Puff-Paste Old Elizabethan
Dessert Recipe

Puff-Paste
Take fine Flour half a Peck, the Yolks of five Eggs and one White, one Pound of Butter, half a pint of Cream, and a little fair water, break your Butter in little Bits and do not mould it too much, but roul it abroad so soon as you can, and let the Butter be seen in spots, for that will make it hollow when it comes into the Oven, then put in your Meat or Fruit, and close it over, and wash it over with the Yolk of an Egg and Cream beaten together, just when you set it into the Oven; let your Oven be quick, but do not let it stand too long, for that will spoil it

Puff-Paste Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe
The above Old dessert recipe for Puff-Paste is written in totally different way to today's recipe books.

• There were no lists of ingredients - these were included as part of the text
• Food and ingredient measurements were extremely basic - quantities were not often specified.
• Temperature control was difficult and therefore not specified.
• Cooking times were vague - and left to the cook to decide.
• It was assumed that the reader would already have some knowledge of cooking

The History of the Recipe Book

• Some of the language might be referred to as 'Olde English'
• The art of cooking and the recipe was passed verbally from one generation to the next
• The first printed book ever to be published in English was in 1474.
• Most Elizabethan women were unable to read.
• The idea of a Recipe Book was an entirely new concept
• The first Recipe Books to be printed in England which included many old Elizabethan and Medieval recipes were called:
  • 1545 - 'A Propre new booke of Cokery'
  • 1588 - 'The Good Huswifes Handmaid for Cookerie in her kitchen'
  • 1596 - 'The Good Hyswife's Jewell'
  • 1610 'Mrs. Sarah Longe her Receipt Booke'

Puff-Paste Old Elizabethan Recipe

The above Old recipe is taken from the book by Hannah Woolley (1622-1675) printed at the White Lion in Duck-Lane, near West-Smithfield, London in 1672 and entitled:

The Queen-like Closet
OR
RICH CABINET
Scored with all manner of
RARE RECEIPTS
FOR
Preserving, Candying and Cookery

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Puff-Paste Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe

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