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 in winter keep two or three months, and the peel will be as fresh as the day they were put in. Take care, of course, that they do not get frosted. In summer, change the water twice a week and they will keep a long time.

Lemon or orange peel grated and mixed with powdered sugar and a squeeze of its own juice (the sugar making it into paste) is excellent to keep for flavoring. Put it into a little pot and it will keep for a year.

In grating nutmegs, begin at the flower end. If you commence at the other, there will be a hole all the way through.

Tea or coffee made hot (not at all scorched) before water is added, are more fragrant and stronger. Thus, by putting three spoonfuls of tea in the pot and setting it in a warm place before infusing, it will be as strong as if you make tea with four spoonfuls without warming it, and much more fragrant.

Bread dough is just as good made the day before it is used. Thus, a small family can have fresh bread one day and rolls the next by putting the dough in a cold place enveloped in a damp cloth. In winter, kept cold yet not in danger of freezing, it will keep a week.

Bread that is very stale may be made quite fresh for an hour or two by dipping it quickly into milk or water and putting it in a brisk oven till quite hot through. It must be eaten at once, or it will be as stale as ever when cold.

Celery seed takes the place of celery for soup or stews when it is scarce.

Green beans, gherkins, etc., put down when plentiful in layers of rock salt, will keep crisp and green for months, and can be taken out and pickled when convenient.

Parsnips should be kept down cellar, covered up in sand, entirely excluded from the air. They are good only in the spring.

Cabbages put into a hole in the ground will keep well during the winter, and be hard, fresh, and sweet in the spring. Many farmers keep potatoes in the same way.

Turnips of small size have double the nutritious matter that large ones have.

Rutabaga is the only root that increases in nutritious qualities as it increases in size.

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Milk which is slightly turned or changed may be sweetened and rendered fit for use again by stirring in a little [baking] soda.

Meat to be kept in warm weather should be rubbed over with salad oil and every crevice filled with ginger. Meat that is for roasting or frying is much better preserved in this way than with salt. Take care that every part of the surface has a coat of oil. Steaks or chops cut off, which always keep badly, should be dipped into warm butter or even dripping* if oil is not handy (the object being to exclude the air), and then hung up till wanted.

* dripping – the fat and juices from the roasting pan when cooking meat.

Meat that has become slightly tainted may be quite restored by washing it in water with a teaspoonful of borax dissolved, cutting away every part in the least discolored.

In summer when meat comes from the butcher’s, if it is not going to be used the same day, it should be washed over with vinegar.

Poultry in summer should always have a piece of charcoal tied in a rag placed in the stomach, to be removed before cooking. Pieces of charcoal should also be put in the refrigerator* and changed often.

*refrigerator – an insulated wooden box that held a block of ice to keep food cold was called a refrigerator before electric refrigerators became available to the public in the 1920s and 1930s.

Never keep the doors or covers of the refrigerator open unnecessarily long; it wastes the ice.

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To prevent grease from spattering when frying foods, put a bit of bread in the pan and fry it at the same time. It will prevent the grease from splashing out onto the stove and so save a lot of unnecessary labor in cleaning and polishing the stove afterwards.

To keep eggs from popping when frying, mix a tablespoon of flour in the hot grease and break the eggs into this. You will also find that the flour gives the eggs a better flavor.

Wet wooden spoons, chopping bowls, and all wooden utensils in cold water before using to prevent their absorbing the flavors and juices of foods.

To stir fruits, legumes, and many foods while cooking is just the way to make them stick and scorch. Shake the vessels instead of stirring.

When boiling dumplings, keep the lid of the saucepan raised. If the water is boiling the whole time, the dumplings will never be heavy.

To prevent the odor of boiling ham or cabbage, throw red pepper pods or a few bits of charcoal into the pan they are cooking in.

Vegetables that are strong can be made much milder by tying a bit of bread in a clean rag and boiling it with them.

When boiling turnips, add a little sugar to the water. It improves the flavor of the vegetables and lessens the odor in the cooking.

A simple test for molasses is to mix a small quantity of soda with it. If it foams and has a sweet odor, it is good. Otherwise, it is not fit for baking purposes.

The knife used for peeling a pineapple should not be used for slicing it, as the rind contains an acid that is apt to cause a swollen mouth and sore lips. The Cubans use salt as an antidote for the ill effects of the peel.

Whipped cream substitute, delicious in flavor, can be made by adding a slice of banana to the white of an egg and beating it until stiff. The banana will dissolve completely.

Milk, in being boiled, frequently sticks to the pan. To prevent this, rinse the pan in hot water before using.

Salt will curdle new milk, so when making gravies or puddings, put your salt into the flour, or with eggs and sugar, add when the milk boils.

To keep cheese from molding after it has been cut, dip a thin muslin cloth in vinegar, wring out and wrap up the cheese in it.

The mildew which often forms on cheese can be avoided if a lump of sugar is kept in the cheese dish.

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Vintage Cooking From the 1800s – Hints
From the “In Great Grandmother’s Time” book series by Angela Johnson.

STEP BACK IN TIME…. and read advice on preparing and cooking food before electricity and refrigeration was available.

This book includes advice gathered from a variety of cookbooks published in the 1800s.

Available wherever you buy your books online.

Also available as regular print and large print paperbacks on Amazon.

Click here for book description and purchase links.

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