Manuscript Location

University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Kislak Center for Special Collections - Manuscripts

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

begun ca. 1756, continued ca. 1844

Description

This 166-page volume is essentially in two parts. Inscribed Ann M. Plowden 1756 on the inside front cover, the book is of the second half of the eighteenth century through page 95. Starting on page 96, the book is of the mid-nineteenth century. The dates 1844, 1846, and 1847 are written on pages 102, 105, and 106 respectively.

The eighteenth-century section of the book is in two hands, the first writing through page 15, the second from page 16 to page 95. The second hand is similar to the hand of the inscription but not indisputably the same. The recipes, all culinary, are typical for the period and include meat and fish dishes, meat pies, puddings, many preserves and dessert creams, and a few cakes. Two recipes of particular note are Thick Pikelids [pikelets] (page 10) and Thin Pikelids (page 11), which are, respectively, English muffins and the thick yeast pancakes today known as pikelets in Britain. Also of interest is the recipe for Furmity on page 87. The recipe is based on boiled wheat kernels, like traditional frumenty, but is recast as a dessert like more modern versions of the dish, which are made with barley.

The nineteenth-century section of the manuscript is in several hands. Pages 106 and 113-115 include a number of recipes attributed to Alexis Soyer (1810-1848), an expatriate French chef famous both for his elegant cooking at London's Reform Club and for his efforts on behalf of the poor. Soyer's "Economical Soup" is outlined on page 106. Other notable recipes in this section include Jamaica Pepper Pot, with "acoro powder," "turtle herbs," greens, and calves' feet (page 124), King Cake (page 138), Cock a Leekie (page 141), and Oatmeal Porridge (page 152), which though a staple dish in Britain for centuries is rarely accorded recipe treatment.

There is a table of contents through page 61 in the back of the book. It is written in at least two hands, neither of which is clearly either of the hands of the book's first section.