hartshorn is deerhorn, used as a source of gelatine.
haslet has come to mean a meat loaf or porky confection, especially in Lincolnshire. Ellis and his contemporaries, however, used it to describe the offal of a pig that might be roasted or cooked in one way or another.
hermodactyl is a medicinal root, usually of the crocus family.
hiera picra is a purgative drug, usually made with aloes.
higler or higgler is an itinerant dealer who buys in the country to sell at market.
hitch, to: to extend. Ellis' use of the word does not seem to accord with OED.
hoar, to, means to grow mould.
hogoo is a variant spelling of haut goût, words which spawned a bewildering collection of alternatives.
hoop is a wooden or tin hoop or ring used for baking cakes or pastry. Those made of tin often came apart, as they do today, being joined together by a hinge and removable pin.
horny: hardened.
horse-bean is the broad bean but unimproved, grown as a feld crop for fodder.
horse-mint is another name for water mint (Mentha aquatica). Gerard was eloquent about its smell (Grigson).
hove, to, means to swell.
humbles are innards -- usually referring to deer, but Ellis concentrates on 'hog's humbles'.
hungary water is named after a queen of Hungary, which one is never revealed. It is a distillation of wine and essence of rosemary.
impostume is a nasty swelling, cyst or abscess.
incarn, to: Ellis writes of 'a wound that requires digesting, deterging, incarning or cicatrizing'. To incarn means to heal by allowing the flesh to grow over.
innship is a hamlet.
itch is now usually called scabies, but may encompass a host of skin complaints.
jack-in-the-hedge that caused so much trouble to the lady that gathered it in error, was probably Alliaria petiolata or hedge garlic, its name deriving from 'jakes' on account of its offensive smell (said one botanist, see Grigson).
jack-jump-about is a folk name for ground elder, as well as for wild angelica. But the most likely candidate for this lady's discomfiture (was she the same lady as picked jack-in-the-hedge?) is birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculata).
jamaica spice, jamaica pepper is allspice.
janacks: a type of bread made from fine oatmeal. Not for the frst time, though rarely acknowledged, Ellis is quoting Gervase Markham (d. 1637), a further instance of his relying on books written during the previous century rather than current manuals.
jog is a protuberance or swelling. Ellis' use is the only citation in OED (though from The Modern Husbandman, not The Country Housewife, indicating how much the one book leaned on the other for text and information).
kecks or kex (in OED) is the generic term for the hollow stem of any umbelliferous plant such as wild angelica or hogweed. Grigson gives it as a particular name of hogweed (cow parsley).
kibe-heel: kibes are chilblains, especially on the heel. OED suggests the word may stem from the Welsh.
kiver is a shallow trough or tub, often describing that used for kneading dough, or for storing milk before skimming.
leaf is the layer of fat round the kidneys of a pig, but was then generalized to describe the internal fat of any animal.
lenitive means laxative. A lenitive electuary is a thick syrup that will ease the motions.
levigate, to, means to pound in a mortar to a fine powder.
liverwort can refer to several plants, all thought beneficial to the liver. Agrimony is one, stone liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha) is another, Anemone triloba is a third, dog lichen (Peltigera canina) a fourth. Ellis does not specify.
loblolly is the same as burgoo (q.v.).
lucatellus balsam was a soothing, red-coloured ointment or syrup made of olive oil, wax and turpentine. It was used specifically in cases of coughs, bruising and wounds.
maid-sweet is sweet cicely.
manchet is the fine white enriched loaf of medieval and early modern bakery. Johnson defines it as 'a small loaf of fine bread'.
manna is the subject of a definition by Johnson. It is the exudation or juice (then solidifed) of the manna-ash (Fraxinus ornus), grown in southern Italy -- a variant, from the larch, came from France -- it was mildly laxative.
mantle when describing beer, is the froth.
marsh-trefoil-root is buckbean (OED), although Ellis seems to be treating the two names as distinct plants.
maukin or malkin, a mop for swabbing the oven floor. The word had more vulgar meanings too.
maw is stomach.
mayweed, maidweed or maythe, is stinking camomile, Anthemis Cotula.
mellilot or melilot, is a plant of the clover family (Melilotus altissima). In some districts it grew in cornfelds to such an extent as to impart a rank flavour to the bread (OED).
mithridate is an electuary effective against poisons and infections, named for the King of Pontus. It, like theriac, was a polypharmaceutical of classical origin, fast falling into disrepute by Ellis' time.
mountain is mountain wine, fortifed wine from Malaga grown in the mountains immediately to the north of that city.
mudgell-hole is not defined by OED, but perhaps means standing water in a yard that is 'muddled' by ducks and geese, or one that is an outlet for drains.
mugget is the intestines of a calf or sheep.
mum is a kind of beer originally imported from Brunswick during the 17th and 18th centuries (OED). However, John Nott gives a recipe and refers to English mum-makers: it was aged and complex, full of aromatics and flavourings.
naples-biskets are the original of sponge-fingers, sometimes also a small macaroon made with pine-nuts (E. David, glossing Nott, Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary, 1726). See also the glossary to John Evelyn, Cook.
ort is a word to describe scraps or left-overs, be they for humans or for animals. Ellis is advising his housewife on the true economy of the kitchen.
pear
bell-orange, is the variety most favoured by Ellis. Perhaps it was related to the Bergamot pears, of which there were several.
black worcester, is a famed baking pear (see Traditional Foods of Britain).
cadilliac, was also known as Cadillac or Catillac, and was a cooking variety originally, as were so many, from France.
warden, were a near-local type, named for the Bedfordshire abbey of Warden.
peck: two gallons of wheat make a peck, four pecks a bushel. As a dry measure, it was 14 pounds.
peggings are defined in the OED only by reference to Ellis. In his Modern Husbandman he describes them as the chaff which is swept off the heap of corn after winnowing.
penny-grass is probably yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), a grassland weed.
petre-salt is defined by Woodward (1728): 'Nitre, while . . .in its native state, is called petre-salt, when refin'd, salt-petre.' It is potassium nitrate.
pilla-cochia is a medicine, a purge: its composition is unknown.
pincushions: 'Hertfordshire pincushions' are squares of paste which puff like pincushions when boiled.
plaister of paracelsus: plaisters or plasters were an adhesive salve spread on muslin or skin. Paracelsus (d.1541) promoted mineral substances as healing agents and thought the body produced its own healing balsam.
pollard is bran.
posset is a hot drink made of milk curdled with an acid (wine, ale, citrus juice).
pottle measures two quarts.
precipitate is mercury reduced to a powder by solution in acid. Precipitation is the opposite of sublimation. The powder is corrosive.
quicksilver is mercury.
quince, portugal, is among the most important and most popular quince varieties, identifed by John Gerard and still grown today.
raddle is red-ochre. Rams wear a raddle (ruddle, reddle) or harness of coloured earth strapped to their chests to mark any ewes that they have tupped.
randan is the coarsest wheat flour. Other citations in the OED define it as bran ground as fine as flour.
rennet-wort is probably lady's bedstraw (Galium verum), used to curdle milk in the absence of calf's rennet. OED, following Richard Bradley (a regular source for Ellis too), suggests it is Galium aparine, goosegrass or clivers: unlikely here.
ridder seive is the largest sort of wheat sieve.
rocambole is Allium scorodoprasum or sand leek, a milder form of garlic.
roll brimstone is presumably a piece of brimstone formed into a ball or roll.
roman vitriol is sulphate of copper. It is also called blue vitriol.
rowel is a circular piece of leather or other material, with a hole in the centre, placed between an animal's flesh and its skin to provoke and permit the discharge of humours or pus.
russel, oil of: it is not clear what this is. It is possibly a variant spelling of rosil which is rosin, solid resin after the distillation of turpentine.
rust, to, is the verb that describes turning rusty or resty, i.e. rancid.