Carp Pie
Old Elizabethan Recipe

Picture of Hannah Woolley Recipe Book

 

Carp Pie
Old Elizabethan Recipe

  • Ingredients for Carp Pie - an Old Elizabethan Recipe
  • Cooking method for Carp Pie
  • Carp Pie  - Old Elizabethan Recipe
  • Have fun reading this Carp Pie old recipe
  • What food people ate during the Renaissance era

Old Elizabethan Recipes

Elizabethan Era Index

Carp Pie

Old Elizabethan Recipe

Carp Pie

To make a Carp Pie
Take a large Carp and scale him, gut and wash him clean, and dry him well, then lay Butter into your Pie, and fill your Carps belly with this Pudding; grated bread, sweet herbs, and a little Bacon minced small, the yolks of hard Eggs and an Anchovie minced, also a little Marrow, Nutmeg, and then put in a little Salt, but a very little, and make some of this up in Balls, then Lard the Carp, sew up his Belly, and lay him into your Pie, then lay in the Balls of Pudding, with some Oysters, Shrimps and Capers, and the yolks of hard Eggs and a little Slices of Bacon, then put in large Mace and Butter, so close it and bake it, then cut off the Lid, and stick it full of pretty Conceits made in Paste, and serve it in hot

 

Carp Pie Old Elizabethan Recipe
The above Old recipe is taken from for Carp Pie is written in totally different way to today's recipe books!

  • There were no lists of ingredients - these were included as part of the text
  • Food and ingredient measurements were extremely basic - quantities were not often specified!
  • Temperature control was difficult and therefore not specified!
  • Cooking times were vague - and left to the cook to decide!
  • It was assumed that the reader would already have some knowledge of cooking

The History of the Recipe Book

  • Some of the language might be referred to as 'Olde English'
  • The art of cooking and the recipe was passed verbally from one generation to the next
  • The first printed book ever to be published in English was in 1474!
  • Most Elizabethan women were unable to read!
  • The idea of a Recipe Book was an entirely new concept
  • The first Recipe Books to be printed in England which included many old Elizabethan and Medieval recipes were called:

    • 1545 - 'A Propre new booke of Cokery'
    • 1588 - 'The Good Huswifes Handmaid for Cookerie in her kitchen'
    • 1596 - 'The Good Hyswife's Jewell'
    • 1610 'Mrs. Sarah Longe her Receipt Booke'

Carp Pie Old Elizabethan Recipe
The above Old recipe is taken from the book by Hannah Woolley (1622-1675) printed at the White Lion in Duck-Lane, near West-Smithfield, London in 1672 entitled:

The Queen-like Closet
OR
RICH CABINET
Scored with all manner of
RARE RECEIPTS
FOR
Preserving, Candying and Cookery

Carp Pie
Old Elizabethan Recipe

  • Ingredients for Carp Pie - an Old Elizabethan Recipe
  • Cooking method for Carp Pie
  • Free Carp Pie  - Old Elizabethan Recipe
  • Have fun reading this Carp Pie old recipe
  • What food people ate during the Renaissance era
  • The cooking instructions used
  • The different types of food used in old recipes