Place of Origin

United States ➔ Massachusetts ➔ Boston

Date of Composition

1814-1850

Description

This book of approximately 165 written pages was compiled by several members of Viaux family, who lived in Boston. The book is in two parts. Culinary recipes, interspersed with a few household recipes, are written at the front of the notebook on numbered pages 1 through 131. A series of observations on "the pulmonary complaint" on approximately 18 unnumbered pages, followed by medical recipes on pages numbered 10 through 25, are written from the back of the notebook toward the center, upside down in relation to the front. There are complete page indexes to both parts at the end of the notebook, preceding the medical section. The book was likely written by at least four individuals, with unusually similar hands.

The library has dated the book 1814-1816 on the basis of dates appearing on pages 42 and 49. However, the book was clearly continued beyond this point. The date August 26, 1826 appears on page 68, and a recipe for cake icing, on page 81, is dated 1841. In addition, there are numerous recipes attributed to the English chef Alexis Soyer (1810-1858), particularly on pages 114-119 and 124-125. Soyer published his first cookbook in 1845 and was little known in the U. S. until after 1850, which suggests that the book may have been continued virtually to the time of the Civil War. 

The culinary recipes range widely, although there is a bias toward cakes and desserts, as is typical of 19th century American manuscript cookbooks,.