Have you ever wondered what kind of pancakes Jane Austen liked to eat, what sorts of flavour profiles appealed to eighteenth-century palates, or how eighteenth-century recipe books differ from our own? Come find out the answers to these questions and more through this talk on Chawton House’s extensive collection of recipe books.

Eighteenth-century recipe books were eclectic compendiums of knowledge—they not only contained cookery instructions, but also medical cures, cosmetics recipes, cleaning tips, and so much more. These texts tell us about connections between the domestic space of the kitchen and imperial trade networks that introduced a wide range of spices like nutmeg and Jamaica pepper (allspice) as well as dishes like curry and kebab into English cuisine. In addition to highlighting the knowledge recorded in these books, as well as the knowledge assumed, this talk will highlight some of the many ways recipe production in the eighteenth century depended on the maker’s individual creativity and improvisation.

Join us on this excursion into a period of culinary and medical history that feels at once strikingly familiar and persistently estranging, from whimsical variations in recipes for pancakes and gingerbread to the rather more sinister implications of recipes for medical “waters” meant to cure things like scurvy or the plague.

About the Speaker: Jennifer Comerford is a PhD candidate at Northwestern University in Illinois where she specializes in eighteenth-century British literature.