Manuscript Location

New-York Historical Society, Patricia D. Klingenstein Library

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New York ➔ Brooklyn

Date of Composition

1860s

Description

This volume of approximately 164 pages contains roughly one hundred culinary recipes entered by Caroline Butler Laing and her daughter, Mary Hunt Butler Reeves (1841-1922). The recipes include desserts, cakes and other baked goods, and preserves; there are also recipes for pickling and various meat dishes. A recipe at the end of the volume is dated November 20, 1865, followed by a list dated 1862.

Caroline Butler Laing (1804-1892) had nine children with her first husband, Edward Butler, a merchant who frequently traveled to China on business. (His wife accompanied him on a trip in 1836-1837.) To help support their large family, Caroline took up writing fiction for magazines in the 1840s, and after her husband's death, in 1849, she wrote children's books as well. In 1851 she married Hugh Laing and moved to Brooklyn, New York. After her second husband died, in 1869, she spent over a year in Rome with her daughter Harriet, and upon her return to the U.S. she published a three-volume children's history of the city.