The Ladies Cabinet Enlarged and Opened
- Year
- 1654
- Era
- 17th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
The Ladies Cabinet Enlarged and Opened is a mid seventeenth century English household compendium attributed to Lord Ruthven, issued in 1654 as an augmented version of the earlier Ladies Cabinet. Combining receipts for cookery, preserving, and physic within a single volume, it exemplifies the period's integrated approach to domestic knowledge, in which culinary preparation, confectionery, and medicinal remedies were treated as complementary arts of the gentlewoman's still room.
Cooking from this book
Manus Christi
Signature dishA signature confection of this Stuart era compilation is Manus Christi, a sweetmeat of rosewater sugar enriched with gold leaf and sometimes pearl. Sitting at the crossroads of the kitchen, the still room and the apothecary's bench, it embodies the book's threefold remit of cookery, preserving and physic. Offered as a cordial for the weak and a luxury for the wealthy, it captures the gentlewoman's role as both healer and hostess in the early modern household.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
