This recipe book (80 pages, some blank), belonged to William D. Wilkins of Detroit, Michigan, in the mid-19th century. (The book is inscribed in the back pages, possibly with the date 1855.) The first 33 pages consist of recipes, which include cakes, cookies, gingerbreads, puddings, jellies, trifle, "domestic yeast" (page 27), "hop beer" (page 31), and a "knickerbocker pickle" (pages 53-54). The volume also contains instructions for using molasses as a preservative (page 28), dyeing paper blue, and calculating a numerical puzzle (pages 62-63). Page 51 includes a brief record of accounts with Ann English; one entry gives the value of a bonnet.
