Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1789-1806

Description

The cover of this English recipe book is inscribed “Receipt Book J: Torr.” The library catalog record states that the cover also contains the date 1789, though this is not visible in the digital image of the cover. Other dates included in the volume are 1794 and 1806. The book is written in a single hand, presumably that of John Torr. It contains approximately 125 pages of recipes, which are numbered consecutively 1 to 234 on pages 1 through 96, and unnumbered on pages 97 to 125. The book includes an index to entries numbered 1 to 234. The index starts on the inside front cover, through recipe 28, and continues from the back of the volume, upside down in relation to the front.

The book consists largely of medical recipes, with some household recipes and approximately thirty culinary recipes randomly mixed in. The culinary recipes, almost all of which occur in the last third of the volume primarily outline alcoholic drinks (sweet wines, beer, milk punch, cherry brandy, usquebaugh) and preserving methods for hams, beef (“Everlasting Beef”), pork, fish, salmon, herring (“To Pot Herrings”), and eggs. There are also two recipes for “mock turtle” (one using calf’s head), sausage meat, stewed pears, potato pudding, “Dutch Fish Sauce,” and oyster ketchup.