Without electric refrigeration, people had to find various ways to keep meat fresh, especially in summer. Some methods could keep it fresh a few days or perhaps a week, and other methods could preserve it for much longer. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS TO KEEP MEAT FRESH Where persons live a distance from market and have no fresh meat but what they kill, it is important to know how to keep it fresh. Hang up joints of meat if not…
Aspic is a savory stock made from cooking meat slowly, creating a natural gelatin that thickens, then turns to a jelly when it cools. In the past, aspics were used to preserve meats because the gelatin helped keep out air and bacteria. In the late 1800s, Charles Knox created a commercial gelatin, which saved a lot of time. Aspic can be used as a glaze, garnish, or prepared in a mold with foods such as meat, fruits, or vegetables set…
Bacon is pork meat that is salt-cured. Most bacon in the U.S. is pork cut from the side of the pig. It has long layers of fat that run parallel to the rind, and often called streaky bacon. Bacon in the U.K. is usually back bacon, which comes from the loin in the middle of the back of the pig, and is sometimes called Canadian bacon. I love the smell of bacon cooking and the taste is wonderful. I’ve only…
When I was growing up, we mostly ate buttered toast, Raisin Bran and Cheerios cold cereal before we went to school. On weekends, my mother usually 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 it. But I’ll eat anything, even leftovers from lunch or dinner. In the 1800s, people often ate eggs for breakfast if they had them, and most of…
Beef and sheep’s kidneys are often recommended for food on account of their cheapness. Although there are many ways to cook them, they are an acquired taste. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS BROILED KIDNEYS Mix together in a deep plate the following ingredients: one ounce butter, one-half teaspoon pepper, one teaspoon each of mustard and any table sauce or vinegar, and as much cayenne as you can take up on the point of a small penknife blade. Toast half a…
LARD is fat from a pig and used for cooking and flavoring. This fat is called lard whether it’s been tried out (rendered) or not. Trying out is melting fat to skim out the impurities so it is clean to cook with. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: PRESSED LARD Every housekeeper knows how unfit for really nice cooking is the pressed lard sold in stores as the “best and cheapest.” It is close and tough, melts slowly, and is sometimes…
In the 1800s, people raised chickens for food or purchased them whole from the butcher. It took a lot longer to prepare chicken in those days, especially having to cook on wood burning stoves and without oven thermometers. But people still wanted variety in their meals, and looked to cookbooks for recipes. RECIPES BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS SPANISH CHICKEN STEW Clean and joint two spring chickens. Brown in butter and add five sliced onions, a can of tomatoes, four cloves…
Many kinds of meat which are very lean and dry are improved by the addition of some kind of fat. Larding is accomplished by cutting strips of salt pork lengthwise with the rind two inches long and one quarter inch wide, and with aid of the larding needle, drawing these pieces through the surface of the meat, taking a stitch an inch long and a quarter inch deep. The tenderloin or fillet of beef, the thick part of the leg…