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Food and drink

The early modern precursor to turducken: Adapting an old recipe to make mini pies
Shakespeare and Beyond

The early modern precursor to turducken: Adapting an old recipe to make mini pies

Posted
Author
Michael Walkden

Learn about the early modern precursor to turducken (a huge turkey pie with duck but no chicken) and make your own mini pies using this adapted recipe.

Before the Thanksgiving turkey came the banquet peacock
Shakespeare and Beyond

Before the Thanksgiving turkey came the banquet peacock

Posted
Author
Elisa Tersigni

Lavish dinners—and the cookbooks and instruction manuals for how to execute them—were popular during the Renaissance, and they emphasized the art of food, in addition to—and at times, over—its taste. Peacocks were thus an ideal banquet food because their colorful…

Roast joint of mutton: A recipe from ‘Fat Rascals’
Shakespeare and Beyond

Roast joint of mutton: A recipe from ‘Fat Rascals’

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

John Tufts is an award-winning actor and the author of “Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare’s Table,” a cookbook featuring over 150 authentic recipes straight out of Shakespeare’s plays. Here, he shares his recipe for a roast joint of mutton, inspired…

Eggs in moonshine and spinach toasts: Two early modern recipes for a sweet breakfast
Shakespeare and Beyond

Eggs in moonshine and spinach toasts: Two early modern recipes for a sweet breakfast

Posted
Author
Michael Walkden

Even though the combination of eggs and sugar along with butter and flour forms the cornerstone of baking, the idea of poaching eggs in sweet wine, or adding sugar to your scrambled eggs, might seem heretical to many. But this…

Knots, cookies, and women's skill
knotts cookies
Shakespeare and Beyond

Knots, cookies, and women's skill

Posted
Author
Marissa Nicosia

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…

Much Ado About Stuffing: Recreating an early modern stuffing recipe
cutting open to the turkey and stuffing
Shakespeare and Beyond

Much Ado About Stuffing: Recreating an early modern stuffing recipe

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Author
Elisa Tersigni Jack Bouchard Julia Fine Michael Walkden

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…

Food culture and First Chefs: Appreciating the layers of meaning behind food in Shakespeare’s world and our own
marmite food memory
Shakespeare and Beyond

Food culture and First Chefs: Appreciating the layers of meaning behind food in Shakespeare’s world and our own

Posted
Author
Julia Fine

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…

Savoring the seasons and Lettice Pudsey’s fritters
Fritter on a plate
Shakespeare and Beyond

Savoring the seasons and Lettice Pudsey’s fritters

Posted
Author
Marissa Nicosia

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: How Folger manuscript recipes helped a 17th-century pastry make it into the Oxford English Dictionary
Taffety tarts
Shakespeare and Beyond

Taffety Tarts: How Folger manuscript recipes helped a 17th-century pastry make it into the Oxford English Dictionary

Posted
Author
Mary-Anne Boermans

Food historian and The Great British Baking Show winner Mary-Anne Boermans writes about piecing together 17th-century manuscript recipes for Taffety Tarts.

Seed cake inspired by Thomas Tusser
seed cake
Shakespeare and Beyond

Seed cake inspired by Thomas Tusser

Posted
Author
Marissa Nicosia

See a 17th-century recipe for seed cake inspired by the farmer poet Thomas Tusser. Ingredients include rosewater, caraway seeds, and sherry.

Citrus and sugar: Making marmalade with Hannah Woolley
marmalade
Shakespeare and Beyond

Citrus and sugar: Making marmalade with Hannah Woolley

Posted
Author
Marissa Nicosia

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 from Africa: Black-eyed pea fritters, inspired by Hercules
akara
Shakespeare and Beyond

Akara from Africa: Black-eyed pea fritters, inspired by Hercules

Posted
Author
Amanda Herbert

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.

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