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Entitled Koch-Buch worinn Verschiedene gute Kalt- und warme Speisen Bakereyen Eingemachtes Zukerwerk und sonstige Delicatehsen aufgezeichnet (Cookbook containing good cold and hot dishes, cakes, preserves, sweets and other delicacies), the Manuscript 731 from the Brukenthal Library is a personal collection of recipes, probably belonging to Theresa Holzer, the house keeper of Brukenthal Palace around 1785.
The document is written in a current German writing form, specific to the 18th c., but uses the Latin script for words or expressions of foreign origin, which indicates the documentation and adoption of specialized information from the outside of Transylvania.
Although the recipes contained in the manuscript are predominantly designed for daily meals, they describe a varied diet, intended for wealthy people, influenced by the culinary traditions of the Central European aristocracy; such an influence can be observed in the small number of exotic spices used.
It is to be noted the generalized use of sugar, lemons and oranges (a recipe for green oranges preserve shows that orange was already grown in the greenhouses, such as the one in Avrig, owned by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal).
Other indications, important for the 18th century, refer to rice, ice cream, pasta (macaroni and noodles), English dough, short-pastry based cakes; the existence of a recipe for pâte feuilletée with puff pastry proves that the technique of preparing this specialty of French pastry was already known in Transylvania.