Old Kentish Recipes

( 63 ) OLD KENTISH RECIPES. BY CECIL A. V. BOWRA. RICH as are the volumes of the Archceologia Cantiana in many matters Ulustrative of the history of our county, one aspect, and that a not unimportant one, of our forefathers' activities, seems rather to have escaped attention. Search among those volumes reveals Uttle about questions of food, diet, and cookery, or of the method of preparation of the medicaments which in simpler times formed part of the housewife's duty. It is an omission which is pecuUarly English. Food and the ways of preparing tasty dishes, a matter of serious discussion and the frequent subject of conversation in Continental countries, are seldom taUted of, perhaps seldom thought of, here, where an interest in cookery is far from universal, and where the feats of our forebears as trenchermen have become an almost incredible tradition. StUl even in these days of comparative austerity it wiU be conceded that researches into the habits of our ancestors are incomplete without some enquiry into their culinary and dietetic customs. The yeomen of Kent have been reputed throughout their history to be a prosperous class, enjoying a standard of life and comfort higher than in most other parts of England, and hving indeed in an enviable state of luxury when their conditions are contrasted with those of husbandmen in other parts of the world. A record of the sort of food and drink they had, and of the various ways of preparing that food, should therefore be of value ; and, as it happens, such a record, kept by families of yeomen class in the Kentish Weald, has now come to Ught. The three smaU MS. books from which the appended recipes have been extracted have been kindly lent me by Mr. Arthur Franks, a f eUow member of the Kent Arcrueological Society, in whose famUy they have been kept as a valued record for a matter of hah-a-dozen generations or so. The 64 OLD KENTISH RECIPES. volumes which are neatly bound in parchment have been preserved with great care. The writing is as a rule exceUent; in the earUer entries at least there is a distinct effort at fine penmanship ; the speUing is generally up to the standard of its period, though it must be admitted that there are occasions when it shows rather a sad faUUig away ; but the production as a whole throws a favourable Ught upon the state of culture in Kentish farmhouses in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Dates incline to be vague. The first dated recipe is 1722 (though there are some notes dated some years earUer) but this only occurs as a new departure after forty-four previous recipes have been concluded with " Finis " and a flourish. How long before this the book was begun is impossible to say : but we may not be far wrong perhaps U we assume the record to extend from the beginning of the eighteenth to towards the middle of the nineteenth century, covering a period of 150 years or so ; and it may weU be that many of these recipes have been handed down from a much earUer period. The entries are confined at first to recipes for the preparation of food, potables and medicaments, but tend later on to include famUy matters and household affairs, such as births, marriages and deaths, and scraps of accounts, with records of tree-planting, jam-making, pig-killing, lambing, visits and excursions, with occasional newspaper cuttings and advertisements. The books show signs of having passed through the hands of several owners. On the first page of one of them appears the name ELIZ. FERMOR, who was presumably the first owner of the volume. Whether this EUzabeth was a member of the weU-known Fermor famUy of Walsh Manor, Rotherfield, or, if so, to which of the many EUzabeths in that famUy this particular name belongs, I have no means of ascertaining. But there seems to be a possibility at least that the books originated with some member of the Fermor famUy. Sir Henry Fer'mor, who was born in 1667 and buried in Sevenoaks in 1734, had a house there and his name is perpetuated by his monument in the parish church and by his creation of the Fermor Charity. By his WiU in 1732 he charged his lands at Hadlow OLD KENTISH RECIPES. 65 and Great Peckham with the yearly payment of a load of best wheat-bread corn, to be distributed to forty poor people not receiving alms of the Parish. The whole forms an interesting record of the domestic fife of a Kentish yeoman, and the various recipes give useful information about the standard of eighteenth century food in our county. SOME OF THE RECIPES. Many of the recipes are of sufficient interest to give in fuU but space only aUows of a selection of a few, which it is hoped wiU be typical enough to give a general idea of the scope of the whole coUection. To PICKLE MTJSK-MELLONS LIKE MANGOES SUtt the Green MeUons & take out ye Seed part. Brine them hott as Cucumbers and lett them stand 4 days, then put into each Mangoes, four Cloves of GarUck and some fine Mustard seed and bind them close with tape then make a pickle The same as for y* waUnuts, then pour it on them boihng hott, pour Oyle on the top and cover them close. To POTT VENISON OR BEEPE IN SLICES Cutt your venison or beefe in CoUops an Inch thick. Lard them with bacon, season them high with pepper salt and nutmig. Lay butter on the bottom of your pott, then Lay in a Lay of CoUops, then Lay in some shoes of the good fatt of an Ox being seasoned as ye CoUops, then lay in more of the CoUops, then more of the said fatt, thus do tiU ye potts be full. Lay on some butter and 2 bay leaves on ye top, paper and cover it with course past, bake it tender, pour out the Gravy and fiU it up with clarified butter. Lay a weight on it whilst it is hott that ye fatt and collops may be congeale together. If you would have it Redd add a Little Salt peter. Serve it with Mustard & Sugger 8 66 OLD KENTISH RECIPES. To COLLAR A PIGG Cutt of the head & spUtt downe ye back. Take out aU ye Bones, soake it in severaU warm waters that it may looke white, drie and season it with a Uttle time sage pepper nutmig, salt and a Uttle cloves & mace, and season the head also, then roUe it up in 2 coUars, put them into thinn cloths, tye them close with tape, then boyle them in an equal quantity of white wine & watter with a Uttle vinegar and salt: ye head wiU be enough in haUe & hour but the coUars may boyle tiU you feele them tender. Add some salt, large mace & Lemon peele & 2 bay leaves in the boyleing. They being tender take them out and lett the coUars & the pickle coole tye the coUars streighter & put them & the head into the pickle. Dish the head in the midle of the dish with an apple in his mouth and shoe the coUars round about. Garnish with Lemon barberrys bay leaves & flowers. To MAKE A RICE FLORINDYNE1 Your Rice being boyled tender in water and after in milke stir in a pound of butter a pound of currants, a Uttle salt, cloves, mace, nutmig, haU a pound of fine sugar, sack, Rosewater, the yolks of 8 eggs, the whites of two, the marrow of two bones, or a Uttle beafe suett finely minced, a pint of cream, some cittron & canded lemon. Mix them weU together. Sheet ye dish with puff paste, carve, lay butter on ye bottom & sweet meats & butter on Vs topp. Cutt a cover fitt for it of paste RoyaU, ice and bake it on paper then lay it on the Florindyne. Serve it with collou'rd comfitts and spriggs of paste. To MAKE LEMOND BRANDY. . 1722 Take ye Peels of 16 Lemonds cut very thin and put it into 2 quarts of French Brandy, then take a pint & haU of spring water and boyle in it a pound of double refined sugar 1 The N.E.D. explains this to mean especially meat baked in a dish with a cover of paste. OLD KENTISH RECIPES. 67 & scoure it weU and put it warme to your brandy & 14 spoonfuUs of mUk a Uttle warme, sth y*™ weU together & let it stand 4 days, then let it drop through a funnel into a Quart Bottle HUNGARY WATER. Lady Marie Take a gaUn of Brandy or Spirits fiU'd fuU of Rosemary flowers, let it stand ten days, put in water sufficient to keep it from burning, if you'U perfume it put in Ambergrease of Musk in a Bag in ye top of .y stUl: you may draw 3 quarts from 4 if you please. MR TONGUE'S DRINK FOR A CANCER'D BREAST Take SarsapariUa Shred 6 ounces China Shred 4 ounces Ivory shavings 4 ounces, Eringo and yeUow Dockroots shred each 6 ounces, plantans & Strawberry leaves and roots each 3 handfuls, Alehoof1 4 handfuls, Semicle & SpeedweU each 2 handfuls, Sago & Centery each a smaU handful, Coriandr & Sweet Fennel seeds bruised each \ ounce. WoodUce a thousand bruised, put them in Bag. For 6 gaUons small Ale. PROM YE SAMPIER MAN2 Take your sampier & pick it from ye large stalks. Then wash it weU with water & salt, and drain it from ye water very dry. Then boyl your vinegar in a brass pott, & put ye sampier to it, & give it a boyl or two, then pour it aU into ye pott you design to keep it in and stop it very close, it may be reboyld once in 2 or 3 weeks tUl its green & tender. It must be wine or Dutch vinegar, and 2 quarts is used for a gallon of sampier. A GREEN OYNMENT TO BE MADE IN MAY. BuUard's oynment Which cureth strains, swelling, aches, ribes, cutts, cramps, scalding, burning, y6 stone, being chaft in ye small 1 Ground Ivy —Nepeta glechoma. 2 Samphire (L'herbe de Saint Pierre) Criihmum maritimum. 68 OLD KENTISH RECIPES. of ye back, aU outward greifs as feUons, scyaticas, gout, all swelling in y6 face & throate, strained synews, sticthes, & fetches out y8 Ague in y8 breast or els where. Take bay leaves newly sprung out, & wormwood, of each haU a pound, redsage & rue of each a pound, pick them cleane, but wash them not, gather them in the heat of ye day, beat them very smaU in a mortar. Then take new sheeps suet 3 pound : shread smaU, beat all these together tUl they be weU incorporated, then put thereto a potle of oyle ohve working it weU with your hands tUl it be aU of one colour & softness, then put it into a new earthen pot and stop it close, and let it stand in a close cold place 8 days, then boyl it on a soft fire 4 hours or more, stirring it weU & then put to it 4 ounces of y3 oyle of spyke and let it boyl on. Dropp a dropp of it on a sawcer, U it looks duskish boyl it longer, if a fair green take it of and strain it through a new canvas cloath Keep it close in a gallipot in a coole place and it wiU last 8 year. PROM YE DUOHES OP DORSET, TO MAKE THE HAIR GROW THICK of rosemary 6 handfuls & 6 handfuls of ye curls of a grape vine. Of hony one pound, put a littel water in ye stiU & stiU it in a cold stiU. STRAWBERRY BALSAM Take one ounce of Balsam of Tolu the newest you can get, bruise it and put it into a quart of spring water & boil it to a pint, keep the skUlet close cover'd, then pour it on a quart of Wood Strawberrys that are fuU ripe. Let it stand cover'd tiU t'is cold, but mash the strawberrys while t'is warm, then strain it off and put to it 2 pound of double refine sugar and let it stand one day, then boU it up to a thick syrup. This I gave my Boy to take when he had the Hooping Cough 1752. OLD KENTISH RECIPES. 69 MILK PUNCH. Lady Betty Germain Take twenty quarts of Brandy, put into it the peels of thirty SeviUe oranges & thirty Lemons pared thin, let them infuse twelve hours, then have ready boUed & cold again thirty quarts of water with fifteen pound of double refin'd sugar. Mix the water and Brandy together, adding the juice of thirty oranges and twenty-four lemons, then strain it from the peels, and barrel it up with one quart of new milk, bung it up close and let it stand a month or six weeks, then bottle it if fine. N.B. It wiU keep many years the old the better. MRS BORRETT'S RB FOR AN AGUE Take 20 grains of Camphire finely beaten & 40 grains of Venice Treacle. Mix this together, then divide it, and give it an hour before you expect the fitt, repeat it the next fitt and give the rest. You must mix it in a spoon with a little distiU'd waters & drink something warm in the fitt. HARTSHORNE FLUMERY Take a quarter of a pound of hartshorn, boyle it in a quart of water. When it is a strong jeUy put in haU a pint of cream, a spoonfuUs of orange flower water. Sweeten it when it is weU boyled together. Pour it into saucers & next day eat it. cutt it in dice. To MAKE SNAIL WATER. 1737 from Mrs. BuU Take a great peck of garden snaUs & a pint of red earthworms made clean by rubing ym with a dry cloth. Crush ym sheUs and aU in a morter and wooden pestel. Just as you go to infuse ym lay in y8 bottom of your pott 2 handfuUs of AngeUca & as much celandine, a quart of rosemary flowers or tops, agrimony, betony, of each 2 handfuUs, bears-foot, red-dock roots & Bark of barbary-tree wood, of each 2 handfuUs and haU. Rue half a handfuU. Sennigreen, 70 OLD KENTISH RECIPES. turnmeriek, of each an ounce, 6 penyworth of safron, these only being layed in y8 pott. Put in y8 worms last of aU, pour in gentely 3 gaUons of y8 best Ale you can get. Cover it close let it stand 36 houers. In ye morning when desine to distil it open y8 top and put in one ounce of cloves and 6 ounces of shaving of harteshorn but sth it not least y5 things get to y8 bottom that should be a top. DistU it gentely and qoald it wiU yield 5 quarts of watter which must be after a days stilling. Mix the first and last drawing that it may be alike. The way of taking it is 3 spoonfuUs of it mix3 with 6 or 7 spoonfuUs of mUde beer or ale which agrees best in y8 morning or else in ye afternoon fasting two houres after it. Mightely helps weaknesse provided the person be not to hott. If Vs person be not incUnd to be loose they may take it in a spoonfuU of surup of voUets. The water is stUd in a Umbback. TO MAKE CLARY WATER. 1737 Mrs BuU Take 3 gaUon of middeling bear and put it into a Umback and put to it 10 handfuU of clary gatherd in a dry day, reasons of y8 sun stond 3 pound, annesseeds & Uquorish of each 4 ounces, y8 whites and sheUs of 24 eggs (or haU as many if there be not so much need of it for your back). Beat y8 sheUs smaU and beat them with the whites put in y8 bottoms of 3 white loaves. So put it into y8 Umbeck and distil it leting it drop on a pound of white sugar candy & white suger. Keep it close and be not without it for it is good for ye stomack and hart, strengtheth y8 back, provoth an appetit and helpeth digestions, driveth away sadness and heavyness of y8 hart. AN EXCELENT RECEIPT POR A DROPSY. Jan. 1737-8 from Miss Amhurst Bruise the green leavs of Artichoke plants and squeeze out the juice. Take a spoonful every morning fasting in a spoonful of strong Madera wine and take the same quantity every afternoon about 5 o' clock. OLD KENTISH RECIPES. 71 It wUl make the person who takes it very sick and wiU work off violently but if they continue taking it the violent working and sickness wiU abate by use and it does great cures even when all other medcins fail. TO MAKE A BATTER TO DIP PISH IN, OR HOGS PEET AND EARS DIPd IN AND PRY'D ARE VERY GOOD Take 2 egges & some smaU beer & some flower. Make a pretty thick batter of it, grate a Uttle nutmeg in it and a Uttle salt. When you have dipped your fish in have some grated bread ready to strow on both sides of them, fry them in a pretty deal of fat. To MAKE NEW COLLIDG PUDING Mrs Brodnax Take a white penny Lofe, grate it, and haU a pound of Beef suet shread smaU, haK a pound of curants, a Uttle salt, & a Uttle nutmeg. Mix aU these together, then add 3 eggs, well beaten, & a Uttle sack, & rose water, and as much cream as wiU make it up a stiff past. Then make it up in the fashion of an egg, then melt a quarter of a pound of butter in a dish, and lay your puding in, and cover the dish & set them over a quick fire to fry, and when they are enough, have ready for the sauce, melted butter & sugar, & sack, and rose water, and send them to table hott. FOR THE BITING OP A MAD DOG Take the leaves of Rue, picked from the stalks and bruised, six ounces, GarUck picked from the stalks and bruised, Venice Treacle and Mithridate and the scraping of pewter, of each four ounces : boU aU these over a slow fire in two quarts of strong ale, tUl one pint be consumed : then keep it in a bottle close stopd and give of it nine spoonfuls to a man or woman, warm, seven mornings together, Fasting, and six to a Dog. This the author beheves wiU not (by God's Blessing) faU U it be given within nine days after the biting of the dog. Apply some of the ingredients from which the Uquor was strained to the bitten place. 72 OLD KENTISH RECIPES. This Receipt was taken out of Cathorp Church in Lincolnshhe, the whole town being bitten with a mad dog ; and aU that took this medicine did weU and the rest died mad. And it has since been found effectual in every instance not only to human kind but to dog, cattle and other animals. To CURE A BURN Take the inner Rine of Elem Bark and boU it in water tUl it looks of a deep colour like Beer, then dip fine rags in the liquor & lay on the part, so do often in the day. The liquor must be as warm as mUk from the cow when you use it. To MAKE WIGGS.1 Mrs Amherst Take three pints of Flour, 4 eggs and 2 whites, haU a nutmeg and a Uttle mace, beat fine three spoonfuUs of yeast, melt haU a pound of butter in a Uttle milk and wet the wigs jest stiff enough to make up. Let it stand haU an hour before the fire to rise and jest as it goes into the oven add half a pound of sugar. TO MAKE A GOOSE H A M FASHION Buy the fattest goose you can get, rub it with one ounce of saltpetre, 3 ounces of brown sugar and a good deal of common salt. Turn it every day and bast it for 9 days with the brine, then smoak it for 8 days. When you boil it put it into water cold, let it boil an hour and half. To COLLAR A BREAST OP VEAL There must be 3 pounds and three quarters of meat after the bones are taken out. Salt hah an ounce fuU weight White peper 6 drams or the weight of 10 cards Mace fuU 3 drams beat small Nutmeg full 3 drams beat smaU Wiggs in their simplest form are a kind of currant bun. OLD KENTISH RECIPES. 73 parsly 8 drams Red,sage 2 drams and a haU Margaram 2 drams and a haU Spenage 5 drams and a hah Winter seavory 1 dram and a haU Lemon peel 4 dram f uU weight Lemon thyme 4 drams Common thyme 2 drams Suet one ounce and a haU and haU quarter of ounce 3 yolks of eggs boUd hard 6 anchovys washed boned and taken in halves hah a pound of baccon cut in shoes aU the Herbes cut smaU by themselves then mix aU the Herbs but the parsly together, beat the veal with a rolling pin after it is boned then cutt it a little to let in the peper and salt. After it is cut then strow on it a Uttle of the salt and peper, mix together then a Uttle mace, then parsly, then the other Herbs, then great a Uttle nutmeg, then the yohts of eggs brock in halves and quarters, then suet, then nutmeg and seasoning again, then anchovy in halves lay1 in rowes, and Bacon the same between the anchoves, then suet and then mace, then Lemon peel, then Herbs, and parsley, then Bacon. RoU it up tight in a Rubing cloth, pin it tight and roll it with a broad tape, then boU it in 3 gaUons of water with the bones, three drams of Lemon peel, 6 drames suet, one onion, 9 drams of parsly, salt one ounce. BoU it two hours and hah, then take it out and let it Ue to be a little cool that you may handle it, but not cold, it wiU not close if it is. Then squeeze it tight by taking the two ends of the cloths in your hand, then roU it between two, one hold the tape and the other roU the coUar tight. Tye the end tight and hang it up till next day, then take it out of the rubber and put on a fine rag round the coUar. BoU up the pickle after the coUar is out with hah a pint of vinegar, let it be cold and then put in the coUar. You may make two collars out of a breast of veal if you add fatt and lean from a leg of veal. 74 OLD KENTISH RECIPES. FOR A COUGH Figs 6, Raison 12, an ounce of pirle barly, a good handful of wood sorrol, a quart of water and boyl it to a pint. FOR WEAK & SORE EYES, from Miss Curtis Take 4 ounces of May Butter clarify1, melt in it 2 ounces of Virgin Wax, put it into white Rose water to cool. Work 'em weU together, then pour off the rose water and put in 4 scruples of camphire and an ounce of prepared Tutty. Sift the Tutty very fine, then mix the ingredients very weU together. Anoint the eyes with a Uttle piece when you go to bed, it wUl make the eyes water & seen misty upon first useing it, but you wiU find great good from it in time if you on with it for about 3 nights and then rest a night or two and so on till weU. A LETTICE SOUP. Miss Lee very good Take a good quantity of Lettice leaves & Fry them in butter. They must be cut in pieces & the stalks taken out. Let them be brown but not burnt, when done put in a quart or as much boihng water as you chuse, a Pint or more of young green pease, whole peper & salt & a Bundle of sweet herbs, let all this stew together an hour or more tiU the pease are quite tender, then thicken it with a piece of Butter roUed in flour, stir it well, & it is done. NOTES ON SOME PERSONS MENTIONED IN THESE BOOKS (Kindly contributed by DR. GORDON WARD) MRS. KIRREOL. In 1740 John KirrUl, Esq., was a considerable land owner in Sevenoaks. He had a map made of what was apparently his own house, a farm now occupied by the Lime Tree Hotel, and the houses in Lime Tree Walk, Argyle Road, Victoria Road, etc. MRS. OWEN. Hugh Owen and his son of the same name were Rectors of Sevenoaks from 1703 to 1750. OLD KENTISH RECIPES. 75 MRS. QUAKER OWEN. Presumably the wUe of Nathaniel Owen, a mercer and prominent Quaker of Sevenoaks. His goods to the value of £140 were seized because he refused to pay tithe. He issued a haUpenny token in Z669. MRS. LAMBARD. LADY LAMBARD. The Lambards came to Sevenoaks in 1654 and lived at Park Grange. Multon Lambard was the first of the famUy to be knighted, but he died in 1634. It is possible that the Lady Lambard was his widow and came to her son's house at Sevenoaks from Greenwich after Sh Multon's death. It is certain that the memorial in Greenwich to Sh Multon and his father was removed to Sevenoaks Church. ELIZABETH FERMOR. There is a memorial in Sevenoaks Church to John Fermor who died in 1722 of smaU-pox. It was erected by his brother. The Fermors were of what was later Suffolk House, Sevenoaks, and their pedigree may be seen in Horsfield's History and Antiquities of Sussex, I, 398. In 1721 Colonel John Fermor had licence to enclose part of the high road opposite his house in Sevenoaks. I imagine he was not married as his brother succeeded him. DR. LAIN, usuaUy spelt Lane. Henry Bosville, of Bradbourne, Sevenoaks, highly approved of his medical attendant, Dr. Thomas Lane, and left aU his estate with remainder to Dr. Lane's sons, to whom it eventually came. Dr. Lane died at Southover, Sussex, in 1779. DR. WDLLMOT, succeeded a Dr. French in practice at Sevenoaks. This seems to have been soon after 1800. Miss CURTIS. The Rectors of Sevenoaks from 1716 to 1831 included four of the name of Curteis, and there was another from 1874 to 1907. MRS. AMHERST. The Amhersts were of Montreal, Sevenoaks. MARY AND MARGARET STREATPEILD, a branch of the StreatfeUd family of Chiddingstone, resided at the Chantry House, Sevenoaks, which was built by one of them. Madam StreatfeUd appears in a Sevenoaks assessment of 1741 and evidently occupied this house. MADAM MONKE appears in the same Ust and is probably the lady who made a cake for Mr. Charles Waters (whose name does not appear) and whose servant is also mentioned. 76 OLD KENTISH RECIPES. In the same Ust appear MRS. SALTMARSH, MR. LAKE, and some of the above. MRS. BORRETT. The Borretts Uved at Shoreham Place. LADY BETTY GERMAIN. Long resident at Knole (see Knole and the Sackvilles for her story). MRS. PBTTELY. Of Riverhead House, Sevenoaks. Jane, reUct of Ralph Petley, died in 1704, but there were other members of this famUy there. MARY BLAOKMAN. One records with regret that J. Blackman of Sevenoaks hanged himseU on November 19th, 1770, and Mrs. Blackman drowned herseU five years later. THOS. AUSTIN. ? the Sevenoaks Doctor of this name.