This was hard to read; the structure of Dyet's book is extremely repetitive. I started over a year ago, stalled out, then restarted and powered through. Each bit was interesting but it was hard to take en masse. The recipes are interesting and many are useful to me - I haven't made any yet but I will. That's another problem with the structure of the book, as an ebook - it's hard to find any particular recipe, hard to browse through (no index), and I'd have to remember the names of the recipes to search for them (or at least a reasonably unique word in them). I plan to go through and extract the recipes that interest me. I'm pleased that the modern author included the original recipes, because I frequently disagree with her redactions - that's not what that means! She also prefers to use medieval techniques, like grinding nuts and herbs in a mortar - too much work for me, for effectively the same results as using a food processor). The pictures would be more useful if they matched their recipes, too - I can't remember details now (see: repetitive) but there were several where the recipe talks about a pie and the picture is of individual items, or vice versa. Some things puzzled me very much - Dyets describes saffron as a bulb like an onion, for instance, rather than the crocus (a bulb plant) stamens we use. Did he never actually use it, or did they use a different part of the plant than we do now? The table talk is mildly interesting, though again, I disagree with some of Enzinas' translations - I think she missed several of the dirty jokes and double entendres Dyets included. There are also quite a few scannos, not corrected in the edition I had (from Early Reviewers) - faith for saith, a lot of "and"s when he probably wrote "an" and vice versa. As a medieval book, it's interesting, but I probably wouldn't have bothered; with the added recipes, it's more interesting and useful to me (I do do medieval cookery, and know how to redact the originals). Glad I got it, glad I got through it. ( )

I got to page 185 of this and then something happened to the pdf, file where it would not allow me to get back into it.

First off, the pictures of the food are HORRIBLE! They are reminiscent of the off-colour photographs of the recipe books of the seventies, when everything was encase in Jell-o and made one want to gag just looking at them.

Secondly, some of the recipes sound like they might be good but the way they are listed is redundant. For example, each fruit is listed separately, but at least one recipe is the same except for that specific fruit being listed in it. The recipe could have just been listed once with "your choice of fruit" being listed as an ingredient. The same is true in other categories such as nuts (even though a nut is still technically a fruit), and meats.
I DO like that they have the modern interpretation.

Last, but not least, maybe it is just me but what it has pass for table conversation is not entertaining to me at all. I think I will stick to getting my Elizabethan recipes from Claire Ridgway. ( )

I love that the original recipes were included and not just the modern interpretations! While I can't actually interpret it myself, it's interesting to compare the new recipe and see its roots. The pictures are generally wonderful (although a few are dark/blurry) and the footnotes are informative. It's a unique cookbook good for recreating authentic medieval feasts or researching the era's foods, but probably doesn't have a place in every day cooking. ( )

this was a fun book to read... really enjoyed the old cookbook... loved how everything has a "cure" and "ailment"... ( )

I like old cookbooks. 16th century recipes are not like modern ones, and need to be interpreted.

In this case, the modern author started with a 1599 book about food, supplemented it with other recipes of the time, and provided her modern interpretations. I didn't always agree with the interpretations, but that's fine because she has included the original, so I can always interpret it myself. The fascinating part of this is the amount of background information that Butte provided for each food.

For me the most interesting part was the herb and vegetable section, and that was hard to read in January, when I can't run out into the garden and try things out. (Butte's ideas of what to do with sorrel are quite similar to mine, so I'm sure I will enjoy trying them in a few months time.)

If this is the kind of thing you enjoy, you will enjoy it very much. If you just want to try a few Elizabethan recipes without caring about the background and theory, it will drive you crazy. ( )