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Category: Desserts

homemade dumplings with strawberries
Making Boiled Fruit Dumplings

Making Boiled Fruit Dumplings

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I usually think of dumplings as an addition to soup, but fruit dumplings make a delicious dessert. Although dumplings can be baked (usually apple dumplings), these recipes are for boiled dumplings. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ORANGE DUMPLINGSMix two cups prepared flour, two eggs, two teaspoons butter, one tablespoon sugar and one cup water into a thick batter. Pare three nice oranges and cut them into small pieces. Remove the pits and all the skin, so that there is…

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Molasses has a robust taste.
Making Sweet Treats With Molasses

Making Sweet Treats With Molasses

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Molasses is a thick, sticky liquid sweetener made from refining sugarcane or sometimes sugar beets. I’ve always loved the taste of molasses.  When I was a child, my mother would sometimes let me eat a spoonful of it from a jar (we didn’t get many sweets). Of course, I like it in baked beans and molasses cookies, too. There are different types of molasses depending on the amount of time it’s refined. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: MOLASSES CANDY Boil…

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Rhubarb is an early spring fruit.
Ways to Cook Fresh Rhubarb

Ways to Cook Fresh Rhubarb

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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 COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS STEWED RHUBARBWhen rhubarb first comes into season it is small, tender and of a bright red color. When stewed, it…

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squares of homemade fudge
Making Homemade Fudge

Making Homemade Fudge

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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….

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a homeade cake without icing
Vintage Cake Recipes

Vintage Cake Recipes

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Cake recipes in 1800s cookbooks provided ingredients and amounts, but no real cooking instructions. Stoves were fueled with wood and cooks had to determine which types of wood would provide the heat they needed. They basically had to learn by trial and error – even oven thermometers were not invented yet. Some recipes did offer advice such as cooking in a slow, moderate, or hot oven, but that’s certainly not the detailed advice given in today’s cookbooks. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED…

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Making Cheesecake the Old-Fashioned Way

Making Cheesecake the Old-Fashioned Way

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Cheesecake is made with a soft cheese and usually with only a bottom crust. It contains no yeast, so the flavor is more like a dessert, similar to a custard. The earliest cheesecakes were made from curd or by using rennet to make milk sour. In 1872, modern commercial cream cheese was developed by William Lawrence in New York. This cream cheese was heavier and creamier than most homemade versions. Later, other dairymen created their own versions.  Cheesecakes were baked…

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dried fruit close up
Using Dried Fruits for Cooking

Using Dried Fruits for Cooking

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In the 1800s, most fruits were only eaten while in season unless they were canned or dried. Fresh bananas and oranges were often shipped long distances, but not other fruits. 1800s cookbooks never mention eating dried fruit as a snack, like we do today. Instead, dried fruit was mostly used to flavor bread or desserts.  INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS VARIETIES OF DRIED FRUITS There are a number of fruits that are dried before they are put on the…

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Farina Recipes for Breakfast or Dessert

Farina Recipes for Breakfast or Dessert

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Farina is made from the germ and endosperm of hard wheat. It’s finely ground and sifted to become similar in texture to flour. Usually cooked as a hot cereal, it has a bland taste, although other ingredients are often added for flavor. Farina can also be used to make flummeries, puddings, and other dishes. Three popular brands of farina in the U.S. are Cream of Wheat, Malt-O-Meal, and Farina Mills. Click to read an interesting article on “What is Farina?” INFORMATION…

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