Reimagining Early Modern English Recipes

Recipes for Thought's preface, introduction, and first chapter collectively introduce the genre of the recipe book to a nonspecialist audience. After establishing the broader cultural significance of recipe books, Wall reveals how making recipes provided both enjoyment and stimulation in a variety of ways, framing them less as documented chores and more as creative and intellectual exercises that offered a space for personal growth and potential. Wall also connects printed knot-making manuals with the calligraphy found in manuscript recipe books and uses confectionary recipes for edible letters as a pathway into word games at the table. Wall also discusses how recipe books exhibited technologies of memory, such as commemorating a gift exchange, documenting the best way to make a pie, or memorializing the marriage or death of a family member.