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A variety of raw vegetables
Best Ways to Prepare Vegetables for Cooking

Best Ways to Prepare Vegetables for Cooking

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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

How to Make Christmas Plum Pudding

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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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Sweet Homemade Mincemeat Pie
How to Make Mincemeat For Pies

How to Make Mincemeat For Pies

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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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homemade Christmas mincemeat
Mock Mincemeat Recipes – Without Meat

Mock Mincemeat Recipes – Without Meat

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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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Brennan's turtle soup
Turtle Was a Popular Dish in the 1800s

Turtle Was a Popular Dish in the 1800s

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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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Fish stew in bowl.
Making Fish Soup and Chowder

Making Fish Soup and Chowder

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INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS FISH. REMARKSIn choosing fresh fish, select only those that are thick and firm, with bright scales and stiff fins. The gills should be a very lively red and the eyes full and prominent. In the summer, as soon as they are brought home, clean them and put them in ice till you are ready to cook them. Even then, do not attempt to keep a fresh fish till next day. Mackerel cannot be cooked too…

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Different types of sugar on a wooden background
About Sugars and Syrups

About Sugars and Syrups

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Sugar cane was first planted in the United States in Louisiana in 1751. But sugar beets weren’t planted until 1836, near Philadelphia. (source) Until the sugar industry in the U.S. became established, sugar had to be imported and was scarce and expensive. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Granulated sugar is made either from the sugar cane or sugar beet. The juice is pressed or soaked out of these plants, then purified, refined, and crystallized.  ~ Powdered sugar is prepared by…

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fried chicken giblets
How to Cook Chicken (Poultry) Giblets

How to Cook Chicken (Poultry) Giblets

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INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS The giblets of poultry consist of the head, neck, wings, feet, gizzard, heart, and liver. As meat is the most costly and extravagant of all articles of food, it behooves the housewife to save all left-overs and work them over into other dishes. They make good soup, fricassees, pies, and various entrées, or side dishes.  The so-called inferior pieces—not inferior because they contain less nourishment, but inferior because the demand for such meat is less—should…

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