Manuscript Location

University of Virginia Library, Special Collections

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Virginia

Date of Composition

1814-1816

Description

This cookbook is located in Box 3 of the library's collection of the papers of the Cocke family, one of the most socially and politically prominent families in Virginia through the end of the nineteenth century. Written in at least three different hands, the 200-page book may have belonged to Anne Barraud Cocke (d. 1816), who lived with her husband, John Hartwell Cocke II (1780-1866), and their six children at Bremo Plantation. Around 1812, John Cocke completed a spectacular Greek Revival mansion at Bremo in collaboration with John Neilson, the designer of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. The mansion is now a National Historic Landmark.

The recipes in the cookbook are fairly detailed and descriptive. Some appear to have been copied from a published cookbook, Domestic Cookery. Of particular interest to students of chess pie are the three recipes that produce either a "pudding," by which is meant a pie-like pastry, or "cheesecakes," which were individual tarts. Over time, the "cheese" in "cheesecakes" became "chess," and the word "chess" became attached to the pie form of the dessert.

The recipes in the book are as follows: Soap as made by Mrs. [T]ucher; Ochre-Soap by Mrs. [?]alher; Apoquiminis; Lemon Ice Cream; [Fancy] Biscuit; Conserve of lemons; [...] Biscuit; To keep Lemon Juice; Punch; Indian Meal; Pudding; Fine Plumb Pudding (Domestic Cookery, page 142); Fine Curd Pudding; Lemon Pudding- or Cheesecakes; Orange Pudding- or Cheesecakes; Lemon Pudding- or Cheesecakes; Sweetmeat pudding; [..sh] potatoe pudding; Plumb or cherry pudding; Apple pudding; A delicate cake pudding; [...] Biscuit; Clear sauce for puddings; Mulled Wine; Wine to clean; Wine to clean; Dutch-Flammery; Baked Custards; Rennet Bugilo prepare for use; Curds & Cream; Slip; Pudding Puffs - or common pancakes; Almond Cheesecakes; Curd Cheesecakes; Blancmange; Hen's Nest; Muffins- for best flour; Muffins - for indifferent flour; Muffins - best flour; Cranberries - to stew; Cranberries - to keep; Gooseberries - to stew for [...]; Apricots; Apples; To Make Paste; Plumb-Cake; Force Meat (see domestic cookery - page 189 - general directions for cakes); Gingerbread; Pelau; To dress Rice quickly for dinner; Ducks to stew; Nice brown gravy for roasted ducks; Gillets - dressed brown; Gillets - dressed white; Chicken [Frye]; Giblet [Frye]; Irish Potatoe Yeast; Mrs. C[...]'s made of making candles; To destroy Bed Bugs; Mrs. A[...]'s [...] for Muffins; For making excellent Shr[...] [a lime and brandy drink]; For Pickling Pork; Remarks on Curing Bacon; Orange Whey; Regus; For the Colick; For dyeing Virginia [...]keen [fabric]; Strawberry B[...]; Jelly; Yellow Pickle; Onions to Pickle; Cream Cheese; A positive cure for Hydrophobia; Another- for the bite of a mad dog for either Man or beast; Dysentery; To make soap of myrtle-rose; Cure for Putrid sore throat; Another remedy for sore-throat; For slow labour; For disordered bowels in children; For dyeing Walnut with Saunders Wood.