‘Preserve or perish’
Food preservation practices in the early modern kitchen
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20315411 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lucy J Havard (University College London, Science and Technology Department, 22 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0AH, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 74 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 5-33 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-20 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Notes and Records the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0035-9149 • E-ISSN: 1743-0178 |
| Publisher | The Royal Society (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1098/rsnr.2019.0004 |
| PMID | 32063655 |
| OpenAlex | W2961931769 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Early modern manuscript recipe books have become increasingly popular sources for historical research over recent years. Extensive compilations of food recipes, medicinal remedies and household tips, these manuscripts provide rich, multi-faceted opportunities for historical study and discussion. This paper utilizes recipe books as a means to examine contemporary food preservation practices. Through detailed textual analysis of these manuscripts, and the reconstruction of early modern preserving recipes, I explore the explicit and tacit ‘domestic knowledge’ required for food preservation. I argue that, rather than being a straightforward activity, this was a complex process requiring significant judgement, intuition and experience on the part of the housewife. Preservation was an experimental practice that might be considered under the umbrella of early modern natural philosophy, and the housewife was a legitimate actor in the associated knowledge production
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Epistemology · Housewife · Intuition · Judgement · Political science · Recipe · Sociology · Tacit knowledge · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.6 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |