Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

mostly ca. 1698

Description

This book is inscribed near the front: "Catharine Cotton Her Booke given her May the 21^th. 1698." On the front and back covers of the notebook and on the front flyleaf the forename is spelled "Catherine." The book is mostly written on the rectos of the leaves. There are approximately 73 leaves of recipes, mostly culinary, in the front of the book, and seven leaves of medical recipes written from the back of the notebook and upside in relation to the front.

The recipes in the front of the book appear to be in the hand of the inscriber through leaf 41r. The inscriber's recipes focus almost entirely on fruit preserving, interspersed with a few recipes for jellies and and pickles. If written in 1698, the recipe for "jamm" on leaf 24r predates the first printed recipe by this name by several decades. Two recipes on leaf 28r call for "Newington peaches," which are rarely specified in recipes. 

The remainder of the front of the book is in several hands other than the inscriber's. Recipes for cakes, biskets, dessert creams, and preserves predominate through around leaf 54. Recipes focusing on the principal dishes of the meal, including many recipes for meats, follow. Recipes written around 1698 end on leaf 69r. A handful of medical recipes and sickroom preparations, the latter written in a 19th century hand, appear on leaves 71v-73r.

Sporadic recipes are attributed, including some to women of the nobility. One medical recipe is attributed to a physician. Near the end in the reverse section, buried among blank leaves, is a satirical poem entitled "A receipt how to make a right Presbyterian in two days."