The Good Housewife's Jewel

I have managed to get hold of a copy of The Good Housewife's Jewel, by Thomas Dawson, appropriately edited. It was originally published in two parts in 1596 and 1597 - this is not a typo, it was published when Shakespeare was flourishing and had not yet written Macbeth.

First recipe that I am posting, my notes in square brackets, the editor's footnotes in rounded brackets - To make Manus Christi

Take five spoonfuls of rose water, and grains of ambergrease [ambergris, used in perfume] and four grains of pearl, beaten very fine. Put these things together in a saucer and cover it close. Let it stand covered one hour. Then take four ounces of very fine sugar, and beat it small, and seach (seive) it through a fine search. Then take a little earthen pot, glazed, and put into it a spoonful of sugar, and a quarter of a spoonful of rose water [I suspect this is the proportion of seived sugar and rose water with ambergris and pearl], and let the sugar and rose water boil [often means simmer gently] together softly till it do rise and fall again three times. Then take fine rye flour and sift on a smooth board. And with a spoon take of the sugar and rose water, and first make it all into a round cake and then into little cakes [I am not sure if this is knead and then roll into balls or roll out and stamp in rounds - I am obviously not an expert]. When they be half cold, wet them over with some rose water, and then lay on your gold [leaf]. And so shall you make very good Manus Christi [Hand of Christ].

I am none the wiser after finishing typing this recipe but the glory of the rose water and the pearls, all put together fascinates me. There is also a medical recipe for dressing wounds that includes arsenic.