Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1700-1730

Description

This 166-page notebook contains religious material at the front and back and 94 pages of recipes in the middle. The first 85 pages of recipes are in a single sprawling hand that is sporadically illegible; the remaining recipe pages are in at least three other hands. None of the recipe hands appears to match the hands of the religious material. The recipes are of the eighteenth century, likely of the first third of the century to judge from the phrasing and spelling. The primary focus of the book is meat, poultry, fish, and sauces and condiments served with such, rather than sweets, as is more typical of manuscript cookbooks. Among the recipes are To dress carp, Scotch collops [veal scallops in sauce], Mutton [the preparation is illegible], A Soop [meaty], A Ragout of Palets & Sweetbreads, To stew a hare, A Frigacie of Chickens, To make ketchope [with mushrooms], to Stew Pidgons, a Calves Head Hash, To Stew a goose, To Stew a Rump of Beef, Pike Sause, Scotch Collops, To Rost an Eel, To bake a pike, and Sause for flounders. There are also some recipes for preserves and sweets and an interesting recipe for soft, thick Oatcakes to be baked "on a quick stone."