Cookbook features recipes to cure the plague

We've all heard of super-foods such as broccoli, berries and fish oil that are said to be both nourishing and offer protection from disease. But what about viper flesh?

In the 17th Century it was one of the key ingredients of a cure for plague, listed in a recipe book started in 1666.

The book is one of several kept in a vault at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington and is now being digitised to make the collection more accessible.

Jane O'Brien reports.

Filmed by Colm O'Molloy. Edited by Bill McKenna.