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….
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…