Move over Nigella - museum in Huntingdon publishes Oliver Cromwell’s wife’s cookbook

The story of one of the Britain’s most famous and controversial characters, Oliver Cromwell, and his wife Elizabeth is being told with a culinary twist in his Cambridgeshire birthplace.

The Cromwell Museum in the market town of Huntingdon boasts the world’s largest and most important collection of artefacts, documents and artwork relating to this iconic historical figure.

These include an original copy of Mrs Cromwell’s Cookbook containing 102 recipes by Elizabeth Cromwell – Oliver’s wife – published as an explosive piece of royalist propaganda after his death.

A controversial read for its time, ‘The Court & Kitchen of Elizabeth, commonly called Joan Cromwell, The Wife of the Late Usurper’, has been remastered; with a limited number printed and being sold to boost museum funds.

Cromwell Museum's Stuart Orme with the cook book

From cooking on an open fire with local and sustainable ingredients, the recipes in this fascinating book remain just as relevant today. Keen cooks can challenge themselves to reproducing Barley Broth (a 17 th century style of porridge), Green Sawce (a sorrel pesto style sauce for chicken) or learn how to ‘dresse a cod’s head’ or ‘how to bake a venison pasty’.

Eels, oysters, poultry and game were, as they are now, commonplace in Cromwellian cuisine in the 1600s, with some recipes coming full circle and not out of place in some of today’s fine dining restaurants!

Stuart Orme, the Museum’s Curator, has written the introduction to the new book: “The appearance of the book belies its significance as one of the strangest cookery books ever published; it allegedly contains the personal recipes collected by Oliver Cromwell’s wife Elizabeth.

“These are bound in a volume together with an extended introduction composed of essays condemning the Cromwellian regime in general, the evils of its court and targeting Elizabeth in particular, much of which was written as Royalist propaganda and would probably qualify as being a 17th century version of ‘fake news’.”

The original book is one of a number of iconic artefacts housed at the Museum that can be adopted. The 2021 version of the book is now on sale at the Museum’s online shop priced £6.99. Only 500 copies have been printed and the proceeds will be donated back to the Museum. Copies will be available to purchase via the Museum’s online shop at: www.cromwellmuseum.org .