Manuscript Location

University of Iowa Main Library, Special Collections, Szathmary Culinary Archive

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Virginia

Date of Composition

1828-1867

Description

This 90-page manuscript was mostly compiled by Benjamin Butterworth, whose name and that of Virginia Butterworth are written on the inside front cover. Mr. Butterworth compiled the book between 1828 and 1867, in Petersburg, Virginia, where, the book states, Mr. Butterworth moved in 1827. Located 22 miles south of Richmond, Petersburg was incorporated as a town in 1784 and as a city in 1850. The name Thomas Samuel Robinson, born in 1805, and the date 1847 also appear on the inside front cover, with a note that he, Robinson, used the book for his accounts. The front part of book lists important events occurring between 1817 and 1855 in Mr. Butterworth's life--deaths, marriages, purchases of slaves, and presidential elections--as well as Mr. Butterworth's expenses. It also includes penciled recipes in several hands from around the time of the Civil War. Some of these recipes are by an unknown old woman in Washington, D.C.; others are by John Kirkham of Petersburg, Virginia. The book includes this note: "1846, May 1st The largest beef ever was slaughtered in Petersburg weighing 5000 lbs gros 1600 net sold to the chandler 300 pound of fat and tallow the fifth quarter clearing 38 dollars by Pace and Rawlings." The recipes are as follows: Cheesecakes, Butter Sponge Cake, Cocoanut Custard, Flannel cakes, Charlotte Russe with fruit, Cocoanut Cake, Pineapple Preserve, Hydran Sauce, Dr. Scott's Recipe, Sweet Pickle Peaches, Mangoes, Pickled Oysters, Lemon Custard, Jumbles, Ginger Snaps, Jelly Cake, Blackberry Cordial, Ice Cream, Receipt for Rheumatism, Gargle for Diptheria, Colon Water, Cocoa nut Pudding, Delmonico pudding, Lemon pie, Yellow Cabbage, Rice Muffins, Marble cake, For the Yellow, Blackberry Wine, Green Tomatoes Pickle, jelly without boiling, jelly with sheet Isinglass, Tomatoes Catsup, Blackberry Wine, and Blackberry Cordial. The rear of the book comprises the expenses of the B. Butterworth family for 1847-1848.