Stepony Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe

To make Raisin Wine or Stepony
Take four Gallons of Spring-water, four pounds of Raisins of the Sun stoned, the juice of four good Limons, and the Rind of two cut thin, boil the Raisins, and Pill in the Water for half an hour or more, then put in the juice of Limon, and a little Spice, Sugar and Rosewater, and let it stand but a little more over the fire; then put it into an earthen pot, and beat it together till it be cold, then bottle it up, it will keep but a few days (Memorandum, Two pounds of Sugar to one pound of Cowslips is enough for Conserve)

Stepony Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe
The above Old dessert recipe for Stepony 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'

Stepony 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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Stepony Old Elizabethan Dessert Recipe

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