Manuscript Location

Folger Shakespeare Library, Manuscripts

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

ca. 1700-ca. 1730

Description

This receipt book of 346 pages (with some blanks) is written in an unfinished Latin commonplace book, which mostly consists of brief quotations under such headings as Virtus, Mors, and Philopohia, and which ends on page 83.

The recipes are approximately half medical and half culinary. They are in a number of different hands. There  is an index on pages 22 through 35, but it includes almost none of the culinary recipes written on pages 110 to 210, and only some of those written before and after this clutch. Among the unindexed recipes are those written in a fine hand on pages 154 to 159, all of which are attributed to Lady Cobb and two of which are of particular note: an extravagant "white pot," with preserved fruits and ground almonds, and an unusual "pounded hare pye."

This book was almost certainly compiled within a circle of friends, who passed it among themselves over a period of years. Many of the hands recur throughout the volume, as do persons to whom recipes are attributed, who must have been widely familiar within the community of the book's compilers. Recipes are credited to Lady Cobb by a number of different writers, on pages 138-139, 154-159, 245-246, 263-265, and 270-273. Lady Spencer's raisin wine appears on page 58, her mynced pies on page 162, and two of her medicinal waters on pages 147 and 227. Mr. Russell's cheesecakes and "collered beef" are outlined on page 187 and his oyster loaves on page 252. Many of the persons to whom recipes are attributed are ladies of the peerage: Lady Drake (page 169), Lady Jane Cheney (page 227), Lady Scidmore (page 237), Lady Doyly (page 253), Lady Trevor (page 255), Lady Millme (page 267), Lady Ropper (page 285), and Lady Lyndsey (page 304). There is also a recipe for "The Dutchess of Cleveland's Breakfast" (page 275), which is a sort of hot eggnog with orange flower water and spices. A few recipes are also attributed to common women. One recipe is credited to a captain, another to a major.

The culinary recipes are of the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. A date of May :10, presumably 1710, appears on page 137.