The Woodstreet Cake: A spiced holiday cake with a spicy history
Follow this adapted recipe from a 17th-century manuscript in the Folger collection to make Woodstreet Cake, named for a London lane reputed for good cakes and good times at its popular taverns.
12 Shakespeare quotes about food and drink
We rummage through the pantry of Shakespeare’s plays for quotations about food and drink.
Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial
Marissa Nicosia adapts an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial. This purple pansy syrup was used to “clear the heart” – to treat the chest and lungs or to reduce fever – but also for healing heartaches.
The three most popular recipes from Before 'Farm to Table'
With the Folger’s four-year Before ‘Farm to Table’ project drawing to a close, we’re revisiting three of the most popular early modern recipes adapted by the project team and shared on the Shakespeare & Beyond blog. Before ‘Farm to Table’:…
Spilling the beans: The Islamic history of coffee
Before there were Starbucks and the quirky coffeeshops masquerading as cozy work corners for many of us, there was the mid-17th century coffeeshop boom in England. During the 1600s, the general conversation about coffee nodded to its status as the…
Recipe: A 17th-century potato pie with marrow and dates
Sweet potato pies, a beloved staple of North American fall and winter cooking, are baked out of mashed or blended sweet potatoes mixed with condensed milk, eggs, and spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and allspice. Few Americans and…
Early modern recipe combinations to get you through the winter
We’ve shared so many early modern recipe adaptations on this blog that it might feel overwhelming to choose from them all. That’s why we’ve created some delicious combinations for you to experiment with over the holidays and beyond. You’ll find…
The turkey’s journey from the Atlantic to the early modern Islamic world
Follow the turkey on its fascinating journey from America to Europe to the Mughal and Ottoman empires, through early modern trade networks.
The early modern precursor to turducken: Adapting an old recipe to make mini pies
Learn about the early modern precursor to turducken (a huge turkey pie with duck but no chicken) and make your own mini pies using this adapted recipe.
Before the Thanksgiving turkey came the banquet peacock
Lavish dinners—and the cookbooks and instruction manuals for how to execute them—were popular during the Renaissance, and they emphasized the art of food, in addition to—and at times, over—its taste. Peacocks were thus an ideal banquet food because their colorful…
Roast joint of mutton: A recipe from ‘Fat Rascals’
John Tufts is an award-winning actor and the author of “Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare’s Table,” a cookbook featuring over 150 authentic recipes straight out of Shakespeare’s plays. Here, he shares his recipe for a roast joint of mutton, inspired…
Eggs in moonshine and spinach toasts: Two early modern recipes for a sweet breakfast
Even though the combination of eggs and sugar along with butter and flour forms the cornerstone of baking, the idea of poaching eggs in sweet wine, or adding sugar to your scrambled eggs, might seem heretical to many. But this…