Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

United States
England

Date of Composition

1760s

Description

This 50-page cookbook is titled "The Art of Cookery" and inscribed "James Doak 1762" on the inside front cover. The date 1762 appears several times in the body of the manuscript. The book is in at least four different hands, possibly as many as six, and appears to have been a collaborative project undertaken by individuals of shared tastes. All but one of its authors, whose contribution is relatively minor, focus on the preparation of meat, poultry, and game. This makes this cookbook of uncommon interest, for manuscript cookbooks of period are typically weighted toward desserts, cakes, and preserves. The book includes recipes for preparing beef, mutton and lamb, veal, pork (including roasting and a baking pig), geese and "turkies," ducks, pheasants and partridges, larks, woodcocks and snipes, pigeons, venison, hares and rabbits, tripe, tongue, and calves' heads. It also outlines a number of sauces and "dressings" to be served with various meats. Cooking methods include roasting (which is rarely covered in manuscript cookbooks), ragouts, fricassees, boiling, and broiling. In addition, the book gives recipes for dishes made with artichokes, morels, rice and vermicelli, and truffles, as well as a scattering of recipes for favorite eighteenth-century puddings, desserts, and cakes.

The recipe idiom of this book is 18th century English, as are some of its references, such as larks (page 6) and white pot and penny-loaf (page 8). Since the eighteenth-century American gentry emulated British cooking and used British recipes, it is possible that the book originated in North America, as the library believes. Also arguing for a North American origin is the recipe for "Coconutt Pudding" (page 39), which is not characteristic of 18th century English cookbooks. However, the book may well be English.