Place of Origin

United States ➔ Maryland

Date of Composition

1850s

Description

This book comprises handwritten recipes in many different hands as well as numerous loose receipts tucked in the pages, both handwritten and clipped from newspapers of various dates. The culinary recipes include lemon pickle, tomato pickle, tomato catsup (highly spiced and without sugar, as all catsups originally were), Indian (cornmeal) muffins, and a suet pudding with raisins boiled in a "floured cloth." The book also contains housekeeping receipts, such as "to clean marble" and "to knit socks," as well as instructions for whitening the hands, thoughts on "fashions in furnishings," and (optimistically) a "cure for the consumption, if taken in time." There's also this gem near the back: "To Make Green Corn & Fried apple pies. The way to make them is not known by - W. Realhofer." The book was owned early on by Mrs. E. Realhofer of Hagerstown, and later by Alice Darby Nourse of Darnestown. Mrs. Realhofer's name is in pencil inside the front cover, and a page near the back includes "Wm. Realhofer, Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland." Mrs. Nourse's name does not appear in the book. Two of the handwritten receipts are dated 1857 and 1859. The book appears to have been well used. The paper cover and leather spine are both very battered and torn.

For information about this receipt book contact the Montgomery County Historical Society (Maryland).