Lady Johanna St.John's Recipe Book

Nicola here. A couple of weeks ago I took part in the UK’s Heritage Open Days Festival, the biggest celebration of history and heritage in the country. The theme of this year’s festival was Edible England and our display, put on by the Friends of Lydiard Park in Swindon, centred on a most fascinating historical document, a “recipe” book that was created by Lady Johanna St John in the 17^th century. Lady Johanna, as well as having many menus for sumptuous banquets, also used vegetable, flower, and herbal cures for everything from piles to nosebleeds. These are also included in her books and referred to as “recipes” so there is everything from a mutton stew to a cure for cramp! Some of the recipes are also for cosmetic treatments, such as to make your hands soft. We tried that one and the mixture worked beautifully as a hand cream; the only problem was that the cream – and us – smelled very strongly of vinegar! In fact a number of ingredients in some of the recipes would raise eyebrows now, including the use of cow dung!

As part of the festival, we invited Lucy Whitfield, women’s history specialist, to choose and recreate some of the recipes for visitors in the walled garden at Lydiard Park. The garden, which was created in the Georgian period and restored in 2007, is divided into six sections with wide pathways, a well and a sundial. The narrow beds contain trimmed shrubs and perennial plants, alternating with individual flowers and bulbs. Along the walls and in the centre of flowerbeds are trained apple, pear, greengage, peach, plum, cherry, apricot and fig trees. A part of the garden is dedicated to growing the types of herbs and other plants that Lady Johanna would have used in her recipes so it was the perfect setting to showcase some of the ingredients from the book. (I took lots of pictures which I was hoping to use to illustrate this bog, but when I tried to post them up, they all came up upside down so I've had to improvise!)

Lady Johanna St john was born in 1631 and lived through the turbulent years of the English Civil War. Whilst she spent a great deal of time in London and at the St John estates in Battersea, detailed letters from her to her steward at Lydiard Park give an insight into way that she ordered produce from the estate to make up the recipes in her books. These range from menus for grand dinners: “a brace of deer – som butter chees and rabbits” were ordered on one occasion – as were compounds of herbs such as comfrey and rue, and ones that are more common to us, like sage and lavender. Rose water was used a lot, and the walled garden has some gorgeous specimens of old roses.

Some of the remedies written down in Lady Johanna’s book are published with a personal recommendation: ‘For a Consumption cured my cos Fabian – muscadel a quart walnut water a pint the same of spirmint water a qtr of a pound of Loaf suger a pece of cinomon put all thes together into 2 grt Bottle shake it once a day for 8 days give a qtr of a pint morning & afternoon.’ 

You get a lot of sugar and a lot of alcohol in some of these medicines!

Another tried and tested medicine was ‘A Wound Drink which a Friend procured me out of Holland it cured Sr John Mince who was run thurow the Lungs & had sore wounds in a Sea Fight.’ That would have come in handy during the civil wars!

Other friends and relatives also contributed cures to the book. Amongst them were Sir Edward Spencer, Lady Manchester and Lady Peterborough who all had remedies for sore eyes. Sir Phillip Warwick was noted to ‘commend Briony roote to weare in the pocket only’ to ward off an attack of the cramp. During this period many men were equally as interested in the medicinal effects of herbs and plants as women were and swapped recipes amongst themselves.

Another notable feature of the recipes is that there was sometimes little distinction made between herbal ingredients and magical ones in cures since medicine as we understand it and the way in which it works, was often mysterious to our ancestors. One recipe, “Banister’s Powder,” thought to be a cure for poison, requires the ingredients of “powdered Unicorn horn, east bezoars, and the “bones” of a stag’s heart.” In reality the unicorn horn was often some other animal horn ground up. Bezoars were gallstones from animals which were very expensive to buy. Often fake ones were sold at exorbitant prices but people strongly believed in their curative properties.

Lady Johanna also used almond milk quite a lot in her recipes, recognising its health-giving benefits. It’s interesting how fashions go around and how oat and almond and other milks that were in use in the 17^th century are seen as very healthy today!

Below are a few of the recipes that we reproduced for the event, though not necessarily with the precise ingredients mentioned! We didn’t make the custard but it’s an interesting recipe and again, the colour blue is an important magical part of the process for making sure it works.

Eye Remedy

Take of a boy’s water between 3 and 7 years old and of the thickest cream you can, each alike quantity. Strain into a copper porigner beating them with a copper spoon half an hour at a time twice a day until it come to butter. Spread it all over the inside of the porringer, set it in the oldest chamberly you can get up to the brim of the porringer for 9 days, sometimes spreading it out again. Put as much as a pin’s head into your eye in the morning, be sure you sleep not after, and keep your eye from wind and dust. This do for 3 days, then rest a day and use it again as you see cause.

(Obviously we didn’t use real urine in recreating this one!)

For an Ague

Take bright Seville oranges, parse the outward rind as thin as is possible, put it into a pint of true sherry sack, give 2 spoonfuls night and mornings the well days, and also the fit day, and an hour before the fit.

This also is good for the worms.

(This mixture smelled absolutely delicious!)

A Custard for Weakness in the back.

The yolks of four new-laid eggs, the pith of an ox, almonds. Beat them thoroughly and strain them with a little new cream that is not above 8 hours old. Lay the pith in water to take out the blood and strip it from the skin. Put thereto nutmeg, rose water and sugar. Either make it into puddings or bake it with eggs poached in water where mint has been boiled. Also the milts of all fresh fish is good for the back if the patient be cold in his back.

Oil of camomile, capon’s grease and sandalwood boil it in a pot and anoint the back. Lay it on a blue cloth that is wadded. Lay it next to the skin.

If they be hot in the back, take oil of roses, the seeds of plantain and the youngest plantain you can get and some sandalwood, boil this in a galley pot on a skillet of water and anoint the back. Wear a blue cloth; this will cure the back in a consumption.

To Make Conserve of Hipps

Cut them in half and with a penknife scrape out all the seeds and down. Let them lie 2 days covered in an earthen basin, beat and pulp them through a hard sieve, take the weight of the pulp in sugar, beat them until they are well mixed, take as much as a nutmeg night and morning.

Basically this reminded me of my childhood when rosehip syrup was my favourite drink! However this was a difficult one to source because there are very few rosehips around this year.

The mind boggles at some of these, but perhaps half the battle is in believing that these cures are doing you good! When Lady Johanna died, she left her recipe books to her daughter, making sure to pass on the accumulated wisdom to the next generation.

You can find Lady Johanna’s book in the Lydiard Archives online, along with so many other fascinating records that relate to life at Lydiard Park through a thousand years of history.

My grandmother always used to swear by rubbing goose grease on your chest if you had a cold. Did you inherit any cures or words of wisdom on how to deal with certain ailments? Do you have any old family recipes that you still make? Would you be prepared to try any of Lady Johanna’s recipes? I think I’m sticking with the almond milk!

Comments

[Mary M.]

Whatever is the pith of an ox?

I think you should have gone for authenticity on the little boy thing. No requirement to try it out, but it would fascinate me to examine the real thing.

I remember Vicks Vaporub smeared on my chest for congestion, but that's about as old-school as it got in my house.

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Mary! Ox pith is marrow. Alas for us, health and safety wouldn't permit the urine thing though I'm sure we could have sourced some boys of the correct age.

I remember Vicks Vaporub! That smell alone would cut through congestion!

[Katja]

Fascinating post and recipes. Not that I'd be tempted to make or try these.
Some home remedies from my granny, my mom and my sister in law, that actually work:
Curd cheese (quark) is very good against inflammations, recommended e.g. for light phlebitis
Elderberry sirup for coughs
Infusion of sage leaves with honey for a sore throat

What is most interesting to me is the fact that in German recipe and prescription are both "Rezept", so the link between cooking and healing seems to be preserved there. And it now makes sense to me why we use the same word.

[Katja]

Oh, the curd cheese of course is not eaten but used as a poultice

[Mary Jo Putney]

Nicola, what a fascinating experience to reproduce these! A lot of those ingredients sound rare and expensive, hence out of the reach of a lot of people. Rarity and expense probably made the remedies sounds more efficacious, human nature being what it is!

[Katja]

The urine actually makes some sense, after all (from a health website)
"Urea is included in a variety of cosmetics and skin care products for its moisturizing and exfoliating properties.

The urea used in skin care products is made synthetically in a lab, but urea is also naturally found on your skin and is excreted in urine."

[Kareni]

What a fascinating event that must have been, Nicola; thanks so much for sharing.

I'm remembering that my grandmother would get an outer leaf from a cabbage in the garden, crush it with a rolling pin, and then apply it to a burn. I was told that this saved my sister from scarring after she was scalded with hot water as a young child.

[Sue McCormick]

My mother used to quak me, but it was with over the counter medicines of good report. The trouble was not in the medicines but in her overuse of them.

I do keep some medicines in out family cookbook. What better place to make sure I can find the ear cleaning medicine ordered by my doctor.

[Donna H.]

Loved the post! I still use Vic's Vapo Rub for congestion and it also works to help you sleep if rubbed under the nose. Arnica was always good for bruises. My mother-in-law insisted it took the "heat" out of the bruise. My pharmacist had never heard of it when I asked about it but I notice it is now made in a gel and available in drug stores. My Mom used to slap a "mustard plaster" on my chest if i had a cold as a kid. It contained powdered mustard and other ingredients which unfortunately evade me now. Had to be careful though, as if left too long, the skin would blister! And my Granny would rub whiskey on the gums of a teething baby to help with the pain.

[Elizabeth St.John]

Nicola, SO loved being at the Edible England event with you - and the wonderful re-enactor who brought Lady Johanna's recipes to life. She surely entertained the visitors with the fascinating recipes. You can see in Lady Johanna's book the variety of herbal curatives she creates - as well as some particularly strange remedies (I like the one that cures the bite of a mad dog and works equally well on another dog or a man). And so many are still relevant - who hasn't rubbed a dock leaf on a stinging nettle burn, or chewed mint for digestion? Thanks for a fabulous post.

[Julia Gasper]

Absolutely fascinating. I love antique recipes. If "muscadel" means sweet muscat wine, then the cure for consumption must at least have cheered up the patient no end. Same with the Ague cure, being predominantly sherry sack flavoured with orange rind. Cheers!
There are some unusual words here that I had to look up, for example "pith of an ox". Apparently it means the marrow, and "milts" means the roe of a male fish. As for the colour blue having curative properties, well, don't knock it till you've tried it!

[Nicola Cornick]

Fascinating, thank you for sharing that, Katja. That now makes perfect sense!

[Nicola Cornick]

I've made a note of those home remedies to try. I like the idea of the elderberry sirup and also the sage and honey infusion. I've never heard of those before.

That is very interesting about the link in the German language between recipe and prescription. I love snippets like that on the meaning and origin of words.

[Nicola Cornick]

I'm sure that's absolutely true, Mary Jo. Just possessing magical unicorn horn dust would make you feel so pleased with yourself that it might even have worked!

[Nicola Cornick]

That is another really interesting remedy I hadn't heard of. I wonder what is in the sap of the cabbage leaf that would work on burns? I must look that up.

[Nicola Cornick]

Haha! That makes perfect sense, Sue!

[Nicola Cornick]

Yikes on the blisters from the mustard powder! I wonder what on earth was in that along with the mustard? Something "hot" I suppose. I'm going to need to look all these things up. I had heard about the Arnica cure and I think we can get something similar here, but I didn't know that Vick's could help you sleep. That's a good tip!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you so much for dropping in to the blog, Elizabeth! It was a fantastic occasion, wasn't it, and a lot of fun. I think it's fascinating to trace the remedies that are still with us today. There is so much crossover and goodness in the old remedies as well as other less convincing "cures". As for the remedy that cures the bite of a mad dog on man or beast, that's very funny!

[Nicola Cornick]

Yes, there seemed to be an awful lot of alcohol and sugar in some of the recipes which would definitely cheer you up, I imagine, or perhaps render the sufferer unaware of pain and misery!

[theo]

Aside from the proverbial hot toddy which, in my maternal, Scots family's case was made with scotch whisky, tea and honey, that side also used the hot towel soaked in herbs (don't ask me what they were) for a sore throat and some kind of oat poultice that got smeared occasionally on my chest as a child. My paternal, very British grandmother poo-poo'ed the homemade, often more tried and true remedies and favored laudanum and some of the other awful things like paregoric which she must have kept for years and years though maybe not because it was still legal in Michigan until 1964...

I hit 'submit' too soon. I'd have loved to be at your Festival! It must have been just grand.

[Constance]

Nicola, what a terrific post - and what a wonderful time you all must have had at the Festival! Would love to see your photos, even upside down!;) My mother-in-law keeps an aloe plant on her kitchen window sill so that she can break off a leaf and apply the liquid inside on burns, and she says her grandmother did the same. One of my late great-aunts always wore a whole nutmeg, replaced monthly, on a thread around her neck, and believed it "cured" arthritis. Given that she could still squat to the ground and arise without assistance in her late 90s, perhaps she was right!

[Nicola Cornick]

Ooh, I hadn't heard of adding tea to the hot toddy, theo. I must try that. I love the idea of the hot towel soaked in herbs as well. It would have smelled lovely - if you weren't too congested!

Yikes on the opium and laudanum mixtures! I had no idea that that was still in use relatively recently.

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you, Constance, I'm so happy you liked it! The aloe cure sounds convincing to me and I am going to go away and try the nutmeg - the proof of the pudding is on your great-aunt's good health!

[theo]

The steam from the hot tea carried the 'fumes' from the scotch up your nose and helped clear the sinus. I got sick often during the winter as a child ;) But seriously, I still have one occasionally when I'm feeling poorly. Memories.

Yeah, I didn't often let on that I was sick around my paternal grandmother. I tended to feel worse after her remedies. And yes, I don't know where else it might have still been in use, something to research, but I know paregoric was still bought over the counter in the early 60's here. I remember seeing it at Cunningham's. Yuck.

[Nicola Cornick]

Haha! Well next time I have a cold I will try that. I guess a lot of over the counter meds had dodgy ingredients in then, and maybe still do!

[Pat Dupuy]

My husband's aunt swore by sniffing cut onion fumes for a head cold. I'd rather stick to hot toddies!

[Teresa Broderick]

Great post Nicola and I'd say it was a ball at the festival. We used the dock leaves for nettle stings (constantly, as we were always out in the fields). My mother also used cold tea on us for sore eyes. One of my brothers got a lot of styes and she was always washing him with it. But it actually works and I use it myself to this day.
There was also an ointment called Germoline, the name has changed in the last few years and it looks totally different now, but it was thick and dark pink and smelled very strong. We used to say if we broke our legs Mam would rub it on it and tell us we'd be ok. She used it for everything:):)
Glad too to know I'm being part of olden times as I use oat milk every day!! I can't have cow's milk anymore and it's a very nice substitute.

[Nicola Cornick]

I'm with you on that one, Pat. Even if it works it's a high price to pay!

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Teresa! I do the dock leaves for nettle stings too although I'm never sure it really works! I also have sore eyes so will try the cold tea cure, which sounds a wonderful recycling idea. I remember germolene too - that smell! That pinkness!