The Queen-Like Closet Or Rich Cabinet

📘 About This Book

The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet: Large Print by Hannah Woolley Milk new from a red Cow, one pound of blew Currants beaten, one pound of Raisins in the Sun stoned and beaten, four Ounces of Dates stoned and beaten, two handfuls of Peniroyal, two handfuls of Pimpernel, or any other cooling Herb, one handful of Mother-thyme, one handful of Rosemary one handful of Burrage, one quart of Red Rose water, two ounces of Harts-horn, two ounces of China root sliced, two ounces of Ivory shaving, four ounces of the flower of French Barley; put all these into your Still and paste it up very well, and still it with a soft fire, put into the Glass where it droppeth one pound of white Sugar Candy beaten very small, twelve peniworth of Leaf-Gold, seven grains of Musk, eleven grains of Amber-greece, seven grains of Bezoar stone; when it is all distilled, mix all the waters together, and every morning fasting, and every evening when you go to bed, take four or five Spoonfuls of it warm, for about a Month together, this hath cured many when the Doctors have given them over. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

📖 Summary

The Queen-Like Closet Or Rich Cabinet by Hannah Woolley offers a fascinating window into historical domestic arts, serving as a compendium of recipes, remedies, and household management techniques from centuries past. Spanning 244 pages in its 2018 edition, this general non-fiction work captures the meticulous practices of early modern household care, preserving instructions that blend culinary arts with medicinal and cosmetic preparations. Readers opening this text are immediately immersed in a world where a domestic manager was expected to possess deep knowledge of herbalism, distilling, and intricate food preparation. The provided text excerpt showcases the incredible complexity and specific measurements characteristic of the era's domestic guides. A single recipe for a distilled preparation calls for ingredients as diverse as milk from a red cow, blue currants, sun-dried raisins, dates, pennyroyal, pimpernel, mother-thyme, rosemary, borage, red rose water, hart-horn, china root, ivory shavings, and French barley. This extensive ingredient list illustrates how households relied on nature and specialized markets to create elaborate concoctions for health and vitality. The instructions demand patience and precision, requiring the mixture to be sealed in a still with paste and processed over a soft fire before being combined with white sugar candy, leaf-gold, musk, and ambergris. Through such detailed formulations, Woolley's work reflects the broader historical context of seventeenth-century domestic science. Women in charge of households acted as pharmacists, chefs, and estates managers all at once. The cabinet or closet of the title refers to a private space where valued goods, medicines, and recipe books were safely kept. This book acts as a modern bridge to that private world, allowing contemporary readers, historians, and enthusiasts of historical lifestyle practices to explore the actual texts used by early modern practitioners. While the language and ingredient availability have changed drastically since the original publication, the core value of the book lies in its authenticity. It does not simplify the past for modern palates or sensibilities; instead, it presents the raw, unfiltered methodology of historical domesticity. Whether viewed as a historical artifact, a source of inspiration for experimental cooks, or a reference for researchers studying the daily lives of women in history, The Queen-Like Closet Or Rich Cabinet remains a remarkable achievement in non-fiction preservation.

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