The Champlain Valley Book of Recipes. Collected by Young Ladies of Trinity Church, Plattsburgh

Plattsburgh, N.Y.: Telegram Printing House, 1890. Duodecimo-size (18.5 x 12 cm.), [iv], 185 pages. Fourth edition, inferred from existence of a third edition, published by A.M. Warren, dated 1880. A well-produced church cookbook from the northern New York State town of Plattsburgh. Of the more than six hundred recipes, a number of pies hold especial interest: Silver Pie, made with potato and lemon; Acid Pie, made with tartaric acid and raisins; and Tomato Pie, its fruit sliced "like apples" and coated with sugar, butter, and flour. Mrs. Mimmack supplies a recipe for Whortleberry Pudding, Mrs. Arnold one for Whortleberry Cake. Advice appended to instructions for Mrs. Haile's Currant Wine seems reasonable: "A pint of brandy added improves it very much". The young ladies of the title page evidently served as compilers of recipes submitted by "kind helpers, near and far" who had previously "tested them in their household experience"(Preface). Most recipes are signed; those from afar are prefixed with locations of origin only ("from Astoria"; "from Hartford"; "from Albany"). Somewhat unusual is the appearance of a male contributor, one Mr. Sailly, who somewhere had responsibility "For Curing One Hundred Pounds of Ham". Though not the first denomination represented in the shiretowns of what we now know as Clinton County, an Episcopal Society formed in the early 1820s and incorporated a church of its own in Plattsburgh on 6 September 1830. Trinity Church still dominates the townscape where the Saranac River meets Lake Champlain. Corporate author (Ladies of the Parish) from Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of Albany for 1875. In Proceedings volumes for 1889 and 1890 they are called Ladies Aid Society. Text block age-toned; ruled blank pages bound-in, with a number of handwritten recipes added; some staining throughout. Publisher's black cloth decorated with blind-stamped border and gilt-titling. Tiny bookseller's rubber stamp to free front endpaper. Near very good. [OCLC locates two copies of the 1890 edition, two copies of a third edition (Plattsburgh: A.M. Warren, 1880), and three copies of an unnumbered 1875 edition; Brown reports 1875 edition only (2131); not in Cagle].