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Centuries-Old Cheese Wisdom Unearthed: 16th-Century Text Offers Timeless Dietary Advice
A 450-year-old observation on the perils of excessive cheese consumption resonates even today, particularly for those seeking late-night snacks: “A surfyte of cheese doth bringe payne.” This cautionary note is found within the earliest known treatise on cheese in the English language, a historical document recently brought to light and digitized by the University of Leeds.
Early English Cheese Treatise: A Blend of Fascination and Foul Remedies
Acquired at auction in 2023 by the University of Leeds, this newly transcribed manuscript, dating back to the 1580s, offers a unique glimpse into 16th-century perspectives on food and health. The publication is considered both captivating for its historical insights and somewhat unsettling due to some of its recommendations.
Gout Cure: Rancid Cheese and Bacon Fat
Among the more unusual pieces of advice is a proposed remedy for gout involving a rather unappetizing concoction: “Havinge his joynts full of knobbes or knottes, hit came in my minde to macerate that olde cheese with the decoction of fatte bacon, and to beate the same well in a mortar, and so to laye hit to his knotted joyntes, which done that man was greatly eased of the gowte.” This passage suggests the application of rancid cheese mixed with bacon fat as a topical treatment for gout.
Contemporary Relevance in Dietary Understanding
While the University of Leeds does not endorse the application of such remedies today, Professor Alex Bamji, an expert in early modern history, emphasizes the book’s surprising modern echoes. She highlights a passage concerning dietary suitability: “He that will judge whether cheese be a convenyent foode for him, must consider the nature of the body, and the disposicion and temperamente of the cheese and both considered he shalbe hable to judge whether he is like to take harme be cheese or not.”
Precursor to Modern Food Intolerance Awareness
Professor Bamji notes that while the term “dairy intolerant” was not in use during the 16th century, the treatise demonstrates an understanding that cheese affects individuals differently. This early awareness, although explained through the now-outdated concept of bodily humors and temperature (hotter/colder, dryer/moist), foreshadows modern recognition of food sensitivities.
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“A Pamflyt compiled of Cheese”: Unveiling a Lost Culinary Text
Entitled “A pamflyt compiled of Cheese, contayninge the differences, nature, qualities, and goodness, of the same,” this 112-page volume, bound in vellum, remained unpublished and obscure until its recent auction appearance. The identity of its author remains unknown.
Treatise on Cheese: Merging Ancient Knowledge and Experience
Bamji describes the book as a significant “treatise,” highlighting its depth and scholarly nature. “It’s a substantial piece of work,” she stated. “As with other treatises from this period, the writer has woven together ancient knowledge with their own learning and experience.”
Diet and Health: A 16th-Century Perspective
The treatise aligns with current historical understanding of the role of diet in health during the period. “It’s such a great fit with what we know about how people understood the role of diet in health in the period,” Bamji explained. She added, “Food was useful both to prevent and to respond to illness, and ordinary people had quite a complex understanding of that.”
Remarkable Historical Find for Food Historians
Food historian Peter Brears corroborated the manuscript’s significance, stating, “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s probably the first comprehensive academic study of a single foodstuff to be written in the English language.”
Timeless Tips and Tudor Trivia
The book contains observations that still hold true today, such as the notion that cheese is best enjoyed at the end of a meal. “Cheese doth presse downe the meate to the botome of the stomake,” the text asserts. However, it also includes less credible advice, such as the claim that dog’s milk “doth cause a woman to be delivered of her childe before tyme.”
Transcription and Further Exploration
Ruth Bramley, from Kentwell Hall in Suffolk, undertook the transcription of the historical document. Excerpts from the book, along with an attempt to recreate a Tudor recipe, feature in a special edition of BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, offering further avenues to explore this fascinating piece of food history.