Fooles and Fricassees: Food in Shakespeare's England

by Folger Shakespeare Library, Mary Anne Caton (Editor), Joan Thirsk (Editor)

People today assume that the diet of Shakespeare and his contemporaries was limited and rather dull. This book demonstrates, however, that 16th-century Englishmen were familiar with a wide range of foodstuffs and seasonings and had strong opinions about the flavour and quality of what they ate. Fooles and Fricassees provides a glimpse into gardens, kitchens, butteries, and cellars of the past. It contains a fascinating array of manuscript and printed materials documenting not only what people ate but where the food came from, how it was grown, preserved, seasoned, and served, and what people believed about various foods' benefits to their health. Included in full is a transcription of Sarah Longe's Receipt Booke compiled around 1610. Mary Anne Caton is curator of Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York City. Until her retirement, Joan Thirsk was reader in economic history at the University of Oxford and professorial fellow of St. Hilda's College.

Genres: History, Food, Cultural, British Literature, Cookbooks, Art

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

The Folger Shakespeare Library, privately endowed and administered by the Trustees of Amherst College, is a research library located on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Opened in 1932, it has the world's largest collection of printed works of William Shakespeare and is a primary repository for rare materials from 1500–1750.