Historic Cookery

I’ve been nose-deep in historic cookbooks the past few days,
searching for just the right receipts to use for the next session
of my Fireside Feasts program out at Wyckoff. The focus
will be one pot dishes, so I’ve been looking at potted this and
that, hodge-podges, pottages, hutspots, even plain ol’ “soopes.”
Then, as is typical when I embark on these journeys through
cookery of the past, I noticed an intriguing entry, which then
led me elsewhere. As I leafed through the thick book that is
Robert May’s The Accomplisht Cook, the words “Ellicksander
Pottage” caught my eye. This is in his twentieth chapter
entitled, “To make all manner of Pottages for Fish-Days.”

Well, golly, what’s an ellicksander?

First stop, the OED (Oxford English Dictionary). Strange, it’s not
there. So I tried some googling. A-HA! All kinds of references
popped up. Turns out that “ellicksander” is just another spelling
of “alexander.” There was an article from Britain’s Daily Mail (2007)

Robert May, 1588-1685

Then I see the next
entries, get a few
more details. Plus,
now I can go back
to the OED and
look up “alexander.”
That word should
be there (and is).

So, what is it?

Ellicksander, or rather, alexander, is much like celery. Formerly
cultivated in Britain, particularly near the seacoast, it was slowly
replaced by new and improved varieties of celery. Although once
highly popular, it all but disappeared by the 19th century. It’s
now only found in the wild. Other names for it are black lovage
and horse-parsley.

Here’s the receipt in The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May:

Ellicksander Pottage.

Chop ellicksanders and oatmeal together,
being picked and washed, then set on
a pipkin with fair water, and when it
boils, put in your herbs, oatmeal, and
salt, boil it on a soft fire, and make it
not too thick, being almost boil’d put
in some butter.

Hmmm…celery and oatmeal. Certainly is an interesting combination.
I’ll have to throw a few pieces in my next bowl of Quaker Oats!

Well, back to my search for one pot receipts.