Two inscriptions appear on the inside cover of this book: "M Hasell 1789" and, just beneath it, "Marie Salmond 1809." The first inscription has been crossed out with two neat, purposeful strokes, and these strokes provide a crucial clue to the book’s composition. It seems likely that the book was begun as a collaborative project under the auspices of Mrs. Hassell, to whom three recipes are credited, on pages 37-38 of the front section. The book subsequently came into the possession of Marie Salmond, one of its original contributors (her name appears on page 51 of the front section), who then continued it as a solo project. This theory is speculative, of course, but both the front and back sections of the book provide extensive corroboration.
The front of the book consists of a page index, 116 numbered pages of mostly culinary recipes, and then, after a gap of many blank pages, an unfinished alphabetical index. The recipes on pages 1 through 70 appear in clutches of different hands, some of which recur; the index entries for these pages are in the same hands as the recipes, at least for the most part. Many of the recipes on the first 70 pages are attributed. Then, from page 71 (bottom) to page 116, all of the recipes are in the same hand, which bears clear similarities to Marie Salmond’s signature on the inside front cover. A few of these recipes are attributed, two to “Mrs. Salmond,” "Curry with Curry Paste" (page 98) and "Receipt for glazing" (glace de viande, page 99). As would be expected, the presumed hand of Marie Salmond also wrote the index entries for the recipes appearing on pages 71 to 106. (There was no room on the page to continue the index to page 116.) Less expectedly, the same hand crossed out the original index entries for pages 61-70 and rewrote them. There is a likely explanation. The recipes on pages 62, 63, and 64 all appear to be in Marie Salmond’s hand, but they are not entered in the original index for some unaccountable reason. Marie Salmond wanted to correct the oversight. (The unfinished alphabetical index is also in the presumed hand of Marie Salmond.)
The back of the book, which is written from the back of the notebook and upside down in relation to the front, consists of a complete page index for pages 1 to 20, 14 numbered pages of mostly medical recipes, a second complete page index for pages 1 through 20, and, finally, additional medical recipes on pages 16 through 20. Based on an analysis of the handwriting, this is what seems to have happened. During the collaborative phase of the project, several different individuals wrote recipes on pages 1 through 14 and entered their recipes in the index at the front. After the book came into the possession of Marie Salmond, she wrote additional recipes on pages 16 through 20, and on page 15 she wrote a brand-new index to the entire section. In addition, she went back to the original index at the front of the section and also added her new recipes to it!
The book includes a number of dates. “To Pot Mushrooms,” page 35, is attributed “/1766/Dalemain,” but this may be in reference to the date of the book from which the recipe was taken, as the recipe for “Orgeat,” page 108, is marked “Dalemain book.” The three recipes credited to Mrs. Hassell bear the date “1795” in the index (though not in the recipe texts). Dates written in recipes in the front of the book that are in Marie Salmon’s presumed hand include 1836 (page 92), 1838 (page 96), 1843 (page 101), 1853 (page 1853), and 1855 (page 113). The dates 1800, 1801, 1804, 1836, and 1850 appear in the back section, on pages 10, 14, 15, 18, and 20 respectively. The 1836 recipe, "To bottle gooseberries," is attributed to "Mrs. Salmond."
For the most part, the culinary recipes in the front section are fairly standard for the period. They include white, brown, onion, pea, carrot, and oxtail soups; preserved foods such as potted mushrooms, pickled beef, and ham; fish sauces, bread sauce, and gravy; "made dishes" including fricadelle of veal (ground veal loaf), "stewed" macaroni with cheese, stewed oysters, oyster rolls, cheese ramekins, cheese pudding, ham toasts, curry, and kedgeree; sweets such as almond pudding, orange pudding, gooseberry pudding, German puffs, clear lemon cream, burnt cream, custard, stone cream, honeycomb cream, blancmange, queen cakes, Scotch bread, sponge cake, and orange sponge (whipped orange gelatin); and many recipes for fruit and flower wines, vinegar, and yeast. However, there are a few unusual recipes. Roasted pike is cleaned through the gills so that it can be stuffed with a "pudding" of bread crumbs, pounded almonds, lemon zest, mace, and anchovy (page 12). "A Vermicelli Pie" (page 66) involves rolling pounded raw vermicelli into puff paste, which is then deployed as a crust for a rabbit pie. "Soufflé for Tarts" (page 94) is an early recipe for soft meringue topping. The recipe for "Potato Chips" (page 105) calls for deep-frying potatoes, cut into rounds, for 15 minutes, perhaps foreshadowing the modern English understanding of potato "chips."
Perhaps the strangest recipe is one that appears on page 51. It is untitled and dated Nov. 1799. The recipe reads: "one pound of Barley put into a jug with 5 Quarts of Water and baked 4 hours will weigh six pounds -- & if half a Pound of Treacle is stirred into it when warm, it will make 12 very good Meals for one Person." The recipe is followed by an account giving the cost of the ingredients as well as the jug, after which is written, "Mrs. Salmond agrees." Was this meager gruel, containing only 1 1/3 ounces barley per serving, perhaps a ration for a prison or orphanage or a charity food for the poor?
A newspaper clipping providing recipes for cornmeal, uncommon in Britain at the time of this book, is pasted in after page 107. Botanical specimens, particularly ferns, are pressed in throughout the volume.
