Massachusetts Woman's Christian Temperance Union cookbook, annotated with recipe for dandelion wine

Title: Massachusetts Woman's Christian Temperance Union Cuisine: A Compilation of Valuable Recipes Known to be Reliable...

Author: Massachusetts Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Publication: Boston, Mass.: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1878.

Description: Cookbook by the Massachusetts Woman's Christian Temperance Union (M.W.C.T.U.), published in aid of the State Fair at the Horticultural Hall in 1878, with some recipes erroneously containing wine as an ingredient. This copy is heavily annotated with additional recipes by the previous owner Celia Crowell (C.C.) Kemp Stillings, whose husband Ephraim B. Stillings printed the cookbook. An errata slip, wanting in this copy, states, "After it was electrotyped, among the Meats, four receipts were found poisoned with Wine. It is impossible to testify to the sorrow of the Committee in charge of the book, when the fact was discovered..." In addition to the "poisonous" meat recipes, the cookbook contains alcohol-free recipes for breads, soups, desserts, pickles, salads, drinks, and a large variety of home and health remedies.

Bound into the book by the publisher were 12 pages of blank note paper; these have been completely filled with recipes in manuscript by C.C. Stillings. Most interestingly, on page [19], Stillings has written a recipe for dandelion wine (in a temperance cookbook!). In addition, tipped-in are four additional sheets filled with recipes in manuscript in a different hand. Stillings was born in Boston in 1841 and died in 1925 in Winchester, Massachusetts. The date of the dandelion wine recipe (1912), written when Stillings was in her 70s, indicates that she used this cookbook for more than 30 years.

Bound in full brown cloth over boards, with blind-stamped decoration, gilt titling on the front cover, and a gilt advertisement for Webb's Chocolate on the back cover. 9.5 x 6.25 inches. This copy begins at page [19] and ends at page 126. Wanting are the advertisement leaves, main title page, organizational by-laws and reports, and one page of the section "Facts Concerning Intemperance". All recipes are retained. A rather worn and soiled binding, but the interior only lightly soiled. Fair overall, due to the missing leaves. The Massachusetts Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1874. At the time of this book's publication, the M.W.C.T.U. reported a membership of 10,000 in 125 local Unions throughout Massachusetts.