Markham Gervase - The well-kept kitchen

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The Well-Kept Kitchen

GERVASE MARKHAM , born in Nottingham in 1568, was a prolific writer and poet. Like many other young men of his time, Markham took up a military career, but after service in The Netherlands and Ireland he turned to writing as a profession. In 1615 he published a handbook for housewives, which remains an important source of early seventeenth-century domestic life and contains instructions for the complete woman, from preparing meals to brewing beer and preventing plague and bad breath. Markham died in 1637 and is buried at St Giless, Cripplegate, London.

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The English Housewife first published 1615

This extract published in Penguin Books 2011

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Cover design based on a pattern from a tankard made in Southwark, 1630. Tin-glazed earthernware. (Photograph copyright Museum of London/Bridgeman Art Library.) Picture research by Samantha Johnson. Lettering by Stephen Raw

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-24-195090-6

Having already in a summary briefness passed through those outward parts of husbandry which belong unto the perfect husbandman,who is the father and master of the family, and whose office and employments are ever for the most part abroad, or removedfrom the house, as in the field or yard; it is now meet that we descend in as orderly a method as we can to the office ofour English housewife, who is the mother and mistress of the family, and hath her most general employments within the house;where from the general example of her virtues, and the most approved skill of her knowledges, those of her family may bothlearn to serve God, and sustain man in that godly and profitable sort which is required of every true Christian.

First then to speak of the inward virtues of her mind; she ought, above all things, to be of an upright and sincere religion,and in the same both zealous and constant; giving by her example an incitement and spur unto all her family to pursue thesame steps, and to utter forth by the instruction of her life those virtuous fruits of good living, which shall be pleasingboth to God and his creatures; I do not mean that herein she should utter forth that violence of spirit which many of our(vainly accounted pure) women do, drawing a contempt upon the ordinary ministry, and thinking nothing lawful but the fantasies oftheir own inventions, usurping to themselves a power of preaching and interpreting the holy word, to which they ought to bebut hearers and believers, or at the most but modest persuaders; this is not the office either of good housewife or good woman.But let our English housewife be a godly, constant, and religious woman, learning from the worthy preacher, and her husband,those good examples which she shall with all careful diligence see exercised amongst her servants.

In which practice of hers, what particular rules are to be observed, I leave her to learn of them who are professed divines,and have purposely written of this argument; only thus much I will say, which each ones experience will teach him to be true,that the more careful the master and mistress are to bring up their servants in the daily exercises of religion toward God,the more faithful they shall find them in all their businesses towards men, and procure Gods favour the more plentifullyon all the household: and therefore a small time morning and evening bestowed in prayers, and other exercises of religion,will prove no lost time at the weeks end.

Next unto this sanctity and holiness of life, it is meet that our English housewife be a woman of great modesty and temperanceas well inwardly as outwardly: inwardly, as in her behaviour and carriage towards her husband, wherein she shall shun allviolence of rage, passion, and humour, coveting less to direct than to be directed, appearing ever unto him pleasant, amiable, and delightful; and though occasion, mishaps, or the misgovernment of his willmay induce her to contrary thoughts, yet virtuously to suppress them, and with a mild sufferance rather to call him home fromhis error, than with the strength of anger to abate the least spark of his evil, calling into her mind that evil and uncomelylanguage is deformed though uttered even to servants, but most monstrous and ugly when it appears before the presence of ahusband: outwardly, as in her apparel and diet, both which she shall proportion according to the competency of her husbandsestate and calling, making her circle rather strait than large, for it is a rule if we extend to the uttermost we take awayincrease, if we go a hair breadth beyond we enter into consumption, but if we preserve any part, we build strong forts againstthe adversities of fortune, provided that such preservation be honest and conscionable; for as lavish prodigality is brutish,so miserable covetousness is hellish.

Let therefore the housewifes garments be comely, cleanly and strong, made as well to preserve the health as adorn the person,altogether without toyish garnishes, or the gloss of light colours, and as far from the vanity of new and fantastic fashions,as near to the comely imitations of modest matrons.

Let her diet be wholesome and cleanly, prepared at due hours, and cooked with care and diligence; let it be rather to satisfy nature than our affections, and apter to kill hunger than revive new appetites; let it proceed more fromthe provision of her own yard, than the furniture of the markets, and let it be rather esteemed for the familiar acquaintanceshe hath with it, than for the strangeness and rarity it bringeth from other countries.

To conclude, our English housewife must be of chaste thought, stout courage, patient, untired, watchful, diligent, witty,pleasant, constant in friendship, full of good neighbourhood, wise in discourse, but not frequent therein, sharp and quickof speech, but not bitter or talkative, secret in her affairs, comfortable in her counsels, and generally skilful in all theworthy knowledges which do belong to her vocation.