CLIMATE CHANGE COOKERY
Climate Change Cookery
Recipes and Resilience in England's Little Ice Age, 1550–1700
MADELINE BASSNETT
218 pages | 6 x 8 | 14 b&w illus.
Contemporary concerns about climate change often overlook past periods of upheaval despite the insights they can provide. In Climate Change Cookery, Madeline Bassnett turns back to the Little Ice Age, a period of global cooling that peaked in severity from around 1550 to 1700. Studying sixteenth- and seventeenth-century recipe collections, almanacs, diaries, manuscripts, and weather pamphlets, she details the close-knit relationship between weather, food scarcity, and famine.
Through an examination of references to the weather as a key element or influence on food practices, Bassnett shows how early modern households understood seasonal food cycles and developed systems to become more resilient during an unpredictable period. Identifying and discussing practices involving “weathering,” “seasoning,” and “preserving,” this book investigates how perceptions of food insecurity, alongside strategies for resilience, were shared among networks of readers. Authors and works of particular focus include Hugh Plat’s Sundrie Newe and Artificiall Remedies Against Famine (1596) and Delightes for Ladies (1600), the seventeenth-century manuscript recipe books of Ann Fanshawe and Mary Evelyn, and Hannah Woolley’s The Queen-Like Closet (1670).
Connecting the historical record with modern concerns about disruptions to food production and distribution, Climate Change Cookery demonstrates how people increased their local and ecological awareness in a previous era.
“This book is beautifully conceived, expertly researched, and full of fascinating material. Climate Change Cookery is a sustained and timely invitation to take early modern recipes seriously, not only as an under-read and under-valued genre of writing but also as an historical resource for environmental historians. It will interest people who are thinking about how the mundane tasks of living, cooking, shopping, and eating contribute to—or might mitigate—climate change.”
–Julian Yates, University of Delaware
“Climate Change Cookery links our era’s concern with climate change to the recipe cultures of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its engaging writing and clarity make meaningful, positive contributions to early modern studies by deepening interest in the intersection between food and environment. Madeline Bassnett dives into this new territory, and others will certainly follow.”
–Hillary Nunn, University of Akron
“Climate Change Cookery charts new territory in food studies and environmental studies, with recipe writing as a medium to engage with both. Madeline Bassnett’s archival range is impressive, and the architecture of this book is superb. The organization of chapters into three areas—weathering, seasoning, and preserving—anchors her close readings of early modern food writing. The recipe as form is put front and center in ways that will make this project oft-cited. By addressing climate change early on in the project, Bassnett is able to bring a sense of urgency to this work.”
–Gitanjali Shahani, San Francisco State University
The e-book version of this publication will be available in Fall 2026.
Note on Early Modern Texts
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Introduction
1 Weathering
2 Seasoning
3 Preserving
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
