Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

United States

Date of Composition

ca. 1800-ca. 1843

Description

Except for a few household recipes scattered throughout and a section of fabric dyeing recipes at the back, this volume of approximately 200 pages is a cookbook. The volume is either in a single somewhat variable hand or in two or three very similar hands, with brief intrusions by other hands, for example at page 112, 136, and 140. The index, which begins at the front of the book and continues at the back, is in at least two other hands that do not seem to occur in the main body of the text. The pages of the book are numbered from 19 to 200. The library notes that pages 155 to 200 were added and sewn into the binding and speculates that the first 18 numbered pages, now missing, may have comprised a similar insert. The dates 1838 and 1843 appear on the last three (unnumbered) leaves, and the date 1824 is written on the inside back cover. Although many of the book's recipes were current at the beginning of the nineteenth century or earlier, it is possible that all or most of the book was compiled after 1830, as the recipes for gingered Black Cake, with pearl ash leavening (page 49), and Almond Pudding, with whipped egg whites (page 96), are unlikely to predate 1830. Recipes are attributed to a number of individuals.

However many people actually wrote this book, similarities in the recipes from beginning to end suggest that all of the authors were of the same family or circle. The book is unusually rich in recipes for vegetable pickles and catsups and other condiments, including an unusual "Bay Sause," said to come from "the West Indies," made with red pepper, garlic, mustard, and horseradish (page 112). There are also many more recipes for sponge biscuits than would be expected in a single volume. Also characteristic throughout are recipes more common to English than American cookbooks. These include three identical recipes for so-called "French Bread," a milk bread loaf (pages 20, 92, 183), a recipe for "Gingerbread" made with treacle (page 56), several recipes for fruited buns, and two recipes for "Solomon Gundy" (salmagundi), an elaborate cold meat salad (pages 73-4). The second of two recipes for "Keeklings" (page 46), which appear to be dessert fritters, is specified as "English." While many American cookbooks of this period focus primarily on dessert and tea, this volume outlines many dishes for the principal courses of dinner, including recipes featuring rock fish, shad, sturgeon, crabs, oysters, wild duck, chicken, beef, mutton, and "veal head." Of particular interest is a detailed recipe for making portable soup and a "Philadelphia receipt for cream cheese."

There is some evidence that the book may have originated in Maryland. A note laid in the volume reads, "If you dont hear from me, return this book to my sister in law Miss Mary C. Mason, 2212 N. Calvert St. Baltimore, Md. Mrs. Mary B. Mason." The name Mount Airy, a town in Maryland (and also in North Carolina), occurs in several recipes. "To Stew a Ham" (page 38) is similar to the regional recipe often called today "Maryland Stuffed Ham."