The tight organization of the book indicates that it is a fair copy, quite possibly of a book that had been kept by a privileged family for as many as three or four generations and revised and recopied three or four times previous to this copy. Since many of the recipes in the book remained current into the early eighteenth century, it is possible that the book was copied as late as 1725. But the bulk of the book is of the seventeenth century, featuring, in the first part, three molded quince pastes titled Quodinack (pages 33-34), Paste of Genoa (page 49), Sugar Plate (page 54 and elsewhere), Jumbals of Quinces (page 67), a rennet Trifle (page 132), a "great cake" cast directly on the oven floor (page 151), Spice Cakes (page 152), Prince Biskets (page 162), Bean Bread (page 164), Waffles (page 170), and Portuguese Eggs (page 206). The second part, likewise, includes a number typically seventeenth-century dishes, such as To Roast a Shoulder of Mutton in Blood and To Stew a Carp in its own Blood, both on page 9, To make Toasts of the Kidneys of Veal (page 43), To make Liver Puddings (page 44), and To make Furmity (with wheat berries, page 84). Some of these recipes emerged after the Restoration, in 1660, but others were in their heyday earlier and were already rather old-fashioned by the last third of the seventeenth century. This is another indication that this may be an accretive family manuscript cookbook, for such books tend to preserve recipes that were family favorites after the recipes had dropped out of general use.
Two unusual recipes in the book are Puff cakes, page 165, which appear to be croissants of a sort with sugar, spices, and currants, and Chicken Cream, which is outlined twice, verbatim, on page 124 of the first part and on page 94 of the second part. The recipe combines the minced skin of a roasted chicken, cream, bread crumbs, egg yolks, and spices and bakes the concoction in a "plate" with a glazing of melted butter.
