Manuscript Location

Maryland Historical Society, Special Collections Reading Room

Place of Origin

United States

Date of Composition

1834

Description

This 22-page cookbook, written in a small notebook, was compiled by someone with the surname Diffenderfer around the year 1834. Roughly half of the book's forty-five recipes concern cakes and little cakes, including "plumb" cake, cream cake, Shrewsbury cake, clove cake, and tea cake. Most of the remaining recipes outline desserts, breads, fried cakes (such as doughnuts and crullers), pickles, preserves, and alcoholic drinks. Most  recipes list only the ingredients needed; no procedures are given. The first seventeen pages of the volume give a detailed description of the art of carving, complete with pen-and-ink illustrations. There are also a few household recipes and remedies. Two additional pages list fabrics purchased and their cost.

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