Caudle
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A caudle was a hot drink that recurred in various guises throughout British cuisine from the Middle Ages into Victorian times. It was thick and sweet, and seen as particularly suitable and sustaining
The Holyoke Caudle Cup, silver c. 1690, by John Coney, Fogg Art Museum
A silver caudle spoon, Dutch, 17th-century
Richard Dagley's illustration "Taking caudle" of Thomas Gaspey's poem. The new mother reclines in a four-poster bed, recouping her energy. A member of the household sits at the foot of the bed, entertaining a visitor, who keeps her bonnet on; both of them are drinking caudle. A maidservant shows the baby to the visitor, while a dog and cat look on.
Formal caudle party after the birth of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in 1967
Lying-in
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Lying-in is the term given to the European forms of postpartum confinement, the traditional practice involving long bed rest before and after giving birth. The term and the practice it describes in th
Caudle
…the invalid liquid anymore. Maria Rundell included a "caudle for the sick and lying-in" in her best-selling A New System of Domestic Cookery (1806). ("Lying-in" is an obsolete term for childbirth, referring to the extended period of bed rest that marked the traditional recuperation time.) Judith Montefiore…
A mother in Florence lying-in, from a painted desco da parto or birth tray of c. 1410. As women tend to the child, expensively-dressed female guests are already arriving.