The
Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth, Commonly Called Joan Cromwell, the Wife of the
Late Usurper was published in London in 1665, a few years after the death
of Oliver Cromwell. The author is unknown, but was certainly not Mrs. Elizabeth
Cromwell. It is a genuine cookery book but in addition there is a great deal of
anti-Cromwellian abuse along with the recipes. The recipes themselves are not
the expensive and elaborate dishes which might be expected to grace the table
of a head of state, but plain solid cooking, such as would be served in the
household of a prosperous farmer or merchant. The implication of this, of
course, is that the Cromwells did not keep the state
appropriate to their position; various anecdotes emphasise her penny-pinching
attitude.
