INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS CURRANT, CHERRY, AND OTHER BERRY WINESThe juice of either of the above fruits can be used alone or in combinations to make a variety of flavors. Express all the juice you can, then take an equal amount of boiling water and pour on the pressed fruit. Let this stand two hours, squeeze out as much as there is of juice, and mix. Then add 4 pounds of brown sugar to each gallon of the mixture….
Baking a cake wasn’t easy for housewives in the 1800s. Boxed cake mixes weren’t available until the early 1930s, so all cakes had to be made from scratch; mixing flour, butter, eggs, sugar, baking powder, and other ingredients by hand. Most ovens were fueled by wood. Oven thermometers weren’t invented yet, so they had to learn to determine how hot to heat their oven and how long to bake a cake. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Before commencing to make…
Although honey was a desired sweetener in the 1800s, it was not common in many households. It cost more than sugar or molasses, and most people couldn’t afford it. Some cookbooks published during this time period included recipes on how to make your own (artificial) honey, which was supposed to taste like the real thing. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Honey is sweeter than white sugar, and molasses is less sweet. When using either of these as a substitute…
INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS “Drinks for young children are best made of milk and water, whey, barley water, pearl barley water, apple water, and toast and water. All stimulating and fermenting liquors are not only unnecessary, but positively injurious. By increasing, to an improper extent, the circulation of the blood, they induce fever, indigestion, inflammation, or convulsions.” PREPARING DRINKS As all these preparations become flat and good for little by long standing, it is better to make only such…
Old cookbooks used the spellings, “catsup”, “ketchup”, and “catchup” in their recipe titles. For consistency, I used “catsup” for this post. The only catsups I’ve tasted were made from tomatoes. The catsup recipes below are quite interesting and made from what was plentiful during the 1800s. People were sure resourceful and wanted to make their foods interesting and flavorful. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ELDERBERRY CATSUP1 quart of elderberries1 quart of vinegar6 anchovies, soaked and pulled to pieces 1/2 teaspoon maceA…
These simple foods, the base of which is usually one of the grains, play an important part in the dietary for the sick, if properly prepared. Gruels are similar to porridge, but much thinner. Gruels may be varied with flavorings of cinnamon, nutmeg, almond, or a little grated lemon-peel, and sugar. Sugar is mentioned with great hesitancy, for a sweet gruel is an abomination, and yet a gruel with a very little sugar has a pleasanter flavor than one without…
There is actually a marshmallow plant that usually grows wild in swamps and marshlands. The marshmallow plant (Althaea officinalis) is not the same as the common mallow plant (Malva sylvestris). Marshmallow has a thick, sticky consistency similar to the okra plant. Made into a candy, doctors often offered it to children to soothe their sore throats. But eventually, marshmallow root sap was replaced by other binding agents such as gum arabic and gelatin. Without the sap, the candy no longer…
Years ago, meats were roasted in an open hearth, in FRONT of the fire, not over the fire like when cooking outdoors. Roasting was a skill learned through practice. Cooks learned to build a clear, brisk, and steady fire. It was quite an accomplishment to cook a joint with a nice crust on the outside, yet tender and juicy inside. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ~ Roasting is done before the fire, and should not be confused with baking, which…