Blog - Vintage Recipes and Cookery

How to Cook Chicken (Poultry) Giblets

Angela Johnson Comments 2 comments

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS The giblets of poultry consist of the head, neck, wings, feet, gizzard, heart, and liver. As meat is the most costly and extravagant of all articles of food, it behooves the housewife to save all left-overs and work them over into other dishes. They make good soup, fricassees, pies, and various entrées, or side dishes. The so-called inferior pieces—not inferior because they contain less nourishment, but inferior because the demand for such meat is less—should…

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Cooking with Suet (Tallow)

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Suet or the fat from around the kidneys and loin of beef and mutton. It has a high smoke point, and usually used for making pies and pastries. Suet is usually rendered to remove the impurities from the fat. It’s then called tallow, but the 1800s cookbooks I’ve gone through just call it suet. Additionally, suet can be used to make soap and candles, as well as seed cakes to feed wild birds. SUETChoose the firmest part as soon as…

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A Variety of Dumpling Recipes

Angela Johnson Comments 4 comments

Most of the dumpling recipes from 1800s cookbooks are for rounded dumplings. Some recipes say to wrap the dumplings in cloth, like when boiling a pudding. Others say to roll the dumplings in a ball or drop the dumpling mixture from a spoon into hot liquid. The only dumplings I’ve ever eaten were ones rolled out flat and cut into small rectangular strips before being dropped into a soup. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: FINE SUET DUMPLINGS Grate the…

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Ways to Cook Turkey, Make Gravy and Dressing

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When people went to the market to buy poultry in the 1800s, it wasn’t usually already plucked and cleaned. And cooking in a wood burning stove was a challenge. You had to know how long and how hot your wood or coal would burn. Cooking a meal was certainly a challenge! FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: ROAST TURKEY Select a young turkey. Remove all the feathers carefully, singe it over a burning newspaper on the top of the stove, then draw* it…

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How to Select Fresh Poultry at the Market

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In the 1800s, people who didn’t raise their own poultry usually bought their meat from a butcher shop. There was no electric refrigeration and no government inspections, so they bought from a reputable butcher or learned to determine a fowl’s freshness themselves. Poultry was usually sold as a whole bird. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS It is necessary to know the difference between fowls and birds. A fowl always leads its young ones to the meat, and a bird carries…

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How to Make Perfect Pie Crust

Angela Johnson Comments 1 comment

Not many people make their own pie crusts these days. With refrigerated and frozen pie crusts available in grocery stores, it’s easier to buy a pie crust and add your own filling. Premade pie crusts became available in the U.S. in the mid-1950s. Quote from an 1800s cookbook: “Few people know what really good pastry is. Fewer still can make it. It has no inevitable resemblance either to putty or leather. It is light, crisp, flaky, goodly to behold—goodlier to the…

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How to Make, Preserve, and Cook Sausage

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In the 1800s, electric refrigeration was not yet available. People who raised pork often made their own sausage, which could be preserved for several months in a smokehouse or cellar. I like sausage, especially if highly seasoned, and I can often find homemade sausage at Farmers’ Markets. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: TO MAKE SAUSAGES A common fault is that the meat is not chopped enough. It should be chopped very fine. When ready for the seasoning, put in water…

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Old-Fashioned Popcorn Sweets

Angela Johnson Comments 2 comments

Popcorn is a special type of corn; not all varieties of corn will “pop.” In the 1800s, some families raised their own popcorn. After cutting the corn from the stalks, they dried it, then shelled it by hand. They put the dried popcorn in “poppers” which were shaped like long, thin boxes made from tightly woven wire, attached to a long handle. Then the corn could be popped over an open flame without having to get too close to the…

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