Kept by Sally Dortch Baskervill (b. 1807?), of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, this book is written in a tall, thin volume bound with green and brown marbled paper and a brown leather spine. The lined pages are unnumbered except for the first two. The book is written in ink, in a single hand, except for an account at the beginning, which is written in pencil and appears to be in a different hand.
The beginning of the book mostly comprises instructions for dying fabrics. However, a few culinary recipes are also written in this section, including Receipt for pickling Beef, Receipt for drying beef, and To make boiled icing. Most of the culinary recipes appear in a clutch on pages 22-23: Ginger Snaps, A very nice cake (Miss Walker), Orange Cake for Breakfast (Miss Walker), Sugar Biscuit (Mrs. Coleman), Icing (Miss M Hamson), Family Bread (Mrs. Hawkins), To Make Rolls (Mrs. Rainy), Light Biscuit, Light Bread (Mrs. Boyd). Memos of carpets made and sold from 1833 to 1848 are spread throughout. Near the end of the book, after a run of many blank pages, there are accounts of Butter Sold Winter of 1833 through 1838.
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