Overseas Foods and Drugs in Seventeenth Century England
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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 theme that was apparent in other aspects of English culture as well. Foods from Asia, Africa, and the Americas were being displayed, discussed, imagined, and commented on in contemporary books, broadsides, tracts, and even plays. While some foods were used and discussed more than others, it is obvious that the English were imagining and employing the dietary resources gained from their interactions with foreign lands. Not only did the incorporation of foreign foods revolutionize English popular culture, but it also provided women a way to actively engage with the growing empire without leaving their homes. The fact that the English were reaping the benefits of the new territories their country acquired indicates that they were becoming aware that their state, once restricted to the British Isles, was expanding into an overseas empire; an empire which could offer them new practical as well as luxury goods. Scholarship on Foreign Foods and English Food Culture Several genres of historical research on foreign foods in early modern England or English food culture have touched on foreign foods and the implications that can be drawn from them. As of yet, however, none have come together in an effort to understand what a study of foreign foods in seventeenth century texts can tell us. Studies of medieval and modern English cookery books and the foreign foods they call for have been completed, yet they do not address the emergence of transoceanic trade routes and the foreign foods gained from them. A great deal of work has been done on European medieval cuisine including the foreign spices that were very popular during this time. These texts offer a survey of the 2 period being analyzed, describing the common elements of European diet, as well as European endeavors to gain access to the spice trade. These include Ken Albala’s Cooking in Europe, 1250-1650 as well as his The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe and Eating Right in the Renaissance, Paul Freedman’s Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination, Jack Turner’s Spice: The History of Temptation, John Keay’s The Spice Route: A History, Andrew Dalby’s Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices, and Michael Krondl’s The Taste of Conquest.2 Such studies provide excellent background information regarding the state of the European diet prior to the early modern period and especially the way that foreign foods such as spices were consumed prior to transoceanic trade routes. Other authors have chosen to look specifically at England, restricting their study to either specific periods or regions. Kate Coloquhoun’s Taste: The Story of Britiain Through it’s Cooking, L.A. Clarkson and E. Margaret Crawford’s Feast and Famine, Joan Thirsk’s Food in Early Modern England, Annette Hope’s Londoners’ Larder, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat A History of Food, and Joan Fitzpatrick’s Food in Shakespeare are all texts that explore the emergence and popularity of certain foods in differing aspects of English culture.3 While such studies prove insightful, they do not 2 Ken Albala, Cooking in Europe, 1250-1650 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2006); Ken Albala, The Banquet; Ken Albala, Eating Right in the Renaissance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002); Freedman; Turner; John Keay, The Spice Route: A History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006); Andrew Dalby, Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000); Michael Krondl, The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of Three Great Spice Cities (New York: Ballentine Books, 2007). 3 Kate Coloquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (New York: Bloomsbury, 2007); L.A. Clarkson and E. Margaret Crawford, Feast and Famine: Food and Nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); Anette Hope, Londoners’ Larder: English Cuisine from Chaucer to the Present (London: Mainstream Publishing, 2005); Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food 3 explore the relationship between foreign foods and seventeenth century English consumers. Still others have written histories of food items, illustrating the importance that particular products have had for prolonged periods of time. Sidney W. Mintz’s Sweetness and Power, Brian Cowan’s The Social Life of Coffee, Gary Y. Okihiro’s Pineapple Culture, Sandra Sherman’s