – copper heated with sulphuric acid, then moistened. It is a desiccating agent. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOCLITES, 10. Not in OED, nor in any dialect dictionaries examined. From the context it is something for a salad, possibly bolete mushrooms. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BODKIN, 152. A long pointed instrument of various forms and uses. Hamlet could ‘his Quietus make’ with a bare one. Bodkins could be used as hairpins, or for piercing holes in cloth or foodstuffs. When Hannah Glasse says to ‘job’ with one she presumably means to ‘jab’.(Glasse, 1747)
BOLE ARMONIAC or bole armeniac is an astringent clay-like earth formerly brought from Armenia, used as an antidote or styptic. Bole (from the Greek) meant clod of earth: another sort was brought from Lemnos. It behaved like fuller’s earth. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOLONIA SAUSAGE, 36: a sausage of Bologna in Italy, from which the famous mortadella of Bologna is descended. The name was spelled in many ways; Rabisha (1682) has Polony Sassages. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BOLSTER: a surgical compress or pad of lint. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOORENCOLE (borecole): a loose, open-headed kind of cabbage, also called kale. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BORACHIO: a large leather bottle or bag used in Spain to contain wine or other liquors. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BOTARGO, 356: a Mediterranean delicacy made from the salted and dried roe of grey mullet. It is the modern Italian bottargo and French boutargue. Epulano (1598), the English translation of an Italian cookery book, had described it as ‘a kind of Italian meat’ and gave a recipe for making it from grey mullet roe. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BOTTOM DISH, see under SERVICE.(Glasse, 1747)
BOTTS: a parasitical worm or maggot. (William Ellis, 1750)
BOUCONS: Apparently a corruption of the Italian boccone, mouthfuls. The receipt, B 119, describes a good version of the dish. (John Nott, 1726)
BOULTER, 229: a cloth of varied closeness, through which ground com was sifted to produce different grades of flour. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BOULTER: bolter cloth, cloth sieve. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BOUTON: See B 120. A kind of terrine of forcemeat and bacon interspersed with sweetbreads, mushrooms and other small delicacies. The name is perhaps due to the round shape of the dish when cooked. (John Nott, 1726)
BRAGOT: ale boiled with honey. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BRAN / BRAND GEESE, 216-7: Brent goose or barnacle goose, the two being often confused (OED). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BRAWN, BRAWN, 149, 192-3. The term refers in a general sense to the meat parts of any animal. More particularly, a brawn was a male pig or boar. May used both senses. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BRAWN, brawne: flesh, suitable for roasting, usually the better bits, a citation in OED uses the word to distinguish the breast of fowl from its leg. Evelyn refers to the ‘brawne of an hen’ in his Receipt 16 for mangar blanch, echoing countless medieval recipes for similar dishes which likewise specify brawn of birds. Its restriction to meat from a pig was not then universal. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BRAWN. The word may be used in a special sense to denote boar’s flesh, but its general meaning was meat, and in recent times it has come to mean a confection of potted meat. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BRAWN. The term originally meant (1) the flesh of a wild boar and by extension (2) the preserved meat preparation made therefrom, the fatty foreparts being usually chosen for the purpose. But even before the 18th century the ‘boar pig’ used for making brawn was a tame, not a wild, animal. See Wilson (1973, 88-9 and 103-4) for a full account and an Elizabethan recipe for preparing brawn. See also Henisch (1976, 130-1) for comments on mediaeval brawn. The term later came to have (3) the more general meaning of the fleshy part of a hind leg of an animal, not necessarily a pig. Nowadays, brawn just means (4) a kind of potted meat. See 161, where the first sense applies; and the recipe for Sham Brawn, 129, where the second sense is intended.(Glasse, 1747)
BRAWN: brined pork set in jelly, see Traditional Foods of Britain. (William Ellis, 1750)
BREAD figures frequently in May’s recipes. The following were the main types:
Manchet, which was that made of the whitest, finest wheat flour;
Cheat, which was similar but of less good quality;
Ordinary or Household bread, made of coarser, wholemeal flour; and
French bread, which was enriched with milk and eggs, including what May called Pinemolet (pain mollet, soft bread, 34 and 422), for which he gives his own recipe, 239.
Where May specifies a penny manchet, 26, he means a manchet that cost a penny (its weight varied with the price of wheat). (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BREAD: there were several sorts of bread current at the period, some of which are referred to below:(John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
French bread: yeasted bread made with a dough enriched with milk and eggs. In Receipt 183 is a reference to both white and brown French bread. Receipt 273 states that if no French bread is available, a smaller quantity of good white bread should be substituted. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
French roule: presumably a small round loaf of ‘French’ bread. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Household bread: the standard bread, made from coarser flour than manchet, but usually with some bran removed. Referred to in Receipt 316. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Manchet: yeasted bread made from the whitest flour. Baked in a slightly cooler oven than household bread. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Penny loaf: a loaf which could be bought for a penny – which of course varied with the price of wheat, and the grade of flour, and so forth. Karen Hess expands on the theme, with the advice of Elizabeth David (see pp. 109-110 of Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery), with the suggestion that a penny loaf of white flour might have weighed between 12 and 16 ounces, and a penny roll or manchet of the very finest flour might have been half that size. The problem is that a size was understood, irrespective of the day-to-day variation in price. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
Twopenny (topeny) loaf: cost twice as much and was twice as large. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BREAD. To achieve a full understanding of the terms used to describe loaves in the middle of the 18th century, see Elizabeth David (1977), especially 226 ff. The laws constituting the Assize of Bread were codified in 1266, and regulated the weight of a penny loaf in a manner which varied according to the prevailing price of wheat and also according to which of three different grades of wheaten flour were used: finely bolted, coarsely bolted or unbolted (the last being what is now called wholemeal). Despite the complications. of the system (compounded by regional differences in the weight of a bushel, etc), this system was workable while bakers bought their wheat direct from the farmers and paid a miller to grind it for them. But when milling began to develop into a separate trade, and flour was bought from the millers, the system started to break down. Eventually, in 1709, new laws were introduced which gave bakers a choice between selling bread under the old system (Assize Bread, of which the price was fixed while the weight varied) or baking loaves to a standard weight, with the price varying (in which case their bread was known, confusingly, as Priced Bread). It is thus 110 easy matter to work out what was meant in 1747 by ‘a penny loaf, ‘a halfpenny loaf’, etc. However, Elizabeth David (op cit, 339-40) provides a note on ‘The Penny White Loaf of the Cookery Books’ which clarifies the matter. This reads, in part, as follows: ‘. . . it is clear that, regardless of the fluctuating weights of Assize bread, cooks knew that a penny white loaf – even if its actual cost was higher or lower – meant one made from the finest flour, enriched with milk and eggs, weighing from six to eight ounces, while an ordinary penny loaf meant one of slightly coarser flour milled from a secondary quality of wheat and probably weighing twice as much.’ So much for loaves described by Hannah Glasse in terms of price. By ‘French loaves’ she probably meant light, enriched loaves, called French because in early mediaeval times the art of making them was more highly developed in France than in England. ‘Puff’ was an alternative name for this French bread. It was expensive, and often made up in the form of small cakes (cf Hannah Glasse’s ‘French loaf the size of an egg’). See Wilson (1973, 224-5); and Hess (1981, 114). By ‘manchet’ or ‘French manchet’ she meant bread of the finest quality. By ‘household bread’ she probably meant bread of the second quality described above. This is on the assumption that she was writing mainly for people in the south of England. Had she been writing for those of the north, whence she herself came, she could have meant coarser breads incorporating rye, pea flour, etc. In recreating Hannah Glasse’s recipes it would be wrong to use modern commercially produced bread, and better to consult Elizabeth David (1977) and bake suitable loaves at home.(Glasse, 1747)
BREAD, FRENCH: To the English in the 18th century, French bread meant loaves or rolls made from a yeast-leavened dough enriched with eggs, butter and milk, the result being half-way between bread and brioche. (John Nott, 1726)
BREWES, 216: birds of some sort – the OED surmises a kind of snipe. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BREWICE, 43: a pottage, based on the juices of cooked meat, thickened with bread. By association, the word also meant the bread slices upon which joints of meat were served up. Brewis is still a culinary term in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BREWIS: Broth. (John Nott, 1726)
BRIMMING-TIME: the time a pig is in season. (William Ellis, 1750)
BRIMSTONE, sulphur.(Glasse, 1747)
BRIMSTONE: vernacular name for sulphur. (William Ellis, 1750)
BRISCUIT, a way of spelling brisket.(Glasse, 1747)
BROACH, 113: spit. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BROAD-THYME: Thymus pulegioides: broad-leaved thyme. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BROAD THYME, 159, was garden thyme,Thymus vulgaris, as opposed to wild thyme, T. serpyllum. Many varieties of thyme were recognized, e.g. nine by Parkinson (1629).(Glasse, 1747)
BROCKALA, BROCKELY: broccoli.(Glasse, 1747)
BRODO LARDIERO, 75 and (recipe) 109: a piquant Italian sauce composed of bacon, wine and spices. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BROOKLIME, brook lyme: Veronica beccabunga. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BROOKLIME: speedwell (Veronica beccabunga), growing near water, eaten as a salad plant, hot in taste. (William Ellis, 1750)
BROOK-LIME, 159: Veronica beccabunga, a salad plant often found with and eaten with watercress. May be spelled brooklime or brook lime. Culpeper (1653) described it as a ‘hot and biting martial plant’ and assumes in all his recommendations that it will be used in conjunction with watercress. He says that it may be called water- pimpernel (although it is closer, botanically, to the blue birds-eye or speedwell than to the scarlet pimpernel).(Glasse, 1747)
BROOME BUDS: buds of the broom, usually pickled, were used in place of capers. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)
BROOM-BUDS: Sarothamnus scoparius, diuretic. It flowers in May so a recipe involving broom buds must be made in Spring. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BROOM BUDS: Pickled broom buds were similar to capers. Evelyn says ashenkeys and broom buds ‘being pickled are sprinkled among the sallets’. (John Nott, 1726)
BROWN-MAYWEED: several plants are called ‘mayweed’, cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), stinking mayweed (Anthemis cotula), which is powerfully irritant, and therefore unlikely, and moon-daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum). We cannot identify a brown mayweed. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BRUSOLES: B 14. Probably from the Italian brasuola, rib chops or bracia, live coal, braze. (John Nott, 1726)
BRYE: Brie (cheese). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUCKBEAN is a bog plant (Menyanthes trifoliata) with leaves that resemble a broad bean’s. It had wide medicinal uses and could be a substitute for hops in beer. The name is a 16th-century homophone of the Dutch, which means goat’s bean. (William Ellis, 1750)
BUCKORN: dried fish. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUGLOSS: vipers’s bugloss, Echium vulgare, a herb of the sun, or common bugloss, Anchusa azurea, thought to be anti-depressant. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BULLACE: a wild plum (Prunus insititia), which is among the species categorized as damsons. It is still highly regarded as material for jams and chutneys. (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BULLICE, a way of spelling bullace, a small plum (Prunus domestica ssp insititia) still common in English cottage gardens.(Glasse, 1747)
BUNT: the cavity or baggy part of a napkin when folded or tied as a bag. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUNTINGS: Small birds of the yellowhammer family. (John Nott, 1726)
BURDOCK roots, 158. Burdock, Arctium lappa and allied species, was used for medicinal purposes. The dried roots were supposed to be good for gout. The roots of A. lappa, the great burdock, are eaten as a vegetable in Japan.(Glasse, 1747)
BURGOO is a thick oatmeal porridge or gruel. Ellis thinks it identical to loblolly. The name derives (OED) from the Turkish burghul or bulgur. In N. America the name described a meat and vegetable stew or soup. (William Ellis, 1750)
BURNET: either great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), good for staunching blood, or salad burnet (Poterium sanguisorba), ‘thought to make the hart merry and glad’(Gerard). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BURNT CREAM: See C 209. The receipt is from Massialot’s book of 1692. (See Introduction, p.2). (John Nott, 1726)
BURRAGE, 271: borage. (Robert May, 1660/1685)
BURRIDGE, a way of spelling borage, the herb.(Glasse, 1747)
BURTHEN: a quantity, here signifying no certain amount. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)
BUSHEL, a dry measure equivalent to 4 pecks or 8 gallons (of wheat).(Glasse, 1747)
BUSHEL: a dry measure equivalent to four pecks or eight gallons (of wheat). (William Ellis, 1750)
BUTTER. Many of Bradley’s recipes call for ‘burnt’ or ‘brown’ butter. This was the 18th- century term for what we call a ‘roux’. Henry Howard, author of England’s Newest Way in all sorts of Cookery, Pastry, and all Pickles that are fit to be Used, London, 1717 gives the following recipe (p. 156): ‘To burn Butter for any Sauce Set the Butter over the Fire in the Sauce-pan, and let it boil ‘till ‘tis so brown as you like it; then shake in Flour, stirring it all the while; so use it for any sauce that is too thin.’ Bradley took a keen interest in different ways of making butter in Holland and England. His observations that milk was still set in brass pans in many parts of England and that many farmers were ignorant of the churn’s existence (see Part I, pp. 86-91) are amplified in The Gentleman and Farmer’s Guide, For the Increase and Improvement of Cattle (1729), p. 157: ‘It was in some Parts of the West of England, a few Years ago, very difficult to meet with one that knew what a Churn was; and I believe I was the first that introduced an Engine of that Kind into the neighbourhood of Exeter, as well as Laying aside the Brass Vessels of the Dairy, and exchanging them for those made of Earth. I found that it was not a little difficult to get over an old Custom; but at length they took the churning of Butter to be preferable to the old accustomed Way they had of raising Butter over the Fire in a brazen Kettle.’ (Richard Bradley, 1736)
BUTTER, TO CLARIFY: See B 153. Clarified rather than fresh butter was much used for frying, as it still is or, for successful results, should be. All Nott’s butter receipts are worth studying. (John Nott, 1726)
BUTTER-BUR roots, 158. The plant referred to is Petasites hybridus. ‘Up in the north no rough little mountain stream is complete without Butterbur – so called from wrapping the big leaves around butter. “Butter Burre cloth bring foorth flowers before the leaves”, wrote Gerard, “as Coltesfoot cloth”; and when the flowering stems push through the soil in early spring, they look like small button mushrooms of a livid and unusual colour . . . The leaf, to quote Gerard again, is “of such a widenesse, as that of itselfe it is bigge and large inough to keepe a man’s head from raine, and from the heate of the sunne”.’ (Grigson, 1955) The dried roots had well known medicinal properties, especially against the plague.(Glasse, 1747)
BUTTER DISH: This probably refers to the pots or dishes in which butter was packed for sale. (John Nott, 1726)
BUTTER SQUIRT: A syringe for producing butter in ribbons or other decorative shapes. (John Nott, 1726)
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