Manuscript Location

UC San Diego, American Institute of Wine & Food Culinary Collection

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1693

Description

Approximately half of this book of 256 pages is paginated, in three different sections. Two of these sections are written from the front of the volume: pages 1 through 14  (two leaves are laid in at page 7), followed immediately by pages 1 through 90. The third paginated section is written from the back, beginning with page 15 (presumably pages 1 through 14 are missing) and ending with page 86. Pages 1 through 14 are mostly medical, pages 1 through 90 are culinary, and the pages written from the back are a mix of medical recipes and "banqueting stuff." All of the numbered pages are written in multiple hands, some of which are recurring, which suggests that this part of book was a collaboration, perhaps under the auspices of Ann Clutterbuck, who inscribed her name and the date 1693 at the top of the first leaf. (It bears noting that a medical recipe on page 69 of the back section is signed "J. Clutterbuck.) The culinary recipes cover all of the favorite dishes of the late seventeenth century, some in several different versions, making this a valuable cookbook. The hands are uniformly in italic script and all are at least reasonably legible.

Following page 90 there are approximately 25 unnumbered pages of culinary recipes, in several different hands, some possibly recurring. These recipes appear to be of more or less the same date as the recipes on pages 1 through 90 and they cover the same sorts of dishes.. Then follow approximately 50 unnumbered pages of medical recipes prior to page 86. These recipes contain at least five 18th century dates, the earliest 1721, the latest 1771.