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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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Cooking with Suet (Tallow)

Cooking with Suet (Tallow)

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Suet or the fat from around the kidneys and loin of beef and mutton. It has a high smoke point, and usually used for making pies and pastries. Suet is usually rendered to remove the impurities from the fat. It’s then called tallow, but the 1800s cookbooks I’ve gone through just call it suet. Additionally, suet can be used to make soap and candles, as well as seed cakes to feed wild birds. SUETChoose the firmest part as soon as…

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bowl of soup with dumplings
A Variety of Savory Dumpling Recipes

A Variety of Savory Dumpling Recipes

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Most of the dumpling recipes from 1800s cookbooks are for rounded dumplings. Some recipes say to wrap the dumplings in cloth, like when boiling a pudding. Others say to roll the dumplings in a ball or drop the dumpling mixture from a spoon into hot liquid. The only dumplings I’ve ever eaten were ones rolled out flat and cut into small rectangular strips before being dropped into a soup.   INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: FINE SUET DUMPLINGS Grate the…

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Roast turkey on platter
Ways to Cook Turkey, Make Gravy and Dressing

Ways to Cook Turkey, Make Gravy and Dressing

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When people went to the market to buy poultry in the 1800s, it wasn’t usually already plucked and cleaned. And cooking in a wood burning stove was a challenge. You had to know how long and how hot your wood or coal would burn. Cooking a meal was certainly a challenge! FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: ROAST TURKEY Select a young turkey. Remove all the feathers carefully, singe it over a burning newspaper on the top of the stove, then draw* it…

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whole raw chicken on tabletop
How to Select Fresh Poultry at the Market

How to Select Fresh Poultry at the Market

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In the 1800s, people who didn’t raise their own poultry usually bought their meat from a butcher shop. There was no electric refrigeration and no government inspections, so they bought from a reputable butcher or learned to determine a fowl’s freshness themselves. Poultry was usually sold as a whole bird. 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…

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