Recipes
![knotts cookies knotts cookies](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/12/knotts-cookies-plate-tea.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Knots, cookies, and women's skill
A plate of beautifully baked cookies is a wonderful thing. It is a welcoming gesture for guests, it signifies a holiday or a special meal, and it is a demonstration of a baker’s skill at making something pleasing to the…
![stuffing recipe cutting open to the turkey and stuffing](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/11/stuffing-recipe-bee-two-sweet-51.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Much Ado About Stuffing: Recreating an early modern stuffing recipe
Photo credit: Brittany Diliberto, Bee Two Sweet Today, turkey and stuffing are central fare on the holiday table. But turkeys weren’t even known in England until the 1520s, when they were introduced by explorers returning from the Americas. Turkey was…
![marmite-england-first-chefs marmite food memory](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/11/marmite-england-first-chefs.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Food culture and First Chefs: Appreciating the layers of meaning behind food in Shakespeare’s world and our own
In Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio grabs a leg of roast mutton and throws it to the ground. Doing so, he exclaims, “it engenders choler, planteth anger,/ And better ‘twere that both of us did fast.” As food…
![Fritter on a plate Fritter on a plate](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/06/fritters-finished.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Savoring the seasons and Lettice Pudsey’s fritters
Food is intimately connected to climate and season. It was for Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and it is for us today. Beautiful, local produce is once again available in the northeast now that spring is turning into early summer. In…
![Taffety tarts Taffety tarts](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/03/taffety-tarts-boermans-closed.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Taffety Tarts: How Folger manuscript recipes helped a 17th-century pastry make it into the Oxford English Dictionary
Food historian and The Great British Baking Show winner Mary-Anne Boermans writes about piecing together 17th-century manuscript recipes for Taffety Tarts.
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Seed cake inspired by Thomas Tusser
See a 17th-century recipe for seed cake inspired by the farmer poet Thomas Tusser. Ingredients include rosewater, caraway seeds, and sherry.
![marmalade marmalade](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/02/TWood-marmalade-085.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Citrus and sugar: Making marmalade with Hannah Woolley
Hannah Woolley’s 17-century recipe for marmalade captures the flavors of exotic citrus with the preservative power of sugar, which had only recently been made widely available to upper- and middle-class British people.
![akara akara](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/02/197_akara.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Akara from Africa: Black-eyed pea fritters, inspired by Hercules
Learn more about black-eyed peas’ place in the early modern world and enjoy this akara recipe inspired by Hercules, a chef enslaved by George Washington.
![TWood_Recipes806_453 sm Robert May's brisket. Recipe developed by Marissa Nicosia. Photo by Teresa Wood.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/01/TWood_Recipes806_453-sm.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
British Beef, French Style: Robert May's Braised Brisket
British beef cooked in a French style: Marissa Nicosia shares an early modern recipe for brisket from “The Accomplisht Cook,” by 17th-century English chef Robert May.
![TWood_FolgerChef_309 sq](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/01/TWood_FolgerChef_309-sq.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
The "American Nectar": William Hughes's hot chocolate
The perfect post for a winter’s day: Marissa Nicosia shares an early modern recipe for hot chocolate, associated with 17th-century author, botanist, and pirate William Hughes.
![Folger Cogs Biscuits-116 Savory Cogs Biscuits. All photography by Brittany Diliberto. www.beetwosweet.com](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/11/Folger-Cogs-Biscuits-116.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Savory biscuits from a 17th-century recipe
Interested in adding variety to your Thanksgiving dinner? Try this modernized 17th-century recipe for savory biscuits based on a manuscript in the Folger collection.
![Hartmann Schopper. Panoplia omnium… 1568. Hartmann Schopper. Panoplia omnium… 1568. Folger Shakespeare Library.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2018/10/DSC_0513_edited_smfull.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
In the spirit of Oktoberfest: Food, drink, and changing times in early modern Europe
As October comes to an end, we celebrate food, drink, and culture in the German cities of Shakespeare’s day, including the creation of beer and wine and the harvest festivals each fall, marked by our modern-day tradition of Oktoberfest.