Manuscript recipes

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0097-Item 0100

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

This undated, handwritten manuscript includes cookery and medical recipes. Most likely early nineteenth-century American in origin, it features twenty pages with approximately forty-five entries of cooking and medicinal recipes and additional household tips.

The bound pages focus almost exclusively on medicinal topics and include recipes for cough syrups as well as cures for cancers, influenza, and consumption. The three loose pages, a total of eight leaves, contain cookery instructions and medicinal and household tips. The cookery recipes include instructions on pickling beef, curing hams, and making “good coffee of rye.” Household tips include notes regarding starching and snuff.

The manuscript consists of two signatures, totaling sixteen pages, hand folded and hand sewn. One fold remains uncut. The paper cover and an additional page with four leaves are detached. There are two smaller pages laid in. It is in poor and fragile condition. The entries were all written in ink.

Dates

Creation: circa 1800-1850

Creator

Creator unidentified (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Restrictions on Access

The collection is open for research.

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/

Biographical Note

The author of these manuscript recipes is unknown. There is a reference to Raleigh, North Carolina in one recipe. Some terms used, including “wen,” “loaf sugar,” and Indian meal suggest these recipes date to the early nineteenth-century.