Libro de Cocina (Convento de San Jeronimo)
- Year
- ms
- Era
- Undated
- Origin
- Mexico · Americas
- Language
- Spanish
- Category
- Latin America
Libro de Cocina del Convento de San Jerónimo is a seventeenth-century manuscript recipe collection attributed to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, compiled within the Hieronymite convent in Mexico City where she lived and wrote. Preserving conventual cookery of New Spain, including mestizo confections and regional dishes, the manuscript has circulated widely in modern printed facsimiles and remains a foundational document for the study of colonial Mexican gastronomy and women's domestic culture.
Cooking from this book
Manjar Blanco
Signature dishA signature confection of colonial convent kitchens, manjar blanco appears in this manuscript as a delicate sweet pudding of shredded chicken breast, milk, sugar, and rice flour, perfumed with cinnamon. Its presence speaks to the refined sugar craft practiced by the nuns of San Jeronimo, where Sor Juana lived and wrote. The dish bridges medieval Iberian cookery and emerging Mexican tastes, embodying the cloistered yet inventive culinary world the manuscript preserves.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
