A Lesson in English (Receipts)

Exciting news! Thanks to the hard work (and on-going efforts) of our staff and students, a handful of the handwritten recipes books among our collections have gone online! As a group, you can find these items on our online platform, Special Collections Online. We will have more of them going up in the future, as we continue to scan and acquire new collections, but this feels like a great start! As with many of the Civil War diaries we have digitized, we are also working on transcripts of these manuscript receipt (and recipe!) books which we will add to the site as they are completed. This week, we’ll take a closer look at the Hertford Receipt Book (Ms2008-027). You can view the whole item online, but we haven’t transcribed it just yet. Here’s the front cover:

There is a finding aid for this item, but it is, to use a recipe term, a bit scant. Many manuscript receipt books, when separated from original owners for whatever reason, lose context, and leave archivists and researchers with very little provenance (the archival field’s word for “[i’]nformation regarding the origins, custody, and ownership of an item or collection”). In this case, there are multiple handwritings and a variety of attributed recipes, but no clue as to who collected them or wrote them on the pages. That doesn’t mean, though, that we can’t learn from it.

This is a soft, marbled cover notebook, and from what we know, it dates from about 1800 to 1833. If you’re expecting recipes for food, you won’t be disappointed, but hopefully you’re open to a bit more. You see, the Hertford Receipt Book is mostly home remedies. Many of them. Have a cough? Toothache? Boots need blackening? Need white paint? Have a rat problem? Worms (there are at least three cures for that one!)? This item can help!

That being said, in true English style, you’ll also find puddings, tarts, and cakes among the pages, along with wines, “devil’s pot” and other pickling options, jams, and the intriguing “to pot pigeons like lampreys.”

One of the things I really like about this receipt book is that it has an index. While not all the ones on our shelves do, I’m surprised at how often there’s a guide at the front or back to what’s in the pages. I shouldn’t be shocked by the organizational skills of these generations of savvy women, but they certainly should get extra credit for hand-indexing! If I had to guess, in this case, it was probably done by one owner (it’s all in the same hand) and probably at a point where new recipes weren’t being added. Still, a lovely, tasty, toxic, strange, and functional labor of love.

As football fever continues around Blacksburg (and elsewhere), keep an eye out for some posts to help with those tailgating days. (Though, as someone who enjoys a number of VT sports, I’m thinking we might need to start volleyball, soccer, or basketball tailgating trends, too.) And as fall has arrived, you can probably also expect some autumnal foods in the future, too!

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Summer (Cooking) School, Part 7: Here’s How (to Make an End of Summer Cocktail)

The “end” of summer has arrived in Blacksburg. No, it’s still a month till the solstice, but the great event has begun: move-in! Students are coming back (though, if you ask anyone in Special Collections, we don’t know how time passed so fast!) and we’re getting back into a semester way of thinking. But, there’s time for one last hurrah and one last lesson before the real classes begin. 🙂

Okay, okay, so the front cover of this small publication doesn’t tell you much. “Curb service,” by the modern definition, is  basically service from a restaurant provided to customers remaining in their parked vehicles. Or, in this cases, on their horses. The reason the cover may look a little odd in the scan is that is actually has a fuzzy fabric texture to it and it’s beginning to show a little wear. Let’s get to the fun part…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, this is Here’s How: A Handbook of Recipes of Spirituous and Non-Spirituous Drinks Gathered from Authoritative Sources. It dates from some part of the early 20th century (possible the 1930s). The back cover has a stamp from a jeweler in Allentown, PA, so it was likely something given away to promote the business (and a good drink). Some of the recipes between these two covers are drinks you’ve seen on the blog before from other historical manuals, in modern bars, or out in the ether, but sadly, we don’t get any clues as to what “authoritative sources” were actually used. Since this is our last summer cooking school lesson, I’ll be sure to point out the other page I’ve added above: the standards of measure for the recipes that follow. Not that we need follow these kinds of directions exactly–There’s a lot of fun in experimenting with proportions and substitutions…in most cases. As we’ll see below, it’s not recommended you mix vichy water with wine if you’re considering a variation on the “Kir.”

Sample cocktails

The classic Tom Collins, and some ginger ale highballs

Fizzes and flips

The classic julep and some dressed up lemonades

A few items from the miscellaneous category

More miscellany, and some advice in vichy water

A couple of punches

One of the interesting things about this little booklet has to do with the jewelers store information on the back (sort of). If you go looking for other copies of this little work, you will find a few, but with some differences. There are at least 3 other cataloged editions out there in academic or public libraries, but they have different places of publication and publishers–yet all of them appear to be companies or corporations of some sort. So, basically Here’s How: A Handbook of Recipes of Spirituous and Non-Spirituous Drinks Gathered from Authoritative Sources was a booklet with a set text block that a company could label with its own name as a promotional item. There aren’t any other copies digitized, so we don’t know if the front cover varies by edition. At any rate, it’s just one part of what makes this rare item even more intriguing!

When I sat down this morning to start scanning pages, I made the decision to scan the entire item. After all, it is only about 40 pages, out of copyright, and a quick scan due to its small size. I’m in the process of adding it to our digital collections site, where the entire item will be available for reading (and mixing)! In the meantime, hopefully there’s still something to strike your fancy in the pages above, whatever your tastes! UPDATE: You can view the item online here: https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/items/show/4894!

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On a related note, your usual archivist/blogger Kira will be installing a new exhibit in the Special Collections display cases over the next few days. Hopefully it will be done next Monday at the latest. It’s going to feature items in our collection relating to the history of patent medicines and bitters, and will include a bit about their role in the development of the American cocktail. It should be up for the next 4-6 weeks, so if you’re in Blacksburg and want to check it out, you can view our cases on the first floor of the library whenever the building is open!

Food in the News: Terroir (#4)

Late last week, NPR’s blog, The Salt ran a story about wine and terroir. “Terroir” is one of those beverage buzzwords that you might or might not have heard and might or might not know. The article, “Demystifying Terroir: Maybe It’s the Microbes Making Magic in Your Wine” offers a good background on the word and the concept as it relates to wine.  The general idea is that grapes and a wine, as a result, are influenced by a number of environmental and soil factors from the slope of a hill, the angle of sunlight on the plants, the amount of rainfall, and more. The article looks more specifically that even the local fungi and microbes may have an effect on the taste of a wine, too. However, it isn’t just wine that is influenced by the oh-so-subtle-factors of plant-based alcohols–think about the soil beneath hops that contribute to a beer or the elevation of the land on which agave grows before it becomes part of a tequila.

The idea of “terroir,” though, doesn’t stop there. At the local cheese festival here in Blacksburg two weeks ago, there was a talk/tasting on wine and cheese pairings. (And, since I’m often to be found where there’s one of those ingredients, you can bet I was there for both!) It certainly wasn’t surprising that the word came up, but it was fascinating to hear how much one of the experts had to say about the terroir of cheese and how much the locality in which it was produced can effect the food itself. While there’s an argument for consistency in a food product (whatever it is), there’s an argument for individuality, local influence, and terroir of a food, too. Just something to consider next time you’re in the farmers’ market, the co-op, or at a local farm.

Women’s History Month, Part 12: M. F. K. Fisher (1908-1992)

M. F. K. Fisher (1908-1992). Photograph from book jacket of Here Let Us Feast, A Book of Banquets (1946)

This week, we’re circling back to an influential woman of the 20th century: M. F. K. (that’s Mary Frances Kennedy, all spelled out) Fisher. Fisher was born in Michigan in 1908, but grew up in California. Although she would return there to live several times over the course of her life, it was France that seemed to influence her most. Between 1928 and 1932, she and her first husband lived in Dijon. From 1936 to 1939, she lived in Vevey and Bern, Switzerland. For a short year in 1954-1955, she took her two daughters to live in Aix, France, before returning to California. Her final lengthy time living abroad was between 1959 and 1961, again in Switzerland and France, though she would take additional trips to France in the 1970s. She designed and built a house in Glen Ellen, California, in 1971. She named it “Last House,” and it did become her last permanent resident, until the time of her death in 1992.

Fisher had a prolific writing career that included a large number of books, essays, and reviews related to food and food history. During the 1940s alone, she completed six books that blended history, food, and food culture designed for a wide audience. (Her personality and wit jump off of many pages!) However, food wasn’t her only genre. She wrote autobiographical works, novels, and essays, too. Between 1942 and 1944, she was even a writer for Paramount Studios!

We are happy to have five of her books among our collection. One of the things I adore are her book covers. They range from simple drawings to collages of image, but they are always something eye-catching and intriguing.

Serve it Forth, front cover

Table of contents

Table of contents, continued

Here Let Us Feast: A Book of Banquets, Table of contents

List of selections

List of selections, continued

An Alphabet for Gourmets, front cover

Table of contents

Table of contents, continued

An Alphabet for Gourmets, back cover

The Art of Eating: Five Complete Books in One Volume, front cover

Table of contents for Consider the Oyster and How to Cook a Wolf

Table of contents for How to Cook a Wolf and The Gastronomical Me

Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon, front cover

Bibliography (Titles in bold are among our holdings at Special Collections):

• Serve it Forth (1937)
• “The Flaw” (1939) (essay)
• Consider the Oyster (1941)
• How to Cook a Wolf (1942)
• The Gastronomical Me (1943)
• Here Let Us Feast: A Book of Banquets (1946)
• Not Now But Now (1947)
• An Alphabet for Gourmets (1949)
• The Physiology of Taste, Or Meditations on Transcendal Gastronomy (1949) (Fisher translated this new edition)
• The Art of Eating (1954) (includes the text of Serve It Forth, Consider The Oyster, How To Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets)
• A Cordial Water: A Garland of Odd & Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man & Beast (1961)
• The Story of Wine in California (1962)
• Map of Another Town: A Memoir of Provence (1964)
• The Cooking of Provincial France (1968)
• With Bold Knife and Fork (1969)
• Among Friends (1970)
• A Considerable Town (1978)
• Not a Station but a Place (1979)
• As They Were (1982)
• Two Towns in Provence (1983)
• Sister Age (1984)
• Spirits of the Valley (1985)
• The Standing and the Waiting (1985)
• Fine Preserving: M. F. K. Fisher’s Annotated Edition of Catherine Plagemann’s Cookbook (1986)
• Dubious Honors (1988)
• Answer in the Affirmative & The Oldest Living Man (1989)
• The Boss Dog: A Story of Provence (1990)
• Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon (1991)
• To Begin Again: Stories and Memories, 1908-1929 (1992)
• Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories, 1933-1941 (1993)
• Last House: Reflections, Dreams and Observations, 1943-1991 (1995)
• From the Journals of M. F. K. Fisher (1999)
• A Stew or a Story: An Assortment of Short Works by M. F. K. Fisher (2006)

A few titles about Fisher:

• Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher (1992)
• A Welcoming Life: The M. F. K. Fisher Scrapbook (1997)
• A Life in Letters: Correspondence, 1929-1991 (1998)
• Measure of Her Powers : An M. F. K. Fisher Reader (1999)

The majority of these titles came from a wonderful bibliography of Fisher that is available online. In some cases, it includes brief descriptions of titles. The M. F. K. Fisher Foundation website also include tributes and biographical information–it’s worth a look!

I hope you have enjoyed reading our third year of Women’s History Month profiles as much as I have enjoyed writing them. But, of course, every week is an excuse for me to learn new tidbits from culinary history and to share stories with our audience! We’ll be back next week, perhaps with a little less seriousness and a little more frivolity. Until then, eat well!

Breads and Summer Drinks–Where’s the Connection?

This week, we’re featuring another item with some summer treats…and some raised breads? While this may seem an unlikely combination at first, these two categories do have something in common: yeast. Or, the particular case of this corporate pamphlet, Fleishmann’s Yeast…

Front cover

Title page

Back cover

This pamphlet dates to about 1915, but by then, the Fleishmann Company was well established. Founded in 1868, it remained its own company until a 1929 merger with Standard Brands. After 1981 Standard Brands merged with Nabisco Brands, Inc. The Fleishmann Yeast brand has since been sold two more times, but it has stood the test of time at a 145 years and counting!

While the majority of the publication focuses on the variety of breads and breakfast goods to be may with yeast, the subtitle “Also directions for making Refreshing Summer Drinks” is a bit eye-catching. If you don’t spend a lot of time pondering early 20th century summer beverages, the connection may not be immediately clear. But yeast possesses the ability to make drinks effervesce. So, while a good bread is something of great value, it’s these last three page that interest us today…after all, summer is here!

One of the great joys of the History of Food and Drink Collection is the ability to look back and see what people ate or drank, how they entertained, how they manage the home, or how they prepared food at any given time. These recipes are a perfect example. Root beer, by 1915, was common enough that you could buy an extract, rather than prepare it from scratch. The “Lemon Pop” recipe, with its crushed ginger root, suggests more of a cross between modern ginger ale  and lemonade, than a strictly lemon drink. Whether it’s more economical to produce at home (as the pamphlet suggests), Dandelion wine, effervescing or not, is more likely to be made locally or at home these days than in an commercial setting. And as for “Kumyss,” that’s definitely not something you would expect to see in stores.

This pamphlet was produced in updated editions over the course of the 1910s. Special Collections at Virginia Tech includes editions from 1910, 1912, 1915, 1916. Holdings at other libraries suggest there were at least three more editions with this title, published in 1914, 1917, and 1920. If you’re curious, come on by and take a look. Our Culinary Pamphlet Collection also includes more Fleishmann-related ephemera from 1939, 1941, and the late 1960s!

Keep on enjoying that summer, whether it features root beer, dandelion wine, and, for the adventurous, maybe even some kumyss…

The First American Cocktail Manual

Cocktails are not strictly American. A look at nearly any cocktail book suggests drinks that originate in any number of places. The idea of the cocktail itself evolved from previous generations of drinks celebrated and consumed around the world. (The long history of cocktails an amazing, wandering, wonderful, convoluted journey that we aren’t going to cover in one blog post, but if you’re interested, stay tuned.) However, Americans have played no small role in the development, sharing, and continued enjoyment of the cocktail.

Earlier this year, Special Collections was very pleased to acquired a first edition, third printing of the first American cocktail manual, published in 1862: How to mix drinks, or, The bon-vivant’s companion : containing clear and reliable directions for mixing all the beverages used in the United States, together with the most popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish recipes, embracing punches, juleps, cobblers, etc., etc., etc., in endless variety / by Jerry Thomas ; to which is appended A manual for the manufacture of cordials, liquors, fancy syrups, &c., &c. ..Illustrated with descriptive engravings, the whole containing over 600 valuable recipes. by Christian Schultz.(Technically, this book is a two-for–it contains Jerry Thomas’ book, usually known by it’s short title, How to Mix Drinks, or, The Bon-Vivant’s Companion, as well as the added manual on distilling and manufacturing cocktail ingredients, by Christian Schultz. And it’s a great two-for, at that. The two books make for a natural fit.)

Front cover. 1st edition, likely 3rd printing.

Title page

The table of contents for Thomas’ book runs six pages, and includes information on how the book is organized,…

drinks organized by classes (cups or cobblers, anyone?),…

drinks organized by ingredient,…

individual drinks,…

an extensive variety of punches,…

and more than a few interesting, alternative names (a “Yard of Flannel” is actually a slang name for an egg flip!).

The book contains only a few drawings, including a julep that looks to be sprouting a mint plant (and with very specific directions as to the conditions in which is should be consumed),…

an intricate, layered Pousse l’Amour,…

and Thomas at work, making his infamous “Blue Blazer.”

Thomas does also provide a section on “Temperance drinks,” but it contains only 15 drinks and clearly wasn’t his priority.

Title page. It’s worth noting that Schultz is here described as “Prof.” Jerry Thomas was also frequently referred to as “Professor,” though his title was used to indicate his status as a master bartender. Schultz, on the other hand, was likely an actual professor (though information about his non-existent).

Schultz includes recipes for a number of familiar (and less familiar) cordials, including brandies…

cremes,…

and ratafias. Ratafias are a type of cordial usually made with lemon peel, herbs, sugar, and other varied ingredients, though Schultz’s recipes are somewhat more sparse.

Schultz also includes recipes for fruit syrups (common in Thomas’ recipes).

And in case you want to make your own bottle wax at home, Schultz can help with that, too.

Jerry Thomas was a man with a fascinating life story, one that could easily take over this blog post. Luckily, you can read about it elsewhere, if you go looking–this post is about his book! Schultz, on the other hand, seems a bit of a mystery. However, this seems fitting, when you consider the history of the American cocktail. Some drinks and ingredients have obvious origins, some have variations of wild stories with many people laying claim, and still others are shrouded in mystery. (Good luck discovering the exact herbs that go into some of those amazing, European made cordials!)

The history and evolution of Thomas’ original bartenders manual is no secret, though. Thomas himself produced at least one expanded version before his death in 1885. After that, his recipes (original and unoriginal) were reproduced faithfully and less-than faithfully in many ways. We’ve seen his influence on the blog before, when we talked about The Savoy Cocktail Book. And Special Collections also includes a 1934 edition of The Bon Vivant’s Companion; or, How to Mix Drinks, by Professor Jerry Thomas. Edited, with an introduction by Herbert Asbury, first published in 1928. Several recent publications, too, are bring Thomas back into the spotlight. Even after 151 years, the first American manual for bartenders is influencing cocktail fans everywhere.

Reproducing Thomas’ drink at home can be a bit of a challenge for the modern cocktail enthusiast (dangers of the Blue Blazer aside–please DO NOT try that one at home), but it isn’t impossible. Homemade bitters and syrups are seeing a revival at home and in cocktail bars. The ideas of a “gill” or a “wine-glass” do have modern equivalents. So if you’re feeling brave, whip up some raspberry syrup. Even if you decide you don’t like the cocktail you tried, it might just do wonders for some ice cream…

A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods: Or, The 1745 Book with the 93-Word Title

Back in the early days of the blog, we profiled the oldest food-related publication in our collection, the short selection of a larger publication with the lengthy title, A pocket-companion, containing things necessary to be known by all that values their health and happiness : being a plain way of nature’s own prescribing, to cure most diseases in men, women and children, by kitchen-physick only. To which is added, an account how a man may live well and plentifully for two-pence a day / collected from The good housewife made a doctor, by Tho. Tryon  (1692). You can that view that post online here: “Advice from 1692.”

However, it seemed about time we go back and show off another early publication from the History of Food and Drink Collection. This week, we’re featuring a slightly more recent publication from 1745, with, if you can believe it, an even longer title: A treatise of all sorts of foods, both animal and vegetable: also of drinkables: giving an account how to chuse the best sort of all kinds; of the good and bad effects they produce; the principles they abound with; the time, age, and constitution they are adapted to. Wherin their nature and use is explain’d according to the sentiments of the most eminent physicians and naturalists, ancient and modern. Written originally in French, by the learned M.L. Lemery. Tr. by D. Hay. To which is added, an introduction treating of foods in general. (When you look at the title page below, you may notice there is actually a great deal MORE that someone wisely thought to leave out, when cataloging the item.)

Although the text block is the original, it was rebound at some point before being acquired by Special Collections.

The title page, along with the preface and table of contents pages, were treated with Japanese tissue as a preservation technique against further damage.

Part I of the book details vegetables, plants, herbs, and fruits.

Part II of the book covers meat and game, birds, fish and other seafood.

Part III covers mostly drinks, but liquids in general, as well.

Each chapter talks about a food item, in this case, quinces. Chapters are formatted with an little about the food item, what it is good for, preparation notes, and warnings about who should or shouldn’t eat it.

The “O 2” at the bottom of this page is a “signature.” You’ll notice them on other pages, too. It was used by binders to help assemble the book in the proper order, since most books in this time would have been hand-sown.

Each entry also contains “remarks,” about the plant, animal, or other food item.

Most entries also include notes on how to select the particular food item and what to look for in a “good” one.

The last section of the book talks about drinks, and even includes vinegar…though cyder may be a bit nicer to drink on its own.

As much as we’d love to have you visit us, the good news is, if you want to read more from this treatise (and it’s well worth it!), you can see it online. A pdf is available through VTech Works, the library’s institutional repository (http://hdl.handle.net/10919/10325). If you’re not used to the style and font of mid-18th century publications, don’t worry. Like handwriting, it won’t take long for you to understand those long “f”s and strange, archaic terms.

And whether you’re wondering what people thought about gooseberries, “sea-dragons,” milk, wild boar, or brandy in the 1740s, this is a great place to start. The book’s descriptions about melancholy Humours may be out of date, but the desire to give good advice about food is timeless.

Bowlen und Getränke: Or, On Punches and Drinks (Cocktails!)

In early October, Special Collections acquired four particularly interesting additions to our History of the American Cocktail Collection–two Spanish and two German books relating to punch and cocktails. This week, the focus is on the latter, while I (archivist/blogger Kira) take a little time to brush up on my Spanish translation skills. The German I can manage with one hand wrapped around a glass…

The first of the two books is Das Kidronsquellchen und andere trinksame Ubungen from 1913. Part cocktail book and part book of poetry about punch and other drinks, this little volume falls into a comfortable space–we’d be hard pressed not to agree that alcohol and poetry have long intertwined history of inspiration and trouble-making. The second is Hegenbarth’s Bowlen, Punsch-, und Kaffee-Haus-Getränkebuch: eine Sammlung zeitgemässer Vorschriften zur Herstellung von kalten, warmen und sonstigen Mischgetränken: Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der in- und ausländischen Kaffeehaus-Getränke der “american drinks”, sowie Äpfel und sonstiger Frucht Bowlen und Punsche  [that’s something to the effect of “Hegenbarth’s Punch and Coffee-house Drink Book: a collection of contemporary recipes for making cold, warm, and other mixed drinks: with particular attention to native and foreign coffee-house drinks, as well as apple and other fruit punches” in English] from 1903.

A few notes on punches, cocktails, and our new German publications:

1. There are entire books written on the history of punch, cocktails, specific cocktails and ingredients, etc. (I should know, as I have an ever-expanding personal collection at home.) While the evolution of the cocktail could be debated for hours, it does have at least part of its origins in the history of punch. So, the fact that German books about alcoholic drinks start with punch, a drink that would have be known and consumed in Germany, isn’t surprising.

2. The Germans are so cool when it comes to punches, they have two words for it: Punsch (hot punch) and Bowle (cold punch).

3. Hegenbarth’s book (an in particular, its publication date) shows us that, while the major evolution of the cocktail started American during the early 19th century, word and recipes spread to Europe well before 1900. In addition to hot and cold punches and wine drinks, it has sections on American-born cocktails and cobblers, iced mixed drinks, and a few French drinks thrown into the mix.

4. Meyer’s “Feuerzangenbowle a la Alfred Richard Meyer” poem above refers to a type of red wine punch popularized in Germany. It’s made by soaking or pouring rum on loaf sugar held over the punch by “feuerzange” (fire tongs), setting the sugar on fire, and letting it melt into the punch bowl. (Feuerzangenbowle have made their way into German film, song, and print!)

The whole point, of course, it that the cocktail isn’t a purely American concept, nor is punch a purely British one. Like food recipes and food cultures, cocktails and mixed drinks evolved over continents and oceans and continue to do so. They inspire us to write and sing…perhaps dabble in a bit of mixology ourselves.

Stay tuned for a look at our new Spanish acquisitions…but until then, ponder the joy of Bowle and Punsche. Prost!

Manuscript Cookbook, Just Where Are You From?

It’s been a while since we’ve highlighted a manuscript cookbook, so this week, it’s time for a brand new acquisition…

Sometimes, when it comes to manuscripts, the origins of an item remain a mystery. There is a name on the inside cover in this case, but a little research with the local resources on hand still left us unable to connect that name to a place.  While your usual archivist/blogger Kira is all for a good Scooby-Doo mystery, being an archivist often means knowing where to draw the line when it comes to research. There are plenty more collections waiting to be processed. And not knowing who created and/or compiled something doesn’t mean it doesn’t have research value.

This new addition our collection includes a diverse range of recipes, from cordials and syrups to cakes and baked goods to oysters. And, as if my usual interest in various preserved things isn’t bad enough, this week, I’m bringing you pickled cucumbers, oysters, and plums (at least they aren’t in gelatin…). The point to all this pickling repetition, though, is to show the common practices. Regardless of where this cookbook was compiled, it has recipes and ideas in common with manuscript receipt books we do know about.

Like many 19th and early 20th century handwritten receipt books, it does not have a neat order. (We did, for the record, just acquire a recipe book that does have an index!). Recipes for tallow candles are mixed in with apple pudding and cough syrup; a fruit syrup is next to “egg pone;” and the newspapers clippings are a blend of recipes, household hints, and remedies. Several pages have pasted in recipes on other paper, too. Very likely, it was a case of fitting the next recipe into the next available space…though there is a tendency among cookbook compilers to paste newspaper clippings in the back  pages.

Answers to questions about the cookbook’s organization are as much a mystery as its kitchen of origin, but this item does tell us that these recipes were significant to someone. This manuscript contributes to the larger discussion of late 19th and early 20th century food  preparation and preservation, the culture of recipe sharing (all those newspaper clippings came from someone else’s kitchen), and the overall picture of food history we are striving to create here at Special Collections. A little aire of uncertainty just makes it a little more exciting to research and ponder.

Plus, it has a recipe for blackberry syrup made with spices and brandy that I’d be willing to try, whether it was an effective cholera treatment or not…

Mixing Drinks, 1906-style

Just this past winter, Special Collections acquired a signed copy of Louis’ Mixed Drinks, With Hints for the Care & Serving of Wines. Published in 1906, Muckensturm’s guide includes descriptions and characteristics of wine, along with notes on the quality of vintages from 1880 up through 1905. A majority of the book, however, is dedicated to mixed drinks. It includes recipes for fizzes, cups, punches, cocktails, flips, sours, cordials, and bottling pre-made mixes at home.

Although the cocktail was by no means a new invention in 1906–in fact, it had been defined in print in the U.S. a century prior–cocktails and mixed drinks were most definitely on the rise in the early 20th century. Prohibition wasn’t all that far off, and the future limitations would have interesting effects on production and consumption of alcohol (more on that in some future posts). Following the repeal in 1933, interest in cocktails spiked for a couple of decades before going into decline (more on that, too).

Many of the basic drinks in Muckenstrum’s book are the origins and/or influences of the modern cocktail revival hitting the bars today. Certain items are still classics–a good martini, sour, or collins, for example (even the Orange Blossom is coming back into fashion!). Other choices are a little more obscure. Ask your average bartender for a twelve color Pousse-Cafe,  a Barnyard Cocktail, or a Marliave’s Cocktail and you’re more likely to get strange looks than a drink.  Of course, the Pousse-Cafe will look impressive with its multicolored layers, but a drink with that combination of flavors (orange, cherry, mint, cassis, fennel, and other herbs) probably won’t taste that good when it mixes anyway. (On a side note,  if you do find a place where they know how to make any of those, you’ve found someplace special.) Of course, part of the reason to preserve this material is so that someone can make a Barnyard if they want one (which isn’t really a cocktail at all, with its raw eggs, vinegar, and Worcestershire and no alcohol!). Or, if you’re in the mood for Ivy-League school themed cocktails, the book has both the Yale and the Crimson cocktails.  Sadly, no Hokies cocktail, but we can work on that!

Cocktails represent another unique part of culinary and social history, and that history is resurfacing for a whole new generation of enthusiasts. So, stop by, learn how to make a Pine Tree Cocktail, and tip your glass to Mr. Muckensturm and a long line of cocktail book authors and bartenders who helped make it all happen. Cheers!