"composition"

[Annette Bethke]

I'm reading letters between husband and wife, he in Galveston, she in Anderson Texas. He writes "if you need any of the ingredients to make composition let me know I would like to get some. Mine is about out. I can get Ginger here at 50 cts a paper."

Any ideas what "composition" is?

[Edwin Carl Erwin]

Re: "composition"

Ms. Bethke,

Composition as used in the letter refers to a mixture of various ingredients. Now, what those ingredients were, apart from the 50 cent ginger, we don't know. The purpose of the composition was doubtless either culinary or medicinal.

Here is a recipe usage example:
Muscadine Ices
"Take one ounce of elder flower, which you put in a sabotiere, pour upon it about half a pint of boiling water, cover your sabotiere with its lid, thus let it draw about half an hour, make then a composition precisely, as it were to make a plain lemon ice, and as directed in that article; to tha tcomposition add your infusion of elder flower, pass the whole through a sieve, and put it in the sabotiere to congeal as we have explained."

From Borella The Court and Country Confectioner (London: 1770)

Regards,