Chocolate recipes of 1600s uncovered

Kate Loveman, from Leicester University, found the recipes cited in the manuscripts of the Earl of Sandwich in 1668.

The earl’s recipe for iced chocolate reads: “Prepare the chocolatti (to make a drink) ... and Then Putt the vessell that hath the Chocolatti in it, into a Jaraffa [carafe] of snow stirred together with some salt, & shaike the snow together sometyme & it will putt the Chocolatti into tender Curdled Ice & soe eate it with spoons.”

Dr Loveman said: “It’s not chocolate ice-cream but more like a very solid and very dark version of the iced chocolate drinks you get in coffee shops today. Freezing food required cutting-edge technology in 17th-century England, so these ices were seen as great luxuries.”

But chocolate treats came with a health warning even in the 1600s.

“One physician cautioned that the ingredients in hot chocolate could cause insomnia, excess mucus, or haemorrhoids. People worried that iced chocolate in particular was ‘unwholesome’ and could damage the stomach, heart, and lungs,” she said.

“Today’s chocolate promoters, like some in the 17th century, often find cause to highlight women, pleasure and sexuality. In the 17th century, however, the fact that frequent chocolate consumption might make you ‘fat and corpulent’ was an attraction, something advertisers now prefer to keep quiet about.”