Manuscript Location

Historic Cherry Hill, The Edward Frisbee Center for Collections and Research

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New York ➔ Albany

Date of Composition

1839-1886

Description

Harriet Maria “Hat” Van Rensselaer Elmendorf (1816-1896), a daughter of Solomon and Arriet Van Rensselaer, inherited Cherry Hill, the Van Rensselaer family mansion in Albany, New York, after the death of her father in 1852. She then moved to Cherry Hill with her husband, Dr. Peter E. Elmendorf (1814-1881), and their daughter Harriet "Hattie" Maria (1844-1920), becoming the third generation of the Van Rensselaer family to occupy the grand house. The Elmendorfs' financial fortunes declined over the years, and in 1884, three years after her husband's death, Harriet Maria was forced to put Cherry Hill on the auction block, and the house passed out of the Van Rensselaer family.

Despite their financial struggles, the Elmendorfs led full and active lives. In 1860, the couple took in a three-year-old child named Catherine “Kittie” Bogart Putman (1857-1948), who was the orphaned daughter of one of Harriet Maria’s deceased cousins. The couple also raised another orphaned child, Harriet Maria “Minnie” Elmendorf Knapp, who was a member of an African-American family descended from enslaved persons formerly owned by the Cherry Hill Van Rensselaers. Minnie lived with the Elmendorfs and was a servant at Cherry Hill for most of her life. It is evident through her correspondences that Harriet Maria was quite close with all of the children she raised, including Minnie. Harriet Maria was educated and took education seriously, writing in 1855 that “A thing well learned, is never forgotten.” She was an avid needlewoman and received a silver medal from the New York State Agricultural Society for an embroidered picture.

Harriet Maria inscribed her recipe book “Mrs. H.M. Elmendorf Recipe Book 1839” on the first page. The book comprises 225 pages bound in a notebook and 25 loose sheets inserted in the notebook, which the museum has digitized separately and arranged as pages 226 to 250 in the digital view. With a few stray exceptions, the notebook appears to be entirely in Harriet Maria's hand. It begins with an 8-page index in which the recipes written on numbered book pages 1 through 109 are entered. There are many additional recipes in the book, so presumably the index breaks off at page 109 only because there were no more blank sheets at the beginning of the notebook on which to continue it. Digital pages 126 to 175 mostly contain instructions for knitting. Recipes resume on digital pages 176 to 191. Digital page 192 is headed: "Inventory of the Personal Property of Sol: [Solomon} Van Rensselaer deceased, drawn as follows . . ." This inventory continues through digital page 205. Its goods are designated has having been sold to or possibly left to six different women, one of whom is Harriet Maria. Recipes resume on digital page 206 and continue to the end of the notebook. The inserts are a mix of handwritten recipes and clippings.

Harriet Maria's receipt book focuses on puddings, custards, cakes, breakfast and tea breads, and sweet wines. The relatively few savory preparations mostly comprise preserved meats and meat and poultry sauces. The recipes outlined in the first half of the notebook, prior to the knitting instructions, are mostly of the first half of the nineteenth century. Many of the recipes outlined from page 175 onward became current after the Civil War, such as the Chocolate Cake on digital page 177 and the Buckeye Cake and Queen of Puddings on digital page 180. Harriet Maria copied numerous recipes from the recipe book of her grandmother, Maria Sanders Van Rensselaer, including her grandmother's recipes for traditional Dutch treats such as oly cooks, crullers, waffles, puffert, and ballabuyshes. 

Harriet Maria compiled another recipe book, shortly before she married. See Harriet Maria Elmendorf's receipt book from 1837.