Manuscript Location

Folger Shakespeare Library, Manuscripts

Place of Origin

England

Date of Composition

likely before 1730

Description

This recipe book was originally written on 142 numbered pages, although some pages, including pages 85 to 92 and 125 to 134, are now missing. Except for a few additions written in random spaces, the book is in a single fine hand, presumably that of Ann Goodeenoff, who signed her name, with flourishes, on page 108. The recipes through page 108 are mostly culinary; the remaining recipes are medical. 

The culinary recipes are loosely organized: meat and fish dishes and puddings through page 18; cakes large and small through page 27; dessert creams and possets through page 39; fruit and flower preserving, sweet wines and waters, and a few dessert biskets, through page 84; and miscellaneous recipes, including roasted pig, meat and fish pies, pancakes, tripe, sausages, and ale, to the end. A few recipes in each section are inserted out of category. The book was likely written quite early in the early eighteenth century, for many of the recipes look back to the seventeenth century, such as sweet artichoke pie with marrow and gooseberries, yeast-raised cakes, a cream to eat with fresh cheese, a fresh cheese of almonds, "Prince bisket," gingerbread made with pounded almonds and dates (or possibly date stones), and "plain white leach."