Manuscript Cookbook Kept by Maria Green of Philadelphia

Philadelphia: 1854. 8 x 6", full brown leather binding with tooled decorations along edges, containing 117 pages of ink manuscript. Inscribed "Receipt Book. Green Bank. December 17th, 1821. Recopied January, 1854" and "Maria Green, Silver Pine, Jan. 17th, 1854." A manuscript cookbook compiled by Maria Kirkham Green (1797-1876), of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Maria married Edmund Green (1797-1856, a farmer, in 1819, and the two lived in Oxford, Philadelphia for the next several decades. "Green Bank" may be a reference to the nearby town of Green Bank, New Jersey, or, we believe more likely, the name of the family farm in Oxford. The 1870 census, meanwhile, shows Maria Green as working as a housekeeper at the estate of Bennington Green in Tacony, Philadelphia. Her 1876 obituary notes that she was living at "Silver Pine", a farm near Tacony, hence the inscription in this book. Maria appears to have been part of the wealthy milieu of 19th century suburban Philadelphia, as well as an associate of the prominent Castor family of Tacony Farm. According to one source, "The Bickleys, the Greens, the Morrises, who were close neighbors and intimate in the social celebrity of the Delaware river country seats...Cavanaugh Farm, the splendid estate of Captain Green, and the historic homestead known as 'Silver pine', the fine old country seat..." ("Famous Banqueting Houses" in "Table Talk", Vol. 24, Issue 7, 1909 Page 269).

Many of the recipes in the book, meanwhile, are attributed by name or initial. These include "Miss Castor", "M.M. Green," "Miss Head", "Mrs. Stow," "Mrs. Thompson," "Lizzie", "Mrs. Brown", "Wharton," "Goodfellow," "Hansford", "Mrs. Gray", and "Carey", plus many initialed attributions, including many recipes by Maria ("M.M.G."). The book begins with two pages of weights and measures, followed by a 25 page index, followed by 92 pages of recipes, with 189 recipes in all. Included are several recipes which are not often seen in an American manuscript cookbook of this era--"to make curry," "curry powder," "gumbo soup", "ochre soup" (i.e. okra soup), and Soup of the Mexican Bean. Other recipes include turtle soup, brandy peaches, a quaking pudding, currant soup, bologna sausages, raspberry wine, ginger beer, The Isle of Wight Plum Pudding, lemon ice cream, and vanilla ice cream. There are also several medicinal and household recipes. In fair condition with front cover nearly detached, spine perished, covers worn and flaking, binding loose with some pages detached, some staining/spattering to pages, tear to pp. 61-62. Item #13969

Price: $1,250.00