SC - Dating Eleanor Fettiplace

[LYN M PARKINSON]

The book was begun in 1604, but contains recipes from others that were
given to her.  One is listed as A medicine of King Henry the eighth for
bubonic plague, so we have no way of knowing how old some of these might
be, unless they contain ingredients or processes that we know, from
independent sources, have definate origination dates.  A few at the back
were added in later hands. There is also a prescription almost certainly
from Shakespeare's son-in-law,  Dr. Hall.  Her birthdate is c.1570.  She
would have learned to cook as a girl, well in period, and was married in
1589.  Perhaps she did as I have done, and not really started the family
cook book until there was a daughter to pass it on to; her daughters were
dead, but her oldest son was 15.  Since that was a bad plague year, and
she has some plague recipes, she may have decided it was high time to get
it written down.


On the lines of family recipes being passed down, I recently came across
a great-grandmother's cook book, of the mid-nineteenth century, and found
the reasons that we do a few of the things we always do.  It is not at
all likely that Elinor began to cook for the first time at age 34, with
no prior knowledge of recipes, cooking, or general food ways.  I know, we
can't prove anything earlier than '1604' in her handwriting, but we need
a little common sense, sometimes.



Regards,

Allison

allilyn at juno.com

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