Thomas Coode manuscript recipe book

Thomas Coode’s nineteenth-century manuscript recipe book contains instructions for domestic and trade processes ranging from plate cleaning and preserving meat to preparing fireworks and varnishes. The volume also features notes on book-binding and glazing mezzotint prints.

This nineteenth-century pocket-sized bound book of manuscript recipes and instructions for domestic and trade processes was apparently created by Thomas Coode, who inscribed the front cover “Thos Coode 1816.” The small leather-bound book contains fifty-nine numbered pages followed by eleven pages, all of which contain ink writing on unlined paper. Five of the entries are dated (1861, 1863, April 1864, 14 February 1865, 1868). The numbered pages are followed by fifty-seven blank pages.

Within the notebook, the author has copied recipes and instructions for a variety of subjects. Topics include making fireworks, producing ink, applying glaze to mezzotint prints, preserving birds and meat, producing varnish, medicinal receipts, room scenting, bookbinding, gardening, and livestock care. Some of these recipes were copied from contemporary magazines such as Mechanics Magazine or New Monthly Magazine, and the notes on binding books make reference to “Dr. Rees’s New Cyclopedia [of Arts, Sciences, and Literature 1819].”