Recipes
From The Olde Cookery Book
 Some ingredients in the older recipes may be harmful if handled incorrectly. Please always check the glossary or the link from the recipe when you are not familiar with an ingredient. That said, you are (of course) very welcome to add your own period recipe. You should use the Add page with form and select the Period recipe form to do so. This is to keep the recipes aligned to the same layout. |
Current sections and recipes
Cakes, Breads etc
This section contains all kinds of cakes and breads. Bread is a staple food prepared by baking a dough of flour and water. It is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era. Cake is a form of food that is usually sweet and often baked. Cakes normally combine some kind of flour, a sweetening agent, a binding agent, fats, a liquid (milk, water or fruit juice), flavors and some form of leavening agent.
Confectionary, Sweets
Confectionery is a set of food items that are rich in sugar. Confectionery items include sweets, lollipops, candy bars, chocolate, Cotton candy, and other sweet items of snack food. The term does not generally apply to cakes, biscuits, or puddings which require cutlery to consume, although exceptions such as petits fours or meringues exist.
Dairy and Poultry etc
Poultry is the category of domesticated birds kept for meat, eggs, and feathers. Dairy describes milk-based products, derivatives and processes, for example dairy cattle, dairy goat. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory processes it into a variety of dairy products.
Fish and Seafood
Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically ectothermic, covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. Fish are abundant in the sea and in fresh water, with species being known from mountain streams (e.g., char and gudgeon) as well as in the deepest depths of the ocean. Seafood is any sea animal or seaweed that is served as food or is suitable for eating, particularly seawater animals, such as fish and shellfish
Home brewery, Wines etc
Brewing is the production of alcoholic beverages and alcohol fuel through fermentation. This is the method used in beer production, although the term is also used to describe the fermentation process used to create wine and mead. Brewing has a very long history, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt. Descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in Sumerian writings, some of the oldest known writing of any sort. If you've got any to share - please do, tOCB could do with something really old.
| * Beer recipes | How and in what manner Malt should be made, and then brewed, cannot easily be written or be learned by letters: one should be there and have a hand in it. For each land has in this its peculiar art and manner. Koge Bog (1616) About brewing (transl. Martin Forest) |
Juices, Fruit-syrups etc
Non-alcohol drinks. Juice is a liquid naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue. Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fresh fruits or vegetables without the application of heat or solvents.
Meat
Through most of human history, individual families of humans hunted, raised, and slaughtered animals for their meat. If you have moral problems with this variety of foods, keep away from this section.
Pastries
Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked goods made from ingredients such as flour, butter, shortening, baking powder or eggs. It may also refer to the dough from which such baked goods are made. Pastry dough is rolled out thinly and used as a base for baked goods. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts and quiches. Pastry is distinguished from bread by having a higher fat content, which contributes to a flaky or crumbly texture.
Pies
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Pies can be either "filled", where a dish is covered by pastry and the filling is placed on top of that, "top-crust," where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry/potato mash top before baking, or "two-crust," with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell.
Poultry and Game
Poultry is the category of domesticated birds kept for meat, eggs, and feathers. Poultry also include other meat birds such as pigeons or doves or game birds like pheasants. Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated (such as venison).
Puddings
Pudding most often refers to a dessert, but can also be a savory dish. There are two main types. The first type of pudding is a solid mass formed by mixing various ingredients with a grain product or another binder. These puddings are cooked by baking, steaming or boiling. The second and newer type of pudding consists of sugar, milk, and a thickening agent such as cornstarch, gelatin, eggs, rice or tapioca to create a sweet, creamy dessert.
Sauces
A sauce is liquid or sometimes semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsus, meaning salted. Sauces need a liquid component, but some sauces (for example, salsa or chutney) may contain more solid elements than liquid. You may also want to have a look at Sweet dishes etc when looking for this kind of thing.
Soups and Gravies
Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth. Gravy is an English sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking.
Sweet dishes, Preserves, Sweetmeats etc
Fruit dishes that generally are deserts, confectionary or sweets (not candy) possibly to be preserved for future use. For recipes including bread, see Cakes, while also Puddings and Diary sections may contain some sweet dishes.
Vegetables
The term "vegetable" generally means the edible parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however. Therefore the usage is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation. Generally speaking, a herbaceous plant or plant part which is regularly eaten as unsweetened or salted food by humans is considered to be a vegetable.
Various
Here you'll find everything else not fitting into one for the previous sections.