English culinary and medical recipe book, late17th/early 18th centuries

item

Galleries and Reading Room

Café

Shop

Library

Our galleries are quietest on weekdays and weekend mornings. At busy times, particularly on Saturdays, you may need to queue for our temporary exhibitions.

We’re undertaking some research with website visitors to learn more about how people find access-related information provided by museums. This survey shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time!

Help us organize our website content.

A fair copy recipe collection belonging to the Blackett family of Matfen Hall, Northumberland. The bulk of the contents consist of numbered recipes in a single later 17th century hand (ff.11-63v.) Entries are made in apparently random sequence but there are lists of contents at the front of the volume, arranged by category: 'cookery' (f.2), 'sweetmeats, syrrups, jellys, conserves, preserves, candys, creams, distilled and other waters, pickles, made wines, and other liquors' (ff.3-4v.), and 'physick and surgery' (ff.7-8).
Later entries have been added from f. 63 in a variety of late 17th and/or early 18th century hands.
There are relatively few authorities identified for the recipes, although later entries (f.65r. and v.) are ascribed to Sir Thomas Millington [1628-1704], and to 'Dr Witham' [presumably John Witham (fl.1755-1785) MD, of Durham].
At f.68 there is a recipe for a balsam pasted in, 'given me by Mr Pimodan, the King's Lieutenant of Toul, in Lorrain'.

Wellcome uses cookies.

English culinary and medical recipe book, late17th/early 18th centuries

Licence and re-use

Contents