The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened —— Newly Edited, With Introduction, Notes, and Glossary

Sir Kenelm Digby Knight must have been the most popular sought after raconteur in the courts of 1645 . In understandable English vernacular of the time this quietly witty man details well over 250 tongue~to~tail recipes of those times. E.g. : Hart 's horn gelly, marrow spinage pasties, flomery caudle, smallage gruel, excellent black puddings, to pickle an old fat goose, white marmalate the Queen 's way, ~ etc . ~~. Plus: Ales, Ciders, over 20 recipes for meathe ( mead ), and wines , including; raspberry, strawberry, current, and Cherry wines. Also Sir Kenelm Digby Knight shows his knowledge of Ladies' waters, powders, and perfumes; Ladies soothing powders, and poultices for treating wounds. Sir Kenelm Digby Knight talks as one person to another.

Unlike many 17th Century cookbooks, this one is actually quite functional, perhaps because it was published sometime after Sir Digby's death by a former servant or relative. I found some entries useful (Broiled Herring, for example), some simply interesting (lots of marrow, in both savory and sweet dishes), and some downright amusing (how to cram your chicken so it can't stand and has to eat lying down). It starts with a biograohy of Sir Digby, a (very) colorful figure of the tumultuous mid-1600s and intimate of Bacon, Ben Jonson, philosophers, scientists, and kings and queens. Then, the recipes. He dwells lovingly (for too many pages, IMO) on making various forms of mead, but moves on to all kinds of recipes that are pretty much readable. (When not so, on Kindle, you can almost always get a definition, even for really obscure words.) Toward the end, there are two indexes with working links (unusual, for a Gutenburg offering), a glossary, and notes. Also unusual for Gutenburg, this one was either typed by hand or, if scanned, well copy-edited. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will keep it for reference in future.

This is a reprint of an Elizabethan recipe book by Sir Kenelm Digby, not a novel but Amazon apparently does not believe anybody writes anything except fiction I guess. If you happen to be interested in Renaissance food and drink, and household management this is definitely the book for you!

Just the book I needed thanks for fast shipping

This is a good book for information, but it is difficult to read, as it is just bits of someone's writings, so it is a bit dry and convoluted.

A period piece from the mid 1600s with many mead and food recipes. Popular with the SCA crowd , methinks and anyone interested in very old foods.

It takes a while to get into the book as it was a bit unclear as to what the author intended. But it was a fun read.

Took this to a SCA gathering and everyone enjoyed looking through the pages.

I suspect you have to be into home brewing and period cookery to fully appreciate most of the content of this book, but the brief history of the man's life at the start of it introduces a very exceptional man indeed - Catholic, but argued for, and got, better treatment of Catholics from Cromwell, and yet seems to have been respected by the latter if not actually regarded as a friend. Very much a ladies man in his youth, but seems to have loved and been faithful to his wife after marriage. The recipes provide an interesting glimpse into a period when wine was safer to drink than water, and many well to do people obviously took an interest in the making of it. Definitely read this book if any of this interests you.

An excellent reference book for a particular aspect of our Third-Age Hobby of late-15th C Re-enacting.

Sent promptly, and book as described.