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Old Remedies and Recipes

Posted by R. Berg on April 03, 2002

In Reply to: Old Remedies and Recipes posted by Barney on April 03, 2002

: : : While trawling through my attic over the Easter Weekend I came across an old book - leather bound in poor condition and dated 1734 - entitled "A collection of over 300 Receipts in Cookery Physick and Surgery for the use of Good Wives, Tender Mothers and Careful Nurses' - 5th edition; so there must be loads of copies out there somewhere. It was printed in London for the Executrix of Mary Kettilby and sold/fold (the printed 'f' and 's' in this edition are identical letters) by W Parker at the King's Head in St. Paul's Churchyard.

: : : It's full of blood curdling potions for diseases I can only guess at and recipes for dishes such a Cheese Curd Pudding, The London-Wigs, A Westphalia-Ham Pie and even a cure for sore nipples which includes ingredients such as Salad oil, Red Lead, Red Sealing Wax and Bees Wax - the cures sound worse that the diseases.

: : : Just thought it might interest you literary types and perhaps someone might even recognise this obviously popular early 18th century book.

: : What a great find. Maybe you could do a search on alibris.com or one of the other used book sites and see if there are other copies.

: A fine suggestion, alibris.com have a copy - 4th edition of 1728 that is obviously in fairly good condition. Perhaps I'll scan my copy and reproduce some of the more eccentric and unusual content: it can't be in copyright after this period of time.

: Must prowl around that attic again soon; there certainly are some old things up there. I found a medical teaching skeleton (real bones) from the mid 1900s in a biggish mahogany box together with a pile of personal letters with Victorian stamps on the envelopes. It's amazing what people abandon in their attics.

If I had that book, I'd be mining it for quotations to send to the OED. It isn't in their list of works used in the First Edition.

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