Place of Origin

England ➔ Denbigshire ➔ Denbigh

Date of Composition

ca. 1770

Description

This recipe book of approximately 230 pages is written in a single cursive hand, in an uncommonly tall volume (38 cm, 15 inches) with an elaborately tooled and gilt leather cover. It contains an ownership inscription on the inside front cover: "Catherine Clough. This Book was given me by my dear Mother Catherine Clough. April the 2nd, 1770." There is a similar ownership inscription pasted to the verso of the front flyleaf. The book was written by Catherine Powell Clough (died 1783), who was born in Denbighshire, Wales, and married Hugh Clough (1709-1760) of Plas Clough, Llyens Green, Denbighshire, Wales. The couple had twelve children. Catherine Clough (1749-1778), to whom the volume was given, was their youngest daughter. Plas Clough was built around 1550 by Sir Richard Clough, the agent and partner of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder the Royal Exchange, in London. The house remained in the Clough family until around 2017.

The book contains over six hundred culinary recipes, which are organized in seven sections, each preceded by a large calligraphic heading: Wines, Preserves, Candies, Cakes, Buns, Jellies and Creams, Pastry, and Cookery (savory soups and dishes featuring meats, fish, and vegetables). Three otherwise blank pages at the end of the volume are headed Potting, Collaring and Pickling. Each recipe is titled in an elaborate calligraphic script with penwork initial letters. The volume contains multiple recipes for many popular dishes, including gingerbread, cheese cakes, marmalades, and sweet creams such as including floating island. The section on Cookery has recipes for soups, roasts, meat pies, collops, and "sallats," including recipes for "Ragoo of Pigeons," "Dumpoke Chickens," mutton and chicken "pelows," and "Turkish Dulma" wrapped in cabbage leaves.