What's Cooking?

Food, Drink and the Pleasures of Eating in Old-Time Nova Scotia

Annie, Minnie and May Rosina Prat were three talented sisters from Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Annie L. Prat (1860-1960) studied at the Art Institute, Chicago, and later taught art. Her watercolours are shown in 'The Prat Sisters: Free Spirits of the 1890s'.

Annie L. Prat's Commonplace Books include newspaper clippings and hand-written household hints and recipes. These books are excellent examples of various sources from which recipes are collected – from friends, newspapers, newsmagazines and cookbooks because there are hand-written recipes and newspaper clippings for Swan's Down One-egg Cake (from Montreal Standard, 1942), Chocolate Peppermint Cake; Grapefruit and Lemon Marmalade (Montreal Star), 1923; Dump Cake; Molasses Ginger Cookies (Five Roses Cook Book); Cocoanut Cake (clipping from a Halifax newspaper); Four ( 1,2,3,4) Cake (from Kathleen Brock); and Mable Gilson's Chocolate Cake, 1922.

Date: 1923

Reference: Prat, Starr family Nova Scotia Archives  MG 1 vol. 2627 no. 17