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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.
Gruel Recipes – Food For The Sick 

Gruel Recipes – Food For The Sick 

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Gruel is served as an easily digestible meal, especially for invalids or children. While similar to porridge, gruel is thinner and more liquid, sometimes being drunk rather than eaten with a spoon.  The nutritional value of gruel depends on the grain used. They contain carbohydrates and some essential nutrients but are not a good source of protein or fat. In history, gruel was commonly served in institutions like workhouses, hospitals, and orphanages. But gruel recipes in 1800s cookbooks depict them as…

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Homemade Curry Powder and Curry Recipes

Homemade Curry Powder and Curry Recipes

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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…

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canned pickled fruit
How to Pickle Fresh Fruit

How to Pickle Fresh Fruit

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Home canning wasn’t popular until the Mason jar was invented in 1858. It had a screw-on threaded rim and metal lid with a rubber seal. Now, rather than relying on the traditional method of pickling or salting food and storing it in large stone crocks, food could be canned and in smaller quantities. PLEASE NOTE: if any of the recipes below sound interesting, use a modern cookbook for canning directions. The instructions below are a bit vague and may not…

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A bowl of clam chowder
Making Seafood Soups and Chowders

Making Seafood Soups and Chowders

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Seafood was common and cheap on the East Coast during the early part of the 1800s. But overharvesting and overfishing made them scarcer and expensive. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS OYSTER BOUILLONBring to the boil in their own liquor a quart of oysters. Skim out the oysters, chop fine, and return to the liquor. Add a quart of water, a teaspoon of celery seed, and a tablespoon of butter. Simmer for half an hour, strain through cheese-cloth, season with salt…

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homemade dumplings with strawberries
Making Boiled Fruit Dumplings

Making Boiled Fruit Dumplings

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I usually think of dumplings as an addition to soup, but fruit dumplings make a delicious dessert. Although dumplings can be baked (usually apple dumplings), these recipes are for boiled dumplings. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ORANGE DUMPLINGSMix two cups prepared flour, two eggs, two teaspoons butter, one tablespoon sugar and one cup water into a thick batter. Pare three nice oranges and cut them into small pieces. Remove the pits and all the skin, so that there is nothing…

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making chicken soup stock
The Value of Soup and its Place in the Meal

The Value of Soup and its Place in the Meal

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Making homemade soup isn’t hard today with the convenience of a Crock Pot, Instant Pot, or other modern cooking device. But there was no electricity in homes during the 1800s, so it was a little more complicated. Once you accomplished the skill of knowing how to regulate the heat in your wood-burning stove, you could use a huge pot to simmer soup for hours, letting the ingredients all meld together for a wonderful appetizer or first course. INFORMATION BELOW FROM…

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Red apple, pear, grapes on wooden table
Keeping Fruit Fresh Through the Winter

Keeping Fruit Fresh Through the Winter

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Home refrigerators that held a block of ice were available in the 1800s, but they were small and didn’t hold much food. Electric refrigerators were introduced around 1913, but were quite expensive and only the rich owned one. They became a little more common in the 1920s, with more being sold in the 1930s, but even then, not everyone had one. My grandparents lived on a small farm in Illinois and didn’t even get electricity until 1950. So until electric…

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Cottolene – First Vegetable Shortening Alternative to Lard

Cottolene – First Vegetable Shortening Alternative to Lard

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Cottolene was the first mass-produced alternative to lard, made with cottonseed oil and beef suet. It was launched in 1868 by the N.K. Fairbank Company and advertised as a vegetable shortening more pure and wholesome than lard.  Although cotton isn’t a vegetable, the FDA defines any oil sourced from plants—regardless of whether it comes from a fruit, nut, seed, or vegetable as a “vegetable oil.” Cottolene looked like lard and came packaged in pails, just like lard. It was aggressively promoted…

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