Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

early 19th century

Description

This book contains 55 pages of culinary recipes, which are numbered through page 41, and 9 pages of medical recipes, which are written starting from the opposite end of the book, upside-down in relation to the culinary recipes. The book may have been written by, or may have once belonged to, a Miss Collins, for a letter addressed to a person of this name, which includes a recipe for tomato sauce, is laid in. The book appears to be in a single hand. The book's recipe for Beef Olives (stuffed beef rolls) on digital page 60 was paraphrased from Elizabeth Raffald's "The Experienced English Housekeeper," published in 1769, and judging from their language, many other recipes in the book were also likely copied or paraphrased from published cookbooks. A number of the book's recipes, including Everlasting Syllabub, Calf's Feet Pudding, Millet Pudding, and dessert creams thickened with chicken gizzard skins (originally a French idea), are of the 18th century and fell out of fashion during the early 1800s, so it seems unlikely that the book is later than 1825. Among the more unusual recipes are Wind Bags, which turn out to be cream puff shells filled with preserved fruits, and Common Breakfast Cakes (described as "remarkably light and good"), which are yeast-raised breads enriched with mutton suet melted in boiling milk. The book contains recipes for metheglin, a type of mead, and English usquebaugh, a spiced brandy cordial, which are rare in cookbooks written after the 18th century. A recipe for cod fillets in cream is written in French, and several recipes are titled in French.