Manuscript Recipe Books as Archaeological Objects: Text and Food in the Early Modern World

During the mid- to late seventeenth century, women in Irish houses from elite backgrounds started to collect recipes, which they recorded in domestic manuscripts. While these manuscripts were made elsewhere at an earlier date, they were an almost entirely new arrival to Ireland in this period, and their sudden proliferation said much about changes taking place in society at large. This book is a detailed study of such manuscripts from the perspective of historical archaeology, which will ar...