"to ice a great cake," Maria Van Rensselaer's Receipt Book, c. 1760-1830

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Date

c. 1760-1830

Description

This page from Maria Van Rensselaer's receipt book shows directions for frosting a cake using bird feathers. Maria Van Rensselaer and her husband, Philip Van Rensselaer, had Cherry Hill built in 1787. Dinah Jackson was a cook and the last woman who was enslaved at Cherry Hill. She prepared many of the recipes saved in Maria's receipt book. Recipes like this one show that Dinah was a highly skilled cook. Dinah became a free person on New York’s Emancipation Day, on July 4, 1827. She might have continued to work as a cook at Cherry Hill until the 1840s. More pages from the receipt book can be found here: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/CherryHill/id/973/rec/3. This item was added as part of the Diversity and Collaborative Knowledge Program funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Type

Written Document

Region

Capital District, New York State

Era

Colonial America, Revolution and New Nation

Topic

Communication, Women

Repository

Historic Cherry Hill

Identifier

receiptbook1_msvr_1760

Source

Historic Cherry Hill

Rights

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