I mentioned previously that there’s a receipt (recipe) for preserving
mulberries in Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery. Then later, while
looking for something else, I noticed yet another one in The Frugal
Housewife, by Susannah Carter. It’s also for preserving mulberries.
the illustrious mulberry!
I’d seen it somewhere.
Well, turns out that
the one in Carter’s
book is almost exactly
the same as the one
in Amelia’s! And since
Frugal was published
in 1772 (in England),
and Cookery in 1796
(in America), that means
Amelia “borrowed” this
receipt from Susannah.
But then, “borrowing”
receipts from other
published works was
typical. Some authors copied previous versions word for word, while
others merely paraphrased them. One of the worst offenders (I think,
so far) is John Farley. In his book The London Art of Cookery (1783),
he stole, er, I mean, “borrowed,” receipts from Susannah Carter AND
Hannah Glasse (The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, 1747). Now,
I’ve not done any detailed accounting, but I was taken aback by his,
um, multiple lacks of originality, despite my knowing that authors
frequently plagiarized.
In any case, here is Amelia Simmons’ version in the second edition
of American Cookery, which was published in Albany, NY, in 1796.
She was the first American to write a cookbook which was then also
the first published in America.
To preserve Mulberries whole.
Set some mulberries over the fire in a skillet
or preserving pan; draw from them a pint
of juice when it is strained; then take three
pounds of sugar beaten very fine, wet the
sugar with the pint of juice, boil up your
sugar and skim it, put in two pounds
of ripe mulberries, and let them stand
in the sirrup till they are thoroughly warm,
then set them on the fire, and let them boil
very gently; do them but half enough, so
put them by in the sirrup till the next day,
then boil them gently again, when the sirrup
is pretty thin and will tard in round drops,
when it is cold they are done enough,
so put all into a gallipot* for use.
*A gallipot is a small glazed earthen pot or jar (stoneware is best,
as redware will leak).
Now, Amelia made only slight alterations to Susannah’s version
of this receipt. A non-essential word was added here, a comma
moved there. However, she did make one rather major change.
Towards the end of the receipt where Amelia wrote, “when the
sirrup is pretty thin,” Susannah penned the complete opposite,
“pretty thick.” This puzzles me. Did Amelia do so because it
makes the end result better? Or was it an error on her part?
Perhaps she copied it incorrectly? Or did she change it just
to be changing it? Or is it the fault of the publisher? Maybe
it’s just a typo? Or…something else? Unfortunately, we’ll
never know. But it is an interesting mystery. All part
of what, again, I like to call “food forensics.”
