Dipping Your Toes in the Water: Reconsidering Renaissance England’s Attitudes...
Recently, the feminist newsblog Jezebel posted a short article by Dodai Stewart entitled “Tudor Fashion: Pretty, But Best Not to Think About the Stench.” The article highlighted a portraiture exhibit...
View ArticleA Sweet Bath and Sweating: Renaissance Ladies and Bathing
by Colleen Kennedy Bathing in the Renaissance could be a fragrant and languorous event, especially for a lady with her own herbal garden (or the extra money to buy spices, flowers, and herbs) and some...
View ArticleSmelling ‘Violet’ in Renaissance Works
By Colleen Kennedy The violet (Viola odorata) is cited in several herbals and many recipe books as a particularly sweet scented, fragrant flower. Herbals, such as Culpeper’s, describe the violet as a...
View ArticleCivet and Rose: (Early) Modern Perfume Ingredients Fit for a King
By Colleen Kennedy Civet was one of the most exotic luxury ingredients in early modern perfumes. This odoriferous secretion comes from the perineal glands of the civet cat of Asia and Africa to mark...
View ArticleRobert Herrick’s penchant for (feminine) almonds
By Colleen Kennedy THE BRIDE-CAKE. by Robert Herrick THIS day, my Julia, thou must make For Mistress Bride the wedding-cake : Knead but the dough, and it will be To paste of almonds turn’d by thee :...
View ArticleAn early summer round-up…
By Elaine Leong Walking down the streets of Berlin, the signs of early summer are everywhere. The flower stalls are selling five different kinds of peonies, the asparagus season is beginning to wane...
View ArticleBaking a Pumpion Pye (c. 1670)
Last year, I was invited to a Thanksgiving potluck and I thought this might be the ideal time to try out a 17th century pumpkin pie recipe. I read early modern perfume and aromatic recipes often for my...
View ArticleA Perfumed Recipe on the Early Modern Stage (Part 1)
By Colleen Kennedy This is the first part of a two-part reading of the pomander recipe depicted in Thomas Tomkis’ allegorical Jacobean comedy, Lingua: or, the Combat of the Tongue and the Five Senses...
View ArticleA Ladies Home Journal in 18th-century Nottinghamshire, England
by Lisa M. Lillie Tucked away in the Papers of the Mellish Family of Hodstock, Nottinghamshire, in the University of Nottingham’s Rare Books and Manuscripts collections, Lady Mellish’s “Old Accts...
View ArticleTales from the Archives: Smelling ‘Violet’ in Renaissance Works
In September 2016, The Recipes Project celebrated its fourth birthday. We now have over 500 posts in our archives and over 120 pages for readers to sift through. That’s a lot of material! (And thank...
View ArticleTales from the Archives: Smelling ‘Violet’ in Renaissance Works
In 2017, The Recipes Project celebrated its fifth birthday. We now have nearly 650 posts in our archives and over 160 pages for readers to sift through. That’s a lot of material! (And thank you so much...
View ArticleTales from the Archives:
I am a homesick Canadian in the UK at this time of year. This coming weekend is Thanksgiving and I’ll be thinking about my family feasting on turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Our modified...
View ArticleThe Crown and the Chrism: The Recipe of the Coronation Oil
By Colleen Kennedy This post will turn to the television show The Crown to focus on the English coronation process, attending specifically to the most sacred aspect of the ceremony, the anointing of...
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