Place of Origin

United States

Date of Composition

1861

Description

This book of approximately 115 written pages is inscribed and dated by Mrs. Ward at the front. About two-thirds of the recipes are in her hand. A different hand has added about ten pages of recipes in the middle of the notebook, and several hands have written recipes in the notebook's final pages. Mrs. Ward's recipes primarily focus on desserts, cakes, preserves, and pickles. She includes an uncommon recipe for "Raised Pound Cake" (with yeast, sequence 32). Her savory dishes are mostly those served at dinner parties and evening parties, such as rich soups, calf's head, and chicken salad. The recipes written in other hands are various.

In addition to recipes this book contains instructions for dyeing.