Food in the 1800s was too precious to waste. When you consider the time and effort of making homemade bread, you can understand why cooks made use of bread that went stale. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS — Cut stale bread into small pieces, the size of dice. Brown in a hot oven (about 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit) and serve with soup instead of serving crackers. — Small pieces of bread that cannot be used otherwise should be spread over a…
Although people in the 1800s did hunt wild geese, a Christmas or holiday goose was more often a barnyard bird raised on farms. Wild geese are leaner, more muscular, and often older birds than domestic ones. Therefore, they need to be cooked a little differently. Recipes in cookbooks, unless specifically a cookbook for game, are for cooking geese raised on farmland. In the mid to late 1800s, though, turkey began overtaking goose as the meat for winter holidays. It was…
Gruel is served as an easily digestible meal, especially for invalids or children. While similar to porridge, gruel is thinner and more liquid, sometimes being drunk rather than eaten with a spoon. The nutritional value of gruel depends on the grain used. They contain carbohydrates and some essential nutrients but are not a good source of protein or fat. In history, gruel was commonly served in institutions like workhouses, hospitals, and orphanages. But gruel recipes in 1800s cookbooks depict them as…
Curry powder recipes and dishes were popular in 1800s cookbooks. Prepared curry powder could be purchased, but making it yourself was considered superior. However, ingredients were often hard to find at the grocer’s or too expensive. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS CURRIES UNDER VARIOUS NAMES Curries can be made from anything. The ingredients indispensable to all curries is a very pungent powder called turmeric, which has a peculiar flavor of its own. In India there is always something acid in…
Home canning wasn’t popular until the Mason jar was invented in 1858. It had a screw-on threaded rim and metal lid with a rubber seal. Now, rather than relying on the traditional method of pickling or salting food and storing it in large stone crocks, food could be canned and in smaller quantities. PLEASE NOTE: if any of the recipes below sound interesting, use a modern cookbook for canning directions. The instructions below are a bit vague and may not…
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…
Cottolene was the first mass-produced alternative to lard, made with cottonseed oil and beef suet. It was launched in 1868 by the N.K. Fairbank Company and advertised as a vegetable shortening more pure and wholesome than lard. Although cotton isn’t a vegetable, the FDA defines any oil sourced from plants—regardless of whether it comes from a fruit, nut, seed, or vegetable as a “vegetable oil.” Cottolene looked like lard and came packaged in pails, just like lard. It was aggressively promoted…
When I was young, the only crackers my mother bought were saltines and occasionall graham crackers (for a treat). Today there is usually a whole aisle in stores devoted entirely to crackers. During most of the 1800s, people made their own crackers. They may have flavored them, but recipes in cookbooks didn’t mention it. In the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900s, crackers were sold in country stores. They were shipped in barrels to prevent them from breaking….