English manuscript recipe book
Summary
| Creator: | Baker, Mary |
| Date(s): | approximately 1730 |
| Call Number: | MSS 0097, Item 0156 |
| Language: | Materials entirely in
|
| Abstract: | Eighteenth-century English manuscript recipe book owned by Mary Baker, containing approximately 300 cookery and medical recipes. |
| Physical Description: | 1 volume (approximately 176 pages) 32 cm |
| Source: | Purchase, December 1999. |
| Processing: | Processed and encoded by Lynda Gillow, June 2007. Updated by E. Evan Echols, September 2015. Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard |
| Alternative Format: | A digitized copy of the manuscript recipe book is available at the University of Delaware Digital Institutional Repository. |
Biographical and Historical Notes
The owner and possible creator of this manuscript recipe book, Mary Baker, lived in England in the 1730s.
Sources
Biographical information derived from dealer description.
Scope and Content Note
This circa 1730 English manuscript recipe book includes approximately 300 cooking, medicinal, and domestic recipes or receipts. The volume features colorful watercolor illustrations and a vellum binding. The entries, in various hands, are written in a calligraphic style. The volume appears to have been produced as a copy and may have been a gift to Mary Baker as opposed to having been created by her.
Receipts include cookery recipes for meat, fowl, vegetables, desserts, and beverages including "plumb" cake, rice pudding, pickle cucumbers, and currant wine. Medicinal entries concern such ailments as the sting of an adder, small pox, and salves for various conditions. Additional household recipes include two for ink and a leaden "plaister."
This volume is housed in a custom case with spine title "Cookery Manuscript Ca. 1730" and includes approximately 176 used pages and a number of blank sheets. The first two pages depict three peacocks, another bird, possibly a peahen, and four trees with small red fruit, possibly cherries. These illustrations are drawn in ink and decorated with watercolor. An incomplete table of contents and an index are included in the volume: although there are 124 pages of carefully written receipts containing about 300 different receipts, the table of contents lists no receipts after Item 240; similarly, the index at the end lists receipts up to Item 271. Following the index is a five page prayer or religious poem.
Using these materials
Shelving Summary
- Item 0156: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0097
Access Information
The collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
MSS 0097, Item 0156, Mary Baker, English manuscript recipe book, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.
Related Materials in This Repository
This item forms part of MSS 0097 Diaries, Journals, and Ships' Logs collection.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction
Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/
Container List
| English manuscript recipe book, approximately 1730 | 1 volume | Item 0156 |