Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1737

Description

This book of culinary recipes is inscribed on the cover, "Mis Ann Lawrance: her Booke of Recepts july y^e 30^th 1737." The book contains approximately 38 recipes written on the rectos of 33 leaves. The book is in the hand of the inscriber except for the final two leaves, where the inscriber seems to have written the recipe titles but another individual has written the recipe text. There is a table of contents on the title page that lists sections for pastes [pie or tart pastry], puddings, pies, fish and meats, pickling, jellies, wines, and "fine cakes." There are no extant recipes in the book for jellies or cakes, but these once may have been written on leaves that are now partially cut out or entirely missing.

The recipes on leaves 2r through 18r all concern pies, tarts, and puddings baked in pastry crusts and their pastes. Recipes for preserved meats and pickles appear on leaves 19r through 24r, recipes for general cooking on leaves 24r through 31r, and recipes for wines on the final two leaves. Many of the recipes look backward in time, particularly the recipe "To Bake Wardins [Wardens] or Quinces," on leave 18r. This is a fruit pie baked in "tough thick paste" not meant to be eaten. By 1737, when this book is dated, English fruit pies were generally baked in tender crusts.