The lady's guide to the ordering of her household, and the economy of the dinner table / by a lady.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lady's guide to the ordering of her household, and the economy of the dinner table / by a lady. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    relapse into the barbarism, which was eschewed by our ancestors from the Saxon times to about the sixteenth century. A vellum roll, entitled Forme of Cury, of the time of Richard the Second, which was published, together with another MS. of the same period, in the year 1770, shows that the system of cooking in the fourteenth century very closely re- sembled that of the modern French. Out of nearly two hundred receipts for the preparation of meats, poultry, game, and fish, half at least, by omitting only certain condiments, such as saffron, coriander seed, &c., might be produced as entries at the present day.* Throughout both manuscripts, no mention is to be found of joints of meat. Animals were undoubtedly roasted whole in great houses, and portions hewed or hacked off for the retainers; f but the want of knives as table implements j; indicates that joints * Such refinements in cooking as -were introduced into Britain by the Eomans, probably disappeared under the Danes, to whom neither oil nor butter were known as ingredients for the table. It is to be regretted that scarcely any Eoman works on cookery exist, except one of the time of Heliogabalus, which is said not to he very instructive. Eecords of made dishes are, however, of higher antiquity. The food brought to Isaac was not merely flesh of kid, hut “ savoury meat ” made from it. Even the Spartan broth, though a protest against luxury, does not indicate devouring of undisguised flesh. f Silver spits are mentioned, on which whole animals were roasted, in great houses. J In most of the illuminated MSS. of the fourteenth century, no knives are seen upon the tables, nor in the hands of the guests. In the Luterell Psalter a few knives and spoons are seen, but not nearly sufficient for the company.
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