This cookbook is written in a sewn paper booklet with various stains and spatters on the front and back pages. The book is in two different hands, one writing in ink and the other in pencil. Although the library has assigned the date 1836 to this book, some of the recipes, such as Caramels, Chocolate Cake, Hollandaise, and Mayonnaise Sauce, are unlikely to be earlier than 1870. Also, a printed cookbook referenced in the manuscript, Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, by Mary F. Henderson, was first published in 1876.
The recipes are written in three distinct groups. The first group, written in ink, includes: To Corn Beef, To slice a round of Beef, Premium Pickle, Chow Chow, Sweet Pickled Damsons, Yellow Pickle, Tomato Catsup, Brandy Peaches, To preserve ripe figs, Orange Jam, and Caramels. These recipes are followed by a selection of cake recipes “from Mrs. Henderson’s Recipe Book,” written in pencil, in a different hand from the first: Black Cake, Cocoanut Cake, Frosting, Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Mixture, Cream Cake, Sponge Layer Cake. Then there is a third clutch of recipes, all in ink: To blanch almonds, Devil, Boiled Fish requires sauce Hollandaise or Drawn -- Drawn Butter, Mint Sauce, Mayonnaise Sauce, and French Dressing. A newspaper clipping with a recipe for Salad Dressing has been pasted in between the mint and mayonnaise sauces.
The second page of the book contains a floor plan and elevation view of a house, with measurements.
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