THE YOUNG COOKS Monitor;
OR DIRECTIONS FOR Cookery and Distilling, BEING A Choice Compendium of Excellent Receipts. Made Publick for the Use and Benifit of my Scholars. The THIRD EDITION with Large ADDITIONS. By M.H. LONDON: Printed for the Author, at her House in Limestreet. 1705. --- BOUND WITH: Rare and Excellent RECEIPTS. Experienc'd, and Taught By Mrs Mary Tillinghast. And now Printed for the Use of her Scholars only. LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1690.
12mo. 2fep. Title page. 2pp. Epistle preface, signed M.H. (9-180) 2nd Title page. (1-30) 2fep. Nicely bound in contemporary full mottled tan calf with gilt lines and fillet on boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt lines, red label with gilt lettering. Clean internally with very light ageing and minor worming to some pages without loss of text. A very rare item.
- The first edition of the 'Young Cook's Monitor' was printed 1683. Oxford states that the 2nd edition of 1690 has an appendix. This third edition of 1705 also has an appendix. The second book; Tillinghast's 'Rare and Excellent Receipts' was first printed in 1678. This copy is the second of 1690. In Oxford's 'Notes from a Collector's Catalogue' he writes on page 87, that both his and the BM's copies of Tillinghast's book are also bound with the 'Young Cook's Monitor' There is also a surprising similarity between these 2 books bound in one volume, and the anonymous work, 'The True Way'. (item, #10962 on this site under 'Anon') The three books and receipts are remarkably similar with the three Title pages all proclaiming they are 'Made Publick for the Use and Benefit of my Scholars.' The Epistle Directories of both books have the same similar statement addressed to her Scholars. (There is no Epistle Directory in Tillinghast's book). The 'True Way' does not have any indication of authorship, while the 'Cook's Monitor' has M.H. after the preface. This compiler suggests that Mary Tillinghast is the maiden name of the M.H. of the 'Young Cooks Monitor'. I suggest that sometime after writing/publishing her 'Excellent Receipts' in 1678, Mary Tillinghast married and assumed her married initials of M.H. while keeping the authorship of 'The True Way' anonymous. At this point in time there is no way to prove this theory, but the startling similarities between the three works (bound in two volumes) are too evident to ignore. Further reference can be found in the 'The Recipes Project' online that informs: The British Library copies of the Tillinghast and second edition of the Young Cooks Monitor were bound together, sometime during the 19th century: BL shelf-marks C.189.aa.10 (1) and (2).
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
10960