Blog - Vintage Recipes and Cookery

The Many Ways to Use Anchovies in Recipes

Angela Johnson Comments 7 comments

Anchovies is a name given to approximately 140 species of small “forage fish.” This means they are foraged and eaten by larger fish, sea birds, and marine mammals. Today, anchovies are mostly canned whole, bones and all. When cooked, they will almost completely dissolve, leaving only the flavor. I never realized the many ways you can use anchovies until I began reading through 1800s cookbooks. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS BUYING ANCHOVIES These delicate fish are preserved in…

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Fresh Homemade Egg Nog Recipes

Angela Johnson Comments 6 comments

Eggnog (also known as milk or egg milk punch) was originally made of milk or cream, sugar, raw eggs, some type of alcohol, and various spices. Today you can buy many types of commercially prepared eggnogs including those that use almond, rice, or coconut milk. NOTE: Many of the recipes spelled Egg Nogg with two ‘gs’ at the end. I rather like it as it matches the two ‘gs’ in the word “egg.” INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: EGG-NOGG Beat…

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Nourishing Drinks for Invalids and Convalescents

Angela Johnson Comments 3 comments

In the 1800s, people often lived far from a doctor or couldn’t afford to pay one. So they treated illnesses by following advice from neighbors and family members, or by reading cookbooks or medical books. If a patient didn’t feel like eating, it was important to offer a variety of nourishing drinks. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: The preparation of food and drink for the sick and convalescent person is even more important than the preparation for the strong…

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Best Ways to Prepare Vegetables for Cooking

Angela Johnson Comments 0 Comment

In the 1800s, vegetables were mostly picked from gardens, bought fresh from the market, or stored in cellars for future use. People couldn’t afford to waste food, so advice on preparing and cooking vegetables was certainly appreciated. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS GREEN VEGETABLES – Wash green vegetables first in warm water to remove insects. Then rinse in cold water. Or put a pinch of borax in the water. It will bring any live insect to the surface at once….

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English style Christmas Plum Pudding dessert.

How to Make Christmas Plum Pudding

Angela Johnson Comments 1 comment

Christmas pudding is sometimes known as plum pudding, although recipes don’t call for plums. In pre-Victorian times, raisins were called plums, and then later other dried fruits. Making these a Christmas pudding was a long process, using many ingredients. They were usually put into a pudding cloth or mold and boiled a long time, although sometimes they were baked. A sauce was usually poured over the pudding before serving. Christmas puddings with high alcohol content were often aged for weeks…

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How to Make Mincemeat For Pies

Angela Johnson Comments 21 comments

My mother only made mincemeat pies at Thanksgiving, when we had lots of relatives visiting. She used mincemeat from a jar and filled her own pie crust. Originally, mincemeat was made with meat and included spices, dried fruit, and spirits (alcohol). That way, mincemeat could be preserved for many months. I don’t think many mincemeat pies you buy at the store today contain meat. You can click on this link if you’d like to read the post on making mincemeat…

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Mock Mincemeat Recipes – Without Meat

Angela Johnson Comments 0 Comment

Traditional mincemeat contained meat, fresh fruit (mostly apples), dried fruits such as raisins and currents, spices, and alcohol, which helped preserve it. Mock mincemeat has no meat, but some of the recipes include suet, which is beef or sheep fat. If you are a vegetarian, perhaps you could substitute a vegetable fat if you wanted to try one of these recipes. Click on this link if you’d like to read the post on making traditional mincemeat. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s…

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Turtle Was a Popular Dish in the 1800s

Angela Johnson Comments 2 comments

Many cookbooks from the 1800s included recipes for cooking turtle; snapping turtle, box turtle, sea turtle, and diamondback terrapin. Today, many species of turtles are endangered and it’s illegal to capture or kill them. In the U.S., you can hunt diamondback terrapins and snapping turtles, but only in season and you must have a hunting license. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: TURTLE SOUP Kill the turtle at daylight in summer, the night before in winter, and hang it up to bleed….

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