Manuscript Location

Winterthur Library, Quaker and Special Collections

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Pennsylvania ➔ Reading

Date of Composition

likely ca. 1830s

Description

This 17-page recipe book was compiled in a German-speaking household, likely in Pennsylvania. It includes a newspaper clipping in German, possibly from "Der Reading Adler" (a German-language newspaper published in Reading, Pennsylvania), and four tombstone inscriptions (no names given), one in English and three in German. It also includes a recipe for "Gugle hoop," that is, Gugelhupf, a favorite cake throughout German-speaking Europe. The bulk of the recipes, however, are Anglo-American. They are: Custard pies, Ginger pound cake, Sally Loon [Lunn], Blackberry Cordial, Mead, Cherry Cordial, Quince Cordial, Orange Cake, Tomato Kechup, Jumbels, Custards, Lady Fingers [in this instance butter cookies of a sort], Sponge Cake and icing ("ornament") for it, Common [?] Cordial, Reading Cakes, Gingerbread, Cup Cake, Jackson Jumbles, Duch Loaf Cake, and New York biscuit. Four recipes call for pearl ash, an alkaline leavening, which suggest that the book was written no earlier than the 1820s or 1830s. Also included are a few household and medical recipes, including white wash, yellow wash, "a mixture burn in a lamp instead of oil," and a cure for "swelling of the body."

To view digital images of this book, click on the link under "Multimedia" in the library record, and then click on "1700s."