Place of Origin

United States

Date of Composition

ca. 1830-1860

Description

This cookbook of approximately 43 pages appears to be in a single hand. To judge from the recipes, the book was mostly compiled in the 1830s and 1840s but continued into the late 1850s, when recipes for Washington Cake and Mountain Cake, which are written near the end, became current. The first third of the book focuses on cakes, puddings, and dessert creams. The second third includes a number of recipes for savory dishes, including tomato catsup, oyster pie, oyster sauce, baked fish (with a crumb stuffing and a "gravy" made with claret and butter), beef "alamode," pickles, and soups. The final third, for the most part, reverts to cakes and desserts.

The book features several uncommon recipes: a boiled potato pudding made with suet; mincemeat for pies made with "1 hundred apples" (evidently to be put up to last through the winter); a recipe for the complicated dessert conceit called "hen's nest," which is rarely seen in manuscript books; and a cornmeal-molasses porridge with the archaic and seemingly incongruous title "whit[e] pot."

To view digital images of this manuscript, click View Online, then Volume 4.