'To Bake a Pigg in a Pan'... 'To Make Black Cherry Beer'...

'To Cure the Dropsy' These are just a few samples from an eighteenth-century Commonplace Book, passed down the generations from Mary Cannon's kitchen to her many times great-granddaughter Marjorie Quarton.

A Commonplace Book was a scrapbook for sayings, letters, prayers, measurements, or, as in this instance, of recipes. Mary Cannon lived in Dunleary (now Dun Laoghaire) and collected over 120 recipes between 1700 and 1707.

They are presented here in sections such as ffishe, ffleshe, Puddings and Deserts, Pickles and Preserves. Marjorie Quarton has edited these recipes, commenting on the significance and usage of certain ingredients. She has added fragments of family history, from Jacobite leaders and Huguenot refugees to tales of the Indian Mutiny.