Enzinas Michelle - Big Buttes book: annotated Dyets dry dinner (1599) by Henry Buttes with Elizabethan recipes

Titles set in Metamorphous designed by James Grieshaber drawing on and mixing together Romanesque, Gothic and the more familiar Renaissance letter shapes. Text set in Libre Baskerville designed for Impallari Type based on the American Type Founders Baskerville from 1941, but it has a taller x-height, wider counters and a little less contrast. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of the book. Published in Canada Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Enzinas, Michelle, author Big Buttes book : annotated Dyets dry dinner (1599) by Henry Buttes with Elizabethan recipes / by Michelle Enzinas. Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-988274-21-8 (hardback). ISBN 978-1-988274-22-5 (epub) 1. Butts, Henry, 1632. Dyets dry dinner. 2. 3. 3.

CookingGreat BritainHistory16th century. 4. Great BritainSocial life and customs16th century. I. Title. TX717.E59 2016 641.594209031 C2016-906384-4 C2016-906385-2 For Jane Boyko, Kate Braithwaite, Sue Kronenfeld, Diane Harper, Mila Little, Michaela Helliwell, Helen Dolby, Rebecca Woodworth, Petra Hall, John Enzinas, Shadow Enzinas and Lydia Enzinas.

Contents Appendix A:
Food sorted by humour and degree Appendix B:
Pastry Foreword Review of Enzinass Big Buttes Book Imagine you are an Elizabethan gentlewoman with a taste for good living and a certain amount of pride in how well you run your household and especially your kitchen. One of your favorite past-times is sitting with like-minded friends sampling the latest fashionable dishes and discussing healthy eating. If you are that lady or a similarly inclined gentleman Henry Buttes, the scholar-gourmet, might be a regular visitor to your table, and you might sit at his occasionally, to hear him hold forth on both the lore of food and its proper presentation. Henry Buttes is long dead but it is still possible to enjoy his company, thanks to Michelle Enzinass Big Buttes Book , an annotated edition of Henrys learned commentary on an ideal, healthy dinner amplified by appropriate recipes taken from a variety of Elizabethan sources. Big Buttes Book serves a double audience: first, people interested in the classical/medieval/renaissance tradition of cooking and eating; second, those who want an approachable introduction to what gentlefolk actually ate. Those who come to this book from either direction may surprise themselves by finding that the other approach is more interesting than they would ever have guessed.

The scholarly audience will be pleased with how Enzinas has made the Elizabethan theory of the humours come to life in actual edible dishes. Those who at first look at the Big Buttes Book primarily as a cookbook, will find themselves being sucked into Henrys discussion of the logical foundations of cooking, and will learn much about how individual dishes were combined into a proper Elizabethan meal. This Five Rivers Publishing production is attractively put together. The many colour pictures of delicious food adds a lot to the presentation. Steven Muhlberger, Professor of History (retired) Introduction The original book transcribed and annotated here, Dyets Dry Dinner, by Mr. Henry Buttes, is not exactly a cookbook.

Although Buttes writes in specific detail how food is best prepared, it is not the only thing discussed. Dyets Dry Dinner, published in 1599, by Tho. Creede, for William Wood, and are to be sold at the west end of Powles, at the signe of Tyme , is a guidebook for food and health written as an academic argument, menu, and dinner invitation for an eight-course feast. This volume includes a long list of foods available in England at the time of Buttes original books publishing, which is valuable to historians. Buttes also discusses the proper way each of these foods should be grown and harvested. The Latin names are included in order to address nomenclature which has changed over time, and therefore makes it possible to discuss which plant or animal to which Buttes refers.

This book is also a thorough discussion of applied medieval humour theory in relation to food. Buttes includes a great deal of important medical knowledge of the day, as well as folk wisdom. In my study of Henry Buttes, I found him to be an entertainer, in that he included a little social, or historical commentary on each menu item. The reader will find obscure jokes, even puns, wrapped in medieval English, French, Italian and Latin. Some of these jokes, or commentaries, are derived from well-known plays or poems. Most of them deal with sexual or bawdy humour.

Some of it is shockingly racist. The book is also a plea for funding in the grand tradition of advanced education everywhere, and in every time. The two letters of invite that start this book mention patronage. About Henry Buttes Henry Buttes lists his qualifications for his scholarly work as Master of Arts, and Fellow of the Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. At that time, 1590, Dr John Jegon was Chancellor of Corpus Christi, before being appointed Bishop of Norwich in 1602. He would have been Master of the school when Henry Buttes published his book.

Buttes was admitted to Queens College April 14, 1592, around the age of 15. He became of Master of Arts in 1598. Buttes wasnt designated as Chancellor of Corpus Christi College until 1626, even though the post was empty until his appointment. Buttes is well-versed in the literary classics and many different ancient herbals, which are heavily quoted here. He entertains his guests (or the reader) with quotes from popular literature, plays and poems by Shakespeare, and controversial political pamphlets. Buttes makes so many sharp digs at Sir Thomas More, that it seems almost personal.

He is also anti-Semitic, as well as pretty hard on the Spanish. His attitude is well-represented in high Elizabethan society; examples of these mores are often found in William Shakespeares plays. Buttes died Easter Day in 1632, by hanging himself with his garters. About the Dyets Dry Dinner Manuscript The manuscript transcribed here was electronically published by the Early English Books Online database. The PDF I accessed was produced in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan, by the Digital Library Production Service, January 2007. The scan was of a microfilm copy provided by the British Museum, not of the original book.