Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book
Cover of modern book
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| Editor | Hilary Spurling |
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| Author | Elinor Fettiplace |
| Country | England |
| Subject | English cooking |
| Genre | cookbook |
| Publisher | The Salamander Press in association with Penguin Books |
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Publication date
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1986 [1604] |
Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book is a book of recipes compiled in 1604, with additions and marginal notes in several hands. It was first edited and published in 1986 by Hilary Spurling, the wife of a descendant of Fettiplace who had inherited the manuscript. It provides a direct view of Elizabethan cookery in an aristocratic country house, with advice on household management.
The Fettiplaces were a aristocratic English family of Norman descent, who lived in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Elinor, (née Poole, c. 1570–c. 1647) was the wife of Sir Richard Fettiplace, who owned the substantial Appleton Manor in what is now Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire). The family had become wealthy from wool. She wrote her 'book of Receipts' in 1604. Apart from Elinor's recipes, the book contains marginal notes and additions written by several different people, indicating that it grew over more than one lifetime. In 1647 Elinor left the manuscript to her niece, Anne Horner, "desyring her to kepe it for my sake".
The book was first published only in 1986, by The Salamander Press in association with Penguin Books (it was then published in paperback by Penguin in 1987), the manuscript having been inherited by the husband of the editor, Hilary Spurling. The compilation gives an intimate view of Elizabethan era cookery and domestic life in an aristocratic country household.
The book contains over 200 recipes, updated by Spurling. After an introduction on the Fettiplace family, the book is structured into 12 sections for the months of the year. The book ends with a bibliography, notes and index.
The book provides recipes for various forms of bread, such as buttered loaves; for apple fritters; preserves and pickles; and a celebration cake for 100 people. New ingredients such as the sweet potato appear. A recipe for dressing a shoulder of mutton calls for the use of the newly-available citrus fruits:
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