Manuscript Location

Winterthur Library, Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New Jersey ➔ Patterson

Date of Composition

ca. 1840-ca.1860

Description

Cornelius Bogert (1806-1855) had a boot and shoe business in Patterson, New Jersey. He and his wife Hannah Hawrey (1814-1859) had eight children, one of whom, their son John, seems to have kept his father's book after his father's death. John died fighting for the Union Army in 1865. 

Cornelius Bogert's book contains a range of recipes, the bulk of which pertain to photography and to alcoholic drinks. There are approximately sixty drink recipes altogether. They cover spruce beer, Irish whiskey, French brandy, imitation French brandy, cherry brandy, Holland gin, New England rum, port wine, and several types of cordials. There are several different recipes for most of these drinks. A number of the recipes are in the quantity of a 36-gallon barrel. There are also recipes for drink colorings and "rectifiers," for bitters, and for tincture japonica (honeysuckle extract), which may have been used to kill spiders in beer. All of the recipes have been indexed in a database available at the library.