Manuscript Recipe Book belonging to Jane Harrison, 18th century

Recipe Book

Manuscript collection of culinary recipes

including sauces and condiments ("Wallnut Ketchup"), desserts ("Lemon pudding"), drinks ("Cowslip wine") and a few household and medicinal receipts ("Blacking for shoes", "Cough or Consumption"), with an index, in several hands, with, written from the reverse, two pages of school notes on mathematics, c.71 pages, 8vo (205 x 165mm), marbled boards, ink ownership inscriptions on endleaves ("Jane Harrison | Whitburn | Febry. 17th 1771") and on upper cover ("Miss Jane Harrison", "Mrs Wardell", "Mrs Platt") and to, covers heavily worn, staining and wear to outer leaves

[with, loosely inserted:] 28 leaves of additional contemporaneous recipes in a number of different hands, many signed ("Lemon Cheese Cakes [...] M Robinson's best love"), many sent to Miss Wardell of Whitburn

"To Make Cowslip Wine

To 20 Quarts of Water put in 14 pounds of Sugar a few whites of Eggs to Clear it let it Boil half an houe skiming [sic] it well and when Cold put in 4 pounds of Cowslips with a gill of zest & as much hop as you Can hold in your hand lett it Stand 3 Days stirring it and Squeezing the cowslips several times a Day with your hand put into your Cask a pint of Brandy then Taw [i.e. beat] it all; together with the Juice of 6 Lemons and 3 rinds, Close it tight & Lett it Stand 2 months then Bottle it putting in each Bottle a bit of Shugar."

A FINE COLLECTION OF SOPHISTICATED 18TH-CENTURY RECIPES. Like many such manuscripts, this collection was collaborative and contains contributions from a number of sources, including numerous loose notes provided by friends and neighbours. It was compiled over many years, and may well have been passed down the family from mother to daughter. 

PROVENANCE

This recipe book belonged to a gentry family in 18th century County Durham. Jane Harrison was the daughter of Christopher Harrison of Whitburn West-House, between the villages of Whitburn and Cleadon. In 1768 she married John Wardell and the couple inherited Whitburn West-House.