Place of Origin

United States ➔ New York

Date of Composition

1861-1922

Description

Contained in a small, store-bought notebook with sewn board covers, this book was kept by Mary Clinton Hasbrouck Howell (b. 1843) from 1861 to 1922, and was titled by its author "Howell's Book of Recipes." The book features 75 culinary recipes, for both sweet and savory dishes. Among the sweet recipes are bread pudding, crullers, fruit cake, sponge cake, gingerbread, honey cake, jumbles, Indian Pudding, Quaker Cake, Jenny Lind Cake, Racahout, Love Cake, and Paradise Pudding. Savory recipes include coleslaw, wheat and corn breads, omelets, wine sauce, popovers, peas au sucre, parsnips sautés, and beefsteak smothered in onions. There are also recipes for cucumber pickles and sweet grape pickles and raisin pickles.

Some sense of Mary Howell and her times can be gleaned from additional material that is written, pasted, or inserted in her book. This material includes handwritten remedies; notes written to Mary from relatives and friends; a small booklet titled "The Chiris Book of Salads" (published in 1908 by the Chiris brand of olive oil); and newspaper clippings containing recipes, remedies, poems, quotations, housekeeping hints, and a photograph of King Edward VII of England shortly before his coronation, around 1902.