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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.
Vintage Vegetable Cream Soup Recipes

Vintage Vegetable Cream Soup Recipes

Cream soups are a great way to use fresh vegetables and incorporate milk and cream into a meal. no matter what the season. Even though these recipes are from 1800s cookbooks, you should be able to recreate them today. The cream of lettuce and cream of lima bean soups sound interesting to me. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: CREAM OF LETTUCETake two heads of nice, fresh lettuce, wash and drain and chop fine with half a small white onion. Put…

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A Variety of Stuffing Recipes for Poultry

A Variety of Stuffing Recipes for Poultry

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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Delicious Cream Desserts

Delicious Cream Desserts

When I was growing up, my mother made puddings and other desserts from box mixes. In the 1800s, fresh cream and milk was used and had to be mixed by hand, or later in the century, with a rotary beater. Although it would have taken longer to prepare, the ingredients and tastes of these desserts are certainly superior. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS WHIPPED CREAMTo the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth, add a pint of thick…

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Foods For Young Children

Foods For Young Children

Parents living in the 1800s fed their children for nourishment only. They would have been appalled to see all the sugary and processed foods children eat today. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS:Children, in general, have very excellent appetites, and a sufficiency of nourishing food is absolutely necessary—not merely to renew the waste of their systems, but also to supply materials for their daily growth. Three, or perhaps four, light meals a day, will be found a good allowance during childhood….

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How to Make Butter

How to Make Butter

When I was growing up, our family only used margarine and I continued to use it throughout adulthood until last year.  Now I only buy butter (from grass-fed cows). To make butter, you have to churn (shake up) cream or whole milk. In the past, people used milk churns to separate out the butter. Today you can make butter with electric mixers or food processors. I’ve never made my own butter, but I recently found where I can buy raw milk. You…

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Interesting Ways to Cook Turnips

Interesting Ways to Cook Turnips

Turnips were brought to American colonies by early European settlers and grow best in cool climates. Spring varieties don’t keep very long, but winter varieties can be stored in a cool place for a couple of months. So early Americans were able to enjoy turnips and other root vegetables during the cold winter months. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Turnips have a strong flavor, which is disliked by many persons and disagrees with some. However, much of this can be dissipated…

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How to Make Homemade Mustards

How to Make Homemade Mustards

Mustard was a useful plant in the 1800s; the leaves, seeds and flowers are all edible. Although some grocers sold condiments, especially in the latter part of the century, it was easier and cheaper to make your own. Today mustard seeds are sold whole, ground, or bruised, and most are white, brown or black.  INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS MUSTARDAs all these made mustards contain spices or herbs which lose much of their aroma by exposure to the air, they…

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A Variety of Parsnip Recipes

A Variety of Parsnip Recipes

Parsnips have a peculiar, sweetish flavor that is objectionable to some persons. Those who are fond of this flavor find that parsnips afford an excellent opportunity to give variety to the diet. Parsnips can be used during the summer when they are immature, but are usually allowed to mature so that they may be stored and used as a winter vegetable. The parsnip is much sweeter and richer in flavor when left in the ground until spring. INFORMATION BELOW FROM…

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