Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1840s

Description

This recipe book contains an index at the front, 38 numbered pages of culinary recipes, and, after a gap of 59 blank leaves, five unnumbered pages of medical material. All of the culinary recipes are entered in the index, but none of the medical material. This book appears to be written in the same hands as the manuscript titled "Dr. J. C. Smith family household and medical book, 1840-1860" and presents the same difficulties in assessing authorship. Several recipes are the same or similar in both books, including Orange Biscuits, Soda Bread, Unfermented Bread (with chemical risers instead of yeast), and Soup for the Poor. Several of the recipes in this book are rarely recorded and invite further study. Water Biscuits as at Clare (page 4) are produced by the same strenuous beating of the dough as the iconic beaten biscuits of the American South, although the rolling, shaping, and docking are different. Plum Pudding (page 6) calls for beef suet "not chopped fine," which is unusual, in an uncommonly generous quantity in ratio flour. There is a recipe for the famed Ormskirk Gingerbread (gingersnaps) that was once sold in the streets of the town by the same name (located near Liverpool). There is a lengthy description of Clapham Soup (page 23), a sort of meat and vegetable porridge with dried peas and oatmeal. This soup is made in batches of 132 gallons three times a week by a woman and an assistant and then sold to the public, possibly for some charitable purpose, netting a total sum of 24 pounds. Fashionable French recipes, including one for soubise sauce, are sprinkled throughout.