The Book of Roasts, 1580-1660

Historical rabbit holes, for those who are inclined.

These slender booklets from Historical Management Associates are the work of an organization dedicated to historical re-enactment in the UK. They are written with a stickler’s attention to historical precision and a conviction that nothing is too arcane to investigate. Some of the books are simple transcriptions of period manuscripts; others represent significant original research, as in Cattle Farming and Grazing Management, which is 52 pages long but cites 36 sources, many of them published in the 17th century.

From the introduction:

“This work lists all the roasting recipes and their associated sauces that have been discovered in works of the period… a ROAST is a dish so described at the period. In all but 2 cases these seem to be roasted on spits, one is “toasted” possibly on a spit or a grid and the last is roasted in an oven.”

Staplebound pamphlet. 64 pages