Item #: SCP-241
Object Class: Safe
Origin: SCP 241 was originally in the possession of an elderly 3-time widow who had been prosecuted and found innocent of poisoning of her second husband. When her third husband died of an acute allergic reaction, she told a national rag newspaper that her "magic cookbook" that killed him. Subject stated that he had been reading the cookbook and asked her to make a particular recipe, which turned out to contain large quantities of █████, to which the subject, unknown to himself, was allergic. It was during regular fact-checking of stories in fringe newspapers that the cookbook came to the attention of the Foundation. Foundation Personnel quickly retrieved the object in question, replacing it with a duplicate.
Description: The book itself has a red and white checkered cover, with the title of "Good Home Cooking". The book contains 99 recipes categorized in typical sub sections for a cookbook. Many of the recipes call for unusual and unknown ingredients and even some unknown cooking processes (eg: in a recipe for "Vingage a la Epinson", Castamate 1 cup of triatas for 5 min). Some of the recipes have photos of the food set in unusual backgrounds, giving them a hideous, repulsive look.
The recipes change whenever SCP-241 is closed and opened by a different subject. A detailed look at the ingredients and instructions reveal nothing nefarious about those recipes. As long as SCP-241 is held open the recipes do not change: it is, therefore, safe for one person to open the book, hand it to another person, and for the second person to flip to another page and select a recipe. This is consistent with the information provided by the original owner, who stated that she kept the book open on its stand at all times for convenience's sake. Upon questioning, subject did indicate that her husband had accidentally knocked the book off the counter, causing it to close, and had re-opened it himself before asking her to prepare the fatal recipe.
Testing: A cookie was made using a recipe from SCP-241 by a D class personnel and eaten. Subject suffered an anaphylactic reaction to the walnuts in the recipe and died shortly after.
A second D class test subject with a known allergy to peanuts was ordered to open SCP-241. 77 of the recipes contained a form of peanuts, while the other 22 recipes did not. When the subject was ordered to pick a recipe, he picked one that did not contain peanuts (cheese fondue). Upon tasting the fondue this subject experienced an anaphylactic reaction as well. Further testing revealed that certain oils cooked over a long period of time mixed with certain cheeses can make a polymer chain very similar to peanut oil.
NOTE: Epinephrine had been administered to both subjects, but proved ineffective in halting the anaphylactic shock.
Special Containment Procedures: As SCP-241 is not inherently dangerous, but contains dangerous knowledge, SCP-241 is to be kept in the Sequestered Book Depository, locked in its own case. Please see Section 9-A of the Facilities Operations Manual (Testing and Maintenance of Illiterate Guards for the Sequestered Book Depository) for more details.
Conclusions: It is possible that new molecular processes can be discovered by examining some of the non-obvious allergenic recipes. In addition, some recipes might be usable as a non detectable form of assassination. Furthermore, some of the more dangerous humanoid SCP's might be able to be affected by the recipes. For these reasons, SCP-241 is not to be destroyed. Further experimentation on up to three Class D Personnel per month is authorized by O5-█.
Nov 13, ████
Dr. Menendez of the medical team has asked for the use of the cookbook to diagnose any unknown allergies to all class 2 personnel and above. Permission granted (We want to make sure no one has any mishaps for Thanksgiving).
Dec 17, ████
It has been determined that SCP-241 may actually inflict additional allergies upon its subjects, in addition to diagnosing existing ones, and may, in fact, be sapient. Evidence for this is provided by the fact that Agent ████ ████████, upon opening SCP-241 as part of normal allergenic testing, discovered that the only recipes it contained for "A Glass of Water." Agent ████ ████████ has since developed aquagenic urticaria. Further testing is required. As a result allergenic testing has been halted, suggest a reclassification to Euclid.
Feb 3, ████ SCP 241 is officially upgraded to Euclid.
July 8, ████
During regular testing of SCP 241 under more strict conditions there was an incident which proves the upgrade to Euclid status was warranted. In one of the backgrounds of he photos, SCP-118 became visible. Subject was affected as if he had seen the glass as half-empty. Had this happened during the approved allergenic testing of important personel our mission could have been drastically hampered.