Manuscript Location

New York Public Library, Schwarzman Building - Manuscripts & Archives Division

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1693

Description

This cookbook of approximately 164 written pages is in two parts: an untitled section mostly comprising dishes served in the principal courses of the meal and a section titled "sweetmeats," which is written starting from the back of the notebook and upside down in relation to the first part. The first part is preceded by an inscription: The Lady Morton’s Book of Receipts, most of which shee hath experimented her selfe and are verey good 1693. The first part is entirely in Lady Anne Morton's hand, but the latter half of the sweetmeat section is in a much fancier hand. Although the manuscript implies a division between principal dishes and those served in the banquet or dessert course, this distinction is not completely carried through. Lady Anne recorded a number of sweets recipes—creams, sweet wines, little cakes, and plum cakes—in the first section of  the manuscript, and the unknown contributor likewise added recipes for dishes served only in the principal courses of the meal in the sweetmeat  section, including carrot pudding, oyster pie, and beef a la mode.

On balance, this manuscript has far more recipes for savory dishes than sweet, unlike most other English manuscript cookbooks of this era. The book is useful for anyone wishing to stage a late seventeenth century English meal, for it has excellent detailed recipes for many of the favorite dishes of the day: pickled mushrooms, pig brawn, scotch collops, stewed carps, pease pottage, roast pike, roast beef, carrot pudding, oatmeal pudding, neat's tongue pudding, rice pudding, almond pudding, plumb pudding (an unusually early recipe), and olive pie.