This American cookbook comprises 1 page of unnumbered recipes, followed by 24 pages of recipes numbered 1 through 82 and a 1-page table of weights and measures at the end. The book is in a single hand, presumably that of Minnie Bennett, whose name is written on the cover. The recipes were written in six or eight clutches, perhaps over a span of years, some in ink and some in pencil, in differing handwriting moods.
Most of the recipes focus on cakes, breads, and tea breads, with a few recipes for puddings and pies mixed in. Some of the recipes were current in the 1820s or earlier, including recipes #16 through #18, which are paraphrased from Lydia Maria Child’s The American Frugal Housewife, first published in 1829. However, the use of saleratus and cream of tartar as a leavening in some of the book’s initial recipes indicates that the book was begun after 1840, and the bulk of the book appears to be later still. The recipes for Popovers (#25), Bread Pudding with a meringue topping (#31), Jelly for cake, made as a lemon custard (#40), Butter Sponge Cake (#51), Delicate Cake (#54), Cornstarch Pudding with a meringue topping (#73), and Orange Cake (#77) all emerged in the late 1850s or early 1860s and became widely known around 1870.
