G
Smallage Gruel 137
About water Gruel 138
An excellent and wholesome water Gruel with Wood sorrel and Currants 139
Gruel of Oatmeal and Rice 191
To make clear Gelly of Bran 203
An excellent meat of Goose or Turkey 212
To pickle an old fat Goose 212
H
Some Notes upon Honey 8
My Lord Hollis Hydromel 33
Hydromel as I made it weak for the Q. Mother 35
To make Honey drink 84
Weak Honey drink 107
The Queens Hotchpot 151
A nourishing Hachy 158
Red Herrings boiled 173
To season Humble Pyes 210
To make Harts-horn Gelly 239-242
L
To dress Lampreys 184
M
Master Corsellises Antwerp Meath 9
To make excellent Meathe 10
A weaker, but very pleasant Meathe 11
An excellent white Meathe 11
My own considerations for making of Meathe 19
My Lady Gower's white Meathe 26
Strong Meathe 32
A Receipt for making of Meathe 32
My Lord Morice's Meathe 39
My Lady Morice her Sisters Meathe 39
To make white Meath 41
Sir William Paston's Meathe 41
Another way of making Meathe 42
Sir Baynam Throckmorton's Meathe 42
My Lady Bellassises Meathe 45
My Lord Gorge his Meathe 54
Several sorts of Meathe, small and strong 56
To make Meathe 57
Sir John Arundel's white Meathe 57
To make a Meathe good for the Liver and Lungs 59
A very good Meathe 60
My Lord Herbert's Meathe 68
To make small white Meathe 80
Meathe from the Muscovian Ambassadour's Steward 81
Meathe with Raisins 96
A Receipt to make Metheglin as it is made at Liege, communicated by Mr. Masillon 5
White Metheglin of my Lady Hungerfords which is exceedingly praised 6
A Receipt to make a Tun of Metheglin 12
The Countess of Bullingbrook's white Metheg. 13
Metheglin composed by myself 25
Sir Thomas Gower's Metheglin for health 27
Metheglin for taste and colour 28
An excellent way of making white Metheglin 30
Several ways of making Metheglin 35
To make white Metheglin 31
Another Metheglin 46
Mr. Pierce's excellent white Metheglin 46
An excellent way to make Metheglin, called the Liquor of Life 51
To make good Metheglin 52
To make white Metheglin of Sir J. Fortescue 53
The Lady Vernon's white Metheglin 55
To make Metheglin 58
A most excellent Metheglin 61
To make white Metheg. of the Count. of Dorset 62
To make small Metheglin 69
The Earl of Denbigh's Metheglin 85
To make Metheglin that looks like White Wine 90
Metheglin, or sweet-drink of my Lady Stuart 93
A Metheg. for the Colick-Stone, of the same Lady 93
A Receipt for Metheglin of my Lady Windebanke 94
Marrow sops with Wine 145
To make a shoulder of Mutton like Venison 163
An excellent way of making Mutton steaks 170
To make Mustard 194
For roasting of Meat 196
Mutton baked with Venison 207
My Lord of Denbigh's Almond March-pane 221
Marmulate of Pippins 243
White Marmulate, the Queens way 248
My Lady of Bath's way 248
Marmulate of Cherries 251
Marmulate of Red Currants 256
O
A plain but good Spanish Oglia 164
To stew Oysters 183
P
Excellent Marrow-Spinage Pasties 159
To make a French Barley Posset 160
To make Puff-past 161
To make a Pudding with Puff past 161
To make Pear Puddings 162
Marrow Puddings 162
To make excellent Black Puddings 165
A Receipt to make White Puddings 166
To make an excellent Pudding 166
Pyes 168
To make Pith Puddings 172
An Oat-meal Pudding 174
To make Call Puddings 174
A Barley Pudding 175
A Pippin Pudding 175
To make a baked Oat-meal Pudding 176
A plain quaking Pudding 176
A good quaking Bag Pudding 177
To preserve Pippins in Jelly 180
To dress Poor-John, and Buckorn 187
To dress Parsneps 190
To butter Pease 191
A Herring Pye 192
To make an excellent Hare Pye 207
To bake Pidgeons, Teals or Wild ducks 209
Green-Geese Pye 209
To make a plain ordinary Posset 112
Concerning Potages 121
Plain savoury English Potage 122
Potage de blanc de Chapon 123
Ordinary Potage 124
Barley Potage 125
An English Potage 126
Another Potage 126
Nourissant Potage de santé 128
Good nourishing Potage 133
Pap of Oat-meal 135
Panado 135
Barley Pap 135
Oat-meal Pap. Sir John Colladon 136
Pressis-Nourissant 140
Pan-Cotto 141
My Lord Lumley's Pease-Potage 142
An excellent Posset 144
Pease of the seedy buds of Tulips 145
An excellent baked Pudding 154
My Lady of Portland's Minced Pyes 155
Minced Pyes 156
To feed Poultry 229
To feed Partridges that you have taken wilde 233
To make Puffs 234
Gelly of Pippins or John-Apples 236
Q
To keep Quinces all the year good 149
Gelly of Quinces 243
Preserved Quince with Gelly 245
To make fine white Gelly of Quinces 246
A smoothening Quiddany or Gelly of the Cores of Quinces 250
R [Transcribers note: "R" was missing in the original.]
Rice & Orge mondé 137
Boiled Rice dry 145
To Rost fine Meat 157
To make Red-Dear 163
Conserve of Red Roses 257, 259
S
Sack with Clove gilly-flowers 22
To make Stepponi 106
To make a Sack-posset 111
A Barley Sack-posset 113
My Lord of Carlile's Sack-posset 115
A Syllabub 115
To make a whip Syllabub 120
To make Spinage-broth 123
Sauce of Horse-Radish 151
Very good Sauce for Partridges and Chicken 160
To prepare Shrimps for dressing 193
To make Slip-coat-Cheese 223-227
Sweet-meats of my Lady Windebanks 253
Sucket of Mallow-stalks 256
T
Tea with Eggs 132
To souce Turkeys 211
Pleasant Cordial Tablets 238
V
To stew a breast of Veal 150
Vuova Lattate 165
Vuova Spersa 165
Baked Venison 169
Tosts of Veal 193
W
Morello Wine 97
Currants Wine 98
The Countess of Newport's Cherry Wine 109
Strawberry Wine 109
To make Wine of Cherries alone 110
To make Rasbery-Wine 148
Buttered Whitings with Eggs 187
To stew Wardens or Pears 201
Preserved Wardens 237
APPENDIX I
SOME ADDITIONAL RECEIPTS
1. Aqua Mirabilis. Sir Kenelm Digby's way.
Take Cubebs, Gallingale, Cardamus, Mellilot-flowers, Cloves, Mace, Ginger, Cinammon, of each one dram bruised small, juyce of Celandine one pint, juyce of Spearmint half a pint, juyce of Balm half a pint, Sugar one pound, flower of Cowslips, Rosemary, Borage, Bugloss, Marigold, of each two drams, the best Sack three pints, strong Angelica-water one pint, red Rose-water half a pint; bruise the Spices & Flowers, & steep them in the Sack & juyces one night; the next morning distil it in an ordinary or glass-still, & first lay Harts-tongue leaves in the bottom of the still.
THE VERTUES OF THE PRECEDENT WATER
This water preserveth the Lungs without grievances, & helpeth them; being wounded, it suffereth the Blood not to putrifie, but multiplieth the same. This water suffereth not the heart to burn, nor melancholly, nor the Spleen to be lifted up above nature: it expelleth the Rheum, preserveth the Stomach, conserveth Youth, & procureth a good Colour: it preserveth Memory, it destroyeth the Palsie: If this be given to one a dying, a spoonful of it reviveth him; in the Summer use one spoonful a week fasting; in the Winter two spoonfuls.
The above receipt is given in the 3rd edition of The Closet Opened, 1677, also in The Queen's Closet Opened.
2. Another more precious Cosmetick, or beautifying Water, by Sir Kenelm Digby.
Take White Lillies six drams, Florence Orrice Roots, Beans, Cicers, Lupins, of each half an ounce, fresh Bean-flowers a handful, Gum Tragant, White Lead, fine Sugar, of each half an ounce, Crums of white Bread, (steeped in Milk) an ounce, Frankincense, and Gum Arabick of each three drams, Borax, and feather'd Allom of each two drams, the White of an Egg, Camphire a dram and a half; infuse them four and twenty hours in a sufficient quantity of Rose and Bean-flower water, equal parts; then distil it in B.M.
This Water smooths, whitens, beautifies & preserves the Complexions of Ladies. They may wash their Faces with it at any time, but especially Morning and Evening.
3. Another richer Perfume; being pleasant and wholesome, to perfume Tobacco taken in a Pipe.
Take Balm of Peru half an ounce, seven or eight Drops of Oyl of Cinamon, Oyl of Cloves five drops, Oyl of Nutmegs, of Thyme, of Lavender, of Fennel, of Aniseeds (all drawn by distillation) of each a like quantity, or more or less as you like the Odour, and would have it strongest; incorporate with these half a dram of Ambergrease; make all these into a Paste; which keep in a Box; when you have fill'd your Pipe of Tobacco, put upon it about the bigness of a Pin's Head of this Composition.
It will make the Smoak most pleasantly odoriferous, both to the Takers, and to them that come into the Room; and ones Breath will be sweet all the day after. It also comforts the Head and Brains. Approved by Sir Kenelm Digby.
From Hartman, The True Preserver of Health, 1682.
APPENDIX II
The true Preparation of the Powder of Sympathy, as it was prepared every year in Sir Kenelm Digby's Elaboratory, and as I prepare it now.
Take good English Vitriol, which you may buy for two pence a pound, dissolve it in warm water, using no more water than will dissolve it, leaving some of the Impurest part at the bottom undissolved; then powr it off and filtre it, which you may do by a Coffin of fine gray paper put into a Funnel, or by laying a Sheet of gray Paper in a Sieve, and powring your water or Dissolution of Vitriol into it by degrees, setting the Sieve upon a large Pan to receive the filtred Liquor; when all your Liquor is filtred, boil it in an earthen Vessel glazed, till you see a thin Scum upon it; then Set it in a Cellar to cool, covering it loosly, so that nothing may fall in; after two or three days standing, powr off the liquor, and you will find at the bottom and on the sides large and fair green Christals like Emerauds; drain off all the Water clean from them, and dry them; then spread them abroad, in a large flat earthen Dish, & expose them to the hot Sun in the Dog-days, taking them in at Night, and setting them out in the Morning, securing them from the Rain; and when the Sun hath calcin'd them to whiteness, beat them to Powder, & set this Powder again in the Sun, stirring it sometimes, and when you see it perfectly white, powder it, & sift it finely, and set it again in the Sun for a day, and you will have a pure white Powder, which is the Powder of Sympathy; which put up in a Glass, and stop it close. The next yeare when the Dog-days come, if you have any of this Powder left, you may expose it again in the Sun, spreading it abroad to renew its Vertue by the influence of the Sun-beams.
The way of Curing Wounds, with it, is, to take some of the Blood upon a Rag, and put some of the Powder upon the Blood, then keep only the Wound clean, with a clean Linnen about it, and in a moderate Temper betwixt hot and cold, and wrap up the Rag with the Blood, and keep it either in your Pocket, or in a Box, & the Wound will be healed without any Oyntment or Plaister, and without any pain. But if the wound be somewhat old, and hot, and inflamed, you must put some of this Powder into a Porringer or Bason full of cold Water, and then put any thing into it that hath been upon the wound, and hath some of the Blood or Matter upon it, and it will presently take away all Pain and Inflammation, as you see in Sir Kenelm's Relation of Mr. Howard [sic].
To staunch the Blood either of a Wound or Bleeding at the Nose, take only some of the Blood upon a Rag, & put some powder upon it, or take a Bason with fresh water, and put some of the Powder into it, and bath the Nostrils with it.
From Hartman, The Preserver of Health.
APPENDIX III
A LIST OF THE HERBS, FLOWERS, FRUITS, ETC., REFERRED TO IN The Closet Opened:—
1. Agrimony; alexander; angelica; avens, leaves & flowers; balm; bay-leaves; beet leaves; bettony, wild; bettony, Paul's; bistort; bloodwort; bluebottles; blue-button; borage, leaves & flowers; bramble, red, tops of; broom-buds; bugle; bugloss, leaves & flowers; burnet; carduus benedictus; carrot, wild; celandine; cersevril; chicory; chives; clove gilly-flowers; clown's all-heal; coltsfoot; comfrey; cowslip & French cowslip flowers; dragons; elder flowers; endive; eyebright; fennel; fever-few; garlic; ground-ivy; groundsel; hart's tongue, leaves; hops, flowers; horehound; hypericum, tops & flowers; hyssop; ladies' mantle; lettuce, leaves & stalks; lily of the valley; liquorice; liverwort; maidenhair; marigold, flowers & leaves; marjoram, sweet; marjoram, wild; marshmallow, leaves, flowers, & stalks; may-weed, brown; meadowsweet; mellilot, flowers; mint; spearmint; mouse-ear; mugwort; muscovy; nettle, red; oak of Jerusalem; organ; origanum [wild marjoram]; oseille; parietary; peas (chick); pellitory-of-the-wall; penny-royal; philipendula; pimpernel; pourpier; primrose, flowers; purslane; ribwort; rocket; rosemary, tops, flowers, & sprigs; rose; rue; sage, (red & wild), leaves & flowers; saxifrage; sanicle; scabious; scurvy grass; self-heal; shallots; sibboulets; skirrets; smallage; sorrel (wood); spike [spignel?]; spleenwort; spinach; St. John's wort; strawberry leaves; sweetbriar, leaves, tops, buds; sweet oak; sweetwort; tamarisk; tansy; thyme (broad, lemon, mother, & wild); violet, leaves & flowers; wallflowers (yellow); wall rue; watercress; wheat (green); white-wort; winter savoury; woodbine; wormwood (sea & Roman); yarrow. (From this list I have omitted the commoner vegetables.)
2. Roots.—Alexander; angelica; asparagus; beet; betony, bittersweet; bluebottle; borage; coltsfoot; elecampane; eringo; fennel; fern; galingale; horse-radish; marshmallow; nettle (red); orris; parsley; scabious; sorrel; strawberry; succory; thyme (wild); tormentilla.
3. Seeds.—Anise; cardamom; carraway; citron; coriander; fennel; gromwell; melon; musk grains; mustard; nettle; parsley; saffron; tulip, seedy buds of; wormwood.
4. Fruits.—Apples (codlings, ginet moils, pearmains, pippins, golden pippins, red streaks); apricots; barberries; bilberries; cherries (black, Kentish, Morello); currants (dried, black, red); damsons; dates; jujubes; juniper berries; lemons; pears (bon chrétien & wardens); plums; prunes; raisins; rasps; sweetbriar berries; strawberries.
5. Barks, woods.—Ash-tree bark; lignum cassiæ.
6. Nuts.—Almonds; chestnuts; pine kernels; pistachios; walnuts (green).
7. Juices.—Balm; celandine; cherry; hop; lemon; onion; orange; spearmint; spinach; tansy.
8.—Distilled waters of angelica; cinnamon; mallow; orange-flower; plantain; rose (red & damask).
9. Spices of all sorts; cloves; cinnamon (also oil of, & spirit of); ginger; mace; mustard; nutmeg; pepper; peppercorns.
10. Wines.—Canary sack; claret; Deal; elder; Malaga (old); Muscat; Muscadine (Greek); red; Rhenish; sack, sherry sack; Spanish; white.
11. Other liquors.—Ale & beer; afterworts; lees of beer & wine; aqua vitæ; orangeado.
12. Vinegars of elder wine, & of white wine.
13. Verjuice of cider, & green sour grapes.
14. Other notable seasonings and ingredients:—
Ambergris; ivory; leaf gold; powder of white amber; powder of pearl; Spanish pastilles (ambergris, sugar, & musk).
NOTES
Introduction
p. x 1. 3 Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine. By W. Carew Hazlitt. Booklovers' Library. 1886.
p. x 1. 5 The Life of Sir Kenelm Digby. By One of his Descendants [T. Longueville]. 1896.
p. xi 1. 29 For the controversy about the date of his birth, see the usual biographical authorities:—Longueville, op. cit., Digby's Memoirs, ed. Nicolas, 1827; Dict. of Nat. Biog.; Biog. Brit. (Kippis); Wood's Athenae Oxon., iii. 688; Aubrey's Lives, ii. 323, etc. etc.
p. xiv 1. 13 "the elder Lady Digby." See text, p. 141.
p. xv 1. 15 "manuscript of elections." See W.H. Black's Catalogue of the Ashmolean MSS., 240, 131 and 1730, 166.
p. xx 1. 20 Journal of a Voyage to Scanderoon, ed. J. Bruce for Camden Soc., 1868.
p. xxi 1. 3 "Scanderoon had to be repudiated." Here is a curious echo of the affair, quoted by Mr. Longueville from Blundell of Crosby. "When the same Sir Kenelm was provoked in the King's presence (upon occasion of the old business of Scanderoon) by the Venetian Ambassador, who told the King it was very strange that his Majesty should slight so much his ancient amity with the most noble state of Europe, for the affections which he bore to a man (meaning Sir Kenelm) whose father was a traitor, his wife a ——, and himself a pirate, altho' he made not the least reply (as long as the ambassador remained in England) to those great reproaches, yet after, when the quality of his enemy was changed (by his return) to that of a private person, Sir Kenelm posted after him to Italy. There sending him a challenge (from some neighbouring state) he found the discreet Magnifico as silent in Italy as himself had been in England, and so he returned home."
p. xxii 1. 13 The Memoirs were edited by Sir N.H. Nicolas from the Harleian MS. 6758 in 1827.
p. xxii 1. 28 "outburst of vile poetry." See Poems from Sir K.D.'s papers, ed. Warner. Roxburghe Club, 1877.
p. xxiii 1. 16 "hermit." The portrait of Digby in this guise, painted by Janssen, in the possession of T. Longueville, Esq., is reproduced in Mr. Longueville's life of his ancestor. Says Pennant in his Journey from Chester to London, ed. 1782, "I know of no persons who are painted in greater variety than this illustrious pair [Digby and his wife]: probably because they were the finest subjects of the time."
p. xxv 1. 3 "duel ... with a French lord." See the curious little pamphlet, Sir Kenelme Digby's Honour Maintained, 1641.
p. xxvi 1. I The Observations on Religio Medici, together with the correspondence between Browne and Digby, are often reprinted with the text of R.M.
p. xxvi 1. 5 "glass-making." See Longueville, pp. 255-6
p. xxix 1. 11 Descartes. Des Maizeaux. Viede Saint-Evremond, pp. 80-6.
p. xxxi 1. 8 A Late Discourse made in a Solemne Assembly of Nobles and Learned Men at Montpellier. By Sir K.D., Kt. Rendered faithfully into English by R. White. 2nd ed., 1658. The original was in French. Longueville gives a loathsome receipt for the Sympathetic Powder from an original in the Ashmolean. "To make a salve yt healeth though a man be 30 miles off." But vitriol is the only ingredient Digby mentions; and the receipt given by his steward Hartman [see Appendix], and sold by him, is more likely to be Digby's. Of course, there were many claimants to the credit of the invention of sympathetic powders.
p. xxxiii 1. 4 "house in Covent Garden." For a brief account of this house, see an article on Hogarth's London in the English Review, February, 1910.
p. xxxiv 1. 6 "history of the Digby family." This has disappeared.
p. xxxiv 1. 13 "Catalogue of the combined collection." Bibliotheca Digbeiana, 1680. See also Edwards's Memoirs of Libraries, II, 118, and Sir K.D. et les Anciens Rapports des Bibliothèques Françaises avec la Grande Bretagne. L. Delisle. 1892.
p. xxxviii 1. 20 Lloyd's Lives of Excellent Personages that suffered for ... Allegiance to the Soveraigne in the late Intestine Wars, ed. 1668.
p. xliv 1. 10 "remedy for Biting of a Mad Dog." There is a similar receipt in Arcana Fairfaxiana, ed. G. Waddell, 1890, a collection of old medical receipts, etc. of the Fairfax and Cholmely families. "A Cure for the Bite of a Mad Dog Published for ye Benefit of Mankind in the Newspapers of 1741 by a Person of Note.... N.B. This Medicine has stood a tryal of 50 years Experience, and was never known to fail."
p. liii 1. 30 Culpeper's English Physitian, 1653.
p. liii 1. 30 N. Culpeper. Herball.
p. liii 1. 30 John Gerard. The Historie of Plants, 1547.
p. liii 1. 31 Wm. Coles. Adam in Eden and The Art of Simpling. 1657 and 1656.
To the Reader.
p. 3 1. 20 "that old Saw in the Regiment of Health." The Regyment, or a Dyetary of Helth. By Andrew Borde, 1542. (Reprinted by the Early English Text Soc.)
Receipts.
p. 5, etc. "Metheglin is esteemed to be a very wholsom Drink; and doubtless it is so, since all the world consents that Honey is a precious Substance, being the Choice & Collection which the Bees make of the most pure, most delectable, & most odoriferous Parts of Plants, more particularly of their Flowers & Fruits. Metheglin is therefore esteemed to be an excellent Pectoral, good against Consumption, Phthisick and Asthma; it is cleansing & diuretick, good against the Stone & Gravel; it is restorative and strengthening; it comforts and strengthens the Noble parts, & affords good Nourishment, being made Use of by the Healthy, as well as by the Sick.
"My worthy Master, that Incomparable Sir Kenelm Digby, being a great lover of this Drink, was so curious in his Researches, that he made a large Collection of the choicest & best Receipts thereof."
Hartman, Select Receipts, p. 1.
Concerning the difference between Mead and Metheglin, Borde (Regyment of Helth) says:—
"Of Meade: Meade is made of honny & water boyled both togyther; yf it be fyred and pure, it preserveth helth; but it is not good for them the whiche have the Ilyache or the Colycke.
"Of Metheglyn: Metheglyn is made of honny and water, & herbes, boyled and sodden togyther: yf it be fyred and stale, it is better in the regyment of helth than meade."
But the distinction seems to have been forgotten in the hundred odd
years between the publication of Borde's book and Digby's.