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Show ' FoLD-TIME COOKERY AS j j TAUGHT 250 YEARS AGO j In the early days of the seventeeth century gastronomy was truly a wonderful won-derful science, if a little cookery book, published in 1638, and now in the possession pos-session of a Chicago woman, is any criterion. The title it bears is "Mur-rell's "Mur-rell's Two Books of Cookerie and Carving. Carv-ing. Printed for John Marriot, and are to be sold at his Shop in Saint Dun-stan's Dun-stan's Church-yard in Fleet street, 1638." To bake "red deere" you are directed to "Parboyle it, and presse it and let it lye all night in Red-Wine and Vinegar; then Larde it Thicke, and season it with Pepper, Salt, Cloues, Mace, Nutmeg, and Ginger. Bake it in a deepe Coffin of Rye-paste, with store of Butter; let it soake well. Leaue a vent-hole in your Pye, and when you draw it out of the Ouen, put in melted Butter, Vinegar, Nutmeg, Ginger and a little Sugar; shake it very well together, and put it into the Ouen againe, and let it stand three or foure houres at the least, to soake thorowly; when your Ouen is cold take it out, and stop the hole with Butter." This surely ought to be rich enough. Next is a heading, "Fritters on the Court Fashion": "Take the Curds of a Sackeposset, the yolkes of sixe Egges, and the whites of two of them, fine flower, and make batter; season it with Nutmeg and a little Pepper, put in a little strong ale and warme milke; mingle all together, and put them into Larde; neither too hot nor too cold. If your batter swim, it is in good temper." tem-per." A recipe, "To make blancht Manchet in a Fryingpan," by its substitution of "Manchet" or fine bread for meat, shows "Chaucer's "blank-manger" on its way to become the modern blancmange, blanc-mange, though it is the fourteenth, and not the seventeenth, century form which has survived. The recipe runs: "Take halfe-a-dosen Egges, halfe a pinte of sweet Creame, a penny manchet man-chet grated, a nutmeg grated, two Spoonefuls of Rosewater, two ounces of Sugar, worke all stiffe like a Pudding; then frye it like a Tansey in a little Fryifcgpan that it may be thicke; frye it browne and turne it out upon a plate. Cut it in quarters, and serue it like a Pudding. Scrape on Sugar." The method of concocting a "Gellie of Pippins, of the Colour of Amber," is also worth quoting: "Take eight faire pippins, take out the coares, boyle them in a quart of Spring-water, from a quart unto a pinte; put in a quarter of a pinte of Rose-water, a pound of fine Sugar, and boyle it uncouered un-till un-till it come to the colour of Amber; you may know when it is enough by letting a drop fall on a piece of Glasse and if it stand it is enough; then let it run into an earthen or Silver Bason upon a Chaffindish of Coales, and while it is warme fill your Boxes or Printing-moulds with a spoone, and let it stand, and when it is cold you may turn it out of your mould. |