Forgotten Foods- Long Pepper

This is a lightly reworked version of a post I wrote for The International Routier blog, published on February 23, 2010. Dried fruit of Long Pepper. Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED. Long pepper (Piper retrofractum), a native of Java, is a much misunderstood spice commonly used in seventeenth century cooking, brewing and medicine. Long …

Quote of the daye – Sacke

Ceramic sack bottle at Cotehele House, Cornwall. Photo by me. Sacke is the life, soul and spirit of a man, the fire which Prometheus stole, not from Jove’s kitchen, but his wine-cellar, to encrease the native heat and radicall moisture, without which we are but drousie dust or dead clay. This is nectar, the very …

Seventeenth Century recipes using Whisky

The recipes are taken from A Queens Delight, to give a sample of the types of drink that were made using whisky as a base. The first makes a drink suspiciously similar to Drambuie – which uses Chivas Regal as its base. I suspect they now omit the whale vomit. We did. We showcased our …

Quote of the Daye – Ale

The Wine-Coopers Delight, from 'A book of Roxburghe Ballads' First then, it is a singular remedy against all melancholick diseases, Tremor cordis, and Maladies of the spleene. It is purgative and of great operation against all gripings of the small guts. It cures the stone in the Bladder, or Kidneyes, and provokes Urine wonderfully. It …

Strong Waters

Often you see re-enactors of various persuasions putting away quantities of their favoured tipple at banquets and other events. These are modern, commercially prepared beverages that really only have the name and a couple of base ingredients in common with their liquid forebears. Having presented the products of our research into seventeenth century beers and …

Faust – An belated review

This is a lightly reworked version of a post I wrote for The International Routier blog, which was published on November 12, 2011. “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”. Possibly he is also tired of paying through the kidney for everything, so The Globe always comes as a delight for this man …

Game Boxes

This is a lightly reworked version of a post I wrote for The International Routier blog, which was published on March 1, 2012. Now you have all your new-found board game skills worked out, what do you do with them? Get one of these to play on, obviously. Games board, unknown maker, Germany (probably Augsburg), …

Games – Tables or Backgammon

This is a lightly reworked version of a post I wrote for The International Routier blog, which was published on February 6, 2012. Adriaen van Ostade, c. 1659-1670. Drawing; A game of backgammon. Asset number 220511001, © The Trustees of the British Museum. Use here under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Equipment A Backgammon board consists of …

Games – Chess

This is a lightly reworked version of a post I wrote for The International Routier blog, which was published on January 7, 2012. Declared illegal by ecclesial lawyers in 1633, modern chess rules fundamentally date from the 15th century. Equipment The game is played on a square chequered board of 64 squares. The pieces for …

Games – Morris

This is a lightly reworked version of a post I wrote for The International Routier blog, which was published on February 16, 2012. My copy of a Mary Rose chest with a Morris board carved on the top. The original board was incised on a barrel head instead. Equipment Nine Mens’ Morris or Mill is played …