Place of Origin

England ➔ Nottinghamshire

Date of Composition

ca. 1720s-1733

Description

This book contains approximately 108 pages of recipes and, at the end of the volume, a brief excerpt from a sermon "preached by the Rev^d Edward Browne Rector of Walesby in 1733." The bulk of the recipes are written in two randomly recurring hands, suggesting that much of the book was compiled collaboratively by two individuals. Several other hands are present, indicating that other individuals were also involved in the project. The introduction to the sermon excerpt is written in the hand of one of the  two major writers of the recipes, while the sermon excerpt itself is in a neat hand not evident elsewhere in the book.

About two thirds of the recipes are culinary, the rest medical. The culinary recipes cover a variety of dishes popular in England in the early eighteenth century: meat and fish dishes (including Scotch collops and ragout of veal breast), meat pies, sweet puddings, "liverings" (liver puddings in skins), pickled walnuts, walnut ketchup, bacon, cheese, cheesecakes, cakes (including two "great cakes') pancakes, apple fritters, and sweet wines. Other than a recipe for marmalade, there is little fruit preserving, which is somewhat unusual for an English recipe book of this era. A noteworthy recipe is "To make a [illegible word] poset baked," which appears on digital page 54. A posset was generally understood to be a mildly alcoholic hot drink with a thick consistency imparted by eggs and/or oats. This posset is a baked custard of twenty egg yolks, two quarts of cream, and a pint of sack, presented in "a dish" like a dessert.