Place of Origin

England ➔ Somerset ➔ Bath

Date of Composition

1801-1821

Description

This recipe book was compiled between 1801 and 1821, principally by Mrs. Hare, of 6 Somerset Place, in Bath, England. Mrs. Hare’s hand appears in the first portion of the volume (pages 10-75) and sporadically throughout the rest of the volume. However, the volume contains at least two other distinct hands and possibly several others. A second hand, unidentified, appears at the beginning of the volume (pages 1-10) and is the dominant hand in the second portion of the volume (pages 76-277). The volume contains 405 culinary, medical, and household recipes written on 279 pages. The catalog record states that "the orientation of the writing flips on page 259," possibly meaning that the last twenty pages of the volume are written from the back of the notebook going toward the center.

The recipes are attributed to various members of the Hare family, to friends and acquaintances from Bath, and to newspapers. Attributions to the Hare family include R. [Robert] Hare (on the inside from cover and a laid in leaf); Miss Martha Hare (pages 3, 75, and 156), Rich [Richard] Hare (pages 102 and 175), and Mrs. James Hare (page 103). In addition, there is a recipe for blacking “from my Servant John Hyder Alley” (page 98) and a recipe identified as Lady Anne Talbot’s apple pudding (page 142). There are also several recipes credited to friends, including a Mrs. Goddard, a Mrs. Rodgers, and others. Finally, there is a recipe for Dr. William Oliver’s biscuits (p. 51), which may be the original home prototype for the now-famous commercial Bath Oliver biscuits. The book also includes a recipe for the fancy English tea bread called Sally Lunn, which, according to legend, was created in Bath by an enterprising Huguenot baker of the same name in the eighteenth century.