Manuscript Location

New York Academy of Medicine, Rare Book Room

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

mostly ca. 1700, with additions ca. 1750 and ca. 1845

Description

This manuscript consists of approximately 78 pages of recipes, most of which are culinary, written in a notebook that includes many blank pages. The recipes in the front of the notebook, which comprise the bulk of the book, are of the early eighteenth century and are in two principal hands. Most of these recipes concern fruit preserving (23 recipes) and fruit and flower wines (10 recipes); these recipes appear in two clutches, with a break of six blank pages in between, at the beginning of the book. Following these recipes, in no particular order, are additional recipes for little cakes, stewed dishes, egg pies, fried pasties, pickles and souses, various meat preparations, and bready, herb-seasoned sausages called "Andolians," likely from the French andouilles.

Also included, in a third hand, is a recipe for "Stewed Steak," which is of the mid-eighteenth century or later, for it calls for "stock" (rather than the earlier "broth" or "gravy") and "Harvey Sauce," which was introduced to the market sometime after 1750. Two additional recipes at the back of the book ("Sarah Ann Rowling's Sefton or Veal Custard" and "Stewed Pears"), in yet another hand, are copied verbatim from Eliza Acton's Modern Cooking for Private Families, first published in 1845.