Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

presumably begun May 30, 1826

Description

This cookbook is inscribed on the inside front cover: Mary Anna Charlesworth May 30,1826. Written entirely in the hand of inscriber, the book contains 29 numbered pages of recipes and an index at the front that lists the recipes by page number through page 26. The book gives instructions making soups, sauces, puddings, dessert creams, cakes, tart pastes, fruit preserves, crumpets or pikelets, cowslip vinegar, and cream cheese. It has few meat or fish dishes.

Of particular note is the recipe for "Ham Toast" (page 8), which consists of a tricky egg sauce poured over toast and then covered with grated ham. Also of interest are the "Gooseberry Biscuits" (page 6). The recipe begins as a conventional soft fruit meringue, such as was often used in the period to decorate dessert creams and custards, but the meringue is dropped in small shapes and dried in "a stove" until crisp, making "biscuits." The recipe for Gingerbread on page 14 outlines paper-thin wafers that are "twisted" in coils around the fingers while hot. Popular at English fairs, this type of gingerbread first appears in English cookbooks in the early nineteenth century, sometimes under the name "honeycomb gingerbread," and is outlined in many later cookbooks as "brandy snaps." There are three different recipes for pea soup, including one marked "economical," and two recipes for calves' foot jelly. Nearly all of the recipes are attributed, some to "my mother" and a number to an aunt.