Preserving on Paper

"These three meticulouslytranscribed manuscripts offer a fascinating glimpse into the realm of the seventeenth-century housewife as she moves from baking plum cakes and preserving gooseberry wine to putting together cough medicines and potions to cure deafness. An absorbing glossary and a thoughtful introduction make this book a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the transition from the rural medieval world where communal traditions going back to Antiquity were transmitted orally to the individualistic, urban modern world of printed texts." -- Rachel Laudan, author of 'Cuisine & Empire: Cooking in World History'

Preserving on Paper is a critical edition of three seventeenth-century receipt books–handwritten manuals that included a combination of culinary recipes, medical remedies, and household tips which documented the work of women at home.

Apricot wine and stewed calf’s head, melancholy medicine and "ointment of roses."

Welcome to the cookbook Shakespeare would have recognized. Preserving on Paper is a critical edition of three seventeenth-century receipt books–handwritten manuals that included a combination of culinary recipes, medical remedies, and household tips which documented the work of women at home. Kristine Kowalchuk argues that receipt books served as a form of folk writing, where knowledge was shared and passed between generations. These texts played an important role in the history of women’s writing and literacy and contributed greatly to issues of authorship, authority, and book history. Kowalchuk’s revelatory interdisciplinary study offers unique insights into early modern women’s writings and the original sharing economy.