The Closet Opened
Digby makes use of ingredients including flowers, vegetables, meats, herbs, spices, alcohol, fruits and berries, eggs, milk, grains, and honey.The Closet Opened appeared in the following editions:[6] The celebrity cook Clarissa Dickson Wright described Digby as "the first true dilettante foodie", as well as a "privateer, a spy, a hypochondriac and also an enthusiastic amateur scientist."His scientific interests are similarly hinted at with Dr Harvey's Pleasant Water Cider, while other recipes give evidence of his travels abroad.She contrasts such novelty with the distinctly old-fashioned feeling of other recipes, especially the hundred versions of "those wonderfully medieval drinks mead and metheglin."She confesses that "One of the very few things in this world I regret never having tasted — and now never will — is his recipe for sack, that is, sherry, flavoured with clove gilly-flowers (carnations or pinks).