
Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial

The three most popular recipes from Before 'Farm to Table'
With the Folger’s four-year Before ‘Farm to Table’ project drawing to a close, we’re revisiting three of the most popular early modern recipes adapted by the project team and shared on the Shakespeare & Beyond blog. Before ‘Farm to Table’:…

Spilling the beans: The Islamic history of coffee
Before there were Starbucks and the quirky coffeeshops masquerading as cozy work corners for many of us, there was the mid-17th century coffeeshop boom in England. During the 1600s, the general conversation about coffee nodded to its status as the…

Recipe: A 17th-century potato pie with marrow and dates

Early modern recipe combinations to get you through the winter

The turkey’s journey from the Atlantic to the early modern Islamic world

The early modern precursor to turducken: Adapting an old recipe to make mini pies

Before the Thanksgiving turkey came the banquet peacock

Roast joint of mutton: A recipe from ‘Fat Rascals’

Eggs in moonshine and spinach toasts: Two early modern recipes for a sweet breakfast

"Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen": Hedgehogs in Shakespeare's plays and the early modern imagination
Edward Topsell. The historie of foure-footed beastes. 1607. FOLGER STC 24123 copy 1 While the global population of European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) is stable, their numbers have been rapidly declining in the UK for decades, especially in rural areas. This…

Possets, drugs, and milky effects: A look at recipes, Shakespeare's plays, and other historical references
Shakespeare’s plays are full of references to food and cookery, but they’re not always very appetizing. In Hamlet, the ghost of elder Hamlet describes the effect of the poison that Claudius pours into his ears, how it winds its way…