Manuscript Location

New York University Bobst Library, Fales Special Collections

Place of Origin

United States
South Africa

Date of Composition

1860-1865

Description

All but the last four pages of this 152-page cookbook were written by a single individual, presumably Carrie C. F. Stickney, whose name is inscribed on the front flyleaf, along with the date "January 26th 1860." Following the inscription "Grandma Saunders (Miss Caleb Feb. 1865)" is written in pencil. She may be the author of the last four pages. 

Where Carrie Stickney wrote this book, and under what circumstances, is a mystery. While many of the recipes are uniquely American (such as Union Pudding, which celebrates the northern cause in the American Civil War), Carrie Stickney wrote, directly following her name, the address "Cape Town, C. G. H." [that is, Cape of Good Horn], which is in South Africa. According to the library, various Stickney family members hailing from Lincolnshire, England, emigrated to South Africa in the mid-1800s. Meanwhile, there were also Stickney family members living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A hypothesis forms. Perhaps Carrie Stickney was part of a Philadelphia Stickney family that decided to join other Stickneys in South Africa, prompting Carrie Stickney to record her favorite American recipes in a cookbook before leaving for South Africa. 

With the exception of seven soups (which open the book), four tomato preparations (including ketchup), a potted chicken, and a handful of meat dishes, all of the recipes in this book—some 450 altogether—are desserts and cakes. Carrie Stickney wrote her book at a time when an older, English-derived style of cooking was rapidly giving way to a more modern, more distinctively American style of cooking, and the book's fascinating mix of older recipes, many dating back to the eighteenth century, and newer recipes reflects this transition. The older recipes include: almond cheesecakes; little currant cakes (without soda); macaroons and ratafia biscuits (made with bitter almonds); Dutch blancmange, Dutch flummery and jaune mange; yeast muffins baked on a griddle in metal rings; tea rusk; loaf cake; buns; isinglass blancmange; election cake; and "cold custard." Newer recipes include coffee cake (spiced molasses cake made with coffee); toffee; honeycomb gingerbread (rolled molasses wafers, likely copied from a British source as the recipe calls for "treacle"); pork cake; Washington pies and other similar "cream pies"; cottage pudding; marble cake; Berwick sponge cake; feather cake; telegraph cake (a jelly roll); nut cakes (pfeffernusse); chocolate caramels; white mountain cake; Parker House rolls; and angel cake. The 1860s ushered in a vogue for "lemon pie," and this book includes eight different versions: two old-fashioned rich types (like southern lemon chess pie), a lemon cracker pie, an early lemon meringue pie, a souffleed lemon pie, two lemon cornstarch custard pies (one open and one covered), and a lemon pie with raisins.