Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2245

Repository:

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

Extent:

1 volume(s)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Cheshire cookbook, circa 1810-1835, Ms. Codex 2245, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1810-1835 (inclusive)

Form:

Codices (bound manuscripts) and Cookbooks

Abstract:

This volume contains around 240 recipes created and compiled in Cheshire, England between 1810 and 1835, likely by a professional chef, possibly that of Dorfold Hall.

Dorfold Hall, which may be the source of this cookbook and is the source many of the recipes in this volume are attributed to, is a grade I listed historic Jacobean estate mansion in Cheshire, England. An estate existed at the Dorfold site as early as the 13th century and was purchased in 1602 by Sir Roger Wilbraham who constructed the present mansion between 1616 and 1621 for his brother, Ralph Wilbraham. In 1754, the estate was sold to James Tomkinson, whose family likely still owned the property at the time of this cookbook's creation.

Several of the recipes in this volume are attributed to "Clouet," likely referring to M. de St. Clouet, author of "A Complete System of Cookery: In which is set forth a variety of genuine receipts collected from several years experience under the celebrated Mr. de St. Clouet, sometime since cook to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle," published in 1759.

There is also a recipe for Sago pudding, a sweet pudding made of sago pearls. Sago is a starch extracted from sago palm and similar tropical palms, mostly in New Guinea and the Maluku Islands. Sago pudding was common in 18th and 19th century British cookbooks and was an ingredient "very much associated with Empire." (Buttery, 2023)

Sources:

"A Complete System of Cookery..." The Library of Congress, lccn.loc.gov/73169877. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Buttery, Neil. "Sago and Tapioca Pudding." British Food: A History, 23 Aug. 2023, britishfoodhistory.com/2023/08/21/sago-and-tapioca-pudding/.

This volume contains around 240 recipes created and compiled in Cheshire, England between 1810 and 1835, likely by a professional chef, possibly employed by Dorfold Hall.

The volume is bound in quarter leather with marbled paper boards. The latter portion of the volume is blank (p. 141-214).

Many of the recipes are attributed to individuals or locations. Those that appear repeatedly throughout the volume include Clouet, Dorfold, Lady C. Disbrowe, Bebington, Adderley Hall, Bartholomey, Simpson, Lord Arran's cook, Mrs. Parry Backford, and Lady Scovell.

The presence of cooking times and measurements and the nature of several of the recipes indicates that this cookbook likely belonged to a professional chef, likely one working at an English estate home, such as Dorfold Hall which is mentioned repeatedly throughout the volume.

Examples of recipes in this volume include potage à la reine (p. 3), hodgepodge of beef with savoys (p. 7), bread sauce (p. 11), Prince of Wales rolls by Lady Carlisle's cook (p. 14), turkey in a braise with chestnuts with a salpicon sauce (p. 23), to bottle ripe damsons (p. 29), Dunkirk soup (p. 32), chickens and celery sauce (p. 38), a blanquet of fowls with mushrooms (p. 45), Chelsea Prisoner's gout medicine (p. 63), Damson cheese (p. 83), lettuce in imitation of ginger (p. 93), mince pies (p. 116), Stilton cheese - Hawkstone (p. 119), red currant jelly (p. 129), Victoria pudding (p. 132), Downing College pudding (p. 134), and sago pudding (p. 140).