Friday, August 21, 2015

Bill of Fare for a Baptism in 1679.


Historical menus can be found in an amazing variety of books. I have a seventeenth century bill of fare for you today from The History of Baptism (Boston, 1817) by Robert Robinson. The baptism celebrations took place on this day almost three and a half centuries ago, and the proud father certainly put on a magnificent spread:

The following is the bill of fare of a dinner at Tynningham, the house of the Right Hon. the Earl of Haddington, on Thursday the twenty-first of August, sixteen hundred seventy-nine, when his Lordship's son was baptized:

Fresh beef ………………………... 6 pieces.
Mutton …………………………….. 16 pieces.
Veal …………………………………  4 pieces.
Legs of venison …………………  3
Geese ..……………………………… 6
Pigs ………………………………….. 4
Old turkeys ……………………….. 2
Young turkeys ……………………. 8
Salmon ……………………………….4
Tongues and udders …………... 12
Ducks ………………………………. 14
Roasted fowls …………………….. 6
Boiled fowls ........................... ..9
Chickens roasted ……………….. 30
Ditto stewed ……………………… 12
Ditto fricasseed …………………. 8
Ditto in pottage …………………. 10
Lamb …………………………………. 2
Wild fowl …………………………… 22
Pigeons, baked, roasted,
and stewed …………………......... 182
Hares roasted ……………………. 10
Ditto fricasseed …………………... 6
Hams …………………………………3
A puncheon of claret &c.

A little more detail of the actual dishes would have been interesting, but luckily there is no dearth of cookery books from the second half of the seventeenth century. I have chosen something quite intriguing from one of the best-known cookery books of the time.

To Pickle an old fat Goose.
Cut it down the back, and take out all the bones; Lard it very well with green Bacon, and season it well with three quarters of an Ounce of Pepper; half an Ounce of Ginger; a quarter of an Ounce of Cloves, and Salt as you judge proportionable; a pint of white wine and some Butter. Put three or four Bay-leaves under the meat, and bake it with Brown-bread, in an earthen pot close covered, and the edges of the cover closed with Paste. Let it stand three or four days in the pickle; then eat it cold with Vinegar.
The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. Opened (1669)


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