The clever cook

The great 17th-century Dutch cookbook De Verstandige Kok (The Clever Cook) was, as part of a larger volume called Het Vermakelijck Landtleven (The Pleasurable Country Life), a prolific work in the Low Countries, published in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Ghent. It provided a handbook of the pleasurable country life it describes in its title with, in addition to cookery and preserving, sections on beekeeping, gardening and medicine. Significantly, there are several copies of this book in libraries all over America, showing that the book and its influence and teachings were widespread.