[Sca-cooks] Starch was Turkish delight

[Terry Decker]

The earliest written reference to starch as a noun I've encountered is:

"starche, for kyrcheys"

Galfridus Anglicus, Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum: dictionarius 
anglo-latinus princeps, 1440

Abverb and verb date even earlier.

I happened across a reference to a Diefenbach defining "starkmel" as 
"amidum".  I think this may be Lorenz Diefenbach, Comparative Dictionary of 
the Gothic Language, 1851.  The reference states it is Early Modern High 
German (1350-1650).  "Sterch-chlie" (literally "strong clay") is a Middle 
High German (1050 to 1350) reference to starch.  So the idea there was no 
word for starch in German in 1553 is in error and "strong flour" is a 
literal translation and in error.

Bear


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Just ran a search in EEBO-TCP and found 2291 matches in 1067 records for 
starch, so it turns up often in England prior to 1700.

Starch is also mentioned in a number of early English cookery books.

John Murrell in A daily exercise for ladies and gentlewomen in 1617 even 
uses it in his recipe for sugar plate paste… "TAke a pound of double refined 
Sugar, put thereto three ounces of the best starch,…"

Johnnae