Manuscript Location

Winterthur Library, Quaker and Special Collections

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Pennsylvania ➔ Philadelphia

Date of Composition

ca. 1820-ca. 1840

Description

This recipe book is written in a blank notebook sold by a Philadelphia stationer. The front cover features a wood-cut illustration of a house in the Palladian style, with a garden and garden buildings. This genteel scene prefigures the aristocratic style of many of the recipes, which call for expensive ingredients and require time and care to prepare.

The 34-page book was written by several people. Nearly all of the first 18 pages are in the beautiful, flowing hand of the original author, who numbered the recipes consectively from 1 to 43. The recipes on pages 19 through 21 may have been written by the same individual, but the hand is less neat and the recipes are not numbered.  The recipes slant toward puddings, breads, biscuits, muffins, cakes, little cakes, and preserves, but also include turkey stuffing, pickles, and a few other savory preparations. At least two recipes call for "sweet bazzel," which was little used in American kitchens when this book was compiled. A recipe for Tomato Pickles, on digital page 9, begins, "The Union Times gives the following receipt for making the most savory pickles in the world." A recipe for Cream Cakes, on digital page 18, calls for "a tea spoonful of soda and acid." If this is some sort of "baking powder," as it seems to be, this recipe was likely written after 1840, although the book may well have been started some years earlier. From page 22 to the end, the recipes are mostly medical and appear to be in several different hands. A full index of the recipes is listed in a database available at the library.

To view digital images of this book, click on the link in the library catalog record under "Multimedia," and then click on "1800s."