A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye


A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye is a book of recipes, seasons for meat and listing of courses and dishes for service on fish days and non-fish days written for women running their own households by an unknown author. The text was published in London and survives in three editions: 1545, 1557-1558 and two later editions, one of 1575. It is a relatively small volume, beginning with a list of meats and their seasons, followed by a listing of dinners and suggested dishes for service for both flesh and fish days. After this comes a list of 49 recipes mostly covering meat dishes and pies, though there are a small number of sweet dishes, including "A tart of Bourage Flowers", "pye of aloes" and a "tart of Marygoldes, Primroses, or Cowslips".
The book is important as it is one of the first cookery books in English aimed at a more general reader and also at a more female audience who might not have cooked before. As result the recipes are fuller than their medieval equivalents, with indications of amounts for ingredients and cooking times.

Modern editions