The accomplisht cook or, The art & mystery of cookery — Reading Companion

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In Category - Historical Cookbooks

Authors: May, Robert, 1588- Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2007 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Cooking, English -- Early works to 1800 Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 147,735

Reading time 643 min

Text sections 17

The accomplisht cook or, The art & mystery of cookery — Reading Companion can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 147,735 words, 10 hr 43 min estimated reading time, and 17 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 37.6 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Cooking, English -- Early works to 1800,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #22790

Robert May's 1685 cookbook offers detailed recipes for pies, pasties, and baked meats, with seasonal variations and French influences, reflecting 17th-century English culinary practices and the author's 55 years of experience.

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File: pg22790

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Honours were those Golden Days of Peace and Hospitality when you enjoyed your own, so as to entertain and releive others.

Right Honourable, and Right Worshipful, I have not only been an eye-witness, but interested by my attendance; so as that I may justly acknowledge those Triumphs and magnificent Trophies of Cookery that have adorned your Tables; nor can I but confess to the world, except I should be Guilty of the highest Ingratitude, that the only structure of this my Art and knowledge, I owed to your costs, generous and inimitable Epences; thus not only I have derived my experience, but your Country hath reapt the Plenty of your Humanity and charitable Bounties.

Right Honourable, and Right Worshipful, Hospitality which was once a Relique of the Gentry, and a known Cognizance to all ancient Houses, hath lost her Title through the unhappy and Cruel Disturbances of these Times, she is now reposing of her lately so alarmed Head on your beds of Honour: In the mean space that our English World may know the _Mecæna_'s and Patrons of this Generous Art, I have exposed this Volume to the Publick, under the Tuition of your Names; at whose Feet I prostrate these Endeavours, and shall for ever remain

_Your most humble devoted Servant._ _ROBERT MAY._

_From _Soleby_ in _Leicestershire_, September 29. 1684._

_To the Master Cooks, and to such young Practitioners of the Art of Cookery, to whom this Book may be useful._

To you first, most worthy Artists, I acknowledg one of the chief Motives that made me to adventure this Volume to your Censures, hath been to testifie my gratitude to your experienced Society; nor could I omit to direct it to you, as it hath been my ambition, that you should be sensible of my Proficiency of Endeavours in this Art. To all honest well intending Men of our Profession, or others, this Book cannot but be acceptable, as it plainly and profitably discovers the _Mystery_ of the _whole Art_; for which, though I may be _envied by some that only value their private Interests above Posterity, and the publick good_, yet God and my own Conscience would not permit me _to bury these my Experiences with my Silver Hairs in the Grave_: and that more especially, as the advantages of my Education hath raised me above the _Ambitions_ of others, in the converse I have had with other _Nations_, who in this _Art_ fall short of what I _have known experimented by you my worthy Country men_. Howsoever, the _French by their Insinuations, not without enough of Ignorance_, have bewitcht some of the _Gallants of our Nation_ with Epigram Dishes, smoakt rather than drest, so strangely to captivate the _Gusto_, their _Mushroom'd Experiences_ for _Sauce_ rather than _Diet_, for the generality howsoever called _A-la-mode_, not worthy of being taken notice on. As I live in _France_, and had the Language and have been an eye-witness of their _Cookeries_ as well, as a Peruser of their Manuscripts, and Printed _Authors_ whatsoever I found good in them, I have inserted in this _Volume_. I do acknowledg my self not to be a little beholding to the _Italian_ and _Spanish_ Treatises; though without my fosterage, and bringing up under the _Generosities_ and _Bounties of my Noble Patrons and Masters_, I could never have arrived to this _Experience_. To be confined and limited to the narrowness of a Purse, is to want the _Materials_ from which the _Artist_ must gain his knowledge. Those _Honourable Persons_, _my Lord_ Lumley, and others, with whom I have spent a part of my time, were such whose generous cost never weighed the Expence, so that they might arrive to that right and high esteem they had of their _Gusto's_. Whosoever peruses this _Volume_ shall find it amply exemplified in _Dishes_ of such high prices, which only these _Noblesses Hospitalities_ did reach to: I should have sinned against their (to be perpetuated) Bounties, if I had not set down their several varieties, that the _Reader_ might be as well acquainted with what is extraordinary, as what is ordinary in this _Art_; as I am truly sensible, that some of those things that I have set down will amaze a not thorow-paced _Reader_ in the _Art of Cookery_, as they are Delicates, never till this time made known to the World.

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Robert May's The Accomplisht Cook (1685) opens with a dedication to noble patrons, recalling 'those Golden Days of Peace and Hospitality' when their tables displayed 'magnificent Trophies of Cookery.' The book's title page promises 'the whole ART is revealed in a more easie and perfect Method, than hath been publisht in any language.' May's recipes, drawn from 55 years of experience, emphasize practical technique and seasonal ingredients.

Seasonal Adjustments and Fruit in Savory Pies

May's recipes frequently specify seasonal variations. For a loin or breast of veal baked in a pie, he notes: 'In the summer time you may add to it spinage, gooseberries, grapes, barberries, or slic’t lemon, and in winter, prunes, and currans, or raisins.' This pattern recurs in steak pies, where one version layers 'raisins and prunes' with mutton steaks, cinnamon, and more fruit. The use of fruit—both dried and fresh—alongside butter, sugar, and verjuice (sour grape juice) is a hallmark of May's savory baking. These additions are not mere garnishes but integral to the dish's flavor profile, balancing richness with acidity and sweetness.

Techniques for Pies and Pasties

May provides multiple methods for the same dish, showing a range of techniques. For steak pies, he offers several 'Otherways'—one using a 'cold butter paste' made with 'a gallon of flower a pound and a half of butter, four or five eggs and but two whites.' Another method involves mincing lean mutton with suet, herbs, and cream to form 'little balls, and rouls' placed atop the steaks. The pie is then baked, the lid cut into pieces and 'stick it in the meat round the pye.' May also instructs to 'ice it' (glaze with sugar) and serve hot. These details reveal a cookbook focused on practical execution, with variations for different occasions or preferences.

Herb and Spice Combinations in Stuffings

May's recipes often call for elaborate herb mixtures. For a gammon of bacon, he directs to stuff it with 'all manner of sweet herbs, as sage, tyme, parsley, sweet marjoram, savory, violet-leaves, strawberry leaves, fennil, rose-mary, penniroyal' chopped with hard egg yolks, nutmeg, and pepper. Similarly, a steak pie filling includes 'tops of tyme, penniroyal, young red sage, grated bread, yolks of eggs, sweet cream, raisins of the sun.' The inclusion of violet and strawberry leaves alongside more common herbs suggests a garden-sourced approach, where available greens were used to add subtle flavors. May's reliance on such combinations underscores the era's preference for layered, aromatic seasonings.

May's work is best approached as a record of practice rather than a modern recipe book. Readers should note the frequent use of '&c.' and imprecise quantities, which assume prior kitchen knowledge. The book's value lies in its snapshot of 17th-century English cookery, where hospitality, seasonality, and resourcefulness shaped the table.

Leafing through Robert May’s Accomplisht Cook, I paused over his careful pie crusts, the way a season dictates the filling. It made me think of another voice, decades later, with the same unhurried patience for detail. There is a quiet comfort in knowing that someone else once wrote down every rule so that nothing would be lost—like a familiar recipe, it stays with you. Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book — Key Ideas to Explore holds that same gentle authority.