Old-cookbooks occasionally refer to recipes as “receipts.” A hundred years ago, “receipt” was already considered an archaic term. Here’s what it said in a 1925 magazine:
“Receipt” or “Recipe”?
When our grandmothers wrote out the ingredients for any dish and the method of making it, they called this “a receipt,” and in their times the apothecaries had a monopoly of the word “recipe,” which meant to them the physician’s prescription. The tendency, today, is towards the use of the word “recipe” for the cooking formula, while “receipt” is more logically reserved for the written form of acknowledging payment, or the receiving of money.
American Cookery (April, 1925)
I’m lucky enough to have an old family ‘receipt’ book. But it was handwritten in the early 19th century!
Wow, that’s really old. You are very fortunate to have it.
It has other things besides food, such as brass cleaning recipes – and ink!
Old cookbooks often had sections with general household hints and tips, so I suppose it makes sense that handwritten “receipt” books also contained tips.
This made me think of how ‘widows’ used to be called ‘relicts.’
I’m glad that term isn’t used anymore. It looks almost like relic.
How interesting! Traditional Dutch ‘recepten’ (recipes) start with ‘men neme’ (one takes). The word ‘recept’ is derived from the Latin ‘recepta’ meaning ‘the things that were taken’ (or received?). The term ‘recept’ was used when describing how to make food, drinks, paint, paper et cetera, so not only by the physician.
Fascinating – It’s really interesting the terms that recipe and receipt are derived from.
It is interesting to learn how word definitions and spellings change over time.
Sometimes I wonder which words we use now will become archaic in the near future. So many more abbreviations and shortened versions of words are used as a result of text messaging.
Sometimes by mistake I write receipt when I mean recipe. Not because I’m 100 years old, it just happens.
It’s so easy to make those kinds of typos. I make similar mistakes all the time.
It’s not even a typo. I forget how to spell it.
I always wondered about that when I see ‘receipt’ in historical fiction books. These molasses cookies look like they’d taste just like the ones my grandmother used to make. Thanks for the recipe!