Last year, we covered Angelina Maria Lorraine Collins of New Albany, author of the first known cookbook published in the state of Indiana, “Mrs. Collins’ Table Receipts: Adapted to Western Housewifery” [Vault ISLI 641 C712t]. The book was released in 1851 and comes in at a respectable 144 pages. I would like to expand on the previous post by delving into some of the recipes and their ingredients.
Born on May 26, 1805 in Virginia and her name was sometimes shortened to Anna on documents. In May of 1830, she married James Collins in Clinton County, Ohio. James was also originally from Virginia. Shortly after their marriage, they relocated to New Albany where James was both a prominent lawyer and a politician who represented his community in both branches of the Indiana General Assembly. They had five children, although two died in childhood.
She wrote a follow-up book, a novel published in 1853 entitled “Mrs. Ben Darby, or, the Weal and Woe of Social Life.” As a lifelong advocate for the temperance movement in the United States, this fictional work was a polemic against the social problems of alcohol consumption.
Collins lived a long life and died Sept. 28, 1885.
Her cookbook is very different from modern iterations of the genre. There is no list of ingredients, no strict measurement standards to adhere to and no illustrations to indicate what the finished product should look like. The following are interesting examples from the book.
In French, the name for this creamy and jiggly dessert is simply “white dish.” This recipe calls for Russian isinglass, a thickening agent made from the dried swim bladders of fish which was used before gelatin became a pantry staple.
A homemaker in the mid-19th century such as Collins could not go to her local grocery store and easily pluck a box of crackers off a shelf. She had to make them from scratch using a recipe such as this. Based on the ingredients, these are likely comparable to modern saltines. Note, saleratus is what we now commonly call baking powder.
Corn has long been a principal crop in Indiana, so it’s no surprise that the state’s first cookbook would carry many recipes calling for its use. Corn pone is a dish similar to cornbread but somewhat more dense. Preparation of this dish varies from region to region and here Collins makes a reference to her native Virginia and is adamant that any deviations from her recipe will be a degraded monstrosity unworthy of the name “corn pone.” This seems to be in response to a gastronomic battle she has fought many times before with other cooks as a transplant to the Midwest.
The name for this dish is rather misleading, as it calls for no turtle parts. However, unlike most of the other recipes in the book which only call for seasoning with salt and paper, this uses more exotic flavors including Madeira wine, shallots and cayenne pepper.
To peruse more recipes, the entire delightful book has been digitized by the Indiana State Library and is available here. I hope you enjoyed this follow-up about one of the more interesting items in our digital collections.
This blog post was written by Jocelyn Lewis, Catalog Division supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at 317-232-3678 or “Ask-A-Librarian.”
