Still Room Books

I have a Still Room Book. It is a book filled with the recipes, notes, outcomes of my healing recipes. It also includes the best times to plant and harvest, where to locate certain herbs, flowers and trees. It includes spells and wishes and quotes that support my work.

It is said that Still Rooms became popular in the 16th Century, but I think that they have been around long before that. In the Still Room, so named for the Still kept there, used to distill various liquids, was kept a book with all the receipts (recipes) and so on. This was the Still Room Book. The Still Room was a sort of medicine pantry. The lady of the house was in charge of healing and keeping everyone healthy, it was necessary to have everything organized and accessible. Depending on the size of her Castle, manor or cottage, she could've been providing medical relief for miles around and this also dictated the size of her Still Room. It would've been part of her home, or even a separate building.

Her receipts would've included preparations for seasonings, cosmetics, decoration or aroma, like potpourris, and especially medical preparations. She often had a Still Room maid, or several, and her daughters were also taught, to help with this. In this room, they crafted teas, linaments, and poultices. Syrups, treacles and tinctures. Posies, amulets, pomanders and wands. They look their responsibilities as surgeon, doctor, chef, beauty expert, veterinarian and druggist very seriously, there was no other option.

Herbs hung from the ceilings and were also dried on racks. Shelves were filled with crocks, bottles and jars filled with sweet and, not so fragrant, mixtures. The household relied on everything they created, and some of it took weeks to prepare, the Still Room buzzed, busier at times, than at others, as the plants were brought in from the fields, at various times of the year.

Everything was recorded in the Still Room book and then handed down through the generations. Special recipes were marked and highlighted. The books were unorganized, and unclassified, without a table of contents or index. Handwriting and spelling changed with in a few pages of each other, due to the various authors. It was a treasure trove of information, including the best way to do laundry, treat infection, poultry raising, preparation of meat, shearing, lambing and preparation of cloth and yarn. Even eggs collected were noted in the margins and in some cases the information was indecipherable due to bad handwriting. The miscellany included next to a recipe for candying rose petals, the information for setting a broken bone.

A recipe from a Still Room book includes taking a pound of Damask Rose petals and putting them in a stone jar, covering them with a pint of boiling water and leaving it for 12 hours. Then straining and adding 5 pounds of honey. The concoction is boiled down to a syrup

If you want some historical examples, go here. It is where I gained most of the information for my Still Room Book. Now which daughter will it be handed to?