MANUSCRIPT COOKERY BOOK. Kidder, Edward. Receipts of Pastry and Cookery. For the use of his schoolars (sic) by Ed. Kidder, who teacheth at his school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in the afternoon, in St Martin's Le Grand. And on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, in the afternoon, at his school in Cary-Street, in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Letterpress title page followed by 70 pages of handwritten recipes, numbered up to page 61. C 1725. Contemporary panelled sheep, boards detached.

Cataloguer's note: This book is found in both manuscript form and as a published book. The published version has 43 leaves, all engraved on copper, with calligraphic text and printed on rectos only. The book also contains 8 plates.

Edward Kidder's significance in culinary history is that he was the first proprietor of a cookery school in England. He is also credited with the first recipe for puff pastry. Kidder's book is discussed at length by Eric Quayle, who describes it as 'much sought-after' and 'undoubtedly, one of the most interesting of the pre-1750 cook books'. However, Quayle does not seem to be aware of the existence of manuscripts copies.

Previous commentators have assumed, not unreasonably, that the manuscript copies of his books were dictated to his students who then copied them down. However, the University of Iowa also has a manuscript copy of this book, again with a printed title page, and in 1993 they published a facsimile. A copy of their book is included with the lot. There are striking similarities in the handwriting of the Iowa copy and our copy. Furthermore, a manuscript copy in the library of the University of Pennsylvania, which has been digitised and is available online, also has very similar handwriting. In our opinion, all three copies are by the same hand. Did Kidder employ a clerk to copy out his recipe books, or are they in the hand of Kidder himself, who would perhaps have presented them to his lady students? Further research is required.

The manuscript versions of Kidder's book are considerably scarcer than the printed copies. See Maclean pp 82-84 and Eric Quayle, Old Cook Books pp 89-95 (2)