Recipe Manuscript

To Bake A Swan

Name: To Bake A Swan
Prep time: PTPT1H
Cook time: PTPT2H30M
Yield: 12
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: 1 whole swan (substitute: large goose or turkey, approx. 4-6 kg plucked and cleaned); 300 g pork back fat or belly, thinly sliced (for larding); 20 g ground black pepper; 25 g coarse sea salt; 5 g ground cloves; 5 g ground mace; 1 kg rye flour (for pastry coffin); 600 ml water (for pastry); 200 g lard or hard fat (for pastry dough); 200 g pork fat or streaky bacon (for topping); 5-8 bay leaves, fresh or dried; 150 g unsalted butter, diced (for inside pastry and for sealing); 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash); 500 ml clarified butter (for sealing after baking)

1673

From the treasured pages of The whole body of cookery dissected

Unknown Author

Renaissance (1400 - 1700)European Advanced Dinner

Original Recipe • 1673

Original Manuscript(circa Renaissance, 1400 - 1700)

As inscribed by the original author's hand, transcribed with care by Lost Kitchen Scrolls

To Bake A Swan

"PUll all the gross Feathers from the Swan clean, and all the down; then case your Swan, and bone it, leave all the Flesh, lard it extream well, and season it very high with Pepper, Salt, Cloves and Mace; so having your Coffin prepared in the proportion of a Swan, made of Rye dough, put in your Swan, and lay some sheets of lard and bay-leaves on the top, to put on Butter and close it: put on the Head and Legs on the top, garnish and indore it, and bake it; when it is cold fill it up with clarified Butter. Your skin being spread forth and dried, is good to make a Stomacher for them that are apt to take cold in their Breast. You may bake your Swan, if you please, being ordered as aforesaid and not case it."

Note on the Original Text

This recipe, like many from the 17th century, is written in imperative instruction without precise measurements or temperatures, assuming a basic familiarity with techniques such as larding, boning, and coffin-making. Spelling is inconsistent—'case' meaning to remove the skin, and 'indore' meaning to gild or glaze, for example—reflecting both period orthography and evolving culinary language. The instructions presume that the reader has the skill and the help of kitchen staff, reflecting the context of a grand household, and often end with tips for making use of every part of the animal, as with the swan's dried skin.

Modern Kitchen Interpretation

Recipe's Origin

The whole body of cookery dissected - Click to view recipe in book

Title

The whole body of cookery dissected (1673)

You can also click the book image above to peruse the original tome

Writer

Unknown

Era

1673

Publisher

Unknown

Background

A sumptuous exploration of 17th-century English cookery, 'The whole body of cookery dissected' serves up an array of recipes and kitchen wisdom, offering a flavorful journey through the dining tables of Restoration England.

Kindly made available by

Texas Woman's University

Historical Background of the Recipe

Learn about old traditions

This recipe hails from 'The whole body of cookery dissected,' a comprehensive English cookbook published in 1673—a time when opulent banquets showed status through extravagant show-pieces, and pies shaped like animals were the height of culinary display. In aristocratic circles, baking a swan was both a technical feat and an ostentatious statement. Swans were protected creatures, mostly reserved for the nobility, and were often paraded at feasts in their own likeness, replete with head and neck rising grandly from the pie.

Culinary Tools when the Recipe was Crafted

Tools and techniques from kitchens of old

Back in the seventeenth century, this recipe would have involved a variety of specialized tools: large knives for butchery and boning, larding needles to thread pork fat into the flesh, wooden boards and rolling pins for shaping the dense rye coffin, and heavy-duty ovens fired with wood or coal. Decorative work would require small knives, pastry wheels, and perhaps metal pins to fasten the swan's head and legs in lifelike positions. Butter would be clarified over gentle heat in a small pan, and the pie itself likely baked atop a flat stone or in a large iron roasting pan.

Modern Kitchen Adaptation

Ingredients and techniques for today's cooks

ounces, cups, Fahrenheit

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

2 hrs 30 mins

Servings

We've done our best to adapt this historical recipe for modern kitchens, but some details may still need refinement. We warmly welcome feedback from fellow cooks and culinary historians — your insights support the entire community!

Ingredients

1 whole swan (substitute: large goose or turkey, approx. 9–13 lbs plucked and cleaned)
10.5 oz pork back fat or belly, thinly sliced (for larding)
0.7 oz ground black pepper
0.9 oz coarse sea salt
0.2 oz ground cloves
0.2 oz ground mace
2 lb 3 oz rye flour (for pastry coffin)
2 1/2 cups water (for pastry)
7 oz lard or hard fat (for pastry dough)
7 oz pork fat or streaky bacon (for topping)
5–8 bay leaves, fresh or dried
5.3 oz unsalted butter, diced (for inside pastry and for sealing)
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
2 cups clarified butter (for sealing after baking)

Instructions

Start by plucking all the feathers and down from a whole swan (if available; substitute with large goose or turkey if needed), then remove the skin carefully, keeping it as intact as possible.
Next, bone the swan, preserving all the meat.
Generously lard the flesh with thin strips of pork fat.
Season liberally with ground black pepper, salt, ground cloves, and ground mace.
Prepare a coffin (a pastry case) shaped to resemble a swan, made from a stiff rye flour dough.
Place the seasoned and larded swan meat inside the pastry.
Lay additional sheets of lard and several fresh or dried bay leaves over the top.
Dot with unsalted butter and seal the coffin well, attaching the head and legs decoratively on the exterior of the pastry.
Brush (indore) the crust with egg wash for color, add further decorations if desired, and bake until done—this may take 2-3 hours at 350°F depending on size.
When the pie is cooled, fill it through a small vent with clarified butter to preserve the contents.
Traditionally, the preserved skin could be dried and used as a 'stomacher' (a chest warmer) for those susceptible to chills.

Estimated Calories

900 per serving

Cooking Estimates

It takes about 1 hour to prepare the swan, bone it, make the pastry, and assemble the pie. Baking takes 2.5 hours, and you'll get about 12 servings from this large pie. Each serving has about 900 calories, based on the rich meat, fat, and pastry used.

As noted above, we have made our best effort to translate and adapt this historical recipe for modern kitchens, taking into account ingredients nowadays, cooking techniques, measurements, and so on. However, historical recipes often contain assumptions that require interpretation.

We'd love for anyone to help improve these adaptations. Community contributions are highly welcome. If you have suggestions, corrections, or cooking tips based on your experience with this recipe, please share them below.