English manuscript receipt book (17th C)
- Year
- 1640-1700
- Era
- 17th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- Manuscript
A handwritten domestic compendium of the sort kept in English gentry and yeoman households across the later seventeenth century, gathering culinary receipts alongside medicinal waters, preserves, and confectionery instructions. Such manuscripts circulated within family and neighbourly networks, recording practical knowledge often absent from printed works. Long overlooked beside their printed counterparts, they are now recognised as primary evidence for everyday foodways, with provenance and hands central to scholarly value.
Cooking from this book
Manchet bread
Signature dishA fine white wheaten loaf, manchet appears again and again across English household manuscript books of the seventeenth century, scribbled between remedies and preserves in the hands of successive mistresses of the house. It stands as an emblem of domestic accomplishment, the everyday benchmark by which a well-run kitchen was judged. Its repeated appearance, with small regional and familial variations, makes it a touchstone for tracing provenance and the circulation of receipts between households.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
