WELSH COOKBOOK WITH MEDICAL RECIPES
[Pontypool, Wales]: circa 1800-1821. Large cookery manuscript (12 3/4” x 8 1/2”) with 211 pp. full of recipes, with an additional 63 recipes tipped in and several more written on the pastedowns.
The manuscript is comprised of three sections. The first part, consisting of 42 pages, was partially written on tabbed pages and primarily contains medical and household recipes, many with credits to their contributors. One then flips the bound book over, which begins a second section that starts with an index to 61 receipts written on a variety of paper in various sizes for everything from boiling a lobster and pickled herring to stewed pears and hashing a calves head. This is followed by 169 manuscript pages, many with multiple recipes written on each page. The manuscript pages appear to be written in several different hands.
Several of the holographic recipes tipped into the volume are addressed to Mrs. Smith of Pontypool, Wales, a town within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. A letter she received from Eliza Harries of Killay, Wales, on October 19, 1821, provides a ginger wine recipe and contains her regrets that she was unable to recommend a cook for Mrs. Smith. Following page 168 in the cooking section, it’s noted that in 1853 “Amp Harley began from this place at Bofs Hall”, but just two recipes are contributed.
Culinary historian Stephen Schmidt observes that manuscript cookbooks contain insights that historical printed cookbooks lack: “Manuscript recipes are likely to have been cooked from, if not by the person who collected the recipe and wrote it down in her book, at least by the person from whom the recipe was collected. Thus manuscript cookbooks contain concrete details that historical printed cookbooks generally lack: the precise motion of the hand in stirring; the most suitable cuts of meat; the time that a cooking process takes; the signs that something is going wrong; the size and number of molds needed for individual cakes; the clues that a dish is done; and so on. Manuscript recipes not only illuminate the making of specific dishes but also basic kitchen conditions and broad practices in historical cooking.”
This recipe book contains treatments for a variety of health ailments ranging from curing worms to sore throats and yellow jaundice. One recipe for earache recommends inserting the narrow end of the pipe in the afflicted ear, covering the bowl and lightly blowing smoke into the ear. Another suggests inserting a clove of garlic to quell the earache.
There are also several recipes in this volume that call for making wines and alcohol. Wines were made from everything from parsnips, currants, oranges, rasbury (raspberry), ginger, raisins, and cowslips. A variety of other drink recipes include one for a treacle drink, a mead made of ginger honey, liqurish (licorice), oranges, lemons, and brandy, and a concoction called “vapour water”, made of brandy, ripe lemons, sugar, and eggs whites.
The recipe book also includes a variety of other household advice, include a variety of recipes for blackening and soaps, respectively, and strategies for cleaning household items and clothes. One of the most unusual is a recipe to “kill bats”. One is advised to cut up a salt herring and spread it around the room and lay out two or three basins of water. On the second night, repeat the same but put a little arsenic in the fish.
On one side of the book, two front free endpapers are watermarked M Schouten & Co. On the other side, the endpapers are watermarked with the British royal crown on paper made by B. Cramer. Bound in brown suede leather with decorative blind-stamped borders and inner frame, with a number and “Lidney” stamped on the front panel. The volume has been handsomely rebacked with a new brown calf spine with a morocco spine label, five raised bands, and gilt-stamped titling (“MS. COOKERY BOOK”) and decoration. The contents are generally clean and legible. Item #80538
Price: $4,500.00