PROSPECT BOOKS

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH COOKERY

A GLOSSARY OF COOKERY AND OTHER TERMS

I
 

IGING IRON, 276: the same as jagging-iron, an instrument with a serrated wheel, about an inch in diameter, used for pastry cutting. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

IMPOSTUME is a nasty swelling, cyst or abscess. (William Ellis, 1750)

IN BULLIENTE BALNEO: in a boiling vessel (Latin). (Sir Kenelm Digby, 1669)

INCARN, TO: Ellis writes of ‘a wound that requires digesting, deterging, incarning or cicatrizing’. To incarn means to heal by allowing the flesh to grow over. (William Ellis, 1750)

INDIA PEPPER (RED), 133, see PEPPER.(Glasse, 1747)

INDIFFERENCY, 148. The instruction ‘boil it up to an indifferency’, applied to a sauce of numerous ingredients, may be supposed to mean that the mixture should be boiled until homogeneous. This would be compatible with the NSOED entry, but is not explicitly suggested there. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

INNSHIP is a hamlet. (William Ellis, 1750)

INTERLARDED BACON, passim: bacon interleaved or larded with strips of fat. (Robert May, 1660/1685)

INTERMESSES: From the French entremets. Nott gives many examples, e.g. Gammon pain, P 9. (John Nott, 1726)

IPOCRAS, 27: hippocras, a sweetened and spiced (red) wine, for consumption after a meal. ‘Hippocras took its name from the bag through which it was strained, said to resemble Hippocrates’ sleeve, and more probably shaped like the gown-sleeve of a medieval medical man.’ (C Anne Wilson, 1973) (Robert May, 1660/1685)

IRON. The advice to have ‘a flat Iron in the Middle of the Grate’ (to Roast a Pig, 4) is given because the ribs and belly of the spitted pig have to be partly shielded from the heat of the fire. Otherwise, being thinner than the head, shoulders and haunches, they would be overcooked. The iron needed for roasting pigeons, 43, was an example, according to Hannah Glasse, of the device called the ‘poor man’s spit’. This could also be called ‘dangle spit’. See Roberts (1981, Plate 25/1) for a rare example of the primitive form, which was essentially a hook suspended from the chimney breast or mantel by a twisted cord, so that it would revolve for a while without any further mechanical aid. The application of this principle to an iron capable of taking six pigeons (it presumably had three hooks on each side) presents no special problem, but the resulting device would have been considerably larger than that in the Roberts collection.(Glasse, 1747)

ISINGLASS: a pure form of commercial gelatine obtained from the swimming bladder or sound of several species of fish, notably the sturgeon. It is well described by Elizabeth David in her glossary to John Nott. The usual manner of its sale, she asserts, was in fine shreds, easily dissolved in water. She suggests that an ounce of isinglass will make a pint and a quarter of water a ‘tremulous jelly’. In Receipt 194 its virtues are combined with those of hartshorn, and the compiler notes that Venice isinglass should be obtained. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edn.) has a useful article detailing the varieties available at the end of the last century (which did not include ‘Venice isinglass’). Isinglass is used today in fining wine. (John Evelyn, Cook, C17)

ISINGLASS: A dry, semi-transparent substance obtained from the swimming bladders of a variety of fish, notably the sturgeon. Isinglass originally came from Russia, later from Japan and Brazil. It was sold in different forms, the most usual being in fine shreds, easily dissoluble in water, and was much used for clarifying beers, wines and liqueurs. In cookery 1 oz. of isinglass to 25 oz. of water will produce a tremulous jelly. Isinglass eventually replaced hartshorn as a setting agent for jellies, and was in turn superseded by leaf gelatine. (John Nott, 1726)

ISINGLASS, a very pure form of gelatin, obtained from the air-bladders of sturgeon and certain other freshwater fish. It has now been superseded for most purposes by leaf, sheet, or powdered gelatin obtained from the collagen which is present in animal bones, skin, etc.(Glasse, 1747)

ITCH is nowadays usually called scabies, but may encompass a whole host of skin complaints. (William Ellis, 1750)

IVORY. The tusks of elephants are ivory. Like the antlers of a stag (see HARTSHORN), they can be used to produce a gelatinous material. In the recipe for Steeple Cream, 143, hartshorn and ivory and gum arabic are all used. No wonder the result is described as a ‘strong Jelly’. But Hannah Glasse should be given credit for moderation. She was following the recipe of Eliza Smith (1727), who used all these materials and Gum Dragant as well!(Glasse, 1747)