FAECES: dregs (Latin). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FARCE: stuffing. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

FARCE: to stuff with forcemeat, herbs, spices, etc. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FARSING, 89, 140-41: stuffing. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

FAST DAYS: the days, including the whole period of Lent, when the Roman Catholic Church required its adherents to abstain from meat as a way of mortifying the flesh and reducing carnal passions. In England this practice had been abolished as a popish institution under the Commonwealth. It is thus not surprising that almost all the mentions of fish and fast days in Bradley’s cookery books occur in recipes from Roman Catholic parts of Europe. (Cf. Part I, pp. 26, 35, 60, 184.) In this respect he was attuned to the time. As C. Anne Wilson has recently pointed out, it is curiously anachronistic that the longest chapter (IX) in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) consists of Fast day dishes. (See Petits Propos Culinaires, number 4, Prospect Books, 1980.) (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FASTING: ‘every morning fasting’ – Ellis often uses this word to indicate that you haven’t eaten before doing whatever he advises. (William Ellis, 1750)

FASTING DAY, 25: a day on which no meat could be eaten. Such days were so frequent in the 16th and 17th centuries, although abolished under the Commonwealth (1649-1660), that the work of cooks was dominated to quite a large extent by the necessity to have menus for both meat and meatless days. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

FAT (noun): often for vat. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FAT: Cheese vat. (John Nott, 1726)

FEARCED: farced, stuffed. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FEARN: fern. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FEATHERFEW, 159. An alternative name for feverfew, Tanacetum (formerly Chrysanthemum) parthenium, a herb with pungent, bitter leaves which was considered to be a good remedy for fever and headaches. ‘In the worst headache this herb exceeds whatever else is known’, declared one 18th century author; and feverfew has recently been investigated as a means of relieving migraine.(Glasse, 1747)

FELFARE, 162, an old spelling for fieldfare, the bird.(Glasse, 1747)

FETCH is vetch. (William Ellis, 1750)

FETHERFEW: another name for feverfew, Chrysanthemum parthenium. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FILLETTING, filliting: tape for binding collars and other joints of meat. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

FILLETTING was tape for binding collars and other joints of meat. (William Ellis, 1750)

FIRKIN: a small barrel, whose size depends on the commodity stored. The ale firkin is 8 gallons: half a kilderkin, or a quarter of a barrel, but Receipts 3 and 4 show beers being made in firkins of varying sizes. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

FIRKIN is a small barrel. Its size depends on the material stored. (William Ellis, 1750)

FISH, 163-4, are (A) listed in their varieties and seasons, with (B) directions on how to choose them. A casual glance is sufficient to show that A and B are not coordinated. B is taken straight from The Whole Duty of a Woman, which had it from Eliza Smith (1727), and presents no problems. But A, the origin of which has not yet been traced, is full of puzzles. Some arise from the spelling, for example Bearbet for Burbot, Brile for Brill, Chare for Char, Guardfish for Garfish, Homlyn for the Homelyn ray, Tones for Tuna (?), and Wilks for Whelks. Kinson may conceivably be Kingston, a name cited by Couch (1877-8) for the Monkfish. But what are Crouch, Geare, Gullin, Rocket, Shafflins and Glout, and Tollis? It is doubtful whether Hannah Glasse herself knew, since list A (and for that matter list B) is not reflected in the limited range of species named in her recipes. Efforts to identify the mystery fish will continue.(Glasse, 1747)

FISH-KETTLE. To judge by 19th century examples, this would have been oval in shape and deeper than the kind now sold.(Glasse, 1747)

FISH SAUCE, 48. Hannah Glasse’s statement that a Frenchman would order it for pheasant is no doubt based on the recipe for pheasant with carp sauce given by La Chapelle (1732), and copied by The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737). The fact that La Chapelle gives no fewer than 36 other recipes for fowl or game birds dressed with fish (sauce) must have made an indelible impression on everyone who read his book, as Hannah Glasse probably did (see Stead, 1983, Part II, 18-19).(Glasse, 1747)

FLAG: When used as an alternative to tape for tying meat into a collar, flag meant rush or read. (John Nott, 1726)

FLAIR or flare, the leaf or fat about a pig’s kidneys. (William Ellis, 1750)

FLASHY means watery, frothy, unstable, sometimes insipid or tasteless. (William Ellis, 1750)

FLASKET, 370: a long and shallow basket. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

FLAY, TO, or flea means to skin. (William Ellis, 1750)

FLEAK, flake (of flesh) (Robert May, 1660/1685)

FLEAM is the lancet used in letting the blood of animals. (William Ellis, 1750)

FLEET is another word for skimmed. The verb describes the act of skimming. (William Ellis, 1750)

FLEUR DE FOIN: grass-seed (French). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FLITCH: the side of an animal, salted and cured. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FLITTING DISH: a broad dish used to lift cream off the milk, the word flitting deriving from fleet: to skim. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

FLOOTING ISLAND, 147. Floating island, one of the standard sweet dishes in the 18th century. It was an island of isinglass flummery (or other more solid material) set in a sea of jelly. See Anne Wilson (1973, 107).(Glasse, 1747)

FLORENCE FLASK: a bulbous-shaped glass bottle with a long narrow neck protected by a covering of wicker work or plaited grass in which wines and olive oil (Florence oil) were exported from Italy. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FLORENDEN: florentine, a kind of pie, of minced meats, currants, spices, etc., baked in a dish with a cover of paste; the shape of dish used for this. (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FLORENTINE, FLORENDINE: A large round covered pie, the equivalent of the Italian torta and the French tourte. Nott’s Egg Florendine E 55 appears, however, to be a kind of fruit and egg mincemeat baked without a crust. Cotgrave gives Florentine as the translation of tourte. (John Nott, 1726)

FLORENDINE, FLORENTINE. A large, top-crust pie, circular in shape, or the recipient in which it was baked. Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary shows that in Scotland it was usually a dish of veal baked in a plate with a cover of paste, corresponding more or less to Hannah Glasse’s recipe for a Florendine of Veal, 59; and that in Bedfordshire an ‘Apple Florentine’ was served at Christmas. The latter consisted of a large dish of pewter or similar metal filled with good baking apples, sugar and lemon, and covered with a rich roll of pastry, which was removed and cut up after the baking so that hot spiced ale could be poured over the apples. Some relationship can be discerned between this dish and Hannah Glasse’s Florendine of Oranges or Apples, 113. The use of the term florentine for the big, round dish in which special apple pies were baked survived in the Yorkshire Dales until well into the 20th century.(Glasse, 1747)

FLORENTINE, florendine: a covered tart or pie, often of meat, made with puff paste, which was itself often connected by seventeenth-century cooks with the town of Florence. Karen Hess observes that many early florentines, even those of meat, contained a custard filling. The French equivalent is a tourte; the Italian, a torta. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

FLORENTINE: a kind of pie or tart. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FLORENTINE ARRACH-ROOT seems here to refer to the orris root: the edible iris, cultivated particularly around Florence. His spelling, ‘arrach’, might indicate orach, the wild spinach, but that was known for its leaves, not its root; nor was it especially Florentine. (William Ellis, 1750)

FLOUR. The specific requirement for Hertfordshire white flour, 151, is interesting. William Ellis (The Country Housewife’s Family Companion, 1750) deals extensively with agricultural matters and associated subjects like breadmaking, with frequent references to Hertfordshire, but does not say that that county’s flour was exceptional. Indeed he explains at length how to make Hertfordshire Barley-Bread ‘to eat like Wheaten-Bread’.(Glasse, 1747)

FLUMMERY: A creamy confection baked on oatmeal, barley, or wheat bran. Rice flour was also used for flummery, and hartshorn flummery was stiffened with jelly made from shavings of hartshorn boiled in water and cleared with egg whites. See H 22. One of Nott’s flummery receipts, F 20, seems to be nothing more than a baked custard decorated with currants. (John Nott, 1726)

FLUMMERY (Hartshorn; Oatmeal 146: French 147). A confection resembling a blancmange, usually made by steeping oatmeal or wheat bran in changes of water and boiling the liquid until it became a jelly. Hartshorn flummery, 146, a recipe from Mary Kettilby (1719), was helped to gel by hartshorn shavings. The recipe for French flummery, 147, uses isinglass, although according to Barbara Wheaton (1983) the French had largely abandoned isinglass in favour of ‘corne de cerf’ curing the 17th century.(Glasse, 1747)

FLUMMERY is a confection whereby oatmeal or wheat bran is steeped in water, the liquid then boiled until it became a jelly. (William Ellis, 1750)

FONTINEAC, 148. The wine Frontignac, a muscat wine made at the French town of that name and often called for in English 18th century recipe books. However, imports of French wines were at a low ebb for most of the century, because of the frequent wars, and efforts were made to imitate Frontignac among other French wines. Gooseberry wine was sometimes known as ‘English Frontiniac’, and Jane Grigson (private communication) has drawn attention to the affinity justifying this. Frontiniac is delicious with dessert gooseberries; and gooseberry wine, especially when flavoured with elderflower, is indeed reminiscent of the real Frontiniac.(Glasse, 1747)

FOOL: It will be seen from Nott’s receipts that in his day a Fool was something like a modern trifle but made with bread instead of cake. Norfolk Fool, F 22, consists of layers of fine bread covered with a very rich custard and decorated in typical Stuart fashion with dates stuck upright and ‘carved sippets’ round the dish. Westminster Fool, W 67, is very similar. Whitepots, W 75 to 85, are mostly baked versions of the same dish, but Norfolk whitepot is what Robert May (see p.l) called Norfolk Fool. Nott’s Gooseberry Fool, G 34, is closer to our own fruit fools but made with a rich custard rather than cream. (John Nott, 1726)

FORCE, to farce, to stuff.(Glasse, 1747)

FORCED MEAT (forcemeat): finely chopped, spiced, and highly seasoned meat, for use as a stuffing or garnish. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FOSSETS, faucets.(Glasse, 1747)

FRAMAGE, A LA. Framage is a curious way of spelling fromage, the French for cheese.(Glasse, 1747)

FRANK: a sty. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FRANK: pen or sty, usually used for fattening. (William Ellis, 1750)

FRAZE or FRAIZE or FROIZE (froise or fraise): a kind of pancake or omelet, often containing slices of bacon. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FRAZE(S), 82. A word spelled in many ways by various authors, e.g. fraize and froize. It means a kind of pancake or omelette, often containing slices of bacon.(Glasse, 1747)

FRENCH-COWSLIP: either Pulmonaria gallorum, a kind of lung-wort, presumably considered medicinal; or the auricula (Primula auricula). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

FRENCH LOAF, ROLLS: See Bread, French. (John Nott, 1726)

FRENCH LOAVES, 36, see BREAD.(Glasse, 1747)

FRICANDOES, 45. Included in the list of culinary terms given by Massialot (1702): ‘a sort of Scotch Collops, made of thin slices of Veal well larded and farced, which are afterwards to be dress’d in a Stewpan, close cover’d, over a gentle Fire.’(Glasse, 1747)

FRICASEE (fricassee): Randle Holme defines this as ‘varieties of Meat boiled together in a Broth’. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FRICASEY. A 17th century definition of this was ‘varieties of Meat boiled together in a Broth’. But the word developed a wider meaning and could refer to slices of meat fried or stewed; also to a dish of sliced, hard-boiled eggs, of chicken, rabbit, fish, etc. Originally, the preparation was always started by frying the chopped-up ingredients in butter, then adding liquid and thickening with eggs or flour. See Wilson (1973, 101); and Rebecca Price (1681 ms, 1974 edition, 74, 94, etc).(Glasse, 1747)

FRITTER MOULDS: Iron or brass moulds hammered out in fanciful openwork shapes such as the ‘coats of arms’ called for in F 34, and fixed on the end of long handles. The way in which they were used—and no doubt still are—is explained in F 34. The idea was that the cooked fritters, when detached from the irons or moulds, would appear as escutcheons, rosettes, stars, and so on. Fritter irons had been introduced to France, I think from Italy, (one is illustrated in Scappi’s famous Opera of 1570), at some time during the 17th century, and are one of the most fussy and maddening of culinary utensils. (John Nott, 1726)

FRITTERS OF ARMS, 306: fritters which were made by pouring batter on to hot metal shapes. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

FRITTERS, WATER: These are made from an early version of choux paste. (John Nott, 1726)

FROISE, 224. Fraise became the more usual spelling of this term. It meant a kind of pancake or omelette, often containing slices of bacon. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

FRUITS. There are references in The Country Housewife and Lady’s Director to the apple, apricot, barberry, berougella, bullace, cherry, crab apple, currant, damson, fig, gooseberry, grape, lemon, lime, mango, melon, mulberry, orange, passion fruit, peach, pear, pineapple, plum, prune, quince, raspberry, and shaddock. Bradley’s main works on fruit growing were: New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, part III, 1718; New Experiments and Observations, Relating to the Generation of Plants, I724; and The Fruit Garden Display’d…, 1732. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FULLER’S EARTH, 150. A fine clay used for cleaning purposes, especially for the removal of grease, which it absorbs readily. The best was said to be of a dull grey-green colour and to come from Buckinghamshire and Surrey.(Glasse, 1747)

FUMETORY, 159. The plant fumitory, Fumaria officinalis, whose names are derived from the Latin fumus, meaning smoke. There are various explanations of this, one being that the plant was engendered in a mysterious way, like smoke, and another that it makes people weep as smoke does. Its leaves were used with roses to make a syrup which had medicinal uses.(Glasse, 1747)

FUMETTE: French for flavour, bouquet, scent, or the high smell of meat. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

FUMITORY is the plant Fumaria officinalis. (William Ellis, 1750)

FURMETY, 420: frumenty, an ancient dish of which the basis was hulled wheat grains boiled until they burst and then treated in the way described by May, or even further enriched. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

FURMETY, FRUMETY, FRUMENTY: A richly flavoured and highly nutritious dish of very ancient origin. Whole wheat grains are hulled and lengthily cooked in water until the grains burst, forming an almost jelly-like framework in which the grains are held in suspension. Various enrichments of milk or cream, eggs or saffron, spices and sugar or dried fruit, were added and the frumenty was briefly recooked. At early medieval feasts it was the obligatory accompaniment to venison, or porpoise on fish days. Later it became, in some parts of the country, a Christmas dish. In others it was eaten at mid-Lent. Barley grains were often used instead of wheat. Nott’s rice frumenty, R 41, would make only a poor substitute for wheat or barley. Nott’s direction in F 40 ‘take two quarts of hull’d boil’d wheat’ probably indicated that the ready-boiled wheat was bought in from a local market. (Farmers’ wives prepared and sold the boiled wheat in basins, either from their own market stalls, or to dairy shops and even from door to door, so that townspeople were saved the lengthy preparatory processes of hulling and boiling the grains). (John Nott, 1726)

FURMITY. Hannah Glasse’s spelling of frumenty, a preparation thus described by Elizabeth David (in Nott, reprint, 1980). ‘A richly flavoured and highly nutritious dish of very ancient origin. Whole wheat grains are hulled and lengthily cooked in water until the grains burst, forming an almost jelly- like framework in which the grains are held in suspension. Various enrichments of milk or cream, eggs or saffron, spices and sugar or dried fruit, were added and the frumenty was briefly recooked. At early mediaeval feasts it was the obligatory accompaniment to venison, or porpoise on fish days. Later it became, in some parts of the country, a Christmas dish. In others it was eaten at mid-Lent. Barley grains were often used instead of wheat.’(Glasse, 1747)

FURMITY, frumenty: whole-husked grains, cooked in water, then often enriched with cream, eggs, spices, sugar and dried fruits, or a combination of these. (William Ellis, 1750)

FURNACE: The anglicised version of the French fourneau, the built-in cooking stove which was a late 17th century innovation. When Nott gives directions to ‘make an end of cooking it on the furnace’ he means that a sauce, fricassee, ragoo, etc. was to be finished off over the stove rather than on the old chafing dish of coals. (John Nott, 1726)

FUS, fuzz (of mussels, i.e. the byssus, 135).(Glasse, 1747)


Shopping Cart

Your shopping cart is empty
Visit the shop