[Sca-cooks] snake

[johnna holloway]

Bradley's Country Housewife of the 1730's
was a major focus of the article. Prospect
did a reprint of that one back in the early
days of the press and there had been some articles
in PPC then that related to odd things in
Bradley. Davidson as editor was a big fan of
Bradley too, so material on Bradley tended to
 get published. She doesn't cite a lot of footnotes
for this article. So I did the librarian thing and
did some searches this am.

The literature is rather strange because it's
not cookery so much as medical/apothecary/
alchemy. Also one ends up with the references
being to 17th and 18th century material because
we don't see these "secrets" really being published
in printed works much earlier than that.
 {I don't have time to search Alessio today. If I come
across something there the next time I have the set
down,  I will post it then to the list.} See
Eamon's work on Science and the Secrets of Nature for
more on this. Or see Books of Secrets by Ferguson.

Just by searching on-- English viper recipes

I came up with the following:

Bolnest, Edward [fl. 1665-1672].
Aurora Chymica: or a rational way of Preparing animals,
 vegetables and minerals, for A Physical Use;
 By which Preparations they are made most efficacious,
 safe, pleasant Medicines for the Preservation and
 Restoration of the Life of Man. Authore Edwardo Bolnest
 Med. Reg. Ord.
London, Printed by Tho. Ratcliffe, and Nat.
 Thompson, for John Starkey at the Miter within Temple-Bar. 1672.
16 + 146 + 2 pages.

"This gives details of the preparation of quintessences
of the flesh, blood, bones of man, together with their uses.
 There are also many recipes for making quintessences from
 animals, from toads, crabs, swallows, a variety of insects,
 vipers, etc. Recipes are also given for the
 preparation of quintences form various animal products
 such as civet musk, ambergris, beeswax, honey, and
 the fats and marrows of animals."
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/eng_a_b.html.

"Old herbals are full of recipes using it,
such as this one from Nicholas Culpeper's Complete
 Herbal of 1653: "Take of Pearls prepared, Crab's eyes,
 red Coral, white Amber Hart's-horn, oriental Bezoar,
 of each half an ounce, powder of the black tops of Crab's
 claws, the weight of them all, beat them into powder,
 which may be made into balls with jelly, and the skins
 which our vipers have cast off, warily dried and kept for use".
 Culpeper remarks that "four, or five, or six grains is
 excellently good in a fever to be taken in any cordial,
 for it cheers the heart and vital spirits exceedingly,
 and makes them impregnable".
gen.culpepper.com/interesting/medicine/nicholas.htm

Viper jelly is found mentioned:
Jelly of vipers or no, such "a present and easy remedy,"
 however effective, may have been too tedious for some
 of Smith's readers.
This is cited in the following Colonial Williamsburg
article: http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/Summer00/wit.cfm

There is of course the association of vipers
with the death of Venetia, Keneleme's Digbie's
wife. It was rumored that she died from drinking
viper wine to restore or keep her beauty. I presume
that this recipe may be found in the Two Treatises
collection that predates Digbie's Closet. Or it may be
in his unpublished notebooks.

My copy of Galen is boxed and not available.

Hope this helps.

Johnna Holloway  Johnnae llyn Lewis

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:
> Could you be more specific about her sources? I don't get PPC and I don't
> have ready access. And because medicinal and culinary aren't always
> compatable. (And Galen said a great many things...:-)
> > 'Lainie