Description
Matilda Fonda Van Rensselaer (1804-1863) was a daughter of Soloman and
Harriet “Arriet'' Van Rensselaer. When she was a young girl, she moved with her family to
Cherry Hill, the Van Rensselaer family mansion in Albany, New York, where she grew up with her many siblings. Matilda's older sister Elizabeth Van Rensselaer (1799-1835) married
Richard Van Rensselaer (1797-1880), their father's cousin, in 1826. After her sister's death, Matilda married Richard in 1837. Matilda and Richard did not have any children, but Matilda adopted her sister's one surviving daughter, Maria Elizabeth (1829-1865), as her own. Matilda lived most of her adult life at her husband's Albany homes. However, she retained close ties with her sister,
Harriet Maria Van Rensselaer Elmendorf (1816-1896), who lived at Cherry Hill with her family after 1852, by writing letters and by sharing receipt books containing family recipes and notes.
This recipe book is actually two different books, written by two different authors. The book is inscribed "M. F. Van Rensselaer 1849" on the inside front cover. The first 77 pages of recipes (as hand numbered in the book) appear to be in a single hand, presumably that of the inscriber, Matilda Fonda Van Rensselaer. These recipes are indexed in the back of the book, on digital pages 174-176. At the beginning of the book, on digital pages 7-9, there is a second index containing entries for pages 79 through 125 (as hand numbered in the book). This index has an attribution heading that is, unfortunately, not entirely legible. It reads something like: "Index to [Mrs?] [/?] M E [F?] V Re's Receipts." Logically, the person referred to is Maria Elizabeth Van Rensselaer, Matilda's adopted daughter. These recipes are written in a single hand other than the hand of the first 77 pages, whoever this author was. Digital pages 133 through 138 contain recipes by still another individual. Digital pages 139-173 contain pasted-in clippings that date from the last third or quarter of the nineteenth century. Digital pages 180-186 comprise loose sheets that were originally inserted into the book.
The first part of the book, presumably written by Matilda, is mostly given over to recipes for cakes, tea cakes, pies and tarts, dessert creams and custards, and sweet wines. There are six different recipes for rusks, a favorite tea cake of the time, on digital pages 64-67, and multiple recipes for sweet wines on digital pages 77-82. However, the book does contain some savory recipes as well. A number of these recipes involve preserving meat, fish, and eggs (digital pages 28-9. 47-50, and 53). Oyster recipes appear on digital pages 58-9 and recipes for various savory sauces appear on digital pages 59-61. There is an interesting, if possibly unworkable, recipe for preserving fruit "without sugar" on digital page 55. There are general instructions for raised meat pies on digital page 70. Raised pies were largely out of fashion in most of the country at the time this book was compiled.
The second part of the book is almost entirely given over to recipes for cakes, tea cakes, sweet dishes, and sweet preserves. A rare exception is Knickerbocker Pickle (digital page 130), which is beef in a molasses pickle, in a barrel. There is a curious recipe for "Wonders !!!" on digital page 102. (In the index, the title has two exclamation marks.) Wonders were generally understood to be crispy dough fritters, often fancifully shaped, and there is an abbreviated recipe for such (or so it appears) in the book on digital page 130. But the three-exclamation-mark Wonders are a sort of French toast covered with sugared, spiced strawberries and then (somehow) fried some more. The recipe concludes with an enigmatic, only partially legible sentence: "I thank you & then eat them if you can [morgun?]."
This is one of two recipe books that Matilda Fonda Van Rensselaer wrote in collaboration with her adopted daughter Maria Elizabeth. See also
Matilda Fonda Van Rensselaer's receipt book from 1837-1864.
