Recipes through the ages (2024)

The collections in the Archives Hub include many recipes. These range from traditional recipes to recipes for medicinal remedies, many giving an insight into the wider social history of the times. Here we have collected together a few of our recipe collections through the ages.

16th century

Food during Tudor times was changing. New foods such as potatoes, chocolate, pineapples and turkeys were being introduced from the New World. Also spices were introduced into mediaeval cooking recipes and were welcomed as their distinctive flavours disguised the strong taste of salt, which dominated many elements of English mediaeval food. Salt was used to preserve meat and this was still the case right through into the Elizabethan era so many mediaeval food recipes were still included in Elizabethan recipes.

Collections

Forme of cury: recipe book in Middle English and Latin (late 14th century) for the Royal Household of Richard the Second .
Collection of medical recipes, charms, etc.: recipe collection from the late 15th and early 16th century.

17th century

French cuisine and the influence of the European continent brought a greater taste for savoury dishes, and less of the traditional combinations of sweet and sour flavours. Thanks to the Europeans, the English realised that it was safe to eat raw fruit and vegetables and they started to enjoy salads with their meals. The first English coffee house opened mid-century and flourished along with a love of cakes to accompany the coffee. Most 17th century cookery books were written by men, but from recipes devised by women.

Collections

Recipe book known as “Dame Mary Lister’s household book”: culinary and medical recipes.
Precedents for Ecclesiastical Courts: includes 17th and 18th century recipes.
Seventeenth-Century Spanish Transcripts: includes 17th century recipes in Latin.
Recipe Book: 17th and 18th century domestic and medical recipes.
Recipe Books: three 17th century recipe books containing medical and culinary recipes including recipe books of Elizabeth Bertie and Mary Widdrington.
Poetical commonplace book, compiled by Henry Fairfax: includes 17th century recipes.
Treatise on Respiratory and other Diseases: includes 17th century medical recipes in Latin and English.

18th century

Transport improvements allowed fish to be available inland fresh from the sea, better fruit and vegetable seeds to be introduced from the continent and regional food to be distributed all over the country. French chefs were employed by the aristocracy while the majority carried on with more simple fare such as pies, boiled meats and puddings. The wealthy had access to food from all over the world including mango pickle and curry from India and pasta from Italy. Recipe books were churned out trying to capitalise on recipes linked to prestigious chefs.

Collections

Papers of the Chesshyre Family: includes notebooks of recipes (1693-1756).
WYNNE, Margaret, fl1673: Receipt Book: photocopy of book containing medicinal and culinary recipes (1700s).
Recipe Book of Mary Bennet: 18th century household recipes.
Recipe book of Elenor Mundy, 1728: includes over 250 recipes.
Household books of Margaret Willoughby, 1737-1776: four household cookery books containing recipes and natural remedies.
Commonplace book containing recipes, original and copied poems, newspaper cuttings, and a child’s drawing: includes 65 recipes.
An anonymous eighteenth century recipe book: containing culinary, medical and household recipes.
An anonymous collection of cookery, household and medical recipes: Mid-17th to later 18th century and includes recipes from Lady Corke and a prescription from Mr Hall of Manchester, April 1758.
Receipts of pastry and cookery for the use of his scholars, by Edward Kidder: (1702) collection of recipes.
Miscellaneous Recipe Books: five books of cookery recipes in Welsh and English.
Chemical Observations and Related Notes: 18th century medical recipes.

19th century

Food production was transformed by technological innovations and the invention of the steam engine meant fresh meat, fish and dairy products could be sent all over the country. The invention of canning led to soups, vegetables and stews that could now all be preserved without being salted or pickled. The Victorians were great producers of kitchen gadgets to speed up peeling, mincing and slicing and ovens that allowed cooks to control temperatures. Cookery books in this period became very popular with authors like Mrs Beeton who catered for a growing middle class.

Collections

Miscellanea including papers relating to Sir Clowdisley Shovell: includes recipes from the 1800s.
Two 19th-century recipe books
An anonymous mid-nineteenth century recipe book, in several hands
Recipes and household hints collected by Dorothy Mary Leak: press cuttings and some recipes from Beeton’s Everyday Cookery (London: ca.1888).
Mrs Betsy Westhead’s Receipt Book: approximately 50 culinary, medicinal and household receipts giving an intimate glimpse into the domestic life of the wife of a prominent Wesleyan businessman in Manchester (19th century).
George Crabbe: Scientific Notebooks: chemical recipes (1788-1817).

20th century

This was to become the era of supermarkets, mass produced ‘convenience’ food and takeaway outlets. However before that happened the two world wars brought food rationing and the Ministry of Food dispensed advice on how to grow your own produce and eat a healthy diet. There were further advances in preserving food by freeze-drying and households had their own refrigerators and freezers in their homes. Aeroplanes were used for importing and exporting meaning that everyone could have access to fruit and vegetables all year round, regardless of the local season.

Collections

Collection of newspaper cuttings relating to household management and local news of people and places, 1890-1915: includes recipes for cooking and remedies.
Papers of Katherine Lewis: includes a volume of cookery recipes (20th century).
Notebooks and other material relating to the Whitfield family bakery of Idle, near Bradford: containing recipes used in the bakery (late 19th and early 20th century).
Notebook containing mostly recipes for confectionery, bread and cakes compiled by Maude Mary Whittaker, commenced on 23rd June 1914: she later became Mrs Walsh and trained as a confectioner at Crawshawbooth, Lancashire.
Cookery/Catering: part of the Records of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, includes 'The WI Indoor/Outdoor Cookbook'; 'Traditional Fare of England and Wales'; 'The WI Book of Party Recipes'; 'The WI Recipe Book'; 'Home-made Wines'; cookery booklets; booklets on preserves; leaflets: general cookery, help and hints; booklets on yeast cookery; and 'Country Fare' (1920s-1980s).

A Broader Perspective

We have some collections that span many years:

Catalogue of English cookery and housekeeping books, compiled by John Hodgkin – he was a bibliographer of cookery books (The Blanche Leigh Collection of Cookery Books) - Leeds University Library
Catalogue of French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish cookery and housekeeping books, compiled by John Hodgkin – he was a bibliographer of cookery books (The Blanche Leigh Collection of Cookery Books) - Leeds University Library
Notes on old cookery books, compiled by John Hodgkin – he was a bibliographer of cookery books (The Blanche Leigh Collection of Cookery Books) - Leeds University Library

Copac

If you are interested in finding secondary source material on this topic then you can search Copac for related materials.