[Sca-cooks] Lucayos Cook Book was Cherries, cherries and more cherries

[Johnna Holloway]

There's really no provenance to speak of and the information
given by the text is quite limited. Without seeing the original,
I have no trouble believing that it is a family manuscript.
It may have been begun in the 17th century. (Is the late 17th century
1660-1690 really Elizabethan?) Certain recipes read like late 17th 
century recipes.
It may actually have been continued past 1700. What makes it famous or 
infamous is
that it contains a tomato recipe for "Ye Ketchup." This is the last recipe
so it could well have been added much later. No details are given as to 
the handwriting
or if it changed during the course of the text.
It's just this very small pamphlet of recipes reputed to be from an 
early culinary mss.
It would be nice if someone else had the chance to examine and evaluate
the original manuscript, but I don't know that such an examination ever has
or will take place. What makes the Fettiplace manuscript so valuable is that
we have a transcript of all the recipes now to go along with Spurling's 
versions.
We don't have that for this work.
Karen Hess noted that the "documentation is scantly, but the text rings 
true."
She mentions it in connection with a pepper cakes or gingerbread recipe.
See Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery.

Hope this helps.

Johnnae


Huette von Ahrens wrote:

>I don't wish to be a stuffy librarian here either, but since I don't yet have
>this book, is there anyway to know if this book is a true manuscript and not
>some forgery meant to deceive?  The phrase "Kept for 30 year to Test-Refine
>from AD 1660 to 1690" bothers me a lot.  Is there a provenance for this book?
>
>Huette
>
>
>--- Johnna  wrote: 
>
>>Sorry but I have step in and play stuffy librarian here.
>>The Lucayos Cook Book was never published in the 1660's.
>>It was a "family" manuscript.
>>The manuscript is described on the cover of the 1959 soft cover pamphlet as
>>"Being an Original Manuscript, 300 years old, never published.
>>Found in the Bahamas. Kept for 30 years to Test-Refine from AD
>>1660 to 1690 by a Noble Family of Elizabethan England. Long lost
>>to Epicureans and the World."
>>
>