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Shakespeare & Beyond

British Beef, French Style: Robert May's Braised Brisket

Robert May's brisket. Recipe developed by Marissa Nicosia. Photo by Teresa Wood.
Robert May's brisket. Recipe developed by Marissa Nicosia. Photo by Teresa Wood.
Robert May's brisket. Recipe developed by Marissa Nicosia. Photo by Teresa Wood.

Brisket. Photo by Teresa Wood.

As our First Chefs recipe series continues, Marissa Nicosia writes about a 17th-century recipe for braised brisket. Nicosia is the author of the blog Cooking in the Archives: Updating Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen, where you can find even more information about these adaptations.


The British are known for their beef. Although poultry, lamb, pork, game, fish, and shellfish abound in British cookery books from the early modern period, beef stands out. Beef is also a perennial refrain in Shakespeare’s works: The Duke of Orleans mocks King Henry’s army’s distress in the middle of Henry V by saying they are “out of beef”; Shylock ponders the difference between a pound of human flesh and that of “muttons, beefs, or goats”; Prince Hal addresses Falstaff with the moniker “sweet beef”; and in Twelfth Night louche English suitor Sir Andrew Aguecheek proclaims, “I am a great eater of beef.” Both as sustenance and cultural signifier, cooking and eating beef was associated with British identity in the Renaissance.

Robert May. The Accomplish't Cook. 1685. Folger Shakespeare Library.

Robert May. The Accomplisht Cook. 1685. Folger Shakespeare Library.

Robert May’s The Accomplisht Cook was first published in 1660 and went through multiple reprint editions in subsequent years. On the title page he promises recipes “for the Dressing of all Sorts of FLESH” and in the pages of this cookbook he certainly delivers. Under the engraved portrait of the chef, a few verses promise that May will provide “in one face / all hospitalitie” of the nation and his recipes will inspire “tables” groaning with “Natures plentie.” For British chefs this certainly meant how to prepare tempting beef dishes.

Comments

Poor Sir Andrew Aiguecheek wasn’t ´louche’, . he was just melancholy – “I was loved once”, he says plaintively ‘

Rachel Bowen — January 29, 2019

The lovely pot you are using to cook the beef, is, if I am not mistaken, a French one. I have an identical one, Le Creuset. Cooks food beautifully.

Rachel Bowen — January 29, 2019

I was pleased to see what looks like generous splodges of wine on the book.

Rachel Bowen — January 29, 2019