Manuscript Location

Folger Shakespeare Library, Manuscripts

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

ca. 1725

Description

This cookbook comprises 466 numbered recipes and forty-eight bills of fare written on the recto sides of 199 leaves, plus, at the end, a diagram showing the placement of dishes for a two-course dinner. The book is in a single fine hand, possibly that of a professional scribe, except for a recipe for "yellow blamange" on leaf 78v and an entry after no. 243, which states that this recipe was presented to "your ladyship" by John Bacon. The book covers virtually all of the nicer dishes common in England during the first half of the eighteenth century, as well as some uncommon ones, including Horne Wafers (flavored with chocolate and eaten hot, leaf 20r), Pippen Leach (leaf 26r), To Make Mushrooms (gooseberry or barberry meringues, leaf 28r), Anscots Cheese (leaf 49r), A Farackey (a sort of trifle, leaf 54r), Burgamey Biskett (Leaf 62r), The Lady Allen's Water (leaf 85r), Bramswick Mumm (leaf 102r), To Make Ebulum (elderberry wine, leaf 107r), and A Monnastick (rich chicken and rice dish, leaf 148r). It is an extraodinarily useful volume.

The recipes are organized under 15 heads: leaf 1, "To Preserve" (fruit preserving); leaf 21, "Dry Sweetmeats" (dried fruit, candied fruit, and fruit confectionary); leaf 40, "Creams and Cheese"; leaf 50, "Sack Possets and Sillibubs"; leaf 57, "Bisketts and Jumballs"; leaf 68, "Plum Cake and Gingerbread"; leaf 78, "Cordiall Waters and Syrups"; leaf 101, "Meade and Made Wines"; leaf 112, "Puddings and Pyes"; leaf 132, "To Dress Fish"; leaf 142, "Soups and Made Dishes"; leaf 164, "The Side Dishes"; leaf 177, "To Pot and Collor"; leaf 184, "The Pickells"; and leaf 192, "The Bill of Fares." Leaves 200v and 201r feature a diagram of a table set for a two-course dinner. Some recipes, typically inserted near the end of groupings, are out of category. "To Preserve," for example, contains recipes for orange, sack, and Spanish dessert "butters," hartshorn jelly, and chocolate (to drink). Likewise, "Dry Sweetmeats" includes recipes for trifle, gooseberry and almond fools, almond milk, and fresh cheese.

The forty-eight bills of fare are modest, each comprising two courses of four or five dishes each. Reflecting the book's composition during the English "pudding age," many of the first courses include a pudding. The diagrammed bill of fare is fancier, featuring nine dishes in each of the two courses.