The Accomplisht Cook facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
The Accomplisht Cook, Or the Art and Mystery of Cookery

Frontispiece of 1671 edition
Author	Robert May
Country	England
Subject	Cookery
Publisher	Nathaniel Brooke
Publication date	1660
Pages	300

The Accomplisht Cook is a famous English cookbook. It was written by a professional cook named Robert May in 1660. This book was special because it was the first to put recipes into clear, organized sections.

The book was also one of the first in Europe to use new ingredients. These included the potato and the turkey. Both of these foods came from the Americas.

About the Book

When it was Published

The book was first printed in 1660 by Nathaniel Brooke. Robert May made some changes to it in 1665. This was the last time he updated it during his life. Other versions were printed later, in 1671, 1678, and 1685. The 1685 book had about 300 pages.

When a 1678 copy was found in 2007, an expert said it was very rare. He thought only about 200 copies were made in the 1600s. He also said that Robert May was like a "celebrity chef" of his time. He was as famous as chefs like Gordon Ramsay are today.

How Recipes Were Written

Robert May's book included old cooking styles from the Middle Ages. It also had new European dishes. These included French soups like bisque and Italian broths. About 20% of the book was just about soups.

May shared many recipes for fancy meats like venison and sturgeon. But he also included recipes for simpler, cheaper meals. For example, the book has sixteen different ways to cook eel.

The recipes were written as instructions only. They did not list ingredients at the start. Sometimes, the steps were not in the right order. For example, he might say "Then have a rost Capon minced." This meant you needed to have already cooked the capon. Cooking a capon takes many hours.

May also did not always give exact amounts. He might say "put them a boiling in a Pipkin of a Gallon". Or he might say "the juyce of two or three Oranges." Sometimes, he just said "put into beaten Butter." This meant the cook had to guess how much to use.

What's Inside

The book has 24 main sections. But the recipes within these sections can seem a bit mixed up. For example, in the first section, after a fancy Spanish dish, there are four recipes for marrow pies. Then come three ways to make a "bisk" (a type of soup).

This section also has seven ways to boil veal or mutton. It includes three ways to make barley broth. But then, in the same section, you find "To make several sorts of Puddings." These puddings range from blood pudding to sweet rice pudding. The sweet pudding was flavored with nutmeg, cloves, mace, currants, and dates.

The book also includes a story about Robert May's own life.

Pictures in the Book

Engraving of fish pie

The very first book had a picture of Robert May at the front. The fifth version, from 1685, had even more. It included "two hundred Figures of several Forms for all manner of bak’d Meats." These were pictures of different shapes for pies, tarts, and other baked goods.

Sample Recipes

Here is a recipe from the book for a pie made with salt cod:

Being boiled, take it [the salt cod] from its skin and bones, and mince it with some pippins [apples], season it with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, caraway-seed, currans, minced raisons, rose-water, minced lemon peel, sugar, slic't [sliced] dates, white wine, verjuice [sour fruit juice, in this case probably from apples], and butter, fill your pyes, bake them, and ice them.

This recipe tells you to boil the salt cod first. Then, you remove its skin and bones. You chop it up with apples. Then you add many spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. You also add dried fruits like currants and raisins. Other ingredients include rose-water, lemon peel, sugar, dates, white wine, and a sour fruit juice called verjuice. You mix all this together, fill your pies, bake them, and then put icing on top.

Here is May's recipe for Lumber Pie:

Take some grated bread, and beef-suet cut into bits like great dice, and some cloves and mace, then some veal or capon minced small with beef suet, sweet herbs, fair sugar, the yolks of six eggs boil'd hard and cut in quarters, put them to the other ingredients, with some barberries, some yolks of raw eggs, and a little cream, work up all together and put it in the caul of veal like little sausages; then bake them in a dish, and being half baked have a pie made and dried in the oven ; put these puddings into it with some butter, verjuyce sugar, some dates on them, large mace, grapes, or barberries, and marrow – being baked, serve it with a cut cover on it, and scrape sugar on it.

This recipe starts with grated bread and beef fat cut into small cubes. You add spices like cloves and mace. Then, you mix in finely chopped veal or capon (a type of chicken) with more beef fat. Sweet herbs, sugar, and the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs are also added. You mix all these with barberries (small sour berries), raw egg yolks, and a little cream. This mixture is shaped like small sausages and baked. Once they are partly cooked, you put them into a pie crust that has been dried in the oven. You add butter, verjuice, sugar, dates, mace, grapes or barberries, and marrow. After baking, you serve it with a decorative top and sprinkle sugar on it.

Different Versions

• 1660: The very first version, printed by R.W. for Nath. Brooke.
• 1665: An improved second version.
• 1678: The third version.
• 1685: Called the "5th edition," based on the 1665 text.