Recipes in 1800s cookbooks provided ingredients and cooking instuctions, but were were vague as to heat tenmperature and cooking times. People cooked using a fireplace or wood burning stove, and had to learn how hot different types of wood would burn. Electric stoves weren’t introduced in the U.S. until the 1910-1930 time frame. Oven thermometers were introduced around 1915.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding ~ Have three ribs of prime beef prepared by the butcher for roasting, all the bones being taken out if it is desirable to carve a clean slice off the top. Secure it in place with stout twine. Do not use skewers, as the unnecessary holes they make permit the meat juices to escape. 

Lay the meat in the dripping pan on a bed of the following vegetables cut in small pieces; one small onion, half a carrot, half a turnip, three sprigs of parsley, one sprig of thyme, and three bay leaves. 

Do not put any water in the dripping pan; its temperature cannot rise to a degree equal in heat to that of the fat outside of the beef. It serves only to lower the temperature of the meat where it touches it, and consequently to soften the surface and extract the juices. 

Do not season until the surface is partly carbonized by the heat, as salt applied to the cut fiber draws out their juices.

If you use a roasting oven before the fire, the meat should be similarly prepared by tying in place, and it should be put on the spit carefully. Sufficient drippings for basting will flow from it, and it should be seasoned when half done. 

When entirely done, which will be in fifteen minutes to each pound of meat, the joint should be kept hot until served, but should be served as soon as possible to be good.

Gravy ~ When gravy is made, one-half pint of hot water should be added to the dripping pan after the vegetables have been removed. The gravy should be boiled briskly for a few minutes until it is thick enough, then seasoned to suit the palate of the family. 

Some persons thicken it with a teaspoon of flour, which should be mixed with two tablespoonfuls of cold water before it is stirred into the gravy.

Yorkshire Pudding ~ This is a very nice accompaniment to a roast of beef. Regulate your time when you put in your roast so that it will be done half an hour or forty minutes before dishing up. Take the meat from the oven and set it where it will keep hot.

The ingredients are one pint milk, four eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, one teaspoonful salt, and two teaspoonfuls baking powder sifted through two cupfuls of flour. It should be mixed very smooth, about the consistency of cream. 

Take two biscuit tins, dip some of the drippings from the dripping pan into these tins, pour half of the pudding into each, set them into the hot oven, and keep them in until the dinner is dished up. 

Take these puddings out at the last moment and send to table hot. This is much better than the old way of baking the pudding under the meat.

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