Description
The first page of this book is inscribed "Mary J. Hall, Receipt Book, Muncy Farms, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania." The author was born Mary Johns Craig in 1813. According to census records, she was living in Muncy with her husband, James Hall (1812-1882), and their son, William C. Hall (1851-1932), in 1860. By the time of the 1870 census, the couple had moved to Philadelphia, where Mrs. Hall died in 1889.
Approximately 70 pages in length, Mrs. Hall's book includes recipes for pickles, preserves, cakes, pies, meats, oysters, "cold" slaw, Federal cake, and Parker House rolls, among other dishes. Some of the dishes are regional specialties of the day, such as New York tea cake, Maryland biscuits (beaten biscuits), New Bedford receipt for stewed blackberries, and Baltimore receipt for oiled mangoes (pickled stuffed vegetables). Mrs. Hall evidently compiled her book over a span of at least two decades, for it contains an 1851 recipe for macaroni au gratin (noted as being from Naples); an 1869 recipe for pea soup; and an 1872 recipe for popovers. Some of the recipes are attributed, such as Mrs. du Pont's method for curing hams. In addition to culinary recipes, there are recipes for grafting wax, hard soap, and two for whitewash as well as instructions for removing putty from glass. Some of Mrs. Hall's recipes are noted as having been "copied." These recipes may be the ones that are marked copied from Mrs. Hall in another Winterthur recipe book,
Recipe Book Partially Copied from Mary Johns Craig Hall. The recipes in Mrs. Hall's book are indexed in a database available at the library.
