Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

ca. 1715

Description

This English recipe book of 27 leaves (54 pages) was compiled in the early 18th century, possibly by members of the Livesley family. The recipes are numbered 1-82 on leaves 1r-20r; twenty-five additional recipes on leaves 19v-27r are not numbered. The recipes, which are written in no apparent order, are primarily culinary but are intermixed with a few medical recipes. The culinary recipes include various meat dishes (chicken, beef, and mutton), ham, sausages, haggis, cakes, puddings, custards, pickles, sauces, syrups, and preserves. Many recipes are attributed, including a recipe to pickle cucumbers, which is credited to Mrs. Livesley (leaf 14r). Two pages in the book contain accounts. Leaf 1r, dated 1714 and 1715, shows accounts for butter (with a mention of "my brother Livesley") and ale. Leaf 3v, written upside down, shows money paid for washing and lent to the washer in November and December 1714. Stubs of a number of torn-out leaves suggest that these leaves, too, contained accounts.