A selection of vegetable recipes from the 1600s

Introduction

Page contains a list of recipes from the 1600s and is designed to compliment the Forty Hall First Fruits event.  I have written about most of these recipes elsewhere on my blog, website or Facebook.  I have included links to these resources at the bottom of the page for people who would like to have a look.

i am starting off with just the original recipes and then where I can I will add some modern instructions.  Most of these recipes are in the public domain and have been for a long time.  However a few are still under copy write and so I have not taken the liberty of reproducing the work of a modern cook whose book is still in print, that would be a bit too cheeky.

When choosing the recipes I have focussed on ones that are vegetarian, don't rely on exotic ingredients and don't use raw or lightly cooked eggs. 

A quick look will show you that the cookery writers of the time did not feel constrained by quantities and the lack of accurate measurements can be very annoying to modern cooks.  If it helps, try to think of this in a positive way, if you hate a certain ingredient then use it very sparingly.  Make small quantities to start with and have fun experimenting until you arrive at a recipe that works for you.

Recipes

To butter Gourds, Pumpions, Cucumbers or Muskmelons. Robert May 1660

Cut them into pieces, and pare and cleanse them; then have a boiling pan of water, and when it boils put in the pumpions, &c. with some salt, being boil’d, drain them well from the water, butter them, and serve them on sippets with pepper. Otherways. Bake them in an oven, and take out the seed at the top, fill them with onions, slic’t apples, butter, and salt, butter them, and serve them on sippets. Otherways. Fry them in slices, being cleans’d & peel’d, either floured or in batter; being fried, serve them with beaten butter, and vinegar, or beaten butter and juyce of orange, or butter beaten with a little water, and served in a clean dish with fryed parsley, elliksanders, apples, slic’t onions fryed, or sweet herbs.