Manuscript Location

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

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

1730 and 1744

Description

This collection consists of two volumes of recipes attributed to Judith Beddingfield, whose name appears on the inside back cover of volume I, with the date 1730, and on the front cover of volume II (spelled "Beddingfeld), with the date 1744. The first volume contains about 150 written pages, the second about 180. Both volumes are mostly in the neat cursive hand of a single writer. The first volume, however, does show a number of intrusions from other several other hands, some in blank spaces occurring amid recipes in the principal hand, and many in the last twenty pages of the volume. The second volume has only a few intrusions. There are a few comments on the principal writer's recipes in the secondary hands. At least one person, a Mrs. Hill, is credited for recipes both by the principal writer and by one of the secondary writers, suggesting that there may have been a relationship between the principal writer and other writers in the volumes.

The first volume focuses on the accessory dishes of the two principal courses, with emphasis on the dishes of the second course and on fruit preserves and confectionery, which at the time would likely have been served in the dessert. This volume is fairly tightly organized, the recipes proceeding as follows: pastry, collars, potted foods, pickles, puddings, pancakes and fritters, puffs (both fritter and meringue types), tansies, cheesecakes and tarts, little cakes and biscuits, large cakes, creams and possets, jellies, cheeses, preserves, sweet wines, syrups, conserves, and waters and tonics, many of which are more medicines than drinks. Following a long run of miscellaneous recipes in other hands, the principal writer briefly returns with a few recipes for pies, an unusual recipe for a "French Firrbertoon," and a recipe for punch.

The second volume contains many recipes for thick soups (which the writer calls "potages"), savory sauces, meat and fish dishes, egg dishes, and sophisticated treatments for a wide range of vegetables, including cauliflower, lettuce, endive, mushrooms, artichokes, asparagus, peas, green beans, and cucumbers. Amid its generally savory offerings the volume also contains sporadic runs of recipes for dessert creams, fruit preserves, and various other sweets. Many of the recipes bear Anglicized French terms in their titles. The volume can fairly be said to exemplify the highly Frenchified cuisine in vogue among the aristocracy against which cookbook author Hannah Glasse famously railed. Indeed, beginning on leaf 6v the volume gives over four full pages to recipes for the intense reductions called cullises (that is, coulis), which Glasse singled out as ridiculously complex, expensive concoctions foisted on the public by "French booby cooks." Of particular interest in this volume are "White Potage a la Reyne" (leaf 76v), an unusual instance of this soup under La Varenne's original title (later modernized to "soup a la reine" or simply "white soup"), and a long disquisition on various roasted meats, followed by a list of sauces for them (leaves 82v-83v).

Some recipes in both volumes were likely paraphrased from print sources. Given the number of recipes, and their high level of sophistication and detail, it could hardly be otherwise. Many recipes in both volumes are attributed, some to members of the peerage. Both volumes merit close study.