Genre conventions in English recipes, 1600–1800

Abstract

This chapter seeks to explore genre conventions in English recipes from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Recipes from all periods of English provide a good reflection of language in use. The chapter shows that seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English recipes exhibit some variation that foreshadows the shape of modern recipes. Earlier language studies on recipes as a genre have been based on medieval material. Although linguistic scholars do not agree upon the number of stages, that is, the parts or sections within a text, there is a consensus concerning the dialogic scholastic nature of the recipe. The richness of the recipe in terms of genre has been captured in the following schema, which represents a summary of the stages identified in studies on medieval and Renaissance recipes. The stages include title, ingredients, preparation, application, evaluation/efficacy, storage, expiry date and virtues.