Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2158

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 volume

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

British recipe book, 1827-1832, Ms. Codex 2158, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1827-1832 (inclusive)

Form:

Cookbooks

Abstract:

This volume contains 94 culinary, medicinal, and household recipes written and compiled by an unknown creator in England between 1827 and 1832.

Several remedies in this volume are attributed to Dr. Richard Reece and his 1802 publication, The Medical Guide for the Use of the Clergy, Heads of Families, and Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery.

Richard Reece was a British doctor born in 1775. He served as both a physician and pharmacist, in addition to supplying medicine cabinets and authoring medical publications. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1796 and practiced medicine in Chepstow and Cardiff between 1797 and 1808. By 1812, he was living in London and graduated as a M.D.

He died in London in 1831.

Sources:

Power, D'Arcy. "Reece, Richard." Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. 47, Smith, Elder & Co., 1885.

"Richard Reece." Collections Online | British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG203358. Accessed 24 Jan. 2024.

This volume contains 94 culinary, medicinal, and household recipes written and compiled by an unknown creator in England between 1827 and 1832. It is bound in half leather over marbled paper boards and includes an index (p. 1-4), inlaid leaves (p. 6, 63, 64), clippings (p. 68), and recipes and clippings that have been sewed into the volume (p. 57, 76, 77).

Due to significant gaps in original pagination (p. 78-87, 96-117, 120-159) and numerous missing pages, this volume appears to have been rebound without all of its original pages. As a result, the cataloger provided pagination for this volume.

Several of the recipes and remedies are attributed to both medical figures at the time and to individuals likely known to the creator. These individuals include Ane Hickerton (p. 22), Dr. Richard Reece (p. 32), "the intelligent and communicative Mr. Player" (p. 49), and Mrs. Sealy of Little Somerford (p. 69).

Examples of the varied recipes in this volume include to prevent the skin coming off sick people (p. 2), for the evil (p. 2), to destroy vermin on cattle and to cure the mange (p. 15), for a consumption (p. 19), universal pickle (p. 26), raspberry brandy (p. 31), lime water from Dr. Reece's The Medical Guide (p. 32), pound cake (p. 36), family pills (p. 42), and Mrs. Sealy's Little Somerford receipt for mince meat (p. 69).