A Collection of above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery facts for kids
A Collection of above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery is an old English cookbook. It was written by Mary Kettilby and other people, and first published in 1714 by Richard Wilkin.
This book contains some of the earliest recipes for foods we still enjoy today, like plum pudding (also known as Christmas pudding) and suet pudding. It also has the very first printed recipe for orange marmalade, though it didn't have the fruit chunks we often see in marmalade now.
Contents
About the Book
Mary Kettilby made it clear who the book was for right in its long title: A Collection of above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery; For the Use of all Good Wives, Tender Mothers, and Careful Nurses. This shows the book was mainly for women.
The book wasn't written by just one person. The introduction says that "a Number of very Curious and Delicate House-wives Clubb'd to furnish out this Collection." This means many skilled women worked together to create this collection of recipes.
What's Inside the Book?
The book is split into different parts. Some parts are filled with recipes for food, while others contain remedies for health issues and even some surgery tips.
The main sections include:
- Recipes for cooking.
- Recipes for health and medicine.
How Recipes Were Written
When you open the book, the recipes start right away after the chapter titles. There isn't a long introduction explaining things. The book is clearly divided into food recipes and remedies. However, within those sections, the recipes don't always follow a strict order.
For example, the first cooking section might start with several soup recipes. Then it could jump to recipes for beef, French-Cutlets, mutton, pigeons, and then fish patties. To find a specific dish, readers would need to look it up in the index.
The recipes often give instructions like "To make Hogs-Puddings" or "A very good Tansy." The amounts of ingredients are given in different ways, like "a Gallon of grated Bread" or "three Pounds of Currants." Sometimes, the cook had to guess, like "as much Sugar as will make it very sweet." The book also gives cooking times and temperatures when needed, such as "a cool Oven: Half an Hour bakes it." Interestingly, the recipes don't have lists of ingredients like modern cookbooks do.
Different Versions of the Book
This book was very popular and was printed many times. Here are some of the known versions:
- 1714: The very first edition.
- 1719: The second edition, which included a new "Part II" with more recipes sent in by readers.
- 1724: The third edition.
- 1728: The fourth edition.
- 1734: The fifth edition, which was printed after Mary Kettilby had passed away.
Images for kids
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Recipes for "Tansy" and "Hogs-Puddings" from the book.
