Image: Eliza Smith · Public domain
The Gentlewoman's Companion
- Year
- 1675
- Era
- 17th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
The Gentlewoman's Companion, issued in London in 1675 under the name of Hannah Woolley, is a comprehensive conduct manual addressed to women of the middling and upper ranks, combining instruction in cookery, carving, preserving, and physic with guidance on letter writing, household management, and deportment. Among the earliest English domestic guides directed explicitly at women, it helped establish the gentlewoman's compendium as a recognisable genre and circulated widely in later editions.
Cooking from this book
A Made Dish of Artichoke Bottoms
Signature dishAmong the cookery instructions threaded through Hannah Woolley's manual of genteel accomplishments, the made dish of artichoke bottoms stands out as a hallmark of late seventeenth century English refinement. The tender hearts were treated as a delicacy, enriched with marrow, sweet spices and a little wine, then served as a savoury yet luxurious course. It captures the book's ambition: instructing gentlewomen in the kind of polite, fashionable cookery expected at a well managed table.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
