Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book

Elinor Fettiplace's receipt book: Elizabethan country house cooking
Cover of first edition
EditorHilary Spurling
AuthorHilary Spurling, Elinor Fettiplace
SubjectElizabethan era English cuisine
Genrecookbook
PublisherThe Salamander Press in association with Penguin Books
Publication date
1986
Publication placeEngland

Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book is a 1986 book by Hilary Spurling containing and describing the recipes in a book inscribed by Elinor Fettiplace with the date 1604 and compiled in her lifetime: the manuscript contains additions and marginal notes in several hands. Spurling is the wife of a descendant of Fettiplace who had inherited the manuscript. The book provides a direct view of Elizabethan era cookery in an aristocratic country house, with Fettiplace's notes on household management.

The book was well received by critics as revealing previously unknown aspects of Elizabethan household life. Spurling was praised for testing the recipes, a challenging task. The historian Elaine Leong cautioned that the homely title could obscure the complex history of the text's authorship and ownership.