The Early Modern Commons

Cooking in the Archives

Recent Posts

To Make Chocolett Cream (Lady Elizabeth Craven)

2 October 2023

See the end of the post for information about the fourth annual Great Rare Books Bakeoff that is taking place this week (September 30-October 8, 2023)!   On a recent visit to...

Christian Barclay’s Sugar Bisket

27 September 2023

Bake this recipe between September 30 – October 8 to participate in the fourth annual Great Rare Books Bakeoff! (More information at the end of the post.) Many thanks to my Barclay...

to make a codling tarte

27 June 2023

I first learned that a “codling” was an unripe apple from the footnotes in a copy of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. When Cesario arrives at Olivia’s gate and refuses...

To Make Seed-Cake

22 May 2023

This recreation of a Seed Cake recipe was both inspired and informed by my participation in conversations about Robert Forbes’s manuscript The Lyon in Mourning in Edinburgh in 2022...