fruit-and-vegetables

(Or ellicksander)

A salad of Alexander buds, in a lemon dressing.

The herb Alkanna tinctoria, also known as Dyer's Bugloss, boiled in vinegar to extract a red food colouring used from Medieval times until well into the 19th Ce...

An aromatic umbelliferous plant (Archangelica archangelica, or A. officinalis), known to have been cultivated in England at least since 1568 and formerly consid...

Boiled artichokes pounded with cream and spices (Wooley 1672)

Ashen-keys are the unripe winged seed pods of the Ash tree. Evelyn 1699 has them boiled and potted with wine-vinegar, sugar and water. (Family Guide 1747)

(or Sparagus or sparrow-Grass, sparagi, perage, sperach, sparage, asparage, sparagus, sparagras, sparrowgrass in older texts)

Although there is a legume (Tetragonolobus purpurea) known as the asparagus pea, the term also refers to asparagus boiled and cut into pea-sized chunks (Mrs.B)

Dried beans reconstituted in the oven in a dish of water with pork scraps or pork bones.

Dried then reconstituted navy beans (also called pea beans, a variety of Phaseolus vulgar) in rich, slightly sweetened, tomato sauce. Served on toast, as part o...

Beetroot roasted whole, the skin removed after cooking, or on the diner's plate.

Large mushrooms, baked whole with a little butter and seasoning (Mrs.B, etc)

Boiled whole large white ("Spanish") onions, baked. (Mrs.B, etc)

Trimmed pears, whole or halved, baked with water (Mrs.B, etc)

Whole large potato, baked, the top split and served with butter. Other toppings frequently encountered include baked beans, grated hard cheese, cottage cheese, ...

Tomatoes baked whole, or, in Mrs.B's receipt, cut and sprinkled with breadcrumbs.

The small, oval, red fruits of a thorny shrub. Common in cooking before the late 19th Century, the European Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) is thought to host the ...

The young shoots of the Star of Bethlehem plant, Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, a tall woodland herb, boiled and served as asparagus. Common around Bath and Bristol.

Presumably creamed beans. Known from 16th century sources including in 'A Dyetary of Health', by Andrew Borde; "Beene-butter is used moche in Lent in dyvers cou...

Large round pear of dark red-purple colour. Sharp, bitter and inedible until cooked. Known to have grown in Worcester before 1575 when Queen Elizabeth I admired...

A large multi-purpose apple, orange-red streaked.

Beetroot is rarely served hot, but when it is it is boiled whole in its skin, then peeled and sliced for service (Mrs.B)

Cucumber flesh boiled. Wooley 1672 has it served with butter and vinegar.

For boiling, unlike roasting, parsnips are cut into chunks.

A salad is a mixture of vegetables, only by about the 18th Century did that necessarily mean raw vegetables.

The tips of the unfurled fronds of young ferns have been plain-boiled and eaten like asparagus, known from 'Food in England' by Dorothy Hartley (Hartley 1954). ...

Thinly sliced red cabbage braised with sugar, or cider, and vinegar. Commonly served with dark meat.

Very large sour green apple, the most popular for cooking.

Salad of samphire and lettuce with toasted almonds.

Broad beans, pureed and mixed with herbs, egg yolks, butter, baked or steamed.

Broccoli spears cooked in a cheese sauce, commonly with a grilled topping.

The water speedwell (Veronica beccabunga) formerly used in salads (Evelyn 1699).

The Brussels sprout is a cultivar of wild cabbage, first found, not in Belgium, but in the Netherlands in the 16th Century. In its first appearance by name in a...

Whole or halved sprouts plain boiled and mixed with roasted sweet chestnuts. Known in England at least since the e3nd of the 19th Century (eg; 'York Herald' - S...

The English wild plum (Prunus insititia), blue-black and white varieties.

Potted puree of 'bullies', bullace, the English wild plum, Prunus insititia (Moxon 1764)

Peeled burdock roots, soaked and sauteed. Served cold with breadcrumbs and sugar (Murrell, 1638)

Whole, or mashed, boiled parsnips, with butter (Francatelli 1852, etc).

Cabbage is chopped and plain boiled or steamed as accompanying vegetable, without any dressing above a little salt, pepper or butter.

Cabbage leaves layered with minced items such as beef, or cooked apple with dark fruit. Baked until crisp at the edges, turned out. Meat-free version is served ...

Dish lined with cabbage leaves, filled with root vegetable and/or beans (eg. potato and broad beans). Topped with more cabbage leaves and baked.

Shredded cabbage stewed with juniper and, usually, onion.

Cabbages cooked in spiced broth.

Small, juicy, round plum. Green ripening to Amber. Extremely ancient, believed to be a hybridization of the wild cherry plum.

Pieces of orange boiled in sugar syrup and allowed to set individually. Known at least since AW 1591.

Dried beans which have been reconstituted then dried again in an oven, cut small and toasted. The method probably provided for more reliable preservation and qu...

Sweet capsicum peppers are principally used in salads, having been known at least since John Evelyn's books of the 17th Century.

Very large gooseberry. Green but the skin turning white and transparent when ripe. Developed before 1860, this, the classic English gooseberry, became hugely po...

Black peas (Maple Peas or Pigeon Peas), boiled and then lightly fried in butter or beef fat, well seasoned. Eaten, or given away, a tradition during Lent, parti...

Boiled peas mashed with breadcrumbs, onion and herbs. Formed into patties and fried. Carling Sunday is the fifth Sunday in Lent, on which it was customary to ea...

Dish of carrot pieces with thickened milk sauce and (usually) grated cheese, baked.

Carrots boiled with mint and lemon, the water reduced as a glaze.

Cauliflower florets and sliced potato, possibly with cream and nutmeg, layered with potato as the top layer, baked.

Cauliflower florets in white cheese sauce, now commonly grilled slightly to brown.

Boiled florets, cream with egg, spices and orange-water poured over, baked. Sugar, sack and butter for sauce.

Celery and potato in stock cooked with a cheese topping.

Celery cut into thin batons, cream and spices.

Stewed celery, pulped with cream and mace. An accompaniment for turkey or other fowl (Eaton 1822, Soyer 1845, etc).

Chopped onion (white, salad, spring or shallots, often stewed in milk) mashed into potato.

The full-grown Allium fistulosum, or Spring Onion, also known as Stone Leek or Rock Onion. Rarely used now, it is known at least as far back as William Langland...

Chick peas boiled with garlic and spices (Cury 1390)

In chip-shop practice, now large rounds of potato, cut about 3/8ins thick, battered and deep-fried.

Stray portions of batter from frying fish, sold, or given away, separately, in chip shops.

Clary, or English Clary, is Silvia Sclarea, also known as Clary Sage, Clear Eye and Eyebright, a herb with erect spikes of blue flowers. Both the seeds and leav...

The white clover (Trifolium repens), when used in salads.

Kentish Cobnuts are a type of hazelnut.

Peas cooked like chestnuts. They are put into a tin and stewed in a hot oven. Known from Sidney Addy's 'Glossary of words used in the neighbourhood of Sheffield...

General term for small, sour, apples.

Potatoes and green vegetables (usually cabbage, but sometimes kale or broccoli) creamed together.

Old term for any form of cabbage, later specifically for very young cabbage for salads.

General term for any mixture, most commonly now of fruit, but earlier a stew of mixed ingredients (Liber Cure 1430, Austin 1440, etc).

A multi-purpose, long, tapered yellow-green pear. Very juicy when ripe. Developed by Thomas Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, the odd name comes from it having won the ...

A decoration for salads, or candied (Evelyn 1699)

A medium-large late season desert apple, orange-red flushed and striped. Raised in the 1860's by Richard Cox of Buckinghamshire. Pippin was a general term for a...

Parsnips boiled in milk and mashed.

Chestnut kernels boiled in sugar.

Old name for redcurrants. Known at least since Oliver Heslop's 'Northumberland Words' (2 vols, English Dialect Society, 1893-4)

Late russet desert apple with a distinct nutmeg-like tang.

Small, purple-black plums. The name damson is a corruption of Damascus, the capital of modern-day Syria, from where it is thought they were introduced into Engl...

The leaves of the common dandelion are used raw in salads. Acton 1845 says that "The slight bitterness of its flavour is to many persons very agreeable; and it ...

Boiled parsnip strips rolled in Sage Derby Cheese and flour, fried.

Onions boiled to soften, the centre pushed out and stuffed, usually with breadcrumbs, sage and butter, covered with grated cheese and baked. Chopped bacon may b...

Stewed cucumber slices with onion, fried in burned butter with Claret.

Mushrooms fried with hot spices.

Mashed potato with cheese, mustard and parsley, baked in a scallop shell.

A large desert plum with golden flesh. Believed to be grown only around the village of Dittisham in Devon, it is locally known as the 'Plowman Plum', possibly f...

Coarsely chopped leaves of the sweet dock (Polygonum (or Persicaria) Bistorta), also known as Meadow Bistort, Gentle Dock or Passion Dock) fried, usually in bac...

Minced beans with onions in broth. 'Drawen' may come from an old usage meaning 'to make of a suitable consistency' (OED)

Potato mashed very creamy, piped into small high swirls and baked.

Pignut plant and edible tuber

Wild leaves, such as dandelion, nettle or easter-ledge leaves, boiled with onion, pearl barley, butter and egg, allowed to set and served as an accompaniment to...

A mid-season, mid-sized dessert apple. Matt russet skin and a dry-ish flesh.

The young shoots of the elder tree, skinned and boiled.

Whole elder flower-heads dipped in batter and fried. Served sprinkled with sugar.

Early references are not to the modern Chinese Endive, but the indigenous wild chicory (Evelyn 1699, etc).

An old North-West name for Turnip Greens, known from the 1882 'Lancashire Glossary' and Holland's 1884 'Words of the County of Chester' and Wright 1857.

Fenland celery is a winter celery that is available to buy from October through to the end of December, made white by a traditional 'earthing-up' process giving...

Whole potatoes cooked in embers until slightly charred.

Rarely used now, flowers were once commonplace ingredients in salads - primroses, violets, bugloss and cowslips.

Whole beans, boiled, then fried in butter.

Sliced beetroot, cut in the shape of a fish, breaded and fried. Served with lemon and "put about stew'd Carps, Tench, or roasted Jacks, by way of Garnish, with ...

Fried in butter, as an accompaniment for mutton or dark meats (Moxon 1764, Mrs.B, etc)

Green vegetables, typically parsley or spinach, fried until crisp. Known from many sources as an accompaniment for fish and meats.

Pumpkin or melon (the word 'pompion' could mean either) pieces soaked in wine and egg, fried.

Segments of fruit (apple, apricot etc) fried. Before the 19th Century the term 'chips' universally refers to fruit chips.

English Galingale is Cyperus longus a herb with a highly aromatic root, similar in flavour to the East Indian Galingale, which are of the genera Alpinia and Kæm...

Potato rounds, sometimes dusted with flour, sliced thinly and fried, served with all types of game.

Any pie-form vegetable mixture, usually with cauliflower or broccoli under a paste crust, crumble-type breadcrumb topping or a cottage-pie type mash top.

The sprouting stalks of a non-bulbing variety of onion Allium fistulosum. Described in the OED as "in appearance intermediate between the onion and the leek. No...

General term for sharp-scented flowers used as spicing - cloves, clove-scented pink (Dianthus Caryophyllus), wallflower (Cheiranthus Cheiri) or the white stock ...

Carrots boiled in water with a sweetener such as honey, sugar or golden syrup. The water reduced as a glaze. Commonly served with sprinkled herbs.

Shallots boiled with water, vinegar and sugar, the water reduced as a glaze.

A tall herb (Chenopodium bonus-henricus), the leaves used like spinach.

Gooseberries, cut cross-wise end-on almost through, each spread out and several threaded together, forming a hop-flower like shape. Served fresh, or preserved i...

Gourds appear in many early receipts, though it is unclear which variety they might be.

Large, irregular, early-season, green cooking apple. Developed by Charles Turner of Slough in the 1860's. Its high acid content means that it falls to a puree v...

Ground Elder, Aegopodium podagraria (Goutweed, Herb Gerard, Bishop's Weed, Parson's Weed) is a low-growing perennial herb of the carrot family. The leaves are u...

Fried potato rounds, with melted butter, sack and sugar poured over, "These are a pretty corner-plate" (Glasse 1747)

A bitter salad leaf Sisymbrium officinale, sometimes known as English rocket, unrelated to either Rocket or Mustard.

Young hop shoots, not the bitter flowers, quickly steamed or boiled. Usually served with butter.

Hop buds sauteed in butter with other greens (eg, nettles). Served with bacon and mushrooms.

A pungent herb, Alliaria petiolata, also known as Garlic Mustard, formerly used as a salad component (Evelyn 1699)

A small, mid-season, cooking apple, very popular in the 19th Century.

Oatmeal eaten with (hot) milk poured over it.

Boiled potatoes shaken in the pan with salt and butter, so that the surface is broken and fluffly. (Acton 1845, etc)

Either of two seaweeds, purple laver (Porphyra laciniata) or green laver (Ulva latissima), repeatedly washed to remove the salt and boiled for hours until it be...

Leeks cut to short lengths, baked in cheese sauce so as to brown on top.

A gooseberry sufficiently sweet to be eaten alone. Developed in 1851 by J Greenhalgh of Ashton-under-Lyne.

'Lincoln Salad' appears in several English bills-of-fare of the the 1920's and 30's, but only one receipt is known, for a mix of watercress, beetroot, peas, ric...

Very large, round, mid-season cooking apple. Tends to retain its shape when cooked.

Mangel-wurzel or mangold is a variety of beet (Beta vulgaris) with very large white or yellow swollen roots. It was introduced into England in the 18th Century ...

Mashed mix of nine ingredients, typically boiled potato, carrot, turnip, parsnip, leek, peas, with salt, pepper and butter.

Boiled, skinned, potatoes mashed very smooth with milk, butter or cream and salt and pepper. First known in Glasse 1747, who uses a pint of milk and ¼lb butter ...

Medlars

Potato mashed with milk and cheese. Dished, topped with breadcrumbs and butter. Baked and served with pickled cabbage or beetroot.

Coarsely chopped cabbage stewed in milk.

Claytonia perfoliata, the winter purslane, a perennial with roundish leaves and highly distinctive taste. Used raw or in salads, it is widely available as seed.

Spearmint (Mentha spicata) is the ordinary mint of English cooking, and is known from the most ancient times.

A variety of dishes have been described as 'mock goose'. The name is known at least since 'The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy' by Hannah Glasse, 1747 (Glas...

A ground-growing woodland mushroom with a bulbous white stem and large, flattish, rounded brown smooth cap.

The Cantharellus, a trumpet-shaped, yellowish, mushroom found in woodlands. The very similar False Chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) has finer, more orang...

The 'sulphur shelf', Laetiporus sulphureus, a distinctive yellowish bracket fungus found on the stems of rotting trees. It has a texture extraordinarily similar...

Calvatia gigantea, the most distinctive of all edible fungi. A bright, smooth, white ball from 1in to 2ft diameter found in shady areas. Prized for breakfast fr...

A highly distinctive mushroom with a deeply wrinkled, sponge-looking, pointed cap which changes from white through yellow to brown as the season progresses.

Dried marrowfat peas, reconstituted and boiled with plain water until fallen to a soft mush.

Young sprouts of Curly Cress (Lepidium sativum, 'Pepper Grass') and yellowseed mustard (Brassica hirta), harvested at about 5 days and used as a salad garnish. ...

There are repeated references to nasturtium leaves and buds in salads and pickles from mediaeval times up to Mrs.B, while Glasse 1747 suggests the flowers as a ...

Leaves of the white or red 'dead' nettle or the black stinging nettle, boiled.

Mashed potato, possibly with other vegetables, mixed with flour and butter, baked in a pie tin until it develops a crust.

Large, late season multi-purpose apple with tough red-greed striped skin. Previously prized for keeping its flavour when dried as 'Norfolk Dried Biffins', it is...

A plant of the Goosefoot or Atriplex family. (Evelyn 1699).

Dried black peas (Cajanus cajan, Maple Peas or Pigeon Peas) soaked, and now commonly boiled until the water becomes very slightly thickened, and served hot with...

The 'Parsley Root' occasionally referred to in old receipts is not the modern herb grown for its leaf but the 'Hamburg' or 'Dutch' parsley, which produces a par...

Boiled and pulped peas, reheated with butter, parsley, chives and seasoning (Robert May 1660, Eaton 1822).

Pease pudding (pease pottage or pease porridge or peasen) is a near-solid cooked mix of boiled split peas, usually including yellow or Carlin peas, water, salt ...

A large, red-yellow plum, somewhat sour for eating alone.

Unripe buds of the common broom in salt and vinegar (Gent.Delight 1653, WM 1658, Evelyn 1699, etc)

A dish of oat flakes or oatmeal (or very occasionally other meal) boiled in water or milk and served for breakfast, commonly topped with milk or cream and a swe...

Layers of sliced potato, onion, knobs of butter and cheese, baked.

Potato batons, fried.

The tomato-like fruits of the potato (the two are related) have been used in salads (Evelyn 1699, etc) but are now considered toxic.

Potatoes cut into very thin, and very long ribbons, fried crisp.

A distinctive low-growing succulent plant of the Portulacaceae family with single stems carrying a multitude of fleshy, rounded leaves. Small yellow flowers in ...

Quinces are the hard, dry-textured yellow fruit of a tree of the apple family. They cannot be eaten raw but are boiled and made into purees, fools, jelly or jam...

A proprietary meat substitute developed by Rank Hovis McDougall following fears in the 1960's that the world would soon face a serious shortage of proteins. Pro...

Immature seed-pods of the common radish, either raw or very slightly cooked (Hammond 1819, etc)

The boiled young roots of the bellflower, Campanula rapunculus.

Rapeseed, known as 'canola' elsewhere, is a brassica related to cabbage, has been grown in England for centuries, and may have been introduced by the Romans.

Rhubarb stalks (the leaves are toxic) are commonly cut to short lengths and stewed with ample sugar, alone, or as part of a pudding or sweet desert.

Late-season medium-sized dessert apple, with red-yellow stripes and a sharp taste.

Although rice has rarely, if ever, been commercially grown in England, it appears in more-or-less every English cookbook since Cury 1390, usually as an ingredie...

Whole shell-on chestnuts roasted directly in fire or in a very hot oven until they char. Shelled and salted, eaten hot.

Onions baked or fried whole, often with their skins on (Francatelli 1852, etc)

Parsnips are split lengthways (unless very thin) and roasted along with meat.

Potatoes roasted whole, or cut to very large chunks if large, in meat fat along with the roast. Known from references in the 18th Century, the earliest receipt ...

Whole small potatoes, or cut-up larger ones, rosemary strewn over and roasted with fat.

A peppery salad leaf (Eruca sativa), known at least since Digby 1669, but rather fallen from favour in the 19th Century, to be revived in the late 20th. cf. Hed...

Roots such as carrot or turnip, hollowed out and filled with a rich forcemeat stuffing (AW 1591)

The definitively English Strawberry, created around by 1892 by Thomas Laxton of Bedford, the famous Victorian plant breeder. The variety is rarely grown commerc...

A very varied mixed salad. Evelyn 1699 has almonds, pickled cucumbers, olives, cornelians, capers, Barberries, red-beet, nasturtium buds, broom, purslane, sampi...

A mix of fresh leaves with, for instance, tomato, onions, beetroot etc. Many earlier receipts (Robert May 1660, Francatelli 1852, Evelyn 1699) include mint leav...

Cooked mallow stalks:

The slim, sweet, root of Tragopogon porrifolius, also known as the oyster plant. It appears, peeled and boiled, as a vegetable in many 18th and 19th Century coo...

Marsh Samphire is an edible glasswort, Salicornia stricta, found in salt marshes and on beaches, while Rock samphire is Crithmum maritimum, a coastal species wi...

(Not to be confused with the beef dish 'Sanders or Saunders')

Mashed potato, most traditionally in a scallop shell, but often in a small mound, buttered and grilled.

Scurvy-grass, spoonwort, is Cochlearia a salt-tolerant herb of the cabbage family with sharp, bitter leaves used in salads and in seafood stews (Evelyn 1699). I...

A cabbage-like plant, native to sea coasts but easily grown inland. The leaves are used like cabbage and the young shoots like asparagus.

Dish of vegetables intended for display, rather than eating.

Skirret or Crummock is a perennial plant of the Apiaceae family.

The wild celery, as a flavouring herb, known from several receipts (Digby 1669, Mrs.B, etc), now very rare.

Artemisia abrotanum, a bushy flowering herb also known as Boy's Love, Maid's Ruin, Sagebrush and Lemon Plant, with a strong camphor-like odour. It was reputed t...

Custard with spinach juice, biscuit and orange (Eaton 1822).

Boiled spinach bound with egg and breadcrumbs, fried.

Cucumber slices sprinkled with flour and hot pepper, stewed in stock (Acton 1845, etc)

Shredded lettuce leaves, stewed. Mrs.B says that it may be; "sent to table in a good brown gravy flavoured with lemon-juice."

Peeled mushrooms, soaked in wine, stewed in mutton stock with salt, cloves, pepper and orange. Sprinkled with nutmeg (WM 1658)

Whole white cabbage, boiled. Heart removed, stuffed with forcemeat and seasonings, baked. Known at least since Family Guide 1747.

Variable filling, usually bound with breadcrumbs, rolled inside lettuce leaves and steamed.

Vegetable marrow, partly hollowed out and stuffed with a savoury mixture, eg. pork sausage-meat. Baked.

Large field mushrooms, inverted and the cup filled, commonly with cheese and breadcrumbs or with minced meat, baked or grilled.

Carrot, swede and potato, boiled and mashed together with milk and butter. A supper dish served with bread. It is not clear if it is associated with Stump Pie.

The wild Cichorium Intybus or chicory, "Cykorie or suckorie is lyke in operation to lettise." (Thomas Elyot, 'The Castel of Helth' 1539)

Sliced red cabbage stewed in butter with small strips of ham, vinegar and sugar. (British Food Trust, etc)

Lettuce, hard-boiled eggs and ham, all shredded, with salad cream. Known at least since (Acton 1845) and frequently repeated in cookbooks of the early 20th Cent...

Swede is plain-boiled in chunks, or mashed.

An umbelliferous herb related to chervil, with fern-like leaves and delicate white flowers. The leaves are occasionally used in salads, mainly for their visual ...

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) is a perennial herb of the aster family with bright yellow flowers, formerly used as a flavouring for puddings and omelettes. Said to ...

Stalks of the middle leaf of the Milky-Thistle.

Boiled food scraps, set solid. A food for pigs and poultry.

The 'Trick-Madame' referred to as a salad in old texts may have been Stonecrop, Sedum reflexum.

The Black Summer Truffle is moderately common in England, growing at the base of trees. They are usually the size of a potato with craggy black-grey skin. They ...

"In the Spring (about the beginning of May) the flowry-leaves of Tulips do fall away, and there remains within them the end of the stalk, which in time will tur...

Boiled as green vegetables. Known at least since Evelyn 1699. "They make very nice sweet greens, and are esteemed great purifiers of the blood and juices." (Eat...

Various root vegetables stewed, often with a sliced potato topping.

The Vegetable Marrow is any of several kinds of squash or gourd, the fruits of Cucurbita pepo. In English practice the flowers are not eaten, though these are a...

A large, all-purpose, dark-red skinned plum with greenish flesh.

"I must have Saffron to colour the Warden Pies"

Oliver asks for more ...

Watercress (Nasturtium officianale) grows in the shallow moving water of streams. It has a peppery flavour and is used, whole, in salads and soups. Often found ...

The 'Iceberg' lettuce with its massive firm head and long growing season.

A small plum, possibly a type of Shropshire prune crossed with the wild bullace and sloe.

Also known as Green Garlic, Bear's Garlic, Broadleaved Garlic, Buckrams, Ramson, Wood Garlic, Gypsy Onion.

18th and 19th Century name for broad beans. Usually served with butter and parsley (Mrs.B).

Carrots cut into neat cones, arranged upright and stewed in gravy with parsley or white sauce over (Acton 1845)

Northern name for damsons.

Wood-sorrel (oxalis) is a low-growing woodland plant with white flowers, heart shaped leaflets with an acidic flavour, less

Medium-sized early-season dessert apple, sometimes oddly-shaped, with streaked green-red skin and a characteristic strawberry-like flavour.

Old term for a mix of green vegetables, often with butter and oatmeal, known since the 9th Century. (Austin 1440, etc)