Dame Edith Sitwell on Cowslip Cream

a young Sitwell photographed by Beaton

in 1952 Dame Edith Sitwell in her "unpopular electric eel in a pool of catfish" way that only she could do- gathered old English receipts that used wild flowers.

Here from her A BOOK OF FLOWERS (1952)

Cowslip CREAM

"take the Cowslips when they are green and in Blossom, and bruise them in a mortar, and to a good handful or two so done put a quart of Cream and boil it up gently with them. Put in a blade of Mace, season with fine sugar and Orange-Flower water. Strain it and draw it up with the yolks of two or three Eggs, and clip off the tops of a handful of the Flowers and draw up with it and dish as you please." ~ Joseph Cooper (cook to Charles I) The Art of Cookery, 1654

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the cowslip

and from Cooper again

"Take two ounces of Syrup of Cowslips, and boil up in your Cream, and season it as before; thicken it with the Yolks of three or four Eggs, and put in two ounces of Candy's Cowslips when you draw it up; dish it in basons and glasses, and strew over some Candy'd Cowslips.

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from Mrs Mary Eales-confectioner to Queen Anne

CANDY Cowslips or any Flowers or Greens in Bunches~ from The Accomplish'd Lady's Delight, 1719

Steep your Gum Arabic in Water, wet the flowers with it and shake them in a cloth that they may be dry, then dip them in your sifted Sugar, and hang them on a String tied across a chimney that has a Fire in it they must hang two or three days til the Flowers are quite dry.