The illustrator Catherine Frances Frere published this reprint of the anonymous sixteenth-century cook book A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye in 1913. The book was one of the first printed cook books written in English and one of the first to be aimed at a domestic, female-led, household, particularly for women who were just learning how to cook.

Frere had had previous experience with publishing. At 20 she illustrated her sister Mary's collection of Indian fairy tales Old Deccan Days and had edited two of Hilda Duckett's cook books in 1899 and 1902. In 1909, she published a collection of recipes from Charlotte, Lady Clarke of Tillypronie (1851-1897). Lady Clarke had collected recipes throughout her life, the earliest dating from 1841, and the book provided an excellent overview of Victorian cuisine. It proved popular, the author Virginia Woolf praised it in a review for the Times Literary Supplement and the cook Elizabeth David was influenced by several of the recipes included.