A pig’s head can by baked, roasted, boiled, and stewed. It can be served whole or halved, or made into head cheese, souse, or other recipes. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS BAKED PIG’S HEAD Split the pig’s head into halves and sprinkle them with pepper and salt. Lay them with the rind part uppermost upon a bed of sliced onions in a baking dish. Next, bruise eight ounces of stale bread crumb and mix it with four ounces of chopped…
Peanuts are the cheapest nuts to buy, for the reason that they are not really nuts but legumes. Peanuts contain a good deal of oil, and for this reason are recommended for consumptives. The peanut is also recommended as a cure for indigestion. Almost any kind of nut will cure the habitual indigestion induced by “bolting” the food, if only it be chewed until it is liquid. INFORMATION FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS TO BLANCH PEANUTS To blanch Spanish peanuts the usual…
Curry powder recipes and dishes were popular in 1800s cookbooks. Prepared curry powder could be purchased, but making it yourself was considered superior. However, ingredients were often hard to find at the grocer’s or too expensive. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS CURRIES UNDER VARIOUS NAMES Curries can be made from anything. The ingredients indispensable to all curries is a very pungent powder called turmeric, which has a peculiar flavor of its own. In India there is always something acid in…
“All persons that have a garden should have an asparagus-bed; it is valuable as being one of the first vegetables in the spring. Asparagus from hot houses and the South begins to come into the market in March and April. It is then costly, but in May and June is abundant and quite cheap. About the last of June it grows poor, and no matter how low the price, it will be an expensive article to buy as it has…
Tripe is an edible offal (entrails and internal organs). Some grazing animals like cows, buffalo and sheep have multiple stomach chambers to properly digest their food. These stomach linings are called tripe. Most tripe sold in United States grocery stores is from cows. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS TO PREPARE TRIPE Empty the contents of the stomach of a fat beef. Scrape and wash the tripe thoroughly. Put it in cold water and salt and soak for ten days. Don’t…
I often use onions in tuna, egg, and chicken salad, to flavor soups and meats, and I especially like fried potatoes and onions. But I’ve never made stuffed onions, onion soup, sauces, or any of the other recipes listed below. They all sound delicious. If you ever get a chance to buy Vidalia onions, grown in the state of Georgia, be sure to give them a try. They are a sweet tasting onion. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: ONIONS FOR…
In the 19th century (1800s), lemons were being planted commercially in Florida and California. Lemons have to be picked by hand and can’t be picked when wet. They are picked when the peel is green, but as they’re cured, the peel turns yellow, becomes thinner, and the pulp gets juicier. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS GRATING LEMONS The object of using grated rind of lemon is to obtain the fragrance and flavor, which differ very greatly from any extracts, however…
In these recipes from 1800s cookbooks, I was surprised to read oats had to cook from two to four hours! The recipes caution against cooking oats too quickly. They also don’t say to soak the oats overnight, which I found surprising. Groats take the longest to cook. Rolled Oats are groats that have been steamed and flattened. There are also steel-cut oats, ground oats (old-fashioned, quick-cooking oats, and instant oats), each one being processed more. This article on the Food Revolution…