In the 1800s, stoves were heated with wood, so cooking in the oven was a challenge. Cooks had to learn what type wood would provide the heat they needed and how long it would burn. Cookbooks provided guidelines, but cooking skills were gained through experience.

Oven thermometers had not been invented yet, so recipes for baking had no exact temperatures or cooking times. Temperatures were sometimes referred to as slow,  moderate, or quick/hot. One way to test your oven’s heat was to put your hand in it and count how many seconds you could safely hold it there.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKSFrom 1800s Cookbooks:

ALMOND MACAROONS.
Prepare the almonds the day before you make the macaroons by blanching them in boiling water, stripping off the skins, and pounding them when perfectly cold—a few at a time—in a mortar, adding from time to time a little rose-water; beat them to a smooth paste.

Take one pound of the almond paste, one and one-half pounds of sugar, and the whites of seven eggs. Some confectioners use a teaspoon of flour with the idea that the macaroons are not so apt to fall. Try both methods; they will both be good.

Stir the sugar and the beaten white of eggs together just enough to mix, then by degrees add the grated paste, mashing with the back of a fork till it forms a perfectly smooth paste. Oil several sheets of paper cut to the size of your baking-pans.

Put one-half teaspoon of the macaroon paste on a scrap of buttered paper in the oven. If it spreads too much, it requires a little more sugar. If it does not spread at all, or so little as to leave the surface rough, it is too stiff and requires perhaps half the white of an egg.

Lay the paste in half-teaspoonfuls on the oiled paper. If the trial one indicated that they were slightly too stiff, lay a wet finger on each, sift over a little powdered sugar, and put a pinch of chopped and blanched almonds in the center with just enough pressure to keep them in place. As the macaroon spreads in the oven, the almonds scatter themselves.

Macaroons should be baked about twenty minutes in a moderate oven*. They must be taken out while they are a very pale brown, but they must also be quite “set,” or they will fall. If the oven is too quick*, they will brown too soon. In that case leave the oven door open, taking care that no cold draught can blow on the macaroons. You can tell if they have browned too quickly by the cracks in them being still white and sticky. When done, both the cracks and surface should be the same pale color. The macaroons must be left five minutes in the pan after leaving the oven without being touched. Then they may be gently taken off the pans on the papers. They must not be detached until they are quite cold. Should they stick to the paper, moisten the back of it.

*moderate oven – a moderate oven is about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit; you could hold your hand in the oven about 45 seconds without burning.

*quick oven – a quick (or hot) oven is about 400-450 degrees fahrenheit and you could hold your hand in the oven about 35 seconds without burning.

CHOCOLATE MACAROONS
Blanch half a pound of shelled sweet almonds by scalding them with boiling water till the skin peels off easily. Then throw them into a bowl of cold water and let them stand awhile. Take them out and wipe them, separately, and then set them in a warm place to dry thoroughly. Put them, one at a time, into a marble mortar and pound them to a smooth paste. Moisten them as you proceed, with a few drops of rose-water to prevent their oiling. 

When you have pounded one or two, take them out of the mortar with a teaspoon, and put them into a deep plate. Continue removing the almonds to the plate till they are all done. Scrape down, as fine as possible, one-half pound of the best chocolate, or of Baker’s prepared cocoa, and mix it thoroughly with the pounded almonds. Then set the plate in a cool place.

Put the whites of eight eggs into a shallow pan and beat them to a stiff froth that will stand alone. Have ready a pound and a half of finely-powdered loaf-sugar.* Stir it, hard into the beaten white-of-egg, a spoonful at a time. Then stir in, gradually, the mixture of almond and chocolate and beat the whole very hard. Drop the mixture in equal portions upon thin white paper, laid on square tin pans, smoothing them with a spoon, into round cakes, about the size of a half-dollar. Dredge the top of each, lightly, with powdered sugar. Set them into a quick oven, and bake them a light brown. When done, take them off the paper.

*loaf sugar – sugar sold in a hard block, which has to be broken and then pounded into sugar granules.

LEMON MACAROONS
Take four large ripe lemons and rub off the yellow surface of the rind upon a lump of sugar. Then powder that sugar and add to it a pound of loaf-sugar, already powdered. Break four eggs into a shallow pan and beat them till very thick and light. Add the juice of the lemons, squeezed through a strainer, and a teaspoon of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir in the sugar, a little at a time, alternately with three large heaped-up tablespoons of sifted flour. A little more flour may be found necessary.

Mix the whole thoroughly so as to form a soft paste. Have ready some shallow, square baking-pans, the bottoms covered with white paper, laid smoothly in. Moisten your hands with water and then take up portions of the mixture. Roll them into balls about the size of a large plum, laying them as you proceed upon the paper, rather more than an inch apart. Lastly, with the blade of a knife dipped in water, smooth the surface of each. Set them into a moderate oven, and bake them brown.

Try one when you think they are done. If not sufficiently baked, let them remain longer in the oven. As soon as they are cold, loosen them from the paper by slipping under them a broad-bladed knife. Orange macaroons may be made in this manner, using the grated rind of two oranges only, but the juice of four. To make vanilla macaroons, boil in a covered vessel, a vanilla bean with as much milk as will barely cover it. When the milk is strongly flavored with the vanilla, strain it and when cold, add it to the beaten egg. Then stir in, gradually, the sugar, spice, and flour, and proceed as above.

GROUND-NUT [PEANUT] MACAROONS
Take a sufficiency of ground-nuts that have been roasted in an iron pot over the fire. Remove the shells and weigh a pound of the nuts. Put them into a pan of cold water and wash off the skins. Have ready some beaten white of egg. Pound the ground-nuts, (two or three at a time,) in a marble mortar, adding frequently, a little cold water to prevent their oiling. They must be pounded to a smooth, light paste and as you proceed, remove the paste to a saucer or a plate.

Beat to a stiff froth the whites of four eggs and then beat into it, gradually, a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and a large teaspoon of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed. Then stir in, by degrees, the pounded ground-nuts till the mixture becomes very thick. Flour your hands and roll between them portions of the mixture, forming each portion into a little ball. Lay sheets of white paper on flat baking-tins and place on them the macaroons, at equal distances, flattening them all a little so as to press down the balls into cakes. Then sift powdered sugar over each and place them in a quick oven, with more heat at the top than in the bottom. Bake them about ten minutes.

Macaroons may also be made of grated cocoa-nut, mixed with beaten white of egg and powdered sugar.

Image from Deposit Photos

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Vintage Dessert Recipe Books for Modern Times on Amazon.

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