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bowls of various flours used in bread making
Types of Meals and Flours Used for Baking

Types of Meals and Flours Used for Baking

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Bread was served at practically every meal. Although people could buy bread at grocers or bakeries, it was expensive. So especially for households with large families, knowing how to make good bread was a necessity. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: DIRECTIONS RESPECTING BREADThere is no one thing upon which health and comfort in a family so much depend as bread. With good bread the coarsest fare is tolerable; without it, the most luxurious table is not comfortable. There is…

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Pancakes with honey
Hearty Family Breakfasts For Winter

Hearty Family Breakfasts For Winter

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When I was growing up, we mostly ate buttered toast, or Raisin Bran and Cheerios cold cereal before we went to school.  On weekends, my mother cooked eggs, French toast, or pancakes. Now, as an adult, I like bacon or sausage with eggs, adding cheese, chopped green onion and mushrooms if I have them. But I’ll eat anything, even leftovers from lunch or dinner. In the 1800s, people ate eggs for breakfast if they had them, and most of the…

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a plate of fried potatoes
Hearty Family Breakfasts for Autumn

Hearty Family Breakfasts for Autumn

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People in the 1800s usually ate a hearty breakfast because they worked hard physically. They didn’t waste any food, either. Food left over from the night before was often used for breakfast. Note that none of these recipes use eggs as the main dish. Chickens lay less eggs in autumn and winter, so eggs were scarcer during those times. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS AUTUMN BREAKFASTS DURING the early part of the autumn, and indeed until late in the…

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vegetarian sandwiches
Vegetable Sandwich Recipes

Vegetable Sandwich Recipes

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In the 1800s, sandwiches were not a common item for meals. Bread was usually homemade and all bread, even from bakeries, had to be sliced. Pre-sliced bread wasn’t available until 1928. The bread was almost always buttered prior to adding the fillings in order to keep the ingredients from soaking into the bread and making it soggy. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Certain vegetables may be used with bread and butter to make very appetizing sandwiches. The vegetables most…

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Bread yeast fermenting
Adding a Sponge to Dough to Make Bread

Adding a Sponge to Dough to Make Bread

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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…

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heating wood to get ready to bake
To Bake Bread in a Brick Oven

To Bake Bread in a Brick Oven

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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…

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Fresh and dry yeast, yeast starter
Making Fresh Home-Made Yeast for Bread

Making Fresh Home-Made Yeast for Bread

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Until the mid-1800s, people made their own yeasts to use in baking bread. They made fresh yeast from hops, potatoes, pumpkin, and more. In 1868, Charles and Max Fleischmann created a compressed yeast cake and began selling it commercially.  This was certainly easier than making your own! INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ON YEASTGood yeast is indispensable to good bread. Every housekeeper should make sure by her own personal attention, that the yeast is properly made and the jar well…

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sandwich made from homemade bread
Unusual Sandwiches from the 1800s

Unusual Sandwiches from the 1800s

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I don’t make sandwiches often, but they’re not anything like these from 1800s cookbooks. I was especially intrigued by the baked bean sandwich recipe and the one for an anchovy sandwich. In the 1800s, bread was mostly homemade and had to be sliced evenly for sandwiches, as the first automatically sliced loaves of bread weren’t produced until 1928. Also, plastic wrap and aluminum foil weren’t invented yet, so most sandwiches were eaten soon after they were made. INFORMATION BELOW FROM…

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