Tuesday 13 November 1660
Early going to my Lord’s I met with Mr. Moore, who was going to my house, and indeed I found him to be a most careful, painful,1 and able man in business, and took him by water to the Wardrobe, and shewed him all the house; and indeed there is a great deal of room in it, but very ugly till my Lord hath bestowed great cost upon it. So to the Exchequer, and there took Spicer and his fellow clerks to the Dog tavern, and did give them a peck of oysters, and so home to dinner, where I found my wife making of pies and tarts to try, her oven with, which she has never yet done, but not knowing the nature of it, did heat it too hot, and so a little overbake her things, but knows how to do better another time. At home all the afternoon. At night made up my accounts of my sea expenses in order to my clearing off my imprest bill of 30l. which I had in my hands at the beginning of my voyage; which I intend to shew to my Lord to-morrow. To bed.
- Painful, i.e. painstaking or laborious. Latimer speaks of the “painful magistrates.”
john lauer Link to this
There were no oven thermometers yet;
in fact no thermometers, for another 50+ years. [infoplease.com]
vincent Link to this
Q. was the Oven in house or in the back yard?
Mary Link to this
the oven
See notes to entry for 19th July, when there was discussion of Elizabeth's new range. An oven would have formed part of the range, which was most probably located in the kitchen.
Even today, with in-built thermostats and regulators, it takes a little while to get used to a new oven. Imagine how much more difficult when it was the state of the fire itself that had to be geared to the goods that were to be cooked. All other considerations apart, different fuels burn at different temperatures, as do different grades of coal.
Mary Link to this
a peck of oysters
A peck is a unit of dry measure by volume, generally equivalent to 2 Imperial gallons or 9.1 litres. 4 pecks= 1 bushel
Carolina Link to this
The way Sam talks about his wife, he seems to treat her more like a daughter than a wife. The more I read the more I think of him as an indulgent father to her.
Kevin Peter Link to this
How did people back then judge the temperature of ovens back then? Was it simply measuring how much fuel to add to the fire?
Mary Link to this
Judging oven temperature.
The state of the fire itself, and the extent to which it had been stoked or damped down, would have given one rough measure. A simple test (for example, using a piece of bread to show how quickly it toasted in the oven) would have given a little further guidance, but folk must have relied largely on experience.