Food and drink

One of the earliest recipes for pumpkin pie can be found in the Folger vaults: “To make a Pumpion Pie,” which appears in a 17th-century cookbook by Hannah Woolley, one of the first women in early modern Britain to earn a living by her writing.

Salmon, oysters, asparagus, and grapes are all ingredients in this unusual pie recipe from Francine Segan’s cookbook “Shakespeare’s Kitchen.”

Francine Segan, a food historian with a taste for the Renaissance, adapts a 1610 handwritten recipe for rose cakes from a recipe book that’s part of the Folger collection.

Food historian Francine Segan has a taste for the Renaissance and a love of Shakespeare. Here she adapts a recipe for “Citron pye” from a 1587 cookbook. You’ll find an intense combination of vinegar and pepper in these citrus tarts.

Enjoy a recipe for a traditional Twelfth Night cake. Whoever finds the dried beans or hidden trinkets in their pieces of cake are crowned the “Twelfth Night Kings” and distribute gifts to all the children and select the songs and games.

Francine Segan is a food historian with a taste for the Renaissance. She’s the author of six cookbooks, including Shakespeare’s Kitchen (2003) and the Opera Lover’s Cookbook, which was nominated for a James Beard award. This year she’s been spending…

Tending to the flock, stealing sheep, walking to Bethlehem, playing the music that underscores it all…the company of The Second Shepherds’ Play does this and more, night after night. It’s no wonder, then, that such a hectic schedule helps them work…

Folger researchers recently uncovered a very early European potato recipe in our archives in a collection kept by the Grenville family from c. 1640-1750. “To make a potato puding” shows the growing popularity of this New World food in England.

The Folger is home to the largest collection of early modern western European recipe books in the United States, and a team of Folger researchers recently uncovered a very early European potato recipe in our archives. This recipe, “to make a…

Early modern kitchens, food, and recipes offer an intriguing window on the world in which Shakespeare lived. Our new Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episode is a fascinating interview with Wendy Wall, who explores the role of food, kitchens, and other related subjects in…