Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

ca. 1750-ca. 1800

Description

The title of this of cookbook is provided by a heading written at the top of the first page. The root manuscript is of the mid- to late-eighteenth century; this copy is likely of roughly the same date. Written in a single neat, consistently legible hand, the manuscript comprises 171 numbered pages of recipes followed by an 11-page alphabetical index. The recipes are loosely organized through page 140, covering preserves; vegetable, meat, and fish pickles; potted meats and fish; meat, fowl, and fish dishes; soups; sauces and catsups; pies, mostly savory; puddings; custards, creams, gelatin jellies, and other sweet dishes; cosmetics; and cakes, biscuits, and breads. Pages 141 to the end are mostly given over to wines, shrubs, punches, and other beverages but also include all manner of other recipes. The book contains a number of uncommon recipes. To barbacue pork, page 54, calls for macerating an unspecified pork cut with salt and cayenne pepper overnight and then broiling the meat over a charcoal fire, frequently basting with Madeira. Birds in Capuchins, page 58, turns out to be whole larks individually wrapped in precooked calves' ears, with the heads sticking out, then baked and served in "gravy." Lambs Ears Loraine, on the following page, extends this improbable theme with different ears and a wider choice of fillings, including larks (again), crayfish, large coxcombs, truffles, or hard-boiled eggs. The stuffed ears are served in a complex sauce made by liquefying pounded fowl breast and pounded almonds with broth, with parboiled young peas added, if wished. Frost and Snow Pie, page 86, is a sort of egg white and cream souffle with apples, baked in a pastry crust. Jumbles were generally understood to be butter cookies shaped as rings or in pretzel shapes. But this book's "Jumbals," on page 133, are yeast-raised shortbread cakes sweetened only by the sugar that is used to shape them in "twirls.".