Transfer from print backlog, 1992.
The collection is open for research.
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,
MSS 097, Item 102, Recipes for Cake, pies, & pudding &c, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.
Processed and encoded by Lindsey Baker, June 2007.
The recipes within this anonymous book
suggest an extensive social network for trading and collecting recipes. There
are multiple entries for the same food, such as the entry on the front pastedown
for ginger snaps provided by "Libbie" and the later entry for ginger snaps attributed to "Emma Lills." There are names and dates associated with many of the
recipes, indicating the span of time over which this collection of recipes was
compiled.
The majority of the recipes in the volume are, as the title suggests, desserts and baked goods such as cakes, puddings, and breads. The remaining entries can be categorized as main dishes or medicinal receipts for treating various illnesses and
conditions.
The recipes in the first two-thirds of the book include entries for such items as white cake, molasses pound cake, cream cake, ginger snaps, fried bread, and white sponge cake. The recipes which feature meat as an ingredient include several ways to prepare beef and a brine for ham. The receipts for medicinal home remedies include instructions for treating burns, dog bites, poison ivy irritation, and rattlesnake bites.
This small leather-bound volume contains seventy pages of writing in ink and pencil, as well as writing on the front and end pastedowns. The title, "Recipes for Cake, pies, & pudding &c" is written inside the front cover of the book; &c is an alternate way to abbreviate etcetera. A poem titled "Beyond the River," which was clipped from a newspaper, is sewn onto the first page. Although the compiler of this late nineteenth-century manuscript recipe book is unknown, in many instances, names and dates are attributed to the entries. A handwritten recipe is sewn onto one of the final pages in the volume as well. Another page bears the word "cat" written in a child's hand. The general wear and stained pages indicate that this small recipe book likely received frequent use.
This item forms part of MSS 097 Diaries, Journals, and Ships' Logs collection.