December 4, 2015
You are probably looking at your file of old family recipes as you plan for the holidays. In addition to your collection of recipes, there just might be old family recipes in the collections of a library.
For example, the Guelph Mercury recently reported about an important collection of family recipes dating back to the 1700s found in the Una Abrahamson Collection at the University of Guelph. The Collection contains over 2,700 cookbooks – and the overall University Library has over 17,000 cookbooks.
It includes handwritten and printed cookbooks.
The University recently announced the discovery of a bound book found in the Collection: The Johnson Family Treasury: A Collection of Recipes and Remedies, 1741-1848. According to the Guelph Mercury article:
It’s a wonderful source of food and medical history – food found in Shakespeare: plumb broth, pease pottage, roasted pig, neck of mutton. There are also newer foods like oranges, limes and Indian pickles, reflecting an age of colonialism. Plus it contains remedies for all manner of human ailments.
Do you have old recipes that have been passed down in your family? Please tell us about them in the comments section.
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