Place of Origin

United States ➔ Pennsylvania ➔ Lancaster County

Date of Composition

1809-1830

Description

This 158-page book is crammed with 388 recipes that particularly focus on meat dishes and desserts. The dishes covered include: wonders, wigs, Turkish cake, lots of preserves, Richmond pudding, syllabub, ragou of eels, barbecued sheep's head, popemela, lots of gingerbread, pickled walnuts, many meat preparations, barberries, flummery, brandied peaches, and many puddings (including quaking pudding). There are also some household and medical recipes. Some recipes are pasted over others.

There is a profile portrait of General Hand on the front page of the book, with the inscription "Edw. Hand, drawn from memory by [illegible] artist to the Hand family and late professor of drawing at Michael's." The book includes two newspaper clippings, collected some time after the book was compiled, that provide biographical information on General Edward Hand and his family. Edward Hand (1744-1802) was an Irish physician and politician who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. General Hand's plantation, Rock Ford, is today a museum.

The book is part of the library's Manuscript Recipe Book Collection, 1793-1959. The catalog record contains a link to a useful finding aid.