A book from England's Restoration era - which began 1660 when the Monarchy was restored - has been discovered
The recipe book dates from 1678, 18 years after the Restoration of the Monarchy and 12 years after the Great Fire of London. You could say the restoration era ended in 1679 when the Cavalier Parliament, which was overwhemingly monarchist, ended. The Restoration years were times when the English theatres re-opened after they were closed down during the brutal period that England was a Republic.
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Restoration recipes.... or how to boil a pike in a city fashion
By ANDY DOLAN
5th January 2007
Robert May's cookery book
If you thought the cult of the celebrity chef was a relatively recent phenomenon, you'd be wide of the mark.
More than 300 years wide, in fact.
For a rare cookery book from the Restoration period has resurfaced.
And its author Robert May apparently tasted the kind of fame currently enjoyed by Antony Worral Thompson and his ilk.
However, the dishes back then were certainly different. May's book - The Accomplisht Cook, Or The Art And Mystery Of Cookery - features recipes for such delights as boiled curlew and hare mince pies.
There are also sections on how to prepare birds such as teels, bitterns and wigeons, as well as that all-important art of "how to boil a pike in a city fashion".
Even whoppers - large migratory swans - were on the menu back then, while ellicksander -a plant resembling the herb angelica - was a garnish of choice.
There is also guidance on creating 'jelly of almonds as white as snow.
The book was published in 1678, 12 years after the Great Fire of London, and was one of the first major works produced after the English Civil War.
May was a professional cook who specialised in preparing grand dishes for the great and the good.
Auctioneer Charles Hanson was amazed to discover a copy in a trunk full of books while examining antique furniture at a house in Derby.
He was called in after the homeowner, whose identity has been kept secret, died. Mr Hanson, a regular on TV's Bargain Hunt, said yesterday: "As an auctioneer you get quite excited when you stumble across rare things. I couldn't quite believe it.
"I think it could create quite a stir when we auction it, because it represents a tremendous piece of social history.
"It was printed at the time of Charles II and would have been read by the upper classes and used within court and for important social occasions."
The book, of which around 400 copies are thought to have been produced, boasts a number of illustrations - also a rare feature for the time.
Mr Hanson, of Hanson's Auctioneers, added: "May would have been very much the Gordon Ramsay of his day, something of a celebrity chef.
"We don't know a great deal about the man himself, but he did attend several persons of great honour and worked in circles of great social standing.
"The variety of his dishes really is very interesting, and the illustrations are quite lovely - to see pictures of eels and pikes is just so wonderful. I'm told few books were published during the Civil War and that this would have been the publication of its day. It's the first copy I have ever seen."
In the book's preface May wrote of his wish that the recipes would give "a handsome and relishing entertainment in all seasons of the year". He died in 1685, aged 97.
The book will be auctioned at Hanson's, of Lichfield, Staffordshire, on January 24 and is expected to fetch around £1,000.
dailymail.co.uk
The recipe book dates from 1678, 18 years after the Restoration of the Monarchy and 12 years after the Great Fire of London. You could say the restoration era ended in 1679 when the Cavalier Parliament, which was overwhemingly monarchist, ended. The Restoration years were times when the English theatres re-opened after they were closed down during the brutal period that England was a Republic.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Restoration recipes.... or how to boil a pike in a city fashion
By ANDY DOLAN
5th January 2007
Robert May's cookery book
If you thought the cult of the celebrity chef was a relatively recent phenomenon, you'd be wide of the mark.
More than 300 years wide, in fact.
For a rare cookery book from the Restoration period has resurfaced.
And its author Robert May apparently tasted the kind of fame currently enjoyed by Antony Worral Thompson and his ilk.
However, the dishes back then were certainly different. May's book - The Accomplisht Cook, Or The Art And Mystery Of Cookery - features recipes for such delights as boiled curlew and hare mince pies.
There are also sections on how to prepare birds such as teels, bitterns and wigeons, as well as that all-important art of "how to boil a pike in a city fashion".
Even whoppers - large migratory swans - were on the menu back then, while ellicksander -a plant resembling the herb angelica - was a garnish of choice.
There is also guidance on creating 'jelly of almonds as white as snow.
The book was published in 1678, 12 years after the Great Fire of London, and was one of the first major works produced after the English Civil War.
May was a professional cook who specialised in preparing grand dishes for the great and the good.
Auctioneer Charles Hanson was amazed to discover a copy in a trunk full of books while examining antique furniture at a house in Derby.
He was called in after the homeowner, whose identity has been kept secret, died. Mr Hanson, a regular on TV's Bargain Hunt, said yesterday: "As an auctioneer you get quite excited when you stumble across rare things. I couldn't quite believe it.
"I think it could create quite a stir when we auction it, because it represents a tremendous piece of social history.
"It was printed at the time of Charles II and would have been read by the upper classes and used within court and for important social occasions."
The book, of which around 400 copies are thought to have been produced, boasts a number of illustrations - also a rare feature for the time.
Mr Hanson, of Hanson's Auctioneers, added: "May would have been very much the Gordon Ramsay of his day, something of a celebrity chef.
"We don't know a great deal about the man himself, but he did attend several persons of great honour and worked in circles of great social standing.
"The variety of his dishes really is very interesting, and the illustrations are quite lovely - to see pictures of eels and pikes is just so wonderful. I'm told few books were published during the Civil War and that this would have been the publication of its day. It's the first copy I have ever seen."
In the book's preface May wrote of his wish that the recipes would give "a handsome and relishing entertainment in all seasons of the year". He died in 1685, aged 97.
The book will be auctioned at Hanson's, of Lichfield, Staffordshire, on January 24 and is expected to fetch around £1,000.
dailymail.co.uk
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