English Recipe Book, 17th century - 18th century; Wellcome Collection, MS.8097
About the Recipe Book Compendium
Early Modern recipe books have long been tucked away in large institutions thanks to barriers inhibiting public access. Affiliations, degrees, experience- the academic pedigree necessary to engage with recipe books drastically limits their reach.
These books are treasure troves of information and much is to be gained from studying them. They are windows into the lives of Early Modern families: the way they created and shared knowledge and the types of information they treasured.
There is a distinct gap in accessibility and public knowledge of these books.
Addressing the Information Problem
Access to information enriches our lives. It provides valuable insight into the past, encourages curiosity of what we do not know, develops perspectives, and deepens our understanding of the world around us. It promotes literacy, life-long learning, and empathy. Equitable access means these opportunities for education and inspiration are available to all. Efforts toward equitable access address barriers resulting from disability, race, gender, sexual orientation, social status, and financial means; this is by no means a comprehensive list.
The Recipe Book Compendium focuses on access to digitized recipe books and free online resources related to their history and interpretation. This strategy connects anyone with computer access to these books and a means to understanding them- eliminating the need to travel to institutions or pay for educational resources. Though it does not replace the experience of physically handling a recipe book, it identifies and addresses the most critical gaps in access.
-
Recipes books themselves are information objects lesser known to the general public, thus making it difficult to learn about them and where they can be accessed. On this website you will find a list of institutions that hold recipe books in their collections. The location of these institutions and whether the collection has been digitized will be noted. Ease of access is a priority of this project and thus digitized collections will be highlighted.
-
Though similar to the structure of the modern cookbook, Early Modern recipe books are distinct in meaningful ways and are best appreciated when there is a baseline understanding of how they organize information. In their most basic form, recipe books are part textbook and part diary. They instruct the user in medical, culinary, and magical pursuits while also revealing information about the authors, their community, and the availability of resources. Recipe books are evidence of a collaborative knowledge-creation and knowledge-sharing process that is unlike most contemporary knowledge organization systems. An overview of three recipe books allows for analysis of specific elements of this system and insight into the overarching themes in ways of knowing and knowledge organization.
-
Early Modern culture permeates every aspect of a recipe book’s content, from language to what was considered common knowledge for that time. While some of it is easily decipherable thanks to consistencies with contemporary knowledge, much of it isn’t. For example, the alphabet used in Early Modern Britain included letters such as the ‘y’ iteration of the letter ‘thorn’, often seen as ‘þ’ in Old Norse. Thus, one might read ‘ye’ as ‘ye’ rather than the correct ‘the’. The resources provided under the interpretation section are made available to assist with expanding one’s understanding of the Early Modern alphabet, grammar, measurements, and ingredient names. You will find information from other websites and books noted under those headings, however, glossaries of these terms as identified in the featured recipe books are also included.
Parameters of the Compendium
The recipe books discussed on this website are from the British Isles during the Early Modern era. For the purposes of defining these two parameters:
British Isles includes the land we today know as England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Early Modern era begins c.1500 and ends c.1750.
All recipe books are handwritten in the English language, albeit Early Modern English.
Book of magical charms : manuscript (Newberry Library, MS 5017; p.17)
Meet the Creator
Lesya Westerman (she/her) is a rare materials cataloger at the University of California, Berkeley and a graduate of the University of Washington’s Master of Library and Information Science program. She was inspired to enter the library profession after experiencing firsthand the barriers in access to special collections libraries and archives- and only gaining access to them through the substantial tuition of rare books school courses.
Addressing accessibility in special collections and archives as an information problem was a consistent theme in her work at UW, culminating in The Recipe Book Compendium- a Capstone project turned ongoing personal passion project. She hopes this work may inspire others to learn more about recipe books, the women who wrote them, or the cultures they were born of.
You can learn more about her here.