Manuscript Location

Winterthur Library, Quaker and Special Collections

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Pennsylvania ➔ Fairville

Date of Composition

1859-1880

Description

This book was kept by Hannah Trimble, who lived with her family in Fairville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, not far from the Delaware border. The first part of the volume is an account book, which lists household expenses from 1859 to 1880, and purchases of fabric, paper, dishes, an iron boiler, and various foods, including coffee and butter. Many of the pages are labeled "bought in Wilmington." Also recorded is money paid to workers for butchering meat, harvesting, plowing, and milling wheat, as well as the cost for building the Trimble family home in Fairville.

The second part of the book contains culinary, medical, and household recipes, both handwritten and clipped. The culinary recipes skew toward cakes, tea and breakfast cakes, breads, and pastry, including recipes for mock apple pie and California apple pie melon. However, a few savory preparations are also outlined, such as Beauregard eggs, egg omelet with oyster sauce, and Welsh rarebit. All of the recipes are indexed in a database available at the library.