Browsed by
Author: Angela Johnson

I’ve been interested in cooking since I was a teenager. Growing up in a small town in Illinois, I ate many home-cooked meals and tried out recipes (mostly cookies). Wherever I live or travel, I check out grocery stores for unusual foods, eat at local restaurants, and buy regional cookbooks. I’m also fascinated with learning how people in the past lived, and how they obtained food and prepared it.
Using Coconuts for Cooking

Using Coconuts for Cooking

Coconuts were used to produce a variety of interesting dishes. But you couldn’t buy coconut already shredded in grocery stores. You bought the whole coconut, cracked it, and shredded it yourself.

Corn Recipes: Pudding, Dumplings, Relish, Porridge, and more.

Corn Recipes: Pudding, Dumplings, Relish, Porridge, and more.

The seeds of the maize plant, or Indian corn, are eaten as a vegetable when they are immature. They grow on a woody cob, and when they are green, they are soft and milky. But when they become ripe, they are hard and are then ground as grain. 

When the contents of the kernels is still in the liquid form, the corn is at the milk stage, and generally considered to be too young for table use.

On the other hand, when the liquid in the kernels has become thickened, the corn, which is then at the dough stage, too old for use as a vegetable.

To be ideal for culinary purposes, it should be just between the milk and dough stages.
On the other hand, when the liquid in the kernels has become thickened, the corn, which is then at the dough stage, is thought to be too old for use as a vegetable.
To be ideal for culinary purposes, it should be just between the milk and dough stages. Then, if it is in good condition, a most satisfactory vegetable is the result.

Homemade Rice Pudding Recipes

Homemade Rice Pudding Recipes

Rice was a staple in many households and rice pudding was a popular dish. With many variations, it could be a breakfast dish or a dessert. There was no instant rice back in the 1800s, so rice took longer to prepare and cook.

How to Make Homemade Custards

How to Make Homemade Custards

Since eggs have the property of stiffening when heated, they are often used for thickening liquids, especially milk. Milk thickened with eggs is called custard. All milk-and-egg mixtures should be cooked below the boiling temperature of water. They should never be cooked directly over the fire, but over hot water or in a double boiler.  INFORMATION FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ABOUT CUSTARDSIf a custard is properly cooked, the egg is in a soft-cooked condition. It exists in a jelly-like mass throughout…

Read More Read More

A Variety of Beef Tongue Recipes

A Variety of Beef Tongue Recipes

Beef tongues used to be a popular dish, but I’ve never seen recipes for them in modern cookbooks. My mother said she ate tongue when she was a child, back in the 1940s, but she never cooked them when I was growing up.  I’ve seen tongue for sale in grocery store meat departments, but haven’t had any desire to learn to cook it. Tongues are sold as beef or ox tongues, but they’re both the same. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s…

Read More Read More

A Variety of Cooked Carrot Recipes

A Variety of Cooked Carrot Recipes

The selection of carrots is a simple matter because they keep well and are not likely to be found in a spoiled condition in the market. When small, summer carrots are purchased, they should be fresh and have their tops on. Winter carrots should be as nearly uniform in size as possible and should not be extremely large. Those which are too large in circumference are likely to have a hollow in the center. Carrots of any kind should be without…

Read More Read More

How to Preserve Cheese Without Refrigeration

How to Preserve Cheese Without Refrigeration

Electrical refrigeration wasn’t available in homes in the U. S. until around the 1920s. Before then, people had to preserve cheese by other means. A large round or block of cheese was often purchased to store and use throughout the winter. Cheese was too expensive to allow to mold or dry out. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS CARE OF CHEESEThe very strong odor and flavor that characterize cheese make it necessary to prevent it from coming in contact with other…

Read More Read More

How to Make Homemade Macaroons

How to Make Homemade Macaroons

In the 1800s, stoves were heated with wood, so cooking in the oven was a challenge. Cooks had to learn what type wood would provide the heat they needed and how long it would burn. Cookbooks provided guidelines, but cooking skills were gained through experience. Oven thermometers had not been invented yet, so recipes for baking had no exact temperatures or cooking times. Temperatures were sometimes referred to as slow,  moderate, or quick/hot. One way to test your oven’s heat was…

Read More Read More