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Old English Dishes: Markham

The seventeenth century was prolific of cook-books, most of which continued to republish the ancient recipes, with but slight augmentations or changes. Many of the old-fashioned dishes still appear in "The Art of Cookery Refined and Augmented," a treatise published in 1654 by Joseph Cooper, former kitchener of Charles I. These indigestibilities abound in "The English Housewife" of Gervaise Markham, an early production of the century, which reached its eighth edition in 1675, "much augmented, purged, and made most profitable and necessary for all men, and the general good of this Nation.” 1 It may be assumed that Markham's recipes were not original with him, but were compiled mostly from anterior works; we have no knowledge of his having 1 The English housewife; containing the inward and outward Vertues which ought to be in a compleat Woman; as to her skill in Physicke, Cookery, Ordering of Great Feasts, etc., etc. London, 1631. been a practical cook. For that matter, he states in his dedication to the Countess Dowager of Exeter that he does not "assume to himself the full invention and scope of the work, for it is true that much of it was a manuscript which many years agone belonged to an Honourable Countess, one of the greatest Glories of our Kingdom." The material, therefore, is due mainly to a member of the gentler sex, while Markham is responsible for the liaison. A voluminous author, he did not hesitate to appropriate whatever material he could find on any topic, more especially on husbandry and angling, and send it out as his own. It is well known, for example, that his "Art of Fishing" in his "Country Contentments" is only a prose rendition of Dennys' attractive poem "The Secrets of Angling."

He has been spoken of as the first hack writer of England, all subjects seeming to have been alike to him. So that "The English Housewife," which also includes much interesting information on physics, the dairy, etc., may be regarded as virtually a work of the Elizabethan period.

In Markham's treatise there is a sauce for greengeese and one for stubble-geese, a sauce for pigeons and stock-doves, a gallantine for bitterns, bustards, and herns. A quelquechose was a fricassee or a mixture of many ingredients, and meats broiled upon the coals were termed carbonadoes. Verjuice was made from crab-apples, to which damask-rose leaves were added previous to fermentation. Vinegar was frequently made from ale placed in the sun to sour, and flavoured with leaves of damask roses. A recipe for hippocras is naturally given, together with directions THE ENGLISH Houfe-Wife, CONTAING The inward and outward Vertues which ought to be in a Compleat WOMAN.

As her Skill in Physick, Chirurgery, Cookery, Extraction of Oyls, Banqueting stuff, Ordering of great Feasts, Preferving of all sort of Wides, conceited Secrets, Distillatians, Perfumes, Ordering of Wool, Hemp, Flax: Making Cloth and Dying; The knowledge of Dayries: Office of Malting, of Oats, their excellent uſes in Families: Of Brewing, Baking, and all other things belonging to an Houſhold .

A Work generally approved, and now the Eighth time much Augmemed, Purged, and made mort profitable and neceffary for all men, and the general good of this NATION.

By G. Markham.

LONDON, Printed for George Sawbridge, at the Sign of the Bible on Ludgate Hill. 1675.