Manuscript Location

University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Kislak Center for Special Collections - Manuscripts

Place of Origin

United States

Date of Composition

likely ca. 1840- ca. 1860

Description

The first page of this small ruled notebook is inscribed, "Marianne Kimball's recipe book--Economy is wealth." The volume outlines recipes for cakes (including Concord Cake and Tunbridge Cake), puddings (including Salem Pumpkin Pudding, Indian Pudding, and sage pudding)  biscuits, jams, meat dishes, potted pigeon, and currant wine. There are several recipes using apples. Two recipes, short gingerbread and pickled walnuts, have been crossed out in pencil. The recipes for pumpkin pudding, potted pigeon, and pickled walnuts bespeak an early nineteenth century culinary sensibility, but the recipes for Tunbridge Cake and Concord Cake pull the manuscript into the 1840s or later. Thus it seems likely that the book was compiled during the mid-nineteenth century. The recipes beginning with the town names Salem, Concord, and Tunbridge may suggest that the book originated in New England.