Blog - Vintage Recipes and Cookery

How to Preserve Cheese Without Refrigeration

Angela Johnson Comments 0 Comment

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…

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How to Make Homemade Macaroons

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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…

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Vintage Vegetable Cream Soup Recipes

Angela Johnson Comments 1 comment

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

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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

Angela Johnson Comments 2 comments

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

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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

Angela Johnson Comments 6 comments

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

Angela Johnson Comments 2 comments

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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