Accession No. RARE.2015.0023: Purchased, 2015 June
[identification of item], Handwritten Recipe Book Originally Belonging to Hannah P. Gill, SPEC.RARE.0065, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Beth Crowner, 2019 July; Finding aid written by: Beth Crowner, 2019 July
Recipes are a set of instructions for preparing a particular dish, including a list of the ingredients required. They have been written for many centuries for food dishes, as well as cosmetics and medicinal cures, but the compilation of recipes into cookbooks and recipe books became popular in 17th century English homes when England’s literacy rate among women improved. American New England cuisine has English roots, and tends to feature seafood and dairy products due to nearby fishing and dairy farming.
Hannah P. Gill was a resident of New England, circa 1850.
The Handwritten Recipe Book Originally Belonging to Hannah P. Gill, dated 1850s-1870s, is a notebook of written recipes first owned by Hannah P. Gill, a resident of the New England area. An inscription on the front endpaper says "Hannah P. Gill to M.L. Littlehale & Margaret S. Cheney, Elizabeth R. Dearborn, 1850." The book contains recipes for desserts, soups, savory dishes, reflecting typical dishes of the region and time period, such as donuts, lobster salad, and snow griddle cakes. It also includes more practical recipes like “labor-saving soap," and recipes for beer, vinegar, spiced currants, and other household necessities. Several slips of colored paper printed with flowers and watering cans have also been inserted, possibly to mark places of interest. The recipe book was owned by prominent cookbook collector, Eloise Schofield.