Manuscript Location

New York Public Library, Schwarzman Building - Manuscripts & Archives Division

Place of Origin

United States ➔ New York ➔ Albany

Date of Composition

ca. 1840-1850

Description

This cookbook of approximately 60 pages was mostly written by Susan Lansing, a 19th century descendant of a prominent New York family of Dutch ancestry. Dutch culinary influence is seen in recipes for olie/oly cooks (the Dutch olie-koecken, doughnuts with currants), waffles, crullers, "puffard" (a tea bread), and a party chicken salad (for twenty people) dressed in the Dutch manner, with half a cup of melted butter. The manuscript also contains many recipes borrowed from Eliza Leslie's Directions for Cookery, first published in 1837, some of which have been amended in interesting ways. For example, the six whole eggs that Leslie calls for in a coconut pudding have been changed to eight beaten egg whites, making a fancier kind of coconut pudding. (Leslie also has a recipe for the fancier pudding, and Lansing copied this recipe verbatim.) Leslie's Plain Clam Soup is likewise copied with changes in the Lansing manuscript. Leslie cautions that the clams should be cooked in the soup for only an hour, lest they toughen. Lansing seems to have felt that even an hour was too long, for she amended the recipe to read: "When it [the soup] comes to a boil, put in the clams. Keep them in about 15 minutes. If boiled too long they will become hard and tough." Leslie is not the only print cookbook author whose recipes have been copied. The manuscript also includes a recipe attributed to Catharine Beecher, whose one cookbook was first published in 1846.

The bulk of the Lansing cookbook is given over to puddings, cakes, and tea cakes (such as oly cooks, waffles, crullers, and "puffard"). Most of the savory recipes are dishes often served at dinner parties and evening parties. Since the manuscript is of New York, it is not surprising that many of these involve oysters: a veal and oyster forcemeat, two oyster stews, fried oysters, two pickled oysters, oyster soup, scalloped oysters, oyster pie, and oyster sauce. The book includes four recipes for tomato ketchup, which was just beginning to become popular in the 1830s. The book also contains a smattering of medicinal receipts.