The Pentucket Housewife. A Manual for Housekeepers, and Collection of Recipes, Contributed by the Ladies of the First Baptist Church, Haverhill, Mass. Third Edition.
Haverhill, Mass. [The Church; Printed by] Press of Chase Bros. 1888.
Octavo (22 x 15 cm.), [viii], 144, [x] pages. Advertisements (some illustrated). Title page printed in red and black. Decorated chapter head- and tailpieces. Table of contents. List of corrections. Editor inferred from copyright statement on title-page verso. Third Edition. A church cookbook likely issued in concert with the dedication of a new meetinghouse in 1882. With approximately five hundred recipes, many of them attributed. Representative entries: Bean Porridge, Oyster Stew, Shaker Codfish, Chicken Curry with Rice, Potted Pigeons, Cannelon of Beef, Baked Tomatoes, Parsnips, Stewed Celery, Brown Bread (five versions), Corn Cake (four versions), Squash Breakfast Cakes, Sweet Apple Pancakes, Fried Bananas, Grandmother's Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Pie (four versions), Indian Pudding (five versions), Peach Pudding, Rhubarb Dumplings, Charlotte Russe (three versions), Strawberry Custard, Union Cake, Election Cake, Hard Gingerbread (five versions), Preserved Grapes, Barberry Jelly, Quince Marmalade. Also included is "A Black Man's Recipe to Dress Rice" (page 48), in dialect and lacking attribution, but a recipe with detailed description of process. Appended are laundry recipes and household hints ("The squeaking of boots may be prevented by driving a few pegs in the middle of the sole"). ~ Some soiling, staining, and age-toning internally; edgewear to front free endpaper. In publisher's chestnut brown cloth lettered in gilt, which has some stains but is otherwise very good. [OCLC locates nine copies (and ten copies of the 1882 edition); Brown 1293; Cook, page 110; not in Cagle].
Price: $250.00