This has been fascinating to find out about. I had no idea who the Recipe Book belonged to, except that it had come to me via my Mum. The owner had not written her name inside, nor any dates. I was able to discover the approximate age of the book, however, as there were dates on some of the loose sheets inserted into it. The earliest of these, the recipe for Elder Wine at the foot of this post, is dated 1822. But far more exciting than that was finding the page of recipes below written for a child . Not only are they dated 1841 and 1843, but the second one is headed: "For Arthur Faraday 2 3/4 years". This meant that I could trace the child through the genealogy my brother is working on, and it turns out that he is my great great uncle; it seems a fair bet therefore that the book belonged to his mother, or that is, one of my great great grandmothers. What is more, it appears that her brother was a 'druggist' working in the Bull Ring in Birmingham, as his name and address are at the head of some of the loose recipes.
See text below
H.I.A. Letter July 5th 1841
For Baby - 5 mo's old
complaint Diarrhoea
first 2 grs Hydrargé Cretâ
afterwards
Prepared Chalk
Pow’d Gum Arabic
Pow’d Sugar of each 1 drachm
Water 4 oz
Ess peppermint 20 drops (3 drops of ours)
Laudanum 10 drops mixed
a tea spoonful 3 or 4 times a day
if the bowels be much relaxed – not otherwise -
……………………………………………………………………
For Arthur Faraday 2 ¾ years
Worm Powder
Rg Calomel 2 grs
Compound Powder Scammony 4 grs
in a powder – One every third morning in treacle
H I A Nov 7 - 1843
2 comments:
There is something magical about finding old recipes. Worm powder not withstanding. While nowhere near as I, I posted some of my Granny's recipes here.
There is something very special with handwritten notes; a connection.
...nowhere near as OLD...
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