Foreign Infusion: Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England

281 Pages·2014·2.43 MB·English

UC Riverside
UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Foreign Infusion: Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1sg758sd
Author
Azevedo, Jillian Michelle
Publication Date
2014

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library
University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE

Foreign Infusion:
Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England

A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

History

by

Jillian Michelle Azevedo

June 2014

Dissertation Committee:
Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson
Dr. Jonathan Eacott
Dr. Christine Gailey
Copyright by
Jillian Michelle Azevedo
2014
This Dissertation of Jillian Michelle Azevedo is approved:

__________________________________________

__________________________________________

__________________________________________
Committee Chairperson

University of California, Riverside
Dedication

To my Parents and Grandparents

iv
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Foreign Infusion:
Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England

by

Jillian Michelle Azevedo

Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History
University of California, Riverside, June 2014
Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson

During the seventeenth century, the English were integrating foreign foods into
their lives at an unprecedented, and previously unacknowledged, rate. This is apparent in
both English homes and popular culture, as foreign foods were featured in contemporary
recipe books, medical manuals, treatises, travel narratives, and even in plays performed
during the period. Their inclusion in the English home and in popular culture is
important; it illustrates that there was a general fascination with these foods that went
beyond just eating them. When written about in travel narratives or incorporated into
plays, the English were able to mentally consume such products. In this manner, they
could think about, contemplate, and imagine foreign foods they may or may not have had
access to, whether because of high costs or an inability to grow the product domestically.
v
When featured in contemporary recipe books, medicinal manuals, or treatises describing
their virtues, there is an indication that foreign foods were available to the public and
were being integrated into English culinary culture. Although it is impossible to discern
from recipe books and medicinal texts whether foreign foods were actually being
consumed and not simply written about by “armchair chefs,” the fact that they are
featured in other aspects of English culture buoys the notion that they were physically
being consumed. This unique relationship presents a duality of foreign food consumption,
as the English were consuming foreign foods in both body and in mind.

vi
Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 1
Chapter 1: Culinary Travels: William Dampier and Travel Narratives………………… 25
Chapter 2: “Let the skie raine Potatoes”: Foreign Foods in English Plays………………65
Chapter 3: “The Queens Closet Opened”……………………………………………... 100
Chapter 4: Foreign Additives in Domestic Remedies…………………………………..135
Chapter 5: Vices and Virtues: Tobacco, Chocolate, Coffee, and Tea in Print…………174
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...217
Appendix………………………………………………………………………………..223
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………242

vii
List of Figures

Figure 1.1...……………………………………………………………………………... 37
Figure 1.2……………………………………………………………..………………… 46
Figure 1.3………………………………………………………………...……………... 47
Figure 1.4……………………………….………………………………………………. 48
viii
Introduction
Like many of the cookery books published in the seventeenth century, The
Queens Closet Opened, published in 1661, contains recipes for food dishes as well as
home remedies for a variety of ailments. One such recipe for a cure, entitled “A green
oyntment good for Bruises, Swellings, and Wrenches in Man, Horse, or othr Beast.”
advises as follows:
Take six pound of May Butter unsalted, Oyl Olive one quarter, Barrows-
grease four pound, Rosin, and Turpentine, of each one pound,
Frankincense half a pound: then take these following-Hearbs, of each one
handful: Balm, Smallege, Lovage, Red Sage, Lavender, Cotton,
Marjoram, Rosemary, Mallows, Cammomile, Plaintain, Alheal,
Chickweed, Rue, Parsley, Comfrey, Laurel leaves, Birch leaves,
Longwort, English Tobacco, Groundswel, Woundwort, Agrimony, Briony,
Carduus Benedictus, Betony, Adders Tongue, Saint Johns-wort, pick all
these, wash them clean, and strain the water clean of them… For a man [to
use] it must be well chafed in the Palme of the hand three or four times. If
you use it for a Horse, put to it Brimstone finely beaten, and work it
altogether, as aforesaid.1

The fermentation of this mixture may seem to be the most fascinating part, as the recipe
later calls for the ointment to be set in “a Horse Dunghil one and twenty days.” Yet even
more interesting is the diversity of the ingredients used. Although many of the
ingredients, like betony, birch leaves, and St. John’s wort, are indigenous to Europe, what
stands out are those that came from abroad. After all, the frankincense, cotton, plantains,
and tobacco called for in this medicinal recipe were the products of English interaction
with the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
This integration of foreign goods into seventeenth century English recipes goes
beyond the initial excitement of experimenting with foreign food items and illustrates a

1 Anonymous, The Queens Closet Opened (1661) Wing M99A, 36-38.
1