Manuscript Recipe Book by Anne Watson
Manuscript Recipe Book by Anne Watson
Small Octavo. Bound in maroon limp calf, rubbed, scuffed, and well used but still strong. Internally a little grubby and smudged by handling, much as might be expected of a working kitchen book. 22pp. of handwritten recipes, rather enthusiastically jammed onto each page as if the author was afraid of running out of space, there’s a rather youthful exuberance to the putting together of this little pocket recipe book. The recipes are dominated by cakes, puddings and breads, including Raspberry Fool, and various sponge cakes, with some complex preserved meat dishes like Calves’ Feet Jelly, and a recipe for Mock Turtle Soup involving a Calf’s Head with the skin on. The spelling is a little erratic, the composition pretty makeshift, but that doesn’t detract from it being a handy little household reference.