Ambergris was often acquired out of a desire to fragrance and flavour. It graced the breakfast table of Charles II, King of England, where it was scattered on scrambled eggs up until his death in 1685, when the potency of the seasoning masked the suspect poison that allegedly killed him. Half an ounce of finely grated ambergris constitutes the Dutch recipe for Amber-Podding, a hedonistic potpourri of lard, almonds, sugar, white bread, musk (a fragrant secretion from the musk deer), and orange blossom water, cooked with the ambergris in pig’s intestine.

— Read more in Picturing Scent: The Tale of a Beached Whale at The Public Domain Review. The author is art historian Lizzie Marx, who worked on the Fleeting – Scents in Colour exhibition at the Mauritshuis (see here, here, here). The article is about Jan Saenredam's print Beached Whale at Beverwijk, 1602. Hat tip to Pyramus!