The English Housewife

by Gervase Markham,
edited by Michael R. Best

McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1986

Markham, who lived in the from about the mid-16th to early 17th centuries, set down the virtues and knowledge expected of a housewife and discussed such tasks as brewing, distilling, the making of dairy products, and cooking. The book contains instructions for numerous “medicinal” remedies and quite a few recipes, which do not appear to have been revised for modern use.