A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye

A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye is a book of recipes, seasons for meat and listing of courses and dishes for service on fish days and non-fish days written for women running their own households by an unknown author. The text was published in London and survives in three editions: 1545 (held at the University of Glasgow), 1557-1558 (held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) and two later editions, one of 1575 (held in the British Library). It is a relatively small volume, beginning with a list of meats and their seasons, followed by a listing of dinners and suggested dishes for service for both flesh and fish days. After this comes a list of 49 recipes mostly covering meat dishes and pies, though there are a small number of dessert dishes.

The book is important as it represent one of the first cookery books in English aimed at a more general reader and also at a more female audience who might not have cooked before. As result the recipes are fuller than their Medieval equivalents, with indications of amounts for ingredients and cooking times.