Stuart Press: The Widow’s Treasure – Recipes from 1639

The Widow’s Treasure – Remedies and Recipes from 1639. Reproduced from a seventeenth century publication. Published by Stuart Press as part of the Living History Reference Books Series subsection Early 17^th Century Food Series. 1^st edition 1999. Historical Management Associates Ltd. 1999. ISBN 1 85804 139 2.

56 page A5 booklet. The title page reads as follows:

THE

WIDOWES

TREASURE

Plentifully furnished with

sundry precious and approved

Secrets in Physick and Chirugery

for the health and pleasure

of Mankind

Hereunto are adjoined sundry pretty

Practises and conclusions of Cookery,

with many profitable and wholesome

Medicines for sundry Diseases

in Cattell

LONDON

Printed by R. B. for Robert Bird, and are to

be sold at his Shop in S. Laurence-lane

at the Signe of the Bible 1639

In this reproduction of a 17^th century recipe book the type font has been modernised but the spelling and grammar of the time has largely been retained. This gives it a nice period flavour but occasionally leads to difficulty in comprehension. As always with early recipes, especially medicinal ones, remember this is derived from an old wives tale!

The staples show some signs of corrosion but the binding is secure and all content is clean and legible.