Historical rabbit holes, for those who are inclined.
These slender booklets from Historical Management Associates are the work of an organization dedicated to historical re-enactment in the UK. They are written with a stickler’s attention to historical precision and a conviction that nothing is too arcane to investigate. Some of the books are simple transcriptions of period manuscripts; others represent significant original research, as in Cattle Farming and Grazing Management, which is 52 pages long but cites 36 sources, many of them published in the 17th century.
The Food and Cookery in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England series presents a systematic survey of existing records of ingredients and equipment employed in the period. In addition to concise explanations of how such items might have been used and how they might have been significantly different from what is implied by current terminology, they include citations from various period and later records to demonstrate the geographic and class distribution of everything from hops to decorative tankards.
From the introduction: “This volume covers both pies and pasties made from the flesh of mammals which were designed, at least initially, to be eaten hot. The pastry options for these pies are described in detail …Hot meat pies however were also eaten by the common people and peddled on the streets of Shakespeare’s London to the cry of ‘Hot Mutten Pays.'”
Staplebound pamphlet. 52 pages. Sketches and black-and-white photographs.
