Handwritten 1880\'s Recipe/\"Receipt\" Book signed Mary A. Mesner CT historic For Sale

During the 18th and 19th centuries, many cooks treasured a small handwritten recipe (sometimes called a \"receipt\") book which contained their own \"tried and true\" recipe collection.

These deeply personal family heirlooms were often family collections handed down over the years. Sometimes, as a cook\'s recipes were her reputation, these were kept secret.

This small book was personally signed in ink by Mary A. Mesner.

Measuring only 3\"x5\" it was small enough to fit in her apron pocket.

Women had to know how to cook and bake everything, as cookbooks were fairly rare in the 1880\'s. They\'d develop recipes, learn from others, and keep their treasured \'receipts\' safe.

This sweet little book is written and signed in a beautiful hand: Mary A. Mesner, No 283 Market St, Hartford Connecticut.
Ancestry.com provides a possible connection to her, based on an 1880 census bearing that name, being 26 years of age (extrapolating her birth around 1854). Checking Newspaper.com, there also is a Mary A Mesner appearing in the Hartford Courant newspaper, indicating that she had died on Jul 2, 1895. Such a short life, but one where cooking was so integral to a woman\'s role. This book must have provided happy moments-serving cakes and cookies-for family and dear friends.

Mary wrote 40 lovely handwritten pages-mostly in pen, with a few in pencil-adding a few newspaper recipes pasted on inside front and back. Note that one page had 1/2 of the page neatly cut out-a recipe to share?

There are recipes for cakes, pies and pie crust, candy, puddings, cookies and some relishes such as Chow Chow. There is a also Clam Chowder and Veal Pie. And of course...Indian Pudding! One cake recipe is labeled: \"Mrs. Sharms Cake\".

Note that these recipes contain ingredients only, as any cook knew the proper method to make and bake a cake or cookies.

I\'ve photographed a few of these pages for your enjoyment. All but 4 are completely legible, and those 4 have some faded ink on part of each page. SEE PHOTOS.

Note that to solidify the time frame when this recipe book was written, I attempted to match clipped recipes that were glued to book pages to similarly typeset newspaper articles. I was able to match the following:
Things Worth Knowing appeared in the Wed Sep 25, 1878 copy of The Jeffersonian-Democrat, Brookville, Pennsylvania, Page 1
Cheap Blueberry Pudding appeared in the Jul 20, 1878 copy of the Western Rural, Chicago Illinois, Page 6
Coffee Cake appeared in the Jan 9, 1879 copy of the Camden Journal, Camden South Carolina, Page 4
Rice Snow Balls appeared in the Feb 4, 1880 copy of the Wyoming Democrat/Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, Page 4Per Ancestry.com, there was an older Mary Mesner (age 23 in the 1870 Census) living in Illinois. It\'s possible Mary acquired recipes from corresponding relatives, extending her recipe reach that today we take for granted across internet websites.To protect this piece of family history reaching your address safely, my price includes fully insured postage.

Collection 10