‘Puppy water’ was a rare but highly regarded cosmetic application in the early modern period. It was supposedly good for removing wrinkles, tightening and lightening the skin and eradicating blemishes.

This recipe for puppy water appeared in the Book of Receipts, an almanac of recipes and home cures published in 1684. The author was Mary Doggett, the wife of the popular Irish actor, comedian and raconteur Thomas Doggett.

In addition to a young stout puppy, Mrs Doggett’s recipe called for “a pint of fasting spittle” (saliva collected from a person or persons who had not eaten for several days).

“Take one young fat puppy and put him into a flat still, quartered, guts and all, ye skin upon him… then put in a quart of new butter milk, two quarts of white wine, four lemons purely pared and then sliced, a good handful of fumatory and egremony, and three pennyworth of camphire, a pint of fasting spittle which you must gather into a bottle beforehand, a handful of plantine leaves, six pennyworth of ye best Venus turpentine prepared with red rosewater… Eighteen good pippins must be sliced in with ye puppy.”

Source: Mrs Mary Doggett, Book of Receipts, 1684. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.