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basket of vegetables
Old-Fashioned Cooking Hints and Advice

Old-Fashioned Cooking Hints and Advice

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Most old cookbooks also included cooking and household advice. Here are some hints from cookbooks published in the 1800s. Please note that the advice about preserving meat and milk is not safe according to today’s food safety standards. But these were the days before electricity and refrigeration were available in homes. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Lemons will keep fresher and better in water than any other way. Put them in a crock and cover them with water. They will…

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A Bowl of Hominy
How to Make and Cook Hominy

How to Make and Cook Hominy

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Hominy is made from dried corn (maize), soaking the corn kernels in a weak solution of lye. Then it can be cooked or dried for later use. Ground hominy is known as masa or grits, and it can also be ground more finely to make flour. Today’s canned hominy is already cooked and ready to eat. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS MAKING HOMINY Use field corn to make hominy;  yellow dent, flint corn, and Indian corn are all good varieties….

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sandwich made from homemade bread
Unusual Sandwiches from the 1800s

Unusual Sandwiches from the 1800s

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I don’t make sandwiches often, but they’re not anything like these from 1800s cookbooks. I was especially intrigued by the baked bean sandwich recipe and the one for an anchovy sandwich. In the 1800s, bread was mostly homemade and had to be sliced evenly for sandwiches, as the first automatically sliced loaves of bread weren’t produced until 1928. Also, plastic wrap and aluminum foil weren’t invented yet, so most sandwiches were eaten soon after they were made. INFORMATION BELOW FROM…

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bowl of mush
How to Make Mush and Porridge

How to Make Mush and Porridge

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Mush and porridge were cheap, nourishing meals in the 1800s, but the grains had to be cooked many hours. There were no instant hot cereal mixes like there are today. Mush and porridge were often cooked the night before in order to be ready for breakfast. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS MUSH AND PORRIDGE Mush is meal or grain cooked in water to the consistency of rather thin pudding. The most important point connected with the preparation of these is…

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Dried macaroni and other pasta
Pasta Introduced to the U. S. (With Recipes)

Pasta Introduced to the U. S. (With Recipes)

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Thomas Jefferson was the US Minister to France from 1785-1789 and enjoyed the many pasta dishes served there. He brought back macaroni and other noodle recipes, plus a pasta machine. When he became president, he served macaroni and cheese at an 1802 state dinner. Macaroni was sold in long tubes, then broken into smaller pieces when ready to cook. Kraft Foods introduced its boxed macaroni and cheese in 1937, during the Great Depression. With rationing in effect during World War…

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Rice pudding with cinnamon powder
Old-Fashioned Pudding Recipes

Old-Fashioned Pudding Recipes

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There were no packaged pudding mixes in the 1800s. Homemade puddings were made from scratch and were either baked, boiled, or steamed. Puddings were made from a variety of foods, served hot or cold, and was a time-consuming process. “My*T*Fine” was the first packaged pudding introduced to the United States in 1918. Source – FoodTimeline.org .   INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS ABOUT PUDDINGS The eggs for all sorts of puddings in which they are used should be well beaten and then…

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Honey and honeycomb.
About Honey – Mead, Vinegar, Flavored…

About Honey – Mead, Vinegar, Flavored…

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Although honey was a desired sweetener in the 1800s, it was not common in many households. It cost more than sugar or molasses, and most people couldn’t afford it. Some cookbooks published during this time period included recipes on how to make your own (artificial) honey, which was supposed to taste like the real thing. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS Honey is sweeter than white sugar, and molasses is less sweet. When using either of these as a substitute…

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Gruel Recipes – Food For The Sick 

Gruel Recipes – Food For The Sick 

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These simple foods, the base of which is usually one of the grains, play an important part in the dietary for the sick, if properly prepared. Gruels are similar to porridge, but much thinner. Gruels may be varied with flavorings of cinnamon, nutmeg, almond, or a little grated lemon-peel, and sugar. Sugar is mentioned with great hesitancy, for a sweet gruel is an abomination, and yet a gruel with a very little sugar has a pleasanter flavor than one without…

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