A sponge or yeast starter is similar to sourdough, except a sponge is make from all fresh ingredients. A sponge is allowed to ferment and increase in volume before it is added to bread dough. In the 1800s, cooks used wood burning stoves, which had no thermometers. So not only did they have to learn how to cook various foods, they also had to learn to gauge the oven’s heat temperature. Baking was definitely an important skill! INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED…
It’s often hard to give cooked meat a good flavor, especially if it’s lean. Although it’s easy to open a packet or jar of gravy or other prepared sauces, I don’t like eating preservatives and artificial ingredients. When I make my own sauce, I know what ingredients are going into it. And if you don’t eat much meat, you might experiment and try some of these sauces on vegetables. RECIPES BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS SAUCESAll sauces should be sent to…
I have a variety of spices in my kitchen but seldom use more than salt and pepper. When I do decide to use spices, onion, garlic or other flavorings, I tend to add too much, overpowering the dish rather than enhancing it. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS When our sense of taste is not benumbed or destroyed by harmful accompaniments, we are in a condition to keenly enjoy the thousands of fine, delicate flavors that can accompany wholesome foods. Among…
During the 1800s, oranges were a seasonal crop and not available year-round. When I was young, we only had oranges around Thanksgiving and Christmas, although we had plenty of other fruit like apples, watermelon, cantalope, plums, etc in the summer. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Oranges may be kept fresh for weeks by placing them in a vessel of cold water in a very cool cellar or ice house. Change the water every day. The usual method employed by growers…
Rhubarb has a sharp, tart taste, but only the stalks are edible; the leaves are poisonous. Rhubarb is usually considered a vegetable, but in 1947, a New York court in the United States ruled that it counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties. (Tariffs were higher for vegetables than fruits). RECIPES BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS STEWED RHUBARBWhen rhubarb first comes into season it is small, tender and of a bright red color. When stewed, it makes…
Cookbooks in the 1800s were vague on how to heat a brick oven (and even a wood burning stove). People had to know what type of wood and what size pieces to use to make the heat needed for cooking various foods. There were no cooking thermometers in those days, so people had to learn from experience, or if they were lucky, learn from their their mother or grandmother. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS TO BAKE IN A BRICK OVENIf…
Back in the 1800s, codfish was plentiful along the east coast in the U.S. and cookbooks often had recipes for fish balls. Fish balls are no longer popular here, but quite common in Scandinavia, China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS COMMON FISH BALLS Pare six medium-sized potatoes and put in boiling water. Boil half an hour. Drain off all the water, turn the potatoes into a tray with one pint of finely-chopped cod fish, and…
Fudge is expensive when you buy it in candy stores, but it’s easy to make. The hard part is beating the mixture because it gets so thick. Electric mixers make the job easy for people today, but years ago, fudge was mixed by hand. Candy thermometers became available to household cooks in the early 1900s, but they were expensive. Prior to that, people determined the temperature of their candy mixtures by dropping a bit of the syrup into cold water….