Manuscript Location

Folger Shakespeare Library, Manuscripts

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

ca. 1757-ca. 1801

Description

This volume is in two parts: a cookbook of approximately 100 pages written in the front of the notebook, and 12 pages of medical recipes written from the inside back cover of the notebook going toward the center and upside-down in relation to the front. The book is inscribed "Eliz: Langley March the 17^th," followed by an eighteenth century date that is badly smudged. Given the modern spelling "biscuit" (rather than the earlier "bisket") throughout, the book is unlikely to be earlier than 1750. The cookbook is in the hand of the inscriber through leaf 39v. A second hand writes from leaf 40r (including a recipe on leaf 44r that bears the date July 29^th 1801), a third hand begins on leaf 51v, and a fourth hand has written the final recipe, on leaf 54r. The entire medical section appears to be in Elizabeth Langley's hand.  

Elizabeth Langley collected recipes for all manner of foods but she was especially interested in soups, meat and fish dishes (as well as fish sauces), preserved meats, puddings, tea cakes, fruit preserving, and sweet wines and spirts. Many of the dishes she outlines were particular features of late eighteenth century English cuisine, such as her many "white" dishes finished with cream, egg yolks, and butter rolled in flour: "To stew a Breast of Veal the White way" (leaf 1r); three very similar white chicken fricassees (leaves 5v, 16v, and 29v); "To make white scotch collops" (leaf 2v) and "Scotch Collops White" (leaf 12v); and "To stew carp white" (leaf 12v). Also characteristic of the time are the curried dishes and curry powders outlined on leaves 32v-34r, including a shrimp curry with greens. Late eighteenth century English teas, in all their variety, are reflected in five recipes for tea cakes: plum cakes (leaf 3v), Bath buns (leaf 21v), Bath cakes (leaf 4v), Muffins (leaf 25v), and Oat Cakes (leaf 27v). "To Make Dutch Govers" (leaf 18v) illustrates the same Frenchified spelling that transformed "bisket" to "biscuit" in the eighteenth century. The "govers" (more commonly "gofers" or "gophers") are waffles, from the French gauffres. Fifty years earlier recipes for these Dutch cakes were titled "wafers" or indeed "waffles," in various spellings.

The "Bread" on leaf 15r, which is enriched with butter, eggs, and milk, was generally known as "French bread" in Anglo-America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ordinary bread being understood as made with water only. The recipe title could be an error--in fact, there is a similar recipe for "French Rolls" on leaf 39v--or the title may indicate that enriched bread was baked as ordinary bread in some late eighteenth century English households. Also of interest is the recipe "To make Lemon Cheesecakes or a Lemon Pudding" (leaf 23r), which captures the transition of curdish lemon cheesecakes to smooth-textured ones akin to American lemon chess pies. A classic eighteenth century English trifle, with white wine, almonds, and a syllabub topping, appears on leaf 22v.

The recipes following those of Elizabeth Langley include black puddings, sauces for fish and fowl, fruit and flower wines, ham cures, stewed spinach, stewed peas, yeast, and batter pudding. There are also a few medical recipes.