Recreating the Food of English Folk 1558-1660, by Stuart Peachey

Subtitled 'The food of the common people in Elizabethan and early Stuart England'

Book published by Stuart Press in 2022, 224 pages. Paperback - c.17cm by 24cm (N8328PE)

Brand New Book

From the rear side cover: This work draws together 45 years of research to provide an understanding of how to recreate the food of the, common people of England in the Elizabethan and Early Stuart period. The work is based on the study of many thousands of original documents, including account books, diaries, recipe books and 20,000 probate inventories and wills. Over 25,000 English woodcuts and paintings were evaluated.

The information was then used over the last 35 years to reconstruct complete period landscapes with the buildings and cooking equipment to test theories experimentally and orchards, gardens, woods and pastures to produce the ingredients and fuels required for such experiments. The food of the common people has long been overlooked, hidden by the vast amount of information available for the minute number of upper elite. This work pieces together the scattered evidence to build a picture of the dishes eaten through the seasons by the vast majority of English people.

This book forms essential reading for anyone trying to understand, interpret or reconstruct the food of common English folk of the period.