Manuscript Location

Vassar College, Archives and Special Collections Library

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

mostly ca. 1780-ca. 1820, with later additions to ca. 1870

Description

This recipe book is written in a bound notebook measuring 6.5 x 8 inches (L/W). The book is inscribed on the inside front cover: "Chas. [Charles] Phillips / Winton Camp August [29th?] 1762. It contains 113 pages with writing, of which pages 1 through 93 are paginated. The first 93 pages appear to be in a single hand, plausibly (though not certainly) that of the inscriber. The remaining pages are in several different hands, possibly including the hand of the first 93 pages. A detached page contains an index to the recipes on pages 1 through 54. The recipes are approximately two-thirds culinary and one-third medical, with a few household recipes mixed in. Many recipes are attributed. The book has no apparent organization.

The book contains a number of recipes that indicate that it is of English origin, including "Recipe for Piles, from a physician in London," page 10; "New College Puddings," page 15; "Paste for Raised Pyes," page 45; "Fondu" (a sort of cheese bread pudding), pages 55 and 61 (two recipes); "Anchovy Toast," page 56; "Black Pudding," page 62, and "Soyer's new way of making Beef Tea" and "Oxtail Soup receipt from Soyer," pages 93-[94]. (The reference is to the French chef Alexis Soyer [1810-1858], who was a household name in Britain but little known in the United States.) Also, the English term "penny roll" is used in the recipe "To Make a Souffle," page 18. The book could have been begun in the last third of the eighteenth century, as the inscription suggests, because many of the recipes were current by this time. But several of the recipes on pages 1 through 93 have nineteenth-century dates, including Noyau, page 51, which is dated March 26, 1817, and Ginger Beer, which is dated 1825. The recipes following page 93 are later still, including a recipe for "Punch," dated 1828, and a recipe for "Muffin Pudding," dated 1869.

The culinary recipes suggest that the book was written by privileged individuals. The first recipe in the book, "Cutlets a la Maintenon," was a favorite fancy dinner party dish in the eighteenth century. Also fancy are "Forcemeat for a Perigord Pie," page 19, and "Chantilly Basket," page 21, which is made by fusing small ratafia cakes together with sugar syrup. Presumably, the basket is meant to be filled with whipped cream. As is typical of aristocratic English books of this period, there are a number of recipes for dinner-party soups, meat condiments (lemon pickle, India pickle, and various catsups), sauces for meat, game, and fish, rich puddings, and sweet fruit wines.