"This book ventures beyond literature and cookery into history, etymology, and sciences.Thorough, exemplary, logical, and unflinchingly authentic, the volume is a labor of love and thoughtful scholarship. Offering 189 recipes (some delicious), the book features a 67-page introduction on period ideology, dietary theory, law, pharmacology, etiquette, and economics. There are four appendixes, including Hard to Find Ingredients (substitutions/sources for hyssop, isinglass, verjuice, etc.) and Wages and Prices.The recipes are irresistible to read, if not always to cook--baked porpoise, swan's-blood pudding, and an aphrodisiac tart with sparrows' brains (the authors suggest substituting a teaspoon of Spam). In the fully quoted and cited original recipes, the authors note details that might escape readers' attention, e.g.

, carving breast meat from a live chicken.This wonderful book joins such titles as Francine Segan's Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook (2003). Highly Recommended." -- Choice "A rich, fun survey of early cooking methods and recipes for modern readers and librarians interested in culinary history." -- Midwest Book Review " Cooking with Shakespeare is packed with information that will interest culinary historians, lovers of Shakespeare, and foodies alike." -- Gastronomica "The introduction outlines the material and ideological conditions surrounding the production and consumption of food in Shakespeare's time. Each of the 189 entries couples a recipe taken from an early modern source with a related reference in Shakespeare, a short discussion of important terms in the recipe or quotation, and a translation of the recipe into modern terms.Bon appetit.

" -- Studies in English Literature ". Cooking with Shakespeare should set a new standard for cookbooks about food and cookery of 16th-century England. Cooking with Shakespeare should satisfy almost everyone with an appetite for the subject." -- Repast.