Place of Origin

United States ➔ Pennsylvania ➔ Philadelphia

Date of Composition

1776

Description

This cookbook, which is collected in the library's Plumsted family papers, is inscribed "Mary Plumsted Cookery Book 1776."  Mary McCall Plumsted (ca. 1725-ca. 1799) married William Plumsted  (1708-1765) in 1753, becoming his second wife. The couple had six children, adding to the six children that William Plumsted had had with his first wife, Rebecca Kearny Plumsted, who died in 1741. William Plumsted, a wealthy merchant, was born a Quaker but became an Episcopalian in middle age. He served three separate terms as mayor of Philadelphia, as had his father, Clement Plumsted (1680-1745), and was a founder of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which eventually became the University of Pennsylvania. There is a record of Mary Plumsted having sold, in 1772, a "Negro girl" slave whom she had owned.

Mary Plumsted's cookbook includes recipes for flank of beef, pig, pigeons, venison, goose, artificial sturgeon, cheesecakes, lemon pudding, and currant jam.