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Category: Breads

Fresh and dry yeast, yeast starter
Making Fresh Home-Made Yeast for Bread

Making Fresh Home-Made Yeast for Bread

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Until the mid-1800s, people made their own yeasts to use in baking bread. They made fresh yeast from hops, potatoes, pumpkin, and more. In 1868, Charles and Max Fleischmann created a compressed yeast cake and began selling it commercially.  This was certainly easier than making your own! INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ON YEASTGood yeast is indispensable to good bread. Every housekeeper should make sure by her own personal attention, that the yeast is properly made and the jar well…

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sandwich made from homemade bread
Unusual Sandwiches from the 1800s

Unusual Sandwiches from the 1800s

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I don’t make sandwiches often, but they’re not anything like these from 1800s cookbooks. I was especially intrigued by the baked bean sandwich recipe and the one for an anchovy sandwich. In the 1800s, bread was mostly homemade and had to be sliced evenly for sandwiches, as the first automatically sliced loaves of bread weren’t produced until 1928. Also, plastic wrap and aluminum foil weren’t invented yet, so most sandwiches were eaten soon after they were made. INFORMATION BELOW FROM…

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bowl of mush
How to Make Mush and Porridge

How to Make Mush and Porridge

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Mush and porridge were cheap, nourishing meals in the 1800s, but the grains had to be cooked many hours. There were no instant hot cereal mixes like there are today. Mush and porridge were often cooked the night before in order to be ready for breakfast. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS MUSH AND PORRIDGE Mush is meal or grain cooked in water to the consistency of rather thin pudding. The most important point connected with the preparation of these is…

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Corn meal in a bowl
Cooking with Indian Meal (Corn Meal)

Cooking with Indian Meal (Corn Meal)

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In cookbooks from the 1800s, corn meal was called Indian corn (maize). Corn was native to America (U.S.), and was used for many recipes. In Great Britain, however, Indian corn was considered only fit for feeding animals. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS CORN CAKETake a pint of sour milk or buttermilk, break an egg into it, stir in a spoon or two of flour, and add Indian meal enough to make a thick batter. Put in a teaspoon of salt,…

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Toasted canapes with salmon
How to Make Delicious Canapes

How to Make Delicious Canapes

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A canape is half of a sandwich. Slices of bread are cut into fancy shapes, toasted or quickly fried in hot oil, or they may be spread with butter and browned in a quick oven. One slice only is used for each canape. The mixture is spread on top, the top garnished, and the canape used at once.  INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Cold canapes are placed always among the appetizers and served before the soup. They are made of…

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A Variety of dried fruit and nuts
Sandwiches Made from Fruit and Nuts

Sandwiches Made from Fruit and Nuts

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It took more time and work to make sandwiches in the 1800s. People often made their own bread but they could also buy it from markets and bakeries if they could afford it. However, it wasn’t until 1928 that bread was pre-sliced by machine. And although people sometimes used jelly and marmalade for sweet tasting sandwiches, they usually used dried or fresh fruit and nuts, which took more time to prepare. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Sandwiches that have fruit…

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Roast Poultry and Stuffing
A Variety of Stuffing Recipes for Poultry

A Variety of Stuffing Recipes for Poultry

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Homemade stuffing was a great way to use up stale bread and other ingredients and provided a nice dish to accompany poultry. The recipes below will give you some good ideas for stuffings, and you can make changes to suit your taste. 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 the meat to its young. So our common…

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gingerbread cake
Gingerbread Cake and Cookie Recipes

Gingerbread Cake and Cookie Recipes

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Settlers from Europe brought gingerbread recipes to the U.S. colonies. Molasses cost much less than sugar and became a common ingredient. American Cookery, the first American cookbook, published in 1796, contained seven different recipes for gingerbread.  Since there is so much variation in the different woods used in a wood burning stove, cookbooks usually just said to use a slow, moderate, or quick oven. And cooking times weren’t always provided, since they weren’t very accurate. But old recipes are still interesting…

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