Manuscript Location

Historic Cherry Hill, The Edward Frisbee Center for Collections and Research

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New York ➔ Albany

Date of Composition

1860-1888

Description

This recipe book, one of two compiled by Catherine Van Rensselaer Bonney, contains 102 pages of recipes and a 45-page index at the end. The book begins with page 41 (digital page 2), but the index contains entries beginning with page 1, indicating that the first 40 pages of the original book are missing. Digital pages 195 through 201 are clippings that were found in the book and digitized separately.

Approximately half of the recipes in the book are culinary and half are medical, household, or cosmetic. Among the culinary recipes, there are a few for soups and vegetables (two for asparagus); a fair number of recipes for meat preserving, fruit preserving, wines, and dessert creams and custards; and, toward the end of the book, many recipes for household breads, breakfast breads and griddle cakes (three for buckwheat cakes), cakes, and cookies. The recipes skew toward the last third of the nineteenth century, but there are sporadic recipes that were more typical earlier in the century, such as "Whigs" (digital page 89) and "Flour Pudding" (digital pages 95 amd 109).

There are a number of recipes of interest. The instructions for roast meats (digital pages 17-19), which are likely paraphrased from a printed source, are geared to the fireplace, even though enclosed iron stoves were in widespread use by the time these instructions were written. There is a clever, simplified modern recipe for comfits, or dragees, on digital page 26, which entails dipping spice seeds (such as caraway) in sugar syrup, shaking them in a sieve with a little flour, and then allowing them to dry. This is repeated until the comfits "are the size you want." A recipe for cayenne pepper, which is actually a powder hotly spiced with cayenne, appears on digital page 74. The instructions for soups, digital page 76, conclude with this surprising sentence: "Soups made of veal, chicken, etc. are only fit for invalids." "Scrambled Eggs," digital page 91, is actually a sort of flour-thickened cream sauce, with eggs, that is cooked over water until "thickened, not curdled." There is an early recipe "Angel's Food [Cake]" on digital page 112. There two recipes for household white bread on digital pages 112 and 113. The first is raised with homemade potato yeast, activated either with liquid brewer's yeast or with modern yeast cake. The second is raised simply with modern compressed yeast. Compressed yeast appeared on the market in the early 1880s. Finally, the book includes recipes for "Foochow Bread" (digital page 119) and "Foochow Johnny Cake" (digital page 124). Presumably, Catherine used these recipes while she was in China. 

The medical recipes include "Balsamic Vinegar, for sick chambers" (digital page 35). Here, the word "balsamic" is used in the sense of balm, that is, a fragrant preparation meant to heal or soothe the skin. (The recipe calls for one ounce each of rue, sage, rosemary, cassia, and cloves and two ounces of powdered camphor steeped for one week in 1/2 gallon strong vinegar.) A preparation to soothe sore throat (digital page 99) is credited to Catherine's brother-in-law, Dr. Elmendorf. The household recipes include ink, sealing wax, quills, washing balls, stain removers, fabric dyes, knitting, varnishes, white wash, and insecticides. There are cosmetic recipes for perfumes, colognes, soaps, hair creams, and lightening freckles.

For biographical information on the author, see Catherine Visscher Van Rensselaer Bonney's receipt book from 1854-1889.