The Accomplished Ladies Rich Closet of Rarities
- Year
- 1696
- Era
- 17th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
The Accomplished Ladies Rich Closet of Rarities, compiled by John Shirley and first published in 1696, is a late seventeenth century English household compendium aimed at the gentlewoman reader. Within a single small volume it gathers cookery and confectionery, the preserving of fruits and conserves, the distilling of waters and perfumes, and domestic physic. Works of this kind document the breadth of skills expected in genteel English households and the enduring market for the "closet" or stillroom manual.
Cooking from this book
Marchpane
Signature dishMarchpane, the ornate almond and sugar confection that crowned banqueting tables in late Stuart England, sits naturally at the heart of Shirley's compendium. A sweet centerpiece moulded, gilded and iced into fanciful shapes, it embodied the polite accomplishments expected of the well-bred housewife. Its inclusion alongside preserves, perfumes and physic captures the book's wider ambition: to gather under one roof every rarity a gentlewoman might command within her closet.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
