Foreign Infusion: Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England PDF
Preview Foreign Infusion: Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Foreign Infusion: Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1sg758sd Author Azevedo, Jillian Michelle Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Foreign Infusion: Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Jillian Michelle Azevedo June 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson Dr. Jonathan Eacott Dr. Christine Gailey Copyright by Jillian Michelle Azevedo 2014 This Dissertation of Jillian Michelle Azevedo is approved: __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Dedication To my Parents and Grandparents iv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Foreign Infusion: Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England by Jillian Michelle Azevedo Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, June 2014 Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson During the seventeenth century, the English were integrating foreign foods into their lives at an unprecedented, and previously unacknowledged, rate. This is apparent in both English homes and popular culture, as foreign foods were featured in contemporary recipe books, medical manuals, treatises, travel narratives, and even in plays performed during the period. Their inclusion in the English home and in popular culture is important; it illustrates that there was a general fascination with these foods that went beyond just eating them. When written about in travel narratives or incorporated into plays, the English were able to mentally consume such products. In this manner, they could think about, contemplate, and imagine foreign foods they may or may not have had access to, whether because of high costs or an inability to grow the product domestically. v When featured in contemporary recipe books, medicinal manuals, or treatises describing their virtues, there is an indication that foreign foods were available to the public and were being integrated into English culinary culture. Although it is impossible to discern from recipe books and medicinal texts whether foreign foods were actually being consumed and not simply written about by “armchair chefs,” the fact that they are featured in other aspects of English culture buoys the notion that they were physically being consumed. This unique relationship presents a duality of foreign food consumption, as the English were consuming foreign foods in both body and in mind. vi Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Chapter 1: Culinary Travels: William Dampier and Travel Narratives………………… 25 Chapter 2: “Let the skie raine Potatoes”: Foreign Foods in English Plays………………65 Chapter 3: “The Queens Closet Opened”……………………………………………... 100 Chapter 4: Foreign Additives in Domestic Remedies…………………………………..135 Chapter 5: Vices and Virtues: Tobacco, Chocolate, Coffee, and Tea in Print…………174 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...217 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………..223 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………242 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1...……………………………………………………………………………... 37 Figure 1.2……………………………………………………………..………………… 46 Figure 1.3………………………………………………………………...……………... 47 Figure 1.4……………………………….………………………………………………. 48 viii Introduction Like many of the cookery books published in the seventeenth century, The Queens Closet Opened, published in 1661, contains recipes for food dishes as well as home remedies for a variety of ailments. One such recipe for a cure, entitled “A green oyntment good for Bruises, Swellings, and Wrenches in Man, Horse, or othr Beast.” advises as follows: Take six pound of May Butter unsalted, Oyl Olive one quarter, Barrows- grease four pound, Rosin, and Turpentine, of each one pound, Frankincense half a pound: then take these following-Hearbs, of each one handful: Balm, Smallege, Lovage, Red Sage, Lavender, Cotton, Marjoram, Rosemary, Mallows, Cammomile, Plaintain, Alheal, Chickweed, Rue, Parsley, Comfrey, Laurel leaves, Birch leaves, Longwort, English Tobacco, Groundswel, Woundwort, Agrimony, Briony, Carduus Benedictus, Betony, Adders Tongue, Saint Johns-wort, pick all these, wash them clean, and strain the water clean of them… For a man [to use] it must be well chafed in the Palme of the hand three or four times. If you use it for a Horse, put to it Brimstone finely beaten, and work it altogether, as aforesaid.1 The fermentation of this mixture may seem to be the most fascinating part, as the recipe later calls for the ointment to be set in “a Horse Dunghil one and twenty days.” Yet even more interesting is the diversity of the ingredients used. Although many of the ingredients, like betony, birch leaves, and St. John’s wort, are indigenous to Europe, what stands out are those that came from abroad. After all, the frankincense, cotton, plantains, and tobacco called for in this medicinal recipe were the products of English interaction with the Americas, Africa, and Asia. This integration of foreign goods into seventeenth century English recipes goes beyond the initial excitement of experimenting with foreign food items and illustrates a 1 Anonymous, The Queens Closet Opened (1661) Wing M99A, 36-38. 1
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