A Pippin Pie: 1668

This recipe is from The English House-wife, published in 1668.

Take the fairest and the best Pippins,

I used Golden Delicious apples (3 were all I ended up needing).

and pare them; and make a hole in the top of them; then prick in each hole a Clove or two, then put them in the coffin [pie crust], then break in whole sticks of Cinnamon,

It must have been somewhat dangerous to eat pies, with sticks of cinnamon hidden in them. I used two inches of cinnamon sticks and five cloves.


I ground them up, making sure there weren't any hard pieces left.

the slices of Orange-pills [orange peels], and Dates, and on the top of every Pippin, a little piece of sweet Butter; then fill the coffin, and cover the Pippins over with Sugar:

I mixed my ingredients up with some sugar (and a pinch of salt).


Then filled the crust and put some pats of butter on top. The crust was made with butter and eggs. There was another recipe in the book describing how to make the crust (paste) which is what I followed.

then close up the Pye, and bake it, as you bake Pyes of the like nature: and when it is bak'd, anoint the lid over with sweet Butter, and strew Sugar upon it a good thickness, and set into the oven again for a little space, as while the meat is in dishing up, and then serve it.

I didn't add sugar on top. Instead I egged it, so a certain design (anachronistic) would be highlighted.


It tasted surprisingly sophisticated.

It's all in your head: 1668

First then to speak of Feavers or Agues; the House-wife shall know those kinds thereof, which are most familiar and ordinary as the Quotidian or daily Ague, the Tertian or every other days ague, the Quartan or every third days ague, the Pestilent, which keepeth no order in his fits, but is more dangerous and mortal: And lastly, the accidentall Feaver, which proceedeth from the receit or some wound, or other painful Perturbation of the spirits.

--From The English House-wife--

Like the fever that comes every three days, sometimes the patterns we impose on the things we experience keep us from seeing what our real problems are. All we get out of it is an explanation; and for some people that's good enough.