Several years ago, my husband & I visited Colonial Williamsburg. The weather wasn't very cooperative, but still the town tour was great. If you're in that area, I highly recommend visiting. While we were there, I picked up lots of great pamphlets that had been originally printed back in the 18th century. One of them was a recipe book: A Collection of the Most tasteful and Approved Recipes in Virginia Cookery. While reading through these recipes, I thought, if you didn't know how to bake/cook, these recipes really wouldn't help you much. I love to get in my kitchen and do both, bake and cook just experiment with recipes. However, I'm not sure I could make anything edible from these recipes. I've listed one for Plum pie below--exactly as it is in my book:


PLUMB PYE

A good crust for great pies:
TO boil a peck of flour the yolks of three eggs, then boil some water, and put in half a pound of tried sewet, and a pound and a half of butter. Skim off the butter and sewet, and as much of the liquor as will make a light good crust; work it up well, and roll it out.
Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, 7th ed. (London 1760)

To make a cherry pie:
MAKE a good crust, lay a little round the sides of your dish, throw sugar at the bottom, and lay in your fruit and sugar at top. A few red currants does well with them; put on your lid; and bake in slack oven.

MAKE a plumb pye the same way, and a gooseberry pye. If you would have it red, let it stand a good while in the oven, after the bread is drawn. A custard is very good with the gooseberry pye.
Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, 7th ed. (London 1760)

I'm not sure Hannah Glasse knows what the heck she is talking about. The Art of Cookery, Made Plain & Easy?? How hard was it before? Could this recipe be any more imprecise? And just what the heck is sewet? I tried to google it and came up with a bunch of nothing! Now doesn't that make you want to rush to your kitchen and start baking? :)