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Category: Meat

How to Make Mincemeat For Pies

How to Make Mincemeat For Pies

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…

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How to Cook Chicken (Poultry) Giblets

How to Cook Chicken (Poultry) Giblets

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS The giblets of poultry consist of the head, neck, wings, feet, gizzard, heart, and liver. As meat is the most costly and extravagant of all articles of food, it behooves the housewife to save all left-overs and work them over into other dishes. They make good soup, fricassees, pies, and various entrées, or side dishes.  The so-called inferior pieces—not inferior because they contain less nourishment, but inferior because the demand for such meat is less—should…

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Cooking with Suet (Tallow)

Cooking with Suet (Tallow)

Suet or the fat from around the kidneys and loin of beef and mutton. It has a high smoke point, and usually used for making pies and pastries. Suet is usually rendered to remove the impurities from the fat. It’s then called tallow, but the 1800s cookbooks I’ve gone through just call it suet. Additionally, suet can be used to make soap and candles, as well as seed cakes to feed wild birds. SUETChoose the firmest part as soon as…

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Ways to Cook Turkey, Make Gravy and Dressing

Ways to Cook Turkey, Make Gravy and Dressing

When people went to the market to buy poultry in the 1800s, it wasn’t usually already plucked and cleaned. And cooking in a wood burning stove was a challenge. You had to know how long and how hot your wood or coal would burn. Cooking a meal was certainly a challenge! FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: ROAST TURKEY Select a young turkey. Remove all the feathers carefully, singe it over a burning newspaper on the top of the stove, then draw* it…

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How to Select Fresh Poultry at the Market

How to Select Fresh Poultry at the Market

In the 1800s, people who didn’t raise their own poultry usually bought their meat from a butcher shop. There was no electric refrigeration and no government inspections, so they bought from a reputable butcher or learned to determine a fowl’s freshness themselves. Poultry was usually sold as a whole bird. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS It is necessary to know the difference between fowls and birds. A fowl always leads its young ones to the meat, and a bird carries…

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How to Make, Preserve, and Cook Sausage

How to Make, Preserve, and Cook Sausage

In the 1800s, electric refrigeration was not yet available. People who raised pork often made their own sausage, which could be preserved for several months in a smokehouse or cellar. I like sausage, especially if highly seasoned, and I can often find homemade sausage at Farmers’ Markets.  INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: TO MAKE SAUSAGES A common fault is that the meat is not chopped enough. It should be chopped very fine. When ready for the seasoning, put in water…

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Preserve Meat by Pickling with Salt

Preserve Meat by Pickling with Salt

Salting is the process of preserving food with dry edible salt.  It is related to pickling in general and more specifically to brining (salty water) and is one form of curing. It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food. (Source: Wikipedia) NOTE: While looking online at modern methods of preserving with salt, most of the information says to use canning salt, also called kosher salt, and not to use iodized salt. In 1800s cookbooks, pickling is usually the…

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Tasty Sauces for Chicken and Other Poultry

Tasty Sauces for Chicken and Other Poultry

Are you looking for different ways to cook chicken and other poultry?  You might want to try these recipes for poultry sauces from various cookbooks published in the 1800s. The word “poultry” is used for domestic fowls including chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks. “Fowl” is often used the same as poultry but may include game birds. NOTE: Poultry and Fowls are used interchangeably in older recipes. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS CHICKEN SAUCE An anchovy or two boned and chopped,…

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