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…
People who lived during the 1800s ate fresh fruit in season, but they needed ways to preserve fruit for other times. Apricots, nectarines and large plums were also preserved in the same ways as peaches. There are two types of peaches; freestone and clingstone and several varieties within each type. Freestone peaches are easy to eat out of hand, since the pit (stone) easily pulls away from the fruit once you bite or cut into the peach. The flesh of…
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…
Quinces resemble a pear, and are yellow when ripe, but the exterior is bumpy. They have a sour, astringent taste unless completely ripened, so they’re usually cooked. This fruit bruises quickly and very rapidly turns to a dark brown. The quince tree was brought to the American colonies by English settlers. During the 18th century, there was usually a quince at the lower corner of the vegetable garden [reference]. Today, there aren’t many commercial quince tree orchards in the U.S….
When I was in grade school in the 1960s, we visited our grandparents every summer and they grew gooseberries. We picked and ate green gooseberries right off the bushes. They were certainly sour, but that was the attraction. We had contests to see how many we could eat before having to spit them out. We never did get to see them as red berries. They must have ripened in late summer or early fall after we went back home. I…
FROM AN 1800s COOKBOOK: “The unpopularity of prunes is unfortunate. This may be because prunes were formerly one of the cheapest fruits or because they are cooked and served in the same way too often.
Desirable results can often be secured by combining prunes and other dried fruits with tart fruits such as apricots, apples, and rhubarb.”
Bananas weren’t known in the United States until Captain Lorenzo Baker introduced them in 1870. They were expensive and only available to those living near port cities on the east coast. It took many years for them to become available and affordable to the average household. RECIPES BELOW ARE FROM MRS. WILSON’S COOK BOOK, 1920 BAKED BANANASThe simplest way to bake bananas is in the skins. It takes just twenty minutes in a moderate oven.* To eat, strip a piece of skin…
Raspberries are a seasonal fruit and quite fragile. They won’t ripen after picking, so they can’t be stored fresh for very long. Back in the 1800s, with no electricity, berries had to be eaten quickly, bottled as drinks, or preserved as jelly. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS RASPBERRY ACID Dissolve five ounces of tartaric acid* in two quarts of water. Pour it on twelve pounds of red raspberries in a large bowl. Let it stand twenty-four hours and strain it…