This plain leather-bound book over blue paper, measuring roughly 4 by 7 inches, contains accounts and a list of names at the front and a cookbook at the back, all of which are written in the same unidentified hand. The endpaper on the account book side has the date 1861.The back cover is inscribed with the title “R 000 Pagooc,” the name “Nash,” and the initials “N&W.” The name “Miss N.” is written upside down on the first page of the cookbook, possibly the “Nash” inscribed on the back cover.
The cookbook includes 11 pages of recipes written in ink, as well as a great number of missing pages that appear to have been cut out. The recipes comprise: Cake, Yankee Cake, Coconut Drops, Muffins, French Rolls, To pickle white walnuts, Flannel Cakes, To mend China, Mrs. Dr. Hughes’ Recipe, Lemon cake, Indian cake, crakers, and transparent pudding. Two recipes for Flannel Cakes, or yeast-raised pancakes, on page 5 and pages 9-10, are of particular note. Both are written over in lead pencil with forceful warnings: “I wish the mode of making these cakes were obliterated from the memory of Mary & more especially Mrs. J. Bollmy”; and “To be forgotten or never used. Away with it. Forget it.” Clearly these recipes proved unsatisfactory to the writer!
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