When it comes to cooking, following directions is a must. But would you know how to follow these directions?

Heat water until it is a little hotter than milk comes from a cow.

 The people who read a 16th-century British cookbook did. For them, milking cows was an everyday reality. They didn’t need a thermometer to tell them when the water had heated enough.

But would those readers know how to follow the most modern of recipes—ones the length of a Tweet? (Tweet recipes are a real thing. They use abbreviations to shorten ingredients and cook times to only 280 characters.)

Cookbooks mirror the times in which they are used. And they reflect the kinds of people who use them. Early cookbooks in Europe existed so royalty could show off their elegant banquets. These old recipe collections came from palaces, and they were not for sale.

The printing press was invented in the 15th century. Cookbooks became available to gentlemen and their wives. These written recipes helped the wealthy manage cooking, brewing, and baking on their estates.

As more time passed, the market for cookbooks grew. Recipes were printed for poorer people who wanted to cook more like the wealthy did. But poorer people couldn’t always get the same ingredients as the rich. The rich hunted game. The poor had only farm animals. So what might a recipe say? “Use coal to turn a pig’s bristle (hair) black. It will look more like a wild boar.” “Roll up veal (beef) and season it. People will think they are eating a hunted bird.” “Make broth with the head and feet of a calf. Diners will think they’re sipping turtle soup.”