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Jane Lorraine's recipe bookWhat is this item?

This is a 17th Century (1600s) cook book written by a woman called Jane Loraine and contains recipes such as a recipe for making 17th Century bread.


Who was Jane Loraine?

Jane Loraine lived in Northumberland. She is likely to have been the wife of Nicholas Loraine and probably a member of the Fenwick family (John James Fenwick in 1882 opened the shop Fenwicks, which exists on a larger scale down Northumberland Street in Newcastle today).

When was the recipe book produced?

The book was put together between 1684-1686.

How was the recipe book created?

The recipe book is a collaboration between many different people. We can see that many different people contributed their recipes to it as there are mentions of different individuals within it (a total of 67 people). It is also possible to identify six different people’s handwriting in the book. Jane Loraine put together the recipes by different individuals into one big recipe book.

Why is this recipe book special?

Many of the recipes in the book, as far as we know, may not have been used in over 300 years. It contains many recipes that may be familiar but may use a different method to nowadays. It also contains other recipes that may have been forgotten.

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More about Jane Loraine…Page from Jane Lorraine's recipe book on how to make cake bread

Interested in finding out more about other recipes that are contained in Jane Loraine’s recipe book? Click here.

Why not also have a look at a workshop where local school children visited Newcastle University and made their their own 17th Century bread from Jane Loraine’s recipe book, Click here.