About Lost Kitchen Scrolls
"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." — Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
The Historical Recipes Preservation Project
This project runs entirely on volunteer work.
Volunteers from around the world help us preserve culinary history. They transcribe old recipes, research and validate historical context, and make historical recipe accessible to everyone (for modern use).
Our Mission
We hope to preserve as many historical recipes as possible and make them easily searchable for anyone. We find historical recipes fascinating because each recipe tells a story. It shows how people lived centuries ago. It reveals their traditions and creativity; food connects us across time. All the recipes basically carry the wisdom of countless generations.
What You Can Find on Our Website
Original Historical Recipes
Recipes from old manuscripts in many different languages. Initially mostly in English but we are now working almost exclusively on non-English texts.
Modern Adaptations
Adapted versions for today's kitchens. We respect historical techniques, and aim to make them practical for modern cooking.
Historical Context
We aim to provide a short, accurate historical background for each recipe. Share the culture behind food at the time in our experience makes cooking and eating the food itself much more enjoyable.
Community Sharing
Through our comment functionality we hope to create a place for food lovers to connect. You can share your cooking experiences, learn from others and build culinary friendships. We are planning on adding more community features in the future as well (perhaps a forum of some kind).
Resources
We document for each recipe the origins, including the book or manuscript it was taken from and the historical context. We provide proper attribution for each source so it is easy to discover how cooking evolved over time.
Free Access
No registration is needed - everything is freely accessible.
Sources
Ethical Heritage Preservation: We respect cultural heritage. We use only authorized sources. As we also note in out Terms and Conidtions, all recipes come from:
- •Public domain books - free to use for everyone
- •Permitted historical texts - with proper permissions
- •Library and museum collections - with full attribution
- •Ancient manuscripts - now in public domain
We aim to honor the original creators - every recipe shows the original source. Doing so we hope to keep their culinary legacy (and wisdom) alive.
Our Growing Collection
New historical recipes are added to our collection regularly
Check back often to discover fresh culinary treasures from the past
Our collection spans centuries, with recipes coming from medieval monasteries to Victorian guides. We carefully research and transcribe each recipe and adapt it for modern kitchens.
Join Us
Are you a cook? A history lover? Or just curious about historical recipes? We'd love to hear from you if you are interested in contributing in any way, from sharing your thoughts and insights to contributing new historical sources.