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Ham Sandwiches (1887)

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This tasty recipe for ham sandwiches is a good old fashioned one, and is wonderful way to use leftover ham from a big dinner.

Dear friends ~

Here’s a lovely way to turn leftover ham into picnic-worthy sandwiches. The kids and I enjoyed these last week, for a little snow-day picnic in front of the wood stove. Paired with some holiday gingerbread cookies, it was a feast fit for a king.

This recipe comes from The White House Cook Book, and one thing I found interesting is that these (what many of us would consider “ham salad sandwiches” these days) are simply called “ham sandwiches”, and they’re the very first recipe listed in the sandwich section. Ham sandwiches made with slices of ham are, in this volume anyway, referred to as “ham sandwiches, plain”.

Myself, I do like a good “plain” ham sandwich, but these ones are fun and festive, and for those who like old fashioned ham salad, it’s a recipe hard to beat. Hope you enjoy!

a stack of ham sandwiches
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.


HAM SANDWICHES

Make a dressing of half a cup of butter, one tablespoonful of mixed mustard, one of salad oil, a little red or white pepper, a pinch of salt and the yolk of an egg; rub the butter to a cream, add the other ingredients and mix thoroughly; then stir in as much chopped ham as will make it consistent, and spread between thin slices of bread. Omit salad oil and substitute melted butter, if preferred.

The White House Cook Book, 1887

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

an 1800s recipe for Ham Sandwiches
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

Sandwiches are hard to mess up, so minimal cooking notes today!

a ham sandwich
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

Salted or unsalted butter?

This recipe doesn’t specify, but it’s not uncommon to see contemporary recipes for dressings and mixed sandwich fillings like this one, specifying “sweet butter” or “good butter” which generally meant fresh butter that hadn’t been salted for storage. Since the ham is already a little salty, it would really make that “pinch of salt” just too much, if using half a cup of salted butter with this, in my opinion.

I went with unsalted butter, and recommend it. You’ll still probably want that pinch of salt, but this way you have more control over how salty the finished filling is.

The mixed mustard

This means a prepared, spreadable mustard. If not making my own, I like to use a high-quality prepared mustard, with no food dye, for putting in a recipe like this one.

The salad oil

The abomination that’s labeled “salad oil” in our grocery stores today, is not the salad oil that’s called for in this recipe. Good, light olive oil was the preferred “salad oil” of the era, and that would be the right thing to use here.

The dressing mixture for an old fashioned ham salad recipe
That “dressing” mixture is pretty thick. Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

That egg yolk

This is the ingredient that could be up for debate a bit, in this recipe. Some fillings of the era call for a raw egg yolk, others for a boiled yolk beaten to a cream.

Since this one doesn’t specify, and since the proportion of other ingredients would make for a dry filling if the yolk were boiled rather than raw, I went with a nice fresh yolk from an egg laid just that morning. Do feel free to experiment here, but my feeling is that a raw egg yolk is the correct interpretation.

How much ham?

I used just a tad over 8 ounces of chopped ham, and felt like that was about right. You can chop that ham by hand, but to get this nice and smooth the way it’s intended, you’ll want to really chop it finely.

a bowl of chopped ham for old fashioned ham sandwiches
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

It’s not cheating to get out a good old table-mounted meat grinder for this, if you’re lucky enough to have one. My grandmother did, every time she turned leftover ham into sandwiches, and I’ll bet her mother did too. Those old hand-turned meat grinders make for a nice, evenly-textured filling. Go for a blade disc that’s somewhere between the small “grind” size, and the larger “chop” size.

How many sandwiches does this make?

It depends on the size of your bread, and how thick you like your fillings. I lost count (these sandwiches were wanted for a living room picnic by the wood stove, after all!), but I think I made 6 sandwiches, that I then cut into quarters. Plenty for a picnic, with company!

a loaf of 1800s bread
This is real American-style 1800’s bread from an 1860’s recipe. You can tell it’s very different from sourdough, which would have been considered a “French bread. Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.
a basket of ham sandwiches
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

These really are lovely, old-fashioned sandwiches, that aren’t fussy, sweet, or gloppy. They’re such a nice way to use up some of that leftover holiday ham, and make a wonderful part of a low-key “finger foods” spread that people can graze on, after the Christmas festivities.

Until next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

a ham sandwich

Ham Sandwiches

This tasty recipe for ham sandwiches is a good old fashioned one, and is wonderful way to use leftover ham from a big dinner. From The White House Cook Book, 1887.
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Servings: 4
Calories: 619kcal

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter
  • 1 tablespoon mixed mustard
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ⅛ teaspoon red or white pepper
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 8 ounces chopped ham
  • 12 thin slices bread

Instructions

  • Rub the butter to a cream,
  • add the other ingredients and mix thoroughly;
  • then stir in as much chopped ham as will make it consistent,
  • and spread between thin slices of bread.
  • Omit salad oil and substitute melted butter, if preferred.

Nutrition

Calories: 619kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 41g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 145mg | Sodium: 1306mg | Potassium: 298mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 778IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 124mg | Iron: 4mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Syrup for a Cough (1868)

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This delicious and simple cough syrup is one that won’t make you grimace. It’s also alcohol-free which is fairly unusual for period cough remedies, so you can share it with the kids!

hands pouring a spoonful of 1800's cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Well, I had intended to make a lovely batch of hard gingerbread and share that with you for today’s newsletter. As luck would have it though, my kids have been home sick this week, so we’ve been doing lots of soup and tea, and toasty slices of homemade bread, but not much in the way of sweets. 

There HAS been a lot of coughing around here though, and I think we’ve gone through three big boxes of tissues in as many days. 

It seemed an appropriate time to try one of the 1800’s cough syrup recipes I’ve had my eye on. Many of the cough remedies from the nineteenth century call for alcohol, opium, morphine, or other ingredients that range from “not for children” to “downright illegal”. 

This simple little recipe requires no contraband, and doesn’t even call for spirits of any kind, so it’s one I could safely share with the kids. After two days of begrudgingly imbibing a common, over-the-counter purple concoction, both kids declared this “SO much better!” and “Delicious!”

“1800s cough medicine is…honey?” was also a first impression from one of them. While the efficacy of this has yet to be tried (I just made it this morning), I can say that it goes down easy, and is so very soothing. It’s worth calling one’s cough “very troublesome” just to score that double-dose!

a spoonful of 1800s cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.


SYRUP FOR A COUGH

Take one pound of sugar, one pint of vinegar; boil together until it becomes of a thick syrup; a short time before it is done, add half a pound of raisins, seeded; one teaspoonful is sufficient for a dose unless the cough is very troublesome; then take two every two hours; this is most excellent.

Every-Day Cookery for Every Family, 1868

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

1800S Recipe for cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This is a quick and easy remedy, so not many notes today! My nine-year old (runny nose and all), was today’s photographer. Even if it’s because of illness, extra “home days” together are special.

a bottle of 1800s cough medicine
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

What kind of vinegar to use?

This recipe doesn’t specify, but most other contemporary medicinal recipes that call for vinegar specify apple cider vinegar, so that’s what I went with. I used Bragg’s raw apple cider vinegar, and liked the result it gave me.

How long to boil this?

Much depends on the temperature, and even the size and shape of your pot, in determining exactly how long your syrup will take to boil. I found that with maintaining a very slow simmer, in a two-quart pot, this recipe took me about 1.5 hours from start to finish. 

You can see in the photos below the progression from start to finish, in the appearance of the mixture. It starts off light in color, with loose, round bubbles that sit on top of the liquid as it starts to boil. As the mixture thickens to a syrup, it darkens, and bubbles create thin bubble “streams” as they make their way up from the bottom of the pot.

step one of making 1800s cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.
step two of making 1800s cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

One hour was enough to make the syrup fairly thick, but not quite thick enough for the finished remedy. At this point, I added the raisins, and then simmered very gently for another 20 minutes, until the mixture was golden from the coloring of the raisins, and a little thicker.

raisins in 1800s cough syrup preparation
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

To strain, or not to strain?

You will notice that the recipe does not call for straining out the raisins. I’m not prone to assuming that non-existent instructions are “missing”, but in this case I feel fairly confident that we are meant to strain out the raisins before bottling. 

I haven’t found another cough medicine recipe that doesn’t call for straining out any “stuff” before bottling, so I’m thinking that in this case, the step of straining may have seemed obvious enough to not require inclusion. 

You should definitely feel free to make your own conclusion here. For myself, I did go ahead and strain out the raisins, first with a fruit strainer, then by putting the syrup through a fine mesh sieve to remove any small fragments.

raisins being strained out of 1800s cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

Bottling and Storage

I bottled mine in an empty whiskey bottle, but any good bottle that allows you to pour a teaspoon at a time, works well. 

This of course would have been kept in a cool pantry, and would have been considered shelf stable, with all that sugar and vinegar. 

If you choose to store this in the fridge, you’ll want to let it warm to room temperature before pouring, since it really does thicken up when it’s at cold refrigerator temps.

1800s cough syrup being poured from a bottle
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.
a plate of toast
THIN toast was a common food for “invalids” who were on the mend and ready for substantial foods. This is real American-style 1800’s bread from an 1860’s recipe. You can tell it’s very different from sourdough, which would have been considered a “French bread”. Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.
a dose of 1800s cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.
a dose of 1800s cough syrup
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

I think the little guy did a good job with his picture-taking! 

Also, I’d like to give a grateful mention to a kind reader who recently drew my attention to the errant apostrophe in the title of my website. Of she is correct that it’s 1800s, not 1800’s. Whew, and I think of myself as a grammar lover! It may take me a while to weed out all instances of it, but slow and steady will get it done. 

Please wish us well as we kick these head colds, and I’ll be back with that gingerbread in the next newsletter. Stay warm out there!

Until next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

1800s cough medice

Syrup for a Cough (1868)

This delicious cough syrup from 1868 is so soothing. Made without alcohol, even the kids can have it!
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Servings: 50
Calories: 50kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 pound sugar
  • 1 pint apple cider vinegar
  • 8 ounces seedless raisins

Instructions

  • Take one pound of sugar, one pint of vinegar; boil together until it becomes of a thick syrup;
  • a short time before it is done, add half a pound of raisins, seeded;
  • one teaspoonful is sufficient for a dose unless the cough is very troublesome; then take two every two hours; this is most excellent.

Nutrition

Calories: 50kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.01g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.001g | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 45mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Oatmeal (1883)

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This classic 1800’s method for cooking oatmeal is not quick, but the resulting porridge is light and uniform in texture, almost fluffy, with a pleasant and wholesome flavor.

a bowl of old fashioned oatmeal
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

The power is back on, and we have another 9 inches of snow outside. Winter is good and here. Missed y’all yesterday while the power was out, so instead of a Tuesday tip, I’m sending what I was working on when the lights went out…everything I’m learning about 1800’s oatmeal.

Until last week, I thought of oatmeal as a quick and hearty breakfast food. 

And then I read the 1800’s rules for making oatmeal. Let me tell you, “quick” has nothing to do with it. We’re talking 2+ hour cooking times. 

But here’s the thing. Now that I’ve tried the 1800’s methods with multiple types of oats (see the cooking notes below the recipes), there is no going back. Those cookbook authors were right. I can’t make oatmeal on school-days now that I know what it’s capable of tasting like–because heaven knows I am not getting up to start breakfast at 5am. 

Thank goodness for snow days.

~ Anna

a bowl of oatmeal
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


OATMEAL
Oatmeal, Indian meal, and hominy all require two things to make them perfect: that is, plenty of water when first put on to boil, and a long time to boil. 
Have about two quarts of boiling water in a large stewpan, and into it stir one cup of oatmeal, which you have already wet with cold water; boil this an hour, stirring often, and then add half a spoonful of salt and boil an hour longer. If it should get too stiff add more boiling water; or if too thin, boil a little longer: you cannot boil it too much. 
The only trouble there is in cooking oatmeal is that it takes a long time, and surely no one will let that stand in the way when it is so much better for having the extra time. It is also very necessary that there be an abundance of water to begin with; if not, it will never be as good, no matter how much may be added after it has been cooking any time.

The Appledore Cook Book, 1883

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

An 1800's recipe for oatmeal
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
an old recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

SOME EXTRA-LONG COOKING & HISTORY NOTES TODAY:

What kind of oatmeal were they cooking in the 1800’s? 

I have spent more hours reading about grains of the 1800’s this week than I want to admit. Who knew 1800’s breakfast cereal could be so interesting. 

Here is my understanding, and do let me say that I am not an expert (yet) on this topic. In the first half of the 1800’s, oatmeal would have been stone ground, so let’s talk about that first. 

Stone ground oatmeal. ​

This is the most historic form, and what people would have been cooking in the earlier decades of the 1800’s. For example, here in my little Maine town, we had a grist mill that opened in 1789. A woman living where I do would almost certainly have been cooking stone ground oatmeal, milled between large millstones. That mill was in operation until about the turn of the century, so it’s very likely that locally-milled, stone-ground oatmeal would have been what I’d have been cooking, had I lived here during any part of the 1800’s.

You can still buy stone ground oatmeal, and if you don’t have a local mill like I do, Bob’s Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal is stone ground on 100+ year old stones, and is a really good option. 

Rolled Oats. ​

With the beginnings of the industrial revolution, the manufacture of cereals began (like so many things) to move toward cities. Rolled oats, or “oat flakes” became a ready option. Interestingly, these were not quite the same as the rolled oats we have today, since the process for making rolled oats without heating, kiln-drying, or steaming them before rolling, wasn’t patented until 1900. (You can read the whole patent here, which includes an explanation of why the new process allowed for a more healthful, less-processed, rolled oat.) 

So as I understand it, rolled oats of the 1800’s were actually more processed than our “old-fashioned” oats of today, but were definitely in popular use. Any “old fashioned rolled oats” would be our closest approximation to the rolled oats that many women would have opted to cook in the later half of the 1800’s. 

Steel-Cut Oats. ​

Like rolled oats, these were made with a more industrial process than stone ground oats, and were found in the later decades of the 1800’s. I do not have a specific text to cite that says this clearly, but my impression is that steel-cut oats seem to have been considered a less-desirable option than stone-ground or rolled. You can find steel cut oats readily, and these days they’re often marketed as “Irish” oats, (as opossed to “Scottish” oats, which are likely to be stone-ground.)

an 1800's recipe for oat-meal mush
This Oatmeal recipe is from Practical Housekeeping, 1881. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
An 1800's recipe for oat-meal mush.
“Oat-Meal Mush”, cont. From Practical Housekeeping, 1881. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Many women of the 1800’s may have had only one type of oatmeal available, depending on the decade in which they lived, and whether they lived rurally or in a city. But toward the end of the 1800’s, it’s possible that any one of these types of oatmeal might have been used. 

SO. In many ways, there is no one right choice for re-creating an authentic bowl of 1800’s oatmeal. 

And, of course, I had to try them all. By the end of two hours cooking time, you would think you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in anything that started out as OATS. But you can.

I expected rolled oats to turn into miserable gruel with a two hour cooking time, but found the lighter, looser texture of the finished porridge to be so much more enjoyable than the way I’ve been making it all my life (following the box directions that call for ten minute cook time).

What I didn’t expect, was for a fuller, slightly nutty flavor to develop with the longer cooking time. This is just a better tasting oatmeal when you take two or more hours to make it. 

The steel cut oats really reminded me of cream of wheat after two hours of cooking, and felt like they had almost a gummier texture, even when cooked according to the same instructions. 

The stone ground oats were the only type of oatmeal I’d never worked with before, so had no point of reference. These were my favorite. The texture was smooth and loose, and rather than the rustic “nuttiness” of the rolled oats (which I did love), these seemed to develop almost a sweetness of their own. 

a bowl of oatmeal
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

I cannot believe how long I have just droned on about OATMEAL, but friends, this has been an interesting week in the breakfast cereal department, and I have loved it.

Until next time, ~ Anna

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! Until next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

a bowl of 1800's style oatmeal

Oatmeal (1883 Recipe)

This classic 1800's method for cooking oatmeal is not quick, but the resulting porridge is light and uniform in texture, almost fluffy, with a pleasant and wholesome flavor.
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Servings: 6
Calories: 28kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 quarts water
  • 1 cups oatmeal
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Have about two quarts of boiling water in a large stewpan, and into it stir one cup of oatmeal, which you have already wet with cold water; boil this an hour, stirring often, and then add half a spoonful of salt and boil an hour longer.
  • If it should get too stiff add more boiling water; or if too thin, boil a little longer: you cannot boil it too much. The only trouble there is in cooking oatmeal is that it takes a long time, and surely no one will let that stand in the way when it is so much better for having the extra time. It is also very necessary that there be an abundance of water to begin with; if not, it will never be as good, no matter how much may be added after it has been cooking any time.

Nutrition

Calories: 28kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 211mg | Potassium: 27mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.1g | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 0.4mg
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If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Connecticut Cookies (1875)

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With raisin centers, and spiced with nutmeg, these delightful cookies are a festive little treat, that would also lend themselves well to the holiday cookie swap!

a plate of 1800's Connecticut cookies, next to a cup of coffee.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Something has been in the zeitgeist this week, and it’s not just Thanksgiving (which I hope you enjoyed, by the way!) I’ve been inundated with emails looking for “more 1800’s cookie recipes, please”!

In fact, I received three such emails in a single day this week. And really, who can blame us…it’s cold outside, and we deserve a little treat to go with that tea, coffee, or hot cocoa that gets us through the chilly afternoons. 

Here’s a fun little cookie from an 1875 cook book, that I hope you’ll like. It’s just a bit novel, while still having a familiar coziness to it. With raisin centers, and spiced with nutmeg, it’s a festive little treat that would also lend itself well to the holiday cookie swap!

Hope you enjoy!

a plate of 1800's Connecticut Cookies with coffee
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


CONNECTICUT COOKIES

Two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, three eggs, one fourth teaspoon soda dissolved in hot water; spice with nutmeg; flour to make a soft dough, stiff enough to roll out; cut out in cakes. Stick a raisin in the center of each.

The Gem Cook Book, 1875

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

a plate of Connecticut Cookies next to an 1800's cook book
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This cookie recipe does leave a few things up to the intuition of the baker. Here are a few notes from making these, that you might find helpful!

a bowl full of Connecticut cookie dough
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Start by beating the butter and sugar

Cookies were consistently included as part of the “Cakes” section of 1800’s cook books, and this volume is no different. In fact, the cookie recipes are totally intermingled throughout the cake recipes, without being separated or grouped together. 

One rule of cake making from the era, is to start by beating the butter and sugar together. The eggs go in next. Many cook books, this one included, advise beating the whites and “yelks” of the eggs separately before adding to the batter or dough. I did that for this recipe, and it’s a step that really does add a little extra lightness to the finished cookie, helping it to rise well as it bakes. 

I’m actually going to go ahead and include a photo of the tips on cake-making from this cook book. It’s very representative of the baking techniques from this era, and it’s all still good advice today!

How much water?

I used one tablespoon of hot water for dissolving the baking soda. This recipe does not specify a precise amount, but one tablespoon is a very common amount in similar contemporary recipes, when it’s called for to dissolve baking soda before adding to the other ingredients.

an antique cookie cutter, cutting out dough for Connecticut Cookies
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much nutmeg?

I used half of one average-sized nutmeg, freshly grated for this recipe. Using one teaspoon of pre-ground nutmeg would give a similar result. 

If I haven’t already nudged you to switch over to using fresh nutmegs for your baking, let me just put it out there again for your consideration. Whole nutmegs store well, grate easily, and really do add something extra when grated freshly for each recipe. Although pre-ground nutmeg was available at the time this cook book was published, whole nutmegs were still the predominant way that nutmeg was bought for home baking, through most of the 1800’s. It was strongly considered preferable to grind them freshly for each use.

I always tell people that freshly grinding your nutmeg as needed, is my one favorite way to easily elevate your baking, without much extra effort or expense. A heavy-duty nutmeg grater can generally be had for about ten dollars, or a little less, and makes a pretty good stocking stuffer, if Saint Nicholas needs a few extra ideas this year.

How much flour?

I found that 2.5 cups, plus 2 tablespoons, was what I ended up going with for this recipe, and it worked really well. 2.5 cups might be enough, depending on your flour, and you may want to start there, before seeing if those extra two tablespoons are necessary. 

Keeping the dough nice and soft, while being just firm enough to roll out and cut cleanly, is the goal.

an empty antique bowl with cookie dough scrapings
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How thick to roll the dough

I rolled these ¼″ thick, and liked the result. For cutting the cookies, I used a round cutter with a 1.5″ diameter, and it worked beautifully. 

Gently press a raisin into the center of each one, and place them spaced apart on a cookie sheet just like you would any other cookie that needs a bit of space to spread and rise. 

There’s enough butter in these that you don’t need to grease your cookie sheet. 

If you don’t mind using a modern convenience with your vintage baking, go ahead and let yourself line the sheets with parchment paper if you like. I did a test batch, and found they baked up looking and tasting just the same, with or without being baked on parchment paper.

The golden brown bottom of an 1800's Connecticut Cookie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Baking these cookies

I found that 350° worked well for this recipe, allowing the cookies to fully set, without the bottoms being too brown. 

Mine took 10-11 minutes to perfectly bake. Yours may take a little more or less time, depending on the thickness of your dough, and size of the cookie. It’s not a bad idea to peek at that first batch after 8 minutes, and go from there. 

That’s all there is to it! This is a fun little recipe, and a great one for making with kids. They’ll love putting those raisins on top of each cookie, and snacking on them while waiting for that first batch of cookies to come out of the oven. Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Storing these cookies

These are addictive little cookies, and the batch isn’t huge, so chances are you won’t be needing to store them long! They do keep nicely for several days though, if stored in an air-tight container at room temperature, or a little cooler.

a plate full of Connecticut Cookies
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, Christmas season is fully upon us. The snow has begun to fly, here in Maine, though it’s not yet coating the ground, and I’m ok with that. I do think a white Christmas is likely though, and it doesn’t get much more magical than that. 

If there are any particular recipes you’re hoping to try for your holiday baking, and shoot me a line, and I’ll see what I can find. I do love hearing from you all!

Until next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

a plate of Connecticut cookies next to an 1800's cook book.

Connecticut Cookies

With raisin centers, and spiced with nutmeg, these delightful cookies are a festive little treat, that would also lend themselves well to the holiday cookie swap!
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 30

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 3 eggs
  • ¼ teaspoon soda
  • 1 tablespoon hot water
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2.5 cups flour, plus 2 Tbsp
  • ¼ cup raisins

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350℉
  • Beat together sugar and butter
  • Beat egg whites until light and fluffy. Beat egg yolks until smooth and light. Add to butter and sugar.
  • Stir in water with baking soda dissolved in it.
  • Add flour and nutmeg, stir until well mixed.
  • Roll dough ¼" thick. Cut out with a round cookie cutter, about 1.5" diameter. Place on a cookie sheet, and lightly press a raisin into the center of each cookie.
  • Bake for 10-11 minutes, until edges are golden and centers are set.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Apple Mince-Meat (1877)

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This classic apple mince-meat makes the most wonderful holiday pies! So festive, and absolutely packed with flavor, this is one for the family recipe box!

a mince pie from an 1800's recipe for apple mince-meat
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

For last year’s holiday baking, I made a big batch of “real” mince meat, following a recipe from The White House Cook Book (1887). Made with beef and suet, Brandy, and Madeira, it’s a rich, “proper” mincemeat that was perfectly delicious.

This year, going into the holidays, I decided to try another mince recipe I’ve had my eye on. This one is an apple mince-meat recipe from one of my favorite cook books–Common Sense in the Household, by Marion Harland. 

Apple-based “mince-meat” recipes were generally considered to be easier on the digestion, than those made with meat as a primary ingredient. Suet does play a role in this recipe, so it’s still not what you’d call a light dish. 

What it is though, is a bona fide orchestra of flavors and textures, yet somehow without being overly busy. Along with the apple, you have the sweetness of raisins, currants, and sultanas, brightened up with the citrus flavors of citron, lemon juice, and lemon peel. 

In my opinion, this is one of those recipes that’s worth copying down and tucking into the family cook book, next to great-grandma’s fruitcake recipe. That’s what I did, anyway. This one’s definitely worth a try, I hope you do!

an apple mincemeat pie from an 1800's mince recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


APPLE MINCE-MEAT

2 lbs. apples–pared and chopped.
¾ lb. beef suet–cleared of strings and powdered.
1 ” currants.
½ ” raisins, seeded and chopped.
½ ” sultana raisins.
¼ ” citron, cut into shreds.
1 lemon–juice and grated rind.
1 tablespoonful cinnamon.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
1 ” mace.
1 tablespoonful allspice.
2 lbs. brown sugar.
Half-pint best brandy.
A glass of wine.
2 teaspoonfuls salt.
​
Pack down in a stone jar, with close cover and keep in a cool place.

Common Sense in the Household, 1877

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

An 1800's recipe for apple mincemeat
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

If you’ve been getting this newsletter for a while, you know I could chat 1800’s pie making all day, but I’ll try to keep myself brief on this one! Let’s dive in.

a mince pie in front of a crock full of 1800's mincemeat
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

What kind of apples to use? 

Any type of good pie apple works well here. I know from spending many hours in this volume, that Marion Harland was particular to Greenings, Baldwins, and Campfields, as well as most Pippins, for pies and baked apple dishes, though she doesn’t specify any variety here. These days, those can be hard to get your hands on, so a combination of Granny Smith and McIntosh is a good combination that would give a similar result. 

Sourcing that raw suet

If you’re lucky enough to have a good butcher shop nearby, that’s the first place I’d look. You may also find suet right at your grocery store’s meat counter. If you don’t see any on the shelves, try asking the butcher or department manager directly. They may be able to get some for you. 

Local farms that raise cows and sheep would be other great places to try. Remember that suet can come from lamb and mutton, as well as beef. If the farmers don’t have any available, chances are they may have an idea where you can get some. Anyone raising meat animals tends to be pretty integrated into the locally-grown food community, and is likely to know who’s got what available.

Keep the suet cool as you work with it, and either grate it finely through a regular hand grater, or pound it fine with a rolling pin. Either way works.

a bowlful of grated raw suet
Grating that suet is actually so meditative…”strangely satisfying” as my sensory-seeker kiddo observed. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

The currants, raisins, and sultanas

In the 1800’s, currants were notorious for being filled with dirt and grit. They needed to be very well washed and dried, before using. These days they usually come quite clean, and not in need of a good washing. However, it’s always a good idea to check them over well for bits of stone. I’ve definitely found more than one in my currants, just this year. 

What’s the difference between sultanas and raisins? In modern times, you’ll usually hear that both sultanas and raisins are dried Thompson grapes, with raisins being dried naturally, and sultanas being treated with oil and dioxides, to speed drying and preserve a lighter color. This was not the case, in the 1800’s though. 

Now, I’ve spent WAY more time than I want to admit, studying dried fruits of the 1800’s. However, I do want to be clear that I’m still not an expert. 

My current understanding is that what were called “sultanas” in 1800’s recipes like this one, were naturally dried Thompson raisins. 

“Raisins” were naturally dried grapes of other, larger varieties. You’ll notice that this recipe, like many other contemporary ones, calls for chopping the raisins but not the sultanas. Raisins were generally assumed to be larger in size, and tended to come more clean and ready to use, than the smaller sultanas, which were more prone to needing a bit of cleaning (though not as much as currants, which were smaller still.)

a bowl full of grated lemon peel
That lovely grated lemon peel. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

The citron

Your best bet with this ingredient, is to opt for a dye-free candied citron peel. (This is me, holding myself back from boring you with a deep dive on historical citron.)

We’re used to finding neon-colored versions in the grocery stores at Christmas time, but in my opinion, it’s 100% worth your time trying to source some better quality, dye free natural citron. It’s delicious, and adds so much to this recipe. I try to buy extra at Christmas and Easter, when it’s easiest to find, and tends to be a little lower in cost.

The brandy and wine

Budget is the determining factor on what to use for that “best brandy”. My budget is pretty small, so I’m not going to recommend a brand, though I do recommend choosing a neutral brandy, rather than a flavored one. 

For wine, I opted for a good basic red, though you could certainly reach for Madeira, like the 1887 Mince Meat recipe, if you like. I go into more depth on the volume of “a glass of wine” in this article about Beef Soup, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll just say here that you want to go with 4 ounces of wine for this.

An unbaked pie crust
I like this recipe for “Family Pie Paste” from 1873. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Baking the pie

This recipe doesn’t contain any instructions for baking, and that was pretty typical of mince-meat recipes, since you generally would have been making up a big batch for the winter’s baking, and not actually baking a pie with it until at least a full day later. 

It’s a good plan to do the same, and let this sit for 24 hours or more before baking it, so the flavors have a chance to meld. 

This apple mince-meat recipe is enough for 3 large, deep pies, or 4 regular 9″ ones.

An unbaked mincemeat pie from an 1800's mince pie recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A few baking notes.

My go-to crust recipe is this one. 

I generally bake a mince pie at 350°, and that worked well here. It doesn’t take as long to bake as that pumpkin pie we made a couple weeks ago…about 45-50 minutes works well for this one, maybe just a tad longer if it’s especially deep.

a mince pie made from an 1800's apple mince-meat recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Serving the pie

Any traditional mince-meat pie wants to sit and cool before being re-warmed and served. If you serve this hot, right out of the oven, it’s going to be very wet and sloppy for dishing. 

You don’t want to serve it cold, or at room temperature, because even though the suet was finely pounded and has well dispersed though the pie, it’s going to feel like there are very fine shavings of candle in your mouth, if you do. 

The best way to serve this is to make it several hours, or even a full day, before it’s wanted, then warm it up right before serving. 

Storing the extra mince-meat

Historically, this was stored in a cool place for up to a few months. Keeping modern food safety practices in mind, my approach to a recipe like this one, is to store it in the fridge if using within a few days, or freeze it in vacuum-sealed bags that hold the correct amount for a single pie.

an old fashioned mince pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

It’s getting cold here in Maine. Hot oatmeal for breakfast, and hot chocolate after school, has become our routine, with lots of reading by the wood stove in the evenings. It’s cozy season. 

A reader asked me last week for a good 1800’s “roll-out” gingerbread recipe, and I think that’s a wonderful idea…just what the season calls for. That one will be coming up soon!

Until next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

an apple mincemeat pie from an 1800's mince recipe

Apple Mince-Meat

This 1877 recipe for Apple Mince-Meat comes from Common Sense in the Household, by Marion Harland. It's perfectly old-fashioned, flavorful mincemeat recipe that makes the most splendid holiday pies!
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Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 48

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs. apples pared and chopped.
  • ¾ lb. beef suet cleared of strings and powdered.
  • 1 lb currants.
  • ½ lb raisins seeded and chopped.
  • ½ lb sultana raisins.
  • ¼ lb citron cut into shreds.
  • 1 lemon juice and grated rind.
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
  • 1 teaspoon cloves.
  • 1 teaspoon mace.
  • 1 tablespoon allspice.
  • 2 lbs. brown sugar.
  • .5 pint best brandy.
  • 4 oz wine.
  • 2 teaspoon salt.

Instructions

  • Pack down in a stone jar, with close cover and keep in a cool place.
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Bachelor’s Buttons (1868)

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With a crackly, sugar-coated exterior, and a light center, these simple little sugar cookies are easy to make, and sure to please.

a plate of bachelor's button cookies
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

These easy little cookies are so quick and easy to make, and unlike many 1800’s recipes, the recipe isn’t massive. You’re not making cookies to feed an army with this one. This recipe makes about 2.5 dozen small, soft cookies.

We love these for a lunchbox treat, or an after-school snack with a nice mug of hot cocoa.

Hope you enjoy!

a tray of bachelor's button cookies next to a steaming cup of coffee.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


BACHELOR’S BUTTONS

One egg, two ounces butter, five ounces flour, five ounces sugar; make into small balls, roll in sifted sugar, and bake on buttered tins, allowing room to spread.

Every-Day Cookery for Every Family, 1868

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

an 1800's recipe for cookies
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

1800’s recipes don’t get much easier than this one, so it hardly requires any notes. Here are a few things I noticed when making these cookies, that you might find helpful, though.

a tray of 1800's cookies cooling on a cookie sheet
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Salted or unsalted butter?

I prefer making these with unsalted butter, but since no salt or spices are called for in the recipe, it does not make these too salty if you do opt for salted butter. You really can lean on personal preference with this, and go either way. From a historical standpoint, in the 1800’s, if you were making these in the winter, you’d be using butter that had been salted to help it keep. It wasn’t uncommon to “wash” butter before using it to make sweet cakes and cookies, to make it less salty.

If “fresh” unsalted butter was available, this was considered strongly preferable for making cakes and cookies, so it would be opted for, when making sweet baked goods.

Can you give me the measurements in cups instead of ounces?

You bet. I get this question every time I share a recipe that was written in weight measurements, rather than volume. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, and need to use measuring cups, these amounts will work well.

2 ounces of butter = 4 tablespoons
5 ounces of flour = 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons
5 ounces of sugar = slightly scant ¾ cup

a plate of 1800's cookies next to a cup of coffee.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How big to make these cookies?

I made my cookie dough balls about 1″ in diameter, and this made 2.5 dozen cookies. This felt like a good size, and it’s what I’d do again. You can make these a little smaller or larger, and would just need to adjust the baking time to make sure they bake correctly.

Rolling them in sugar

“Sifted” sugar isn’t powdered sugar, this was nice, fine sugar that was sifted to ensure it was finely-grained and lump-free.

In the 1800’s this would likely have just been grated off a big block of sugar, that was sold in the shape of a cone. After grating it, the sugar would be put through a fine sieve to ensure a nice fine texture, without any hard, solid bits. You can use either regular granulated sugar, or “superfine” granulated sugar to roll the cookie dough in. Both will work well.

How hot should the oven be?

I baked these in an oven pre-heated to 350°, and that worked well.

How long to bake these cookies

At 350°, with 1″ diameter balls of cookie dough, these baked perfectly in 10-11 minutes. If your cookies are just a little smaller or larger, they might take a bit more or less time.

The cookies are done when the edges are just barely beginning to look golden and the centers are set.

Storing these cookies

This recipe just makes a small batch, so chance are, you won’t be storing them long! They do keep nicely for several days though, if stored in an air-tight container at room temperature, or a little cooler.

a plate of bachelor's button cookies
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Just a few more days until Thanksgiving, can you believe it? This morning on the drive in to school, I actually suggested that we make some hot cocoa and Christmas cookies after school today, and my 9 year old informed me that making Christmas cookies before Thanksgiving simply does not seem appropriate.

Can’t quite argue with that! These ones are a great little cookie for cold weather and cozy afternoons, without being a Christmas cookie, so I think they’ll fit the bill. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Until next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

A plate of Bachelor's Button cookies

Bachelor’s Buttons

These delicious little cookies are sweet and crackly on the outside, soft and light on the inside. From the 1868 Cook Book, Every-Day Cookery For Every Family, this is a lovely old fashioned cookie recipe that's quick and easy to make.
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Servings: 30
Calories: 55kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 2 ounces butter
  • 5 ounces flour
  • 5 ounces sugar
  • 1 ounce sugar for rolling

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 350℉
  • Mix all ingredients into a soft dough
  • Roll into small, 1" diameter balls of dough, and toss in the extra sugar to coat. Place on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet.
  • Bake at 350℉ for 10-11 minutes, until just lightly golden around the edges, and centers set.

Nutrition

Calories: 55kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 14mg | Potassium: 8mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 55IU | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.2mg
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Cranberry Sauce (1845)

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This beloved holiday side dish could not be easier to make. From The New England Economical Housewife, here’s a fail-proof method for delicious cranberry sauce.

cranberry sauce made from an 1845 recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Few side dishes are more truly American than beautiful, ruby-red cranberry sauce. This simple, no-nonsense recipe is pulled from the suggested Thanksgiving Dinner menu in one of my favorite cook books–The New England Economical Housekeeper (1845).

Made without fuss, it’s what folks today would call a “whole berry” style sauce. I find the level of sweetness just right, and this has become my go-to cranberry sauce recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

~ Anna

a dish of old-fashioned cranberry sauce.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


CRANBERRY SAUCE

Wash and stew your cranberries in water; add almost their weight in clean sugar, just before you take them from the fire.

The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

(I’ve included the entire Thanksgiving Dinner menu page for your enjoyment. Cranberry Sauce is the next-to-last recipe on the page.)

a page from an 1800's cook book
The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

It really doesn’t get easier than this! Choose firm, quality cranberries, and you truly can’t go wrong!

Choosing your cranberries

​This is a time to splurge on really good cranberries if you have them available. This year, I’ve found the brand carried by my local grocery chain to be a horrible disappointment.

Not wanting to use the name-brand cranberries again, I went to my small town’s food co-op, and bought a few pounds of locally-grown organic cranberries. Wow, what a difference! I was blown away by the flavor.

Having made this recipe with both mass-market and locally-grown berries, I’d just encourage you to grab the best you can for this recipe, where the flavor of the berries really does shine through.

cranberry sauce in a dish
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much water

A good rule of thumb is to include just enough water that you can see it through the berries. If it comes to the top of the berries in your pan, that’s really more than you want, for a nice thick sauce.

Clean sugar

A good unbleached white sugar is perfect for this.

How much sugar to put in

​“Almost their weight in clean sugar” is certainly open to interpretation, but for myself I find that 8 ounces of sugar to 10 ounces of cranberries is just about perfect. You can always add a bit more sugar if you find that it’s not quite sweet enough for your taste.

Once the berries are stewed nice and soft, go ahead and gently stir it in. Stew gently a little longer, just enough for the sugar to fully melt and incorporate into the sauce. Remove the sauce to a serving dish.

Cranberry sauce being spooned into dishes
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

I love this simple, easy recipe, and find myself making it far more often than just Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cranberry sauce recipes are often found in the old cookbooks listed along with other sauces meant for accompanying meat, and it’s really a nice little touch along with any good roast.

Until next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

Homemade Cranberry Sauce made from an 1800's recipe

Cranberry Sauce (1845)

This classic cranberry sauce is a must on the Thanksgiving table! Perfectly tart and just sweet enough, it's easier than you think to make. From The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845
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Servings: 13
Calories: 77kcal

Ingredients

  • 10 ounces fresh cranberries
  • 8 ounces white sugar
  • 8 ounces water

Instructions

  • "Wash and stew your cranberries in water;
  • Add almost their weight in clean sugar, just before you take them from the fire."

Nutrition

Calories: 77kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.002g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.004g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 18mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 13IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.1mg
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Pumpkin Pie (1845)

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This classic Pumpkin Pie is smooth and custardy, a “rich” pie that was perfect for holiday tables then and now.

A slice of pumpkin pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

This pumpkin pie is smooth and custardy, with a top that’s so glossy it absolutely shines on a holiday dessert sideboard. 

Pumpkin pie has been gracing Thanksgiving tables for a long, long time, and this recipe from 1845 was a “rich” one, by contemporary standards. Made with scalded milk and plenty of eggs, this was a celebratory pie fit for the holidays. 

Squash and pumpkin pies were generally served cool or at room temperature, and especially the rich versions made with lots of milk and eggs (like this one) needed time to properly set before being enjoyed. This is a great recipe to make the day before Thanksgiving. 

Hope you enjoy!

an old fashioned pumpkin pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


PUMPKIN PIE

Take out the seeds and pare the pumpkin; stew, and strain it through a coarse sieve. Take two quarts of scalded milk and eight eggs, and stir your pumpkin into it; sweeten it with sugar or molasses. Salt it, and season with ginger, cinnamon, or grated lemon-peel, to your taste. Bake with a bottom crust. Crackers, pounded fine, are a good substitute for eggs. Less eggs will do.

The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

AN 1800'S RECIPE FOR PUMPKIN PIE
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This pie recipes leaves SO much to both interpretation, and personal preference. 

Here are some notes from my own experience making this, which may be helpful if you give it a go.

An unbaked pie crust
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Scalding the milk

Scalding the milk before making a custard-type pie is a pretty common step in 1800’s recipes. To do this, you’ll take whole milk, gently bring it just barely to the boiling point, and then let it cool again. It doesn’t need to be room temperature before proceeding with the recipe, but shouldn’t still be boiling hot. 

This recipe makes two very large, deep pies, or three standard-depth pies, so if you’re looking to make just one pie, a single quart of milk will be plenty.

How much pumpkin?

For the amount of pumpkin to use, I referenced some other contemporary, and slightly later, cookbooks. A very common wording from pumpkin pie recipes of the era, is to use just enough pumpkin to let it stir around easily. When precise amounts are specified, anywhere from 2 to 4 cups of pumpkin per quart of milk was called for, with more eggs being used in the recipes that called for a higher proportion of milk.

As you might infer from the wording “less eggs will do”, recipes that called for lots of milk and eggs were considered rich. If you couldn’t afford those eight eggs, you could use fewer, and if eggs were just too dear altogether, a pie could be made by thickening it with cracker crumbs.

For this recipe, based on the number of eggs, I went with 2.5 cups of pumpkin, for every quart of milk. 

To make the full recipe exactly as it’s written, that would be about 5 cups of pumpkin, or just a little more. That’s enough for two large, deep pies, or three standard 9 or 10 inch pies. This is a big recipe!

If you’re following the recipe exactly, and stewing the pumpkin yourself, do be sure to drain the pieces of pumpkin very thoroughly before putting them through the sieve, since you don’t want any extra moisture. I used a foley food mill rather than an actual sieve, when preparing my pumpkin, and found that it really worked well. 

An unbaked pumkin pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Can you use canned pumpkin for this recipe?

Absolutely. If you’re not looking to experience every step of this, from pumpkin to table, there’s no reason not to let yourself use canned pumpkin for this. 

I do this often myself, actually. After I’ve tried a historic pumpkin recipe the authentic way, stewing or baking the pumpkin from scratch, if it’s a recipe I love enough to make often, it’s not uncommon for me to just reach for a can of pumpkin to make it easy when re-making the recipe for daily fare. 

There’s a bit of a perceptible difference, since canned pumpkin is so very smooth, but it’s pretty negligible. 

Please don’t skip trying a recipe like this one just because you feel it’s “all or nothing”…if you don’t have time to cook a pumpkin, by all means, grab a couple of cans!

a pumpkin pie surrounded by holly
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much sugar?

I used one cup of white sugar to one quart of milk, and 2.5 cups of stewed pumpkin, for a half batch of this recipe. I based that on referencing other 1800’s pumpkin pie recipes, some of which called for a little more sweetening than this, and many of which called for a little less. Many indicated that since some pumpkins are sweeter than others, personal taste really must be the guide. 

I felt that one cup for a half-batch was just about perfect, and plenty sweet enough. It’s still less sweet than many modern pumpkin pie recipes, though, so if you love a very sweet pumpkin pie, you could bump that up a little. 

The salt and spices

I used half a teaspoon of salt, for a half-batch of this recipe. For spices, I used two teaspoons of cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon of ginger. That’s much less ginger than I usually put in a pumpkin pie, but it did allow the pumpkin flavor to really shine through. The recipe allows so much scope for personal taste with making this! 

Next time around, I’ll be trying the lemon peel, but in the future when I use ginger and cinnamon, I’ll probably opt for my usual heaping teaspoon of ginger and two teaspoons of cinnamon. I really do love a spicy pumpkin pie!

a child's hands rolling out pie crust
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

What kind of crust to use?

I used this Family Pie Paste, from 1873. It’s my usual go-to crust recipe, and works well for both sweet and savory pies.

Baking the pie

Pumpkin pies were generally baked fairly hot if they were being baked by themselves, hotter than an apple pie or other fruit pie. I find that 370° works well, if you want to keep the oven at the same temperature for the entire baking time. 

For a deep 9″ pie, it will take nearly an hour to bake, or perhaps a little more. If you’re finding that your crust is getting a little dark, it’s ok to lower the oven to 350°, for the last half of the baking time. You can also cover that crust with a strip of foil, if you’re concerned about it getting too dark…you can tell that mine got a just a little darker than would have been ideal. Cheap notepaper is what they used in the 1800’s, for covering a crust to prevent over-darkening, if they felt it was necessary.

Modern recipes say that a pumpkin pie is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, and you can certainly do this. 

If you’ve made pumpkin pie before though, you’ll know what I mean when I say that you can tell a pumpkin pie is done, but giving it a little jiggle. If the center is well set, and doesn’t jiggle differently than the areas closer to the crust, the pie is done.

Serving this pumpkin pie

If you really want to be authentic, serve this at room temperature, at least a few hours after it’s made. A pumpkin pie often would have been prepared the day before it was wanted, which really is as convenient today as it was then. Nothing like getting some of the baking out of the way before that turkey needs to go in!

If you’d like to buck tradition and enjoy your pie warm, this is one of those pies that’s much better when it’s been allowed to cool and set, before you re-warm and serve it, rather than freshly warm from being just baked.

A slice of pumpkin pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

One week until Thanksgiving my dear friends. Hard to believe it’s already upon us, but my heart is so ready. Lots to be thankful for this year. 

I hope the holiday magic is starting to find you, and if there are any historic recipes you’d like to make for the holidays, but you haven’t seen here yet, shoot me a line. I’ll try to see what I can do!

Until next time, ~ Anna

This recipe was originally shared in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

a slice of pumpkin pie

Pumpkin Pie (1845)

This classic Pumpkin Pie is smooth and custardy, a "rich" pie that was perfect for holiday tables then and now. From The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845.
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Prep Time: 17 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12
Calories: 216kcal

Ingredients

  • 2.5 cups stewed pumpkin pureed
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 quart milk scalded
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 pie crust for single-crust pie

Instructions

  • (Modern directions for half-batch of original recipe)
  • preheat oven to 370℉
  • Stir pureed pumpkin into scalded milk. Gently whisk in eggs.
  • Stir in sugar and spices until thoroughly mixed.
  • Pour filling into prepared pie plate, lined with single bottom crust.
  • Bake until center is fully set, and crust is golden brown. About 1 hour, or a little more.
  • Cool before slicing and serving.

Notes

Original 1845 Instructions: 
 
Take out the seeds and pare the pumpkin; stew, and strain it through a coarse sieve. Take two quarts of scalded milk and eight eggs, and stir your pumpkin into it; sweeten it with sugar or molasses. Salt it, and season with ginger, cinnamon, or grated lemon-peel, to your taste. Bake with a bottom crust. Crackers, pounded fine, are a good substitute for eggs. Less eggs will do.
​
The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845

Nutrition

Calories: 216kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 112mg | Potassium: 260mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 8152IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 125mg | Iron: 1mg
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Baked Heart (1885)

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This Delicious “Poverty Dinner” Cost 25 Cents in 1885. It’s one of my favorite recipes for preparing beef heart, and is still a frugal dinner recipe today.

a stuffed beef heart
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

One of my very favorite-ever cookbooks is a slim little paperback volume from 1885. It’s called “Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six”, and it was written by Juliet Corson, founder of the New York School of Cookery. 

She had a personal mission to educate the working-class women of New York City, helping them stretch every cent to feed their families well, on the tiniest of budgets. 

This theme feels pretty relevant right now, so I thought I’d share one of my favorite dinners from this little book, “Baked Heart”. 

One thing I especially love about this book, is how Miss Corson painstakingly laid out the cost of each ingredient, for every recipe she shared. 

In 1885, a whole beef heart cost just 10 cents. Where I live, beef heart is still one of the more affordable cuts, even though it’s gone up from $2.28/lb to $3.99/lb over the last couple of years. For grass-fed beef, that’s still pretty affordable, though I miss the old price, for sure. 

This is actually one of the more expensive dinners in the book, using up the full twenty-five cent maximum dinner cost, and it’s the sort of dish that would likely offer leftovers for another meal. 

I used the leftover bits from our baked heart to make an 1800’s casserole called Father Adam. It’s a delicious way to stretch those leftover meat scraps into another meal, and it’s always a favorite with the kids!

~ Anna

a baked stuffed beef heart
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


BAKED HEART
Thoroughly wash a beef’s heart (cost ten cents,) stuff it with half a loaf of stale bread, (cost two cents,) moistened with warm water and seasoned with one teaspoonful of salt, quarter of a teaspoonful each of pepper, chopped parsley and sweet herbs, an onion chopped, and one ounce of sweet drippings (cost of all these two cents;) lay it in a dropping pan with five cents’ worth of parsnips scraped and washed, and bake in a moderate oven about two hours. It may be baked in an earthen jar, like the oxtail stew, and all its goodness will be saved. 
Parsnips are exceedingly nutritious and cheap, but if they are not liked potatoes may be substituted for them. The entire dinner with bread and butter will cost about twenty-five cents.

Twenty-Five Cent Dinners For Families of Six, 1885

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

an old recipe for baked beef heart
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This is such an easy dinner, it doesn’t take much explaining. Here are a few notes that might be helpful, though.

Sourcing a Beef Heart

If you have a good butcher counter at your grocery store, you might be able to get your hands on a nice beef heart just by asking. In my experience, whole beef heart isn’t something that’s generally available with the usual selection of cuts. 

A better bet might be to check the local farm stands and butcher shops. Often they have wonderful, pastured beef and sometimes the organ meats and “cheap cuts” can be quite a lot less costly than what you’d pay at the store.

That loaf of bread

Any bread that you have on hand will work just fine. You’ll want about 2-3 cups of loose bread crumbs for this stuffing.

unmixed stuffing ingredients
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Those sweet herbs

In addition to the parsley, the recipe calls for sweet herbs. Thyme, summer savory, and sweet marjoram, would all be great options. You can tell I went way overboard with the parsley this time around. I was a little absentminded, getting dinner on quickly, and I really do love parsley!

The sweet drippings

In a frugal 1800’s household, nothing gets wasted, so if you had any leftover drippings from other meat dishes you’d made in the day or two prior to baking this recipe, you’d have saved those and would use that for making the stuffing. 

Other contemporary cook books generally ofter the suggestion of butter as a substitute for drippings, if you don’t have any available, and that works very well here. If I’m substituting butter, I use about 2 tablespoons, melted. 

You won’t see that suggestion in this cookbook, because butter was a costly ingredient that needed to be used sparingly, while drippings were a frugal leftover, just waiting to be incorporated into another meal, like this one.

a baked beef heart surrounded by parsnips
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How hot should the oven be?

I find that about 325° F works well, and matches the cooking time of “about two hours”. The benefit to the slightly low cooking temperature, is that the parsnips bake thoroughly and are done at the same time as the heart.

What’s with the paper in the pictures?

I often compare similar recipes from other 1800’s cookbooks, and many of the other baked stuffed heart recipes call for tying up the heart, and putting a piece of paper over the open end to keep the stuffing in. 

This recipe does not use a bit of string or paper, since there wasn’t an extra penny to spend on things that weren’t strictly necessary. Having made this a few times though, I do like tying up the heart with a bit of parchment paper, to help keep the stuffing inside as it bakes.

a baked stuffed beef heart
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How to serve it

I love following guidance of the recipe, and serving it with parsnips and homemade bread. You can easily slice the heart cross-wise to serve it in slices, along with a portion of that lovely stuffing. 

I like to thicken the drippings from the baking dish by simmering them with a little flour, to make a nice gravy to go with it. And if you make Father Adam with the leftover beef, any leftover gravy will come in handy!

a slice of beef heart and stuffing with gravy on a pewter plate
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Beef heart isn’t a favorite with everyone, and the texture can take a little getting used to. I love it though, and really enjoy this way of preparing it. If you give it a try, I hope you like it as much as I do!

In other news, I’ve been trying something new this week. Is anybody on TikTok? I started an account, and have been working on learning how to make videos. If you’re over there, please come find me, I’d be grateful for the follow! 

I think I’ve successfully embedded one of my videos below, but you can also find me here. Feel free to go vote on what we should make next…a baked Apple Pudding, or Brown Betty!

Until next time, ~ Anna

@the1800shousewife

Which 1868 dessert should we make? A baked Apple Pudding, or Brown Betty? Well, let me know what she would choose in the comments below, and I’ll make the one that gets the most votes! #BakeWithMe #foryoupage #fyp #recipetok #1800s

♬ Folk Acoustic – Evgeny

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! Until next time, ~ Anna

This recipe was originally shared in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Potatoes in Cases (1876)

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This delicious potato recipe is easy to make, and really dresses up a simple spud as a lovely side dish.

baked potato on a place
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

I’ve been making so many 1800’s recipes lately, that I’ve built up a bit of a backlog of favorites I’d like to share with you. Usually I publish recipes first to the weekly newsletter, but I’m going to start putting some of these right on the website, so can stay on a roll and not forget to share some of these gems with you.

Feel free to let me know what you think of this…I know many of you love getting the full recipes right to your inbox, and you appreciate knowing you never miss a recipe. Maybe I should go back to sending the newsletter more than once a week? If you’ve got thoughts on this, let me know in the comments or via email–I love knowing what works best for you all!

This recipe is an easy, timeless one. It’s a simple little potato side dish, that’s an old fashioned version of what many people now think of as “twice baked potatoes”. Don’t skimp on the butter, that’s what makes them so magical!

~ Anna

a baked potato on a pewter plate with antique knife and fork
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


POTATOES IN CASES

The following is an exceedingly nice way of serving baked potatoes. Bake potatoes of equal size, and when done, and still hot, cut off a small piece from each potato; scoop out carefully the inside, leaving the skin unbroken; mash the potato well, seasoning it with plenty of butter, pepper, and salt; return it with a spoon to the potato skin, allowing it to protrude about an inch above the skin. When enough skins are filled, use a fork or knife to make rough the potato which projects above the skin; put all into the oven a minute to color the tops. It is better, perhaps, to color them with a salamander. They will have the appearance of baked potatoes burst open.

Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, 1876

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

An 1800's recipe for potatoes in cases
From Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, 1876. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

Don’t you just love it when these old cook books include an illustration of the recipe? It was fun to have that visual inspiration of “what to go for”, as I was making these!

It’s really such a simple little recipe, with great instructions, but here are a few cooking notes that might help if you make this recipe yourself.

Baking those potatoes

This cookbook is very no nonsense with the directions for baking potatoes, which precede this recipe in the book. “Put them into a hot oven and bake until tender.”

Personally, unless I’m baking potatoes along with another dish that requires a different baking temperature, I bake them at 350ºF, having washed and pierced them just once with a fork. Don’t go crazy poking holes in your potatoes, out of fear they’ll explode in the oven.

This doesn’t happen often, and having a bunch of little holes in your potatoes is really going to make it harder to nicely scoop out the inside, and replace them beautifully once mashed.

Medium sized potatoes take nearly an hour, or a little more, to fully bake. I like to start checking on them at about 45 minutes, and keep a close eye until they’re nicely tender when poked with a fork.

Scooping out the “cases”

You’ll want to let the potatoes sit a moment once you take them out of the oven, or you’ll end up with burned fingers. Once they’ve cooled just enough to handle, you can slice a piece off the top, and then hollow them out.

One thing I found was that also taking a very tiny bit off the bottom helped the potatoes to stand upright, like the illustration shows. The instructions don’t specify to do this, but after much trial and error I found this really does help, with getting that picture perfect result, so the potatoes don’t topple once they’re filled.

For scooping out the potatoes, I’ve found that my smallest ice tea spoon works beautifully for hollowing them out. It’s easier to carefully hollow them out, without breaking the skins, using a small spoon rather than a big one.

mashed potatoes being mixed in a bowl
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much butter, salt, and pepper to use.

This is all going to be a matter of personal preference, but I do take those instructions to use “plenty of butter” to heart, when making these. Personally, I allow 2-3 teaspoons of butter for each medium-sized potato. When using salted butter, it doesn’t take much additional salt to nicely season the mashed filling, but

I always think it’s a good idea to sample the mashed potato as you’re seasoning it to taste, to make sure you’ve got it just how you like it. Plenty of freshly-ground pepper is indispensable in my opinion, but again, season this how your family likes it!

1800's "potatoes in cases" ready to go in the oven
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Browning the potatoes

The directions say to put them into the oven again to color the tops, but then also adds, “It is better, perhaps, to color them with a salamander.”

If you’ve never seen the kitchen device called a salamander, this page from Miss Corson’s Practical American Cookery and Household Management (1885) is a perfect introduction.

a page from Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management which shows the use of a kitchen salamander
Photo Credit: Public Domain. You can read this entire title over at Internet Archive.

While modern salamanders do exist, most of us aren’t lucky enough to have one. We do, however, have that magical “Broil” setting on our ovens, and that’s what I found worked best for this recipe.

a baked "potatoes in cases" on a pewter plate
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

I did try both methods for browning the tops, baking and broiling. The broiling really did work well to quickly add some color and crispness to the tops of the potatoes, without taking a long time, and giving the potatoes a chance to toughen up. It only takes a minute, so watch them carefully.

A baked potato with an antique fork
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

That’s really all there is to this simple, yet dressed-up, side dish. They don’t take much more work than a regular baked potato, but feel a little extra special.

I’ve been making more little every day dishes like this, so lots more simple side dishes and vegetables coming to the site soon. We love those cake and dessert recipes, but real food is fun too!

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! Until next time, ~ Anna

This recipe was originally shared in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Ginger Cake (1877)

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Here’s an absolutely delectable Ginger Cake recipe that I‘ve been so eager to share with you. It’s like a soft molasses cookie and a pan of spicy Gingerbread had a baby, and then it grew up to be the queen of fall cake recipes. It’s really SO good!

an old fashioned ginger cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

This particular cake is one of my absolute favorite recipes I’ve made this fall. The texture is just nicely moist, and the spice is just right front and center with each bite, which is exactly what I love in a good spice cake. Since we’re a small family of three, I usually share any cakes we make with friends and neighbors, but I’m only a little ashamed to say that the kids and I polished off this entire cake ourselves, over the course of three days, and then we mourned that it was gone.

I can testify that this cake is delicious with both breakfast and after-school teatime, and makes a wonderfully cozy dessert with a nice dollop of fresh whipped cream. The 1856 Soft Gingerbread recipe I usually reach for may have competition now, for go-to gingerbread dessert!

~ Anna

a ginger cake being sliced with a knife
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


GINGER CAKE
Mrs. Howe
Three eggs, three-quarters of a cup of sugar, one cup of molasses, one cup of milk, three-quarters of a cup of butter, one teaspoon of soda, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, one tablespoonful of ginger, one of cinnamon, allspice, three cups of flour.

The Home Cook Book, 1877

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

an 1800's recipe for ginger cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

The directions for this cake recipe aren’t particularly detailed, but at least it does tell us how much flour to use, which isn’t always something you can count on in these 1800’s recipes.

Here are a few notes that might help if you make this recipe yourself.

Combining the ingredients

The usual guidance for cake making during this era called for creaming the butter and sugar together first. The butter should be soft, but not melted.

Even if you weren’t making a spice cake, it was “how things were done” with cake making, to separate your eggs, and add the yolks after the milk or cream. The whites were to be beaten separately and added with the flour. Spices and flavorings or alcohol were put in after the yolks and before the flour. Even though this was the accepted order for mixing, it was fairly common for ingredients to be listed in different orders.

For this recipe, I followed the usual guidance for cake mixing, so started by creaming the butter and sugar, mixing in the egg yolks, and then stirred in the molasses and milk. I combined the flour, spices, cream of tartar, and soda, then added this dry mixture at the same time as my whipped egg whites.

a spicy ginger cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much allspice?

When a volume isn’t listed for an ingredient, like the allspice in this recipe, it sometimes means that we’re supposed to assume the same volume as the previous ingredient (in this case one Tablespoon like the ginger and cinnamon), or it can mean to use your own judgement. Since allspice wasn’t generally used in the same volume as nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon, I decided to go with 1 teaspoon for the allspice, and liked how that turned out.

What kind of pan to use.

This recipe makes enough batter to correctly fill a standard bundt pan or two loaf pans. A square pan with a center hole would also be an ideal option, if you’re lucky enough to have one. This was a much more popular shape in the 1800’s than it is now!

Bundt pans in their current form didn’t start showing up widely in American kitchens until the early decades of the 20th century, but if you’re not going for strict historical accuracy, they do work well. I had just scored this “braided wreath” ring pan in a free pile from our local thrift store, and was itching to use it, so let myself throw historical accuracy to the wind, when choosing a pan for baking this cake.

a ginger cake in a bundt shape
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How hot should the oven be?

I baked this cake at 350° F, and found that worked well.

How long to bake this cake

At 350°, in one circular pan with a center hole, this cake took about 50 minutes to bake. If you opt for another type of can pan, or two smaller pans, you may want to start checking for done-ness by about 40 minutes or so.

The cake is done with a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. (Or use a new broom straw, if you’d really like to be historically accurate!)

Should this cake be frosted?

I’m still learning, when it comes to 1800’s conventions around frosting cakes. Some types of cake, like dense fruit cakes made with brandy or wine, were typically frosted with a hard frosting made of egg whites and sugar. They kept well, and were often made well before they were wanted.

Other cakes, like tea cakes and sponge cakes, were more delicate and likely to be served without the stiff layer of frosting, but instead with a light dusting of sugar.

One cake recipe that I came across recently stated that if the cake were being served for tea, to frost it. For dessert, it should be strewn with sugar.

Soft gingerbread was usually served in squares, and was not frosted. For this cake, since it bears such a resemblance in taste and texture to a nice rich gingerbread, I decided to dust the top with sugar to dress up the appearance, and serve it without frosting.

It was so enjoyable this way, I really can’t suggest frosting it, and do think a crunchy layer of frosting would do nothing but detract from the lovely taste and texture of the cake. If you do want to frost the cake, you can find a contemporary frosting recipe with this Philadelphia Loaf Cake.

If you don’t mind a completely anachronistic frosting pairing though, I can imagine that a modern cream cheese frosting might actually be delicious with it. For my part though, I think it’s pretty hard to beat a warm slice of this, served with nothing more than a bit of sweetened whipped cream. It’s a perfect dessert for any fall evening!

a slice of ginger cake with whipped cream
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

I know that many of you enjoy following along with this newsletter, just for the pure interest of learning about historical recipes. “I’m hear to read, not bake”, one subscriber told me the other day. And I absolutely love that!

If you’re looking for just one easy recipe to try this fall though, I’d suggest this as a great option, that’s sure to be enjoyed by everyone lucky enough to get a slice!

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! Until next time, ~ Anna

This recipe was originally shared in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Plum Catsup (1894)

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This 1894 plum catsup is my new favorite condiment. Sweet, tangy, and warmly spiced, it goes with everything!

plum catsup on meat
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

It Several weeks ago, I made up a big batch of this plum catsup. Ever since, I have been putting it on absolutely everything. Beef, lamb, pork, chicken…you name it. If it’s meat, I’m putting plum catsup on it. 

I had debated just making a small trial batch, rather than the full amount listed in the recipe, which calls for 6 pounds of plums. Plum catsup sounds more like a fun oddity to try, after all. I didn’t envision it as a must-have basic sauce that goes with everything. Thank goodness, I made the whole batch, because I’ve also been giving it away to all of my friends. As I type this, I now actually have an entire second batch simmering on the stove!

It’s a little bit sweet, a little bit tangy, and warmly spiced, so it feels cozy and flavorful for this time of year. The other day we had unseasonably warm weather though, and I made burgers on the grill for a last taste of summer. This catsup complemented burgers wonderfully too. 

I don’t lightly throw around the word “obsessed”, but my one of my kids has recently added this to his vocabulary, and according to him–“Mom is obsessed with this sauce.” 

Make of that what you will, but if you’ve got plums on hand and like a good old fashioned sauce with your meat, by all means do make this plum catsup!

~ Anna

plum catsup on ribs
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife


PLUM CATSUP

Put in a preserving kettle six pounds of plums, three and one-half pounds of sugar, and one quart vinegar; boil until the plums are reduced to a pulp; cool and press through a sieve, then add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice to taste. Put up in glass jelly cups.

The Century Cook Book and Home Physician, 1894

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

An 1800's recipe for plum catsup
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

Isn’t that cook book page beautiful, with all of the illustrations? I just love it.

What kind of vinegar should you use?

This recipe doesn’t say what kind of vinegar to use, but other condiment recipes of the era commonly did specify either apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar. Often they’d use language like the, “best apple vinegar” or “good white vinegar”.

I went with Bragg’s raw apple cider vinegar for this recipe, and it was perfect.

plums in a cooking pot
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Pressing through a sieve

The easiest way to do this is with a food mill. It’s a bit anachronistic, but I love my 1940’s Foley food mill, and that’s what I used for this. If you truly want to be historic, you can pass the plum pulp through a good loose-mesh sieve, by stirring it through with a wooden spoon.

The spices

I used one tablespoon of cinnamon, and one of cloves, two teaspoons of nutmeg, and one teaspoon of allspice. This is a really good jumping off point, and if you love warm spices, you may find that you want to bump up the spice even a little more than this.

plums cooking in a pot
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Can you can this catsup?

The right answer here is that you should only can modern, safety-tested recipes, like those from the Ball Blue Book, and the ​National Center for Home Food Preservation. 

The longer, honest answer is that I did end up canning the catsup from this recipe. I do not always feel comfortable canning 1800’s condiment or jam recipes for long term storage. In this particular case though, I did feel comfortable doing that, because this recipe is so similar to other tested Plum Preserves recipes from the NCHFP, and the Ball Blue Book, with the addition of that vinegar which further acidifies the end product, something that allows foods to more safely be processed for long term preservation. 

I went with the longest processing time for a similar recipe, which was 10 minutes in a boiling water canner, in half-pint jars. 

To be clear though, please don’t let me sway you on issues of food safety here, nor encourage you to can a recipe that was written long before modern canning safety standards were established.

This recipe exactly as written has not been safety tested by any official food safety organization, for long term storage.

plum catsup being spooned onto meat
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

My daughter is asking me to try the elderberry catsup, and grape catsup recipes next. I’ll let you know how that goes!

In the meantime, I’ve got an absolutely delectable Ginger Cake recipe that I can’t wait to share with you. It’s like a soft molasses cookie and a pan of spicy Gingerbread had a baby, and then it grew up to be the queen of fall cake recipes. It’s really good!

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! Until next time, ~ Anna

This recipe was originally shared in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Philadelphia Loaf Cake (1858)

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This loaf cake is flavored with both brandy and wine, and is such a lovely treat to share with company.

1858 Philadelphia Loaf Cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Today’s recipe is such a tasty one! If you were a housekeeper in the 1800’s, this is the sort of cake you’d make on baking day, then stash in the pantry to have on hand. It was considered wise housekeeping to always have something nice on hand that you could bring out, in case of unexpected guests. 

Cakes made with brandy, and frosted with the quintessential hard frosting of the era, were famous for “keeping” well…for days, weeks, or according to some recipes, months!

Now, you know how seriously I take this historical recipe project, so you may be wondering if I have tried keeping cake for months.

I have not. 

However, I DID bake two loaves when I made this recipe, and while we devoured one immediately, I hid the other away for three weeks to test how well cakes of this sort actually keep. 

It needed to be done. In the name of understanding history, and all. 

After three weeks, I found that the flavor had deepened, and felt more complex (according to my notes and memory, anyway). The texture was amazingly the same. That hard crust of frosting had completely prevented it from drying out, and the crumb was remarkably similar to the loaf I’d sliced right after it was made and cooled.

There was not a speck of mold, no stringiness to the texture, and no sour taste…all things one might suspect when sampling a three week old loaf of cake. 

Now, I’m not suggesting you make this cake and wait weeks before serving it, but I am suggesting you give it a try and let yourself partake right away. It’s a wonderful, old-fashioned cake to try, aged or otherwise. 

~ Anna

Philadelphia Loaf Cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


PHILADELPHIA LOAF CAKE

One and a half pounds of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, three eggs, three tea spoonfuls of cream of tartar, one and half of soda, a cup of sweet milk, a wine-glass of wine, the same quantity of brandy, a pound and a half of seeded raisins, a quarter of an ounce of pounded mace, or a couple of nutmegs, and add, if you like, a little cloves or cinnamon. 
Stir to a cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, previously beaten to a froth, part of the flour, the brandy, and wine. 
Dissolve the soda in the milk, and strain it into the mixture, then put in the rest of the flour, and spice. Stir the whole together three or four minutes, then add the cream f tartar; when thoroughly mixed with the other ingredients, put in the fruit, and bake it immediately in buttered pans.

The Kitchen Directory and American Housewife, 1858

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

an 1800s recipe for Philadelphia loaf cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife
an 1858 recipe for Philadelphia Loaf Cake
Photo Credit: The 1800s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

The directions for this cake recipe are unusually detailed for the era, so there’s not much need for baking notes from me this time around. I also somehow neglected to take ANY process photos from baking this cake, my apologies for that!

I do have just a few notes that might help if you’d like to make this cake yourself:

What is “sweet milk”?

I often forget to clarify this term when it shows up in a recipe, and when I do, I get quite a few emails asking what is this sweet milk? “Is it sweetened condensed milk?”, many wonder. 

It’s actually just regular fresh milk that hasn’t soured yet. Because it was very common to bake with sour milk in the 1800’s, many recipes specified “sour milk” or “sweet milk”. Sour milk provided an acidity that made cream of tartar unnecessary, for the baking soda to properly react and allow the cake to rise. 

If you used sour milk, you were supposed to omit the cream of tartar, so it was helpful to have it specified whether the milk should be fresh (sweet milk), or soured. You can go ahead and use the regular milk in your fridge for this recipe. 

How much is a “wine glass”?

Over the course of the 1800’s, the size of “a glass of wine” slowly increased from about 3.4 ounces, to about 5.4 ounces. There are many interesting articles that mention this shift, but ​this is one of my favorites​ if you’d like to read more. 

4 ounces is good volume to use, when a “wine glass” is specified. 

For this recipe, I used fairly inexpensive French Brandy, and a mid-grade organic red wine that I had an open bottle of. 

Philadelphia Loaf Cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

The spices

I used two freshly grated nutmegs, and ½ teaspoon of cloves for this recipe. If you don’t have fresh nutmegs to grate, this works out to about 4 or 5 teaspoons of pre-ground nutmeg. If I were opting for mace, and didn’t have a kitchen scale that could measure small amounts like ¼ of an ounce, I’d go for 4 teaspoons of pre-ground mace, or a little less if you don’t love spice.

Buttering that cake pan

By all means do grease your loaf pans well. This recipe makes two nice large loaves. (If your loaf pans are on the petite side, I’d suggest dividing the batter among three pans). 

Many cook books of the era exhort the baker to properly prepare pans by both buttering and then flouring the pans. As an experiment, I buttered one loaf pan, and buttered and floured the other. 

The loaf in the pan that was both buttered and floured turned out more cleanly, with less “teasing”, than the loaf in the butter-only pan. 

While this recipe only specifies buttering the pan, and you may want to do that for the sake of following this particular recipe to a “T”, do know that buttering and flouring was also authentic to this era, so please don’t feel like you’re cheating if you’d like to also flour the pan, to ensure a cleaner turning-out of the loaves. 

philadelphia loaf cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How hot should the oven be?

I baked these cakes at 350° F, and found that worked well.

How long to bake this cake

At 350°, in two loaf pans, these cakes cooked in about 55 minutes. I’d suggest starting to check them at 45 minutes, and keeping an eye on them until a toothpick (or fresh broom straw, if you want to be authentic!), comes out clean when inserted in the center.

How should this cake be frosted?

Cakes of this nature were generally frosted, with a hard icing made of egg whites and sugar. I followed this recipe below, from the same cookbook as this Philadelphia Loaf Cake recipe.

an 1800's frosting recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Flowers and greenery were common, simple embellishments when serving a cake, so I brought in the last few pansies from the garden to dress this up when we served it. Roses and rose petals are also authentic embellishments, if you want to add “a little something” when serving your cake.

a plate with cake crumbs
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

We enjoyed this cake so much, it’s almost right up there with my favorite ​Clove Cake​ recipe (that’s a hard one to top!). 

Yesterday I made a big batch of hop yeast, so we’ll have some old fashioned bread and raised donuts coming up in the near future. 

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! Until next time, ~ Anna

This recipe was originally shared in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Ginger Snaps ( c. Mid 1800s)

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These deliciously crisp and spicy Ginger Snaps are an absolute treat. Made following a recipe found in a very old manuscript recipe book, this is a classic cookie that everyone still adores today.

a plate of ginger snaps from an 1800's recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Today’s recipe is a special one. I’m very fortunate to sometimes get the opportunity to work with handwritten manuscript recipe books. This delicious recipe for ginger snaps that I’m sharing today, comes from one of these unique volumes. 

The tricky thing about manuscript volumes, is that they can be hard to date with precision. Now and then, an author might put a date and attribution by a recipe, or inscribe their name and a date at the beginning of the volume. Sometimes you’ll find a clipped recipe pinned or pasted into the book, and that might have a date on it. 

Other times, we have to rely on more subtle clues, like the ingredients, or style of recipes included. For example, a volume that regularly uses hartshorn or ammonia for leavening, may be from the earlier half of the nineteenth century, rather than later on, when soda and baking powder were the common rising agents. Likewise, a volume that contains many puddings, but few cakes, might reflect an earlier date. 

Multiple recipes calling for canned oysters, on the other hand, would hint at a date toward the waning decades of the 1800’s. 

All that to say, I can’t give you an exact date for today’s recipe. I can say that just a few pages over from this cookie recipe, is a remedy for Cholera which calls for opium, an ingredient that became more expensive and regulated starting in 1890–so that’s interesting. Based on the ink, paper, ingredients, and the recipes included, I’d venture to say this is quite likely a late-middle 1800’s collection of recipes. 

What I can tell you with absolute certainty, though, is that this is a darn tasty old-fashioned recipe for Ginger Snaps, and you can’t go wrong by making up a batch.

ginger snaps on a plate
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


GINGER SNAPS

1 cup sugar, 1 molasses, 1 lard & butter, 2 spoons ginger, 1 soda, salt
Heat sugar, molasses, butter & lard to boiling, stir in ginger and soda while hot, mix stiff.

~ Unattributed Manuscript Recipe Book

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

a handwritten recipe for ginger snaps
Unattributed Manuscript Recipe Book, from a private collection.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife, All Rights Reserved.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

What a fun recipe this was to make! My nine year old son absolutely loves any type of cookie baking that requires rolling out dough, so he was my right hand in the kitchen for this project. 

Here are a few notes from our afternoon spent making these. We tried many different variables, carefully taking notes on what worked best.

ginger snaps on a tray
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

What type of lard to use

If you’ve never worked with lard, it’s a smooth, pure white fat that results from boiling down and filtering raw fat from a pig.

If you can, the best lard for baking is almost always going to be some that you render yourself, since most lard in grocery stores is hydrogenated and/or has stabilizers added. (If you’ve never tried it, rendering your own lard is honestly easy. Choose leaf lard to work with if you can, but fatback works fine too.)

Thankfully, it’s also getting much easier to find pre-rendered lard directly from farm stands and farmer’s markets now as well. Chances are you can find a source by asking around a bit. Good lard is a nice staple to have for 1800’s cooking!

Back to our recipe…the assumed measurement here is one cup. (There are other places throughout the book where the author omits the unit of measurement when that unit is that same as for the previous ingredient, so we can be pretty certain on this.) We used one half cup of lard, and one half cup of unsalted butter, for that total of one cup.

Can you use all butter?

I believe that would probably turn out just fine. I’ve substituted all butter when making gingerbread recipes that call for half lard, half butter, and the result has been lovely. 

While I haven’t tried it with this cookie recipe, I expect it would be a perfectly fine substitute if you can’t get your hands on some high quality lard.

boiling butter and molasses
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How long should it boil?  

I found that just boiling the sugar, molasses, lard, and butter, for a few minutes worked well. Bringing it all up to a well-incorporated boil seems to be the point here, rather than getting it to a certain temperature or viscosity.

BE PREPARED FOR THIS STEP

We followed the directions exactly, and added the ginger and soda while the mixture was still hot. 

Whoa, NELLIE. 

If I’d stopped to think about what to expect, I would have known the mixture would immediately rise and bubble up. If you’ve ever made old fashioned peanut brittle, you know. 

However, I was absentmindedly thinking about how much salt to put in (a pinch is perfect), as I stirred in the ginger and soda. 

Make sure your pan has plenty of headroom if you’re mixing the dough right in the pan you use for boiling. (And there’s no reason you shouldn’t, as far as I see.) 

OR, pour the boiling mixture into a large bowl with plenty of room, and then add the soda and ginger. As you add it, stir continually until it settles down. This doesn’t take long, but if you stir it in and walk away, it could rise enough to flow over the side, and you’d have a sticky mess on your hands.

boiling molasses and butter
That mixture will bubble up the moment you stir in the ginger and baking soda.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much flour

3 cups of flour seemed to be the perfect amount, to “mix stiff”. 

Having made a very similar recipe and experimented with this before, I have found that the result of mixing in your flour when the mixture is hot, differs from mixing in the flour once the mixture has cooled down. Letting it cool down first gave a better result, so that’s what we did here as well.

It doesn’t need to fully come to room temperature, but I do feel that waiting to add the flour until the mixture is no longer boiling hot, helps result in a better finished cookie.

a little hand cutting out chigger snap dough
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How thin is thin?

Now, this recipe does not at all specify how thick to roll the dough, but many contemporary Ginger Snaps recipes say to roll the dough thin. 

We did so much experimenting with this recipe! We found that our favorite cookies came from dough that was rolled a little less than ¼″ thick. 

Yes, my children and I are kitchen nerds. (Those apples do not fall far from this tree!) In our opinion, 3/16″ thick dough really does make a perfect cookie, for this recipe.

What size cookie cutter to use?

You really can cut these however you like, adjusting the bake time to get the right results. 

We found that using a cutter 1.5″ in diameter gave nice, crispy cookies, that cooked evenly.

ginger snap dough with a cookie cutter
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How hot should the oven be?

Again, we have no instruction here, but most similar recipes of the era call for a “hot oven”, or a “quick oven”. I went with 375°F, and this is what I’d recommend. Much hotter than that, and you end up with a cookie that tastes like scorched molasses, by the time they reach a level of “done-ness” that allows them to remain lightly crisp once they’ve cooled.

How long to bake them

This is all going to depend on how thick you roll your dough, and how large you cut your cookies. 

For us, with 3/16″ thick dough (scant ¼″ if that feels easier), cut in 1.5″ rounds, we found that 8 minutes at 375°F gave us the perfect cookie. 

With a thin cookie like this, even a minute makes a noticeable difference, so I recommend doing a quick test batch to dial in your timing. Once you’ve found the perfect amount of time, trust it and go with that. This recipe makes quite a lot of cookies, so getting into assembly line mode works well!

a plate of ginger snaps
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Wow, leave it to me to turn the shortest recipe yet, into the longest article! It’s good to be back to experimenting in the kitchen, and I hope I didn’t overwhelm you with too many cooking notes on this one!

These cookies turned out well-flavored and pleasingly crisp, and they hold up nicely to being transported and shared around at school. They’re definitely worth a try, if you like crispy, old-fashioned ginger snaps.

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

a plate of ginger snaps

Ginger Snaps (Mid 1800’s)

These delicious little Ginger Snaps are so tasty, and so old fashioned. Made from an unattributed manuscript cook book, this is such a special recipe!
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Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 9 minutes
Servings: 60 cookies
Calories: 66kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup molasses
  • ½ cup butter
  • ½ cup lard
  • 2 teaspoons ginger
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 3 cups flour

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 375℉
  • Heat sugar, molasses, butter, and lard, to boiling, in a pan with lots of room
  • Stir in ginger and soda while hot, stir until mixture stops rising
  • Stir in flour until well mixed.
  • Roll dough on floured board, about 3/16" thick
  • Cut into shapes. I like a 1" diameter round cookie cutter for this recipe.
  • Bake for about 8 minutes, until done. Adjust time as necessary, based on size and thickness of cookies.
  • Allow to fully cool before storing in an airtight container.

Nutrition

Calories: 66kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 33mg | Potassium: 90mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 62IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 14mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

Peach Pie (1894)

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This richly flavorful pie is a perfect way to celebrate peach season. It’s an easy one to make, and sure to please!

A peach pie made from an 1800's recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

I’ve been away from this website, and out of my kitchen, for quite some time this summer. I’ve missed sharing “new” old recipes with you, and it’s so good to be getting back to it!

Some newsletter subscribers might remember from my last email, that I was about to go in for surgery. In a nutshell, that surgery did not go as planned. Life-threatening complications and a prolonged hospital stay were most definitely not on my agenda for August, but life does love to dish up the unexpected, doesn’t it? 

It’s now a slow road to recovery, but my two amazing kids have been helping far past their “pay grade”. When my 11 year old walked in after staying with her grandparents during my hospitalization, she announced that she was “taking over the kitchen–dishes AND cooking!”. 

Today’s recipe is a testament to that, and was a delicious choice for her foray into pie-making. It comes from a lovely 1894 copy of The Century Cook Book and Home Physician, by Dr. N.T. Oliver (not to be confused with another 1800’s volume by a similar name, The Century Cook Book, by Mary Ronald.)

One thing that intrigued us about this particular recipe was the addition of butter, which I’ve never seen added to a peach pie before. The result was just wonderful, with a “rounder” mouth feel, and really did justice to the beautifully ripe peaches from our backyard tree. 

If you’re looking for a special weekend recipe, and peaches are still in season where you are, this would be a lovely one to try!

an apple pie from an 1845 apple pie recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


FRUIT PIES

Rub the plates or tins on which they are to be baked with a very little butter; roll the crust out thin, line the plate, and put in the fruit, being careful not to put in too much, as that would cause the pie to run over. Sweeten to taste, and if the fruit is juicy, stir a little flour through it before putting it in the crust.
Berries, cherries, gooseberries rhubarb, plums, etc., do not need any seasoning, except sugar. Apple and peach pies are improved by placing bits of butter on the fruit before putting on the upper crust.
The edge of under crust should be wet with a little flour and water before putting on the upper crust. Pies should be baked in a moderate oven, the usual time being from forty to sixty minutes.

The Century Cook Book and Home Physician, 1894

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

From The Century Cook Book and Home Physician, 1894. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This was an easy recipe, and a fun one to make. Here are a few notes from our process, that you might find helpful.

a peach pie in an antique pie plate
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

What crust recipe to use?

We used our go-to “Family Pie Paste” recipe from 1873. This is an excellent all-around pie crust recipe that works well for either sweet or savory pies, and it has a wonderful, flaky texture. 

One batch is enough for both the top and bottom crust of this peach pie.

an unbaked apple pie from an 1800's apple pie recipe
I used the same “Family Pie Paste” recipe for this 1845 Apple Pie recipe last winter. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How many peaches do you need?

I usually would have measured and weighed the amount of peaches, to give you a more precise estimate, but I’m just not back to my full self yet, and didn’t. 

Following the directions to not over-fill, we sliced peaches until we had enough to fill my 10″ antique pie plate, even with the top edge of the plate. This used about 12 medium-small peaches from the Reliance peach tree in our backyard.

a child's hands rolling out pie crust
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Flour, or no flour?

Our peaches were ripe, but not over-ripe. As the baker of the pie, I left it to my 11 year old, to interpret whether she felt our fruit was “juicy” and in need of flour. 

She opted for no flour, which is the decision I would have made as well. You can see that it resulted in a slightly juicy pie, and that’s exactly how I’d make it again. If you have extra-juicy peaches or like a less-juicy pie, I’d opt for just a little flour–even 1 Tablespoon dredged among the slices would be enough to thicken it up.

a slice of peach pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much sugar?

My little baker went with 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the result was wonderful. Our peaches were sweet and ripe, so that was truly plenty. 

If your peaches aren’t very sweet, or are just barely ripe, you may want to bump that up a little.

How much butter?

She used unsalted butter, and dotted a scant 2 tablespoons of it over the peach slices. I think that was perfect, and enough to make a perceptible difference in the flavor and mouthfeel of the pie, without making it at all greasy or heavy tasting.

an unbaked peach pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Putting on the upper crust

A pastry brush would be a great way to brush a little water along the edge of that bottom crust, but not having one at the time, she just dipped her finger in a little water and moistened the crust, before sprinkling a very little flour on it. 

This worked just fine, and that extra step of dampening the edge before placing the top crust, certainly did seal the top and bottom crusts nicely.

A peach pie made from an 1800's recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How hot should the oven be?

For a “moderate oven” I’ve found over time that going with 340°F usually gives me the desired result, in the correct amount of time given, in recipes from this era. 

At 340°F, in a 10″ pie plate, ours took the full 60 minutes of the “forty to sixty minutes” specified, and came out beautifully. 

You could absolutely bump that temperature up to a more usual 350°F, if you’d rather though, and start checking for done-ness closer to the 40 minute mark. 

I’ve made pies using this all-butter crust many times at 350°F, and it bakes nicely at that temperature without scorching, so I wouldn’t hesitate to go with that oven setting next time. 

This was a delicious use for fresh peaches, and I think we’re going to have to make a yearly tradition of it!

a half-eaten peach pie
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

I do hope you’ve been well, dear reader…I’ve certainly missed sharing recipes here in the newsletter. Several of you sent the kindest emails while I was MIA, and I’m still catching up on responding. Please know how much each of those notes means–truly more than you know!

While spending my days confined to the couch, I did have lots of time to read through my old cookbooks, so I’ve got a long list of recipes I can’t wait to try as I get back into the kitchen. One day at a time!

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! With joy and gratitude, ~ Anna

This recipe was originally shared in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Blackberry Cordial (1871)

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This delicious alcoholic remedy is worth getting sick for! Made with sweetened fresh blackberry juice, spices, and brandy, it’s worth making just as a special treat.

a bottle of blackberry cordial
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Do you remember the passage in Anne of Green Gables, where the girls are allowed to enjoy some raspberry cordial for a special treat, but Anne accidentally serves Diana currant wine instead, with regrettable results?

Gosh I love that book. Well, ever since reading it as a child, I’ve wanted to try raspberry cordial. It sounds so delicious!

This year I was going to give it a go, but the birds beat me to the end of the raspberry harvest during a long rainy spell. SO, with the blackberry harvest coming along beautifully, I decided to look through my cookbooks for a blackberry cordial recipe instead.

Marion Harland’s Common Sense in the Household (copyright 1871), has a lovely one, so that’s what I’m sharing here today.

Making this definitely gave me a whole new perspective on that passage, I’ll tell you! I cannot imagine the state I’d be in, if I attempted to down three tumblerfuls of this stuff. It’s sweet, goes down SO easy, and is generously alcoholic. In moderation, it’s delectable.

Hope you enjoy!

Blackberry Cordial

1 quart of blackberry juice
1 lb. white sugar.
½ oz. grated nutmeg.
½ oz. powdered cinnamon.
¼ oz. allspice.
¼ oz. cloves.
1 pint best brandy.

Tie the spices in thin muslin bags; boil juice, sugar, and spices together fifteen minutes, skimming well; add the brandy; set aside in a closely covered vessel to cool. When perfectly cold, strain out the spices, and bottle, sealing the corks.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

An 1871 Recipe for blackberry cordial
From Common Sense in the Household, by Marian Harland, page 496. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This recipe is really easy and straightforward, so not many cooking notes for this one!

Getting that blackberry juice

I spent longer than I want to admit, looking through every 1800’s cookbook in my collection, hunting for a clear how-to on extracting juice from blackberries. When I’m making these recipes, I like to adhere as closely as possible to the methods employed at the time, as well as ingredients. (See that time I made mayonnaise by hand!)

My takeaway from this search was to conclude that getting juice from berries was such a no-brainer at the time, that it required no special instruction. What I ended up doing was following the instructions in the Ball Blue Book canning guide, for making blackberry juice to can.

I lightly simmered the berries until they were well broken up and juicy, then squeezed them through a muslin bag to extract the juice. This worked well, and it’s definitely how I’d go about this again.

straining blackberry juice through a cloth bag
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Those muslin bags

I happened to have some unbleached muslin on hand, and was easily able to tie up the spices in it. If you don’t happen to have unbleached muslin on hand, I really believe a double layer of finely woven cheesecloth would work just fine.

spices for making blackberry cordial
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

“Best” brandy

Ok, in this regard I may have skimped a bit. At my local shop, bottles of brandy ranged from embarrassingly cheap artificially flavored stuff that would have mortified any 1800’s housekeeper, all the way up to make-you-blush expensive.

I’m on a tight budget, so opted for something respectably in the middle. To my untrained tastebuds, the result was indulgently delicious, and worked well.

a bottle of blackberry cordial
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

a bottle of blackberry cordial

Blackberry Cordial (1871)

This delicious alcoholic remedy is worth getting sick for! Made with sweetened fresh blackberry juice, spices, and brandy, it's worth making just as a special treat. From Common Sense in the Household, by Marian Harland, 1871
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Ingredients

  • 1 qt blackberry juice
  • 1 lb white sugar
  • ½ oz grated nutmeg
  • ½ oz powdered cinnamon
  • ¼ oz allspice
  • ¼ oz cloves
  • 1 pint best brandy

Instructions

  • Tie the spices in this muslin bags;
  • boil juice, sugar, and spices together fifteen minutes, skimming well;
  • add the brandy;
  • set aside in a closely covered vessel to cool.
  • When perfectly cold, strain out the spices, and bottle, sealing the corks.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
a bottle of blackberry cordial from an 1871 recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Catsup (1859)

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“Make this catsup once, and you will wish to make it every year.” From The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, 1859.

homemade ketchup with fresh tomatoes
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

I’m so sorry to miss sending the Wednesday and Friday emails last week. The kids and I took turns coming down with a bad cold that was going around school, and it really threw me off my game. We’re so glad to be on the other side of that!

The first day the kids were home sick, before it caught up with me, I decided to take advantage of the quiet home day and make a large batch of this catsup recipe.

Having a big fragrant pot simmering away on the stove, while replenishing tissues, bringing juice boxes, and reading Jules Verne aloud to snuffly kids, was so cozy and comforting. 

About that spelling. If (like most US readers) you grew up spelling it “ketchup”, you may find it interesting that throughout the 1800’s, “catsup” was actually a more common spelling of the condiment–at least as represented in American cook books. There were many varied spellings, but things finally coalesced around “ketchup” once Heinz adopted that spelling around the turn of the 20th century. (Here’s more about the history of ketchup, if you’re interested!)

The biggest difference you’ll notice, is that like nearly all 1800’s tomato catsup recipes, this doesn’t call for sugar. All the sweetness is from the tomatoes themselves, with a little help from the wine and vinegar. This is a tangy, warmly-spiced condiment that would have been used primarily for meat, as well as for flavoring in some types of soup. 

Depending on how hot your peppers are, this also may be much spicer than you might expect. All around, I love it as a more flavorful, less-sweet alternative to the modern versions. If you like condiments, this is one worth trying!

​

~ Anna

Homemade ketchup with fresh tomatoes
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


“ANOTHER CATSUP”
(retaining the color and flavor of the Fruit)

Skin and slice the tomatoes, and boil them an hour and a half. Then put to one gallon not strained, a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of nutmegs and cloves, one handful of horseradish, two pods of red pepper, or a large teaspoonful of cayenne, and salt as you like it. Boil it away to three quarts, and then add a pint of wine and half a pint of vinegar. Bottle it, and leave the bottles open two or three days; then cork it tight. Make this catsup once, and you will wish to make it every year.

The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, 1859

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

1859 Catsup recipe
From The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, 1859, page 170. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This recipe is about as straightforward as it gets, so I don’t have much to clarify for this one. Do use the freshest horseradish you can find, that’s my biggest exhortation here!

homemade catsup from an 1859 recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Choosing Tomatoes

I’ve only made this recipe once, but I’ve made many a batch of other ketchup recipes over the years, and I can confidently say that the type of tomatoes you use does influence the flavor of the finished product.

Opt for vine-ripe heirlooms if you can find them. Flavorful tomatoes make the best sauces.

homemade catsup
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

That Horseradish

My own little horseradish plants are just getting started and were too small to use this year, so I ended up using store-bought horseradish root. It was woody, wizened, and had clearly been sitting around for heaven-only-knows how long. When tasting it, I definitely observed it had more bitterness than good fresh roots right out of the soil. 

Perhaps unwisely, I used it anyway, mincing up “a handful”, of the peeled root to follow the recipe. To my taste, I feel this inferior horseradish added a hint of bitterness to the final ketchup that I don’t believe would have been there, if using good freshly-harvested stuff. 

In the future, if I didn’t have excellent fresh horseradish root, I’d probably opt for using a jar of prepared horseradish with very minimal ingredients, instead.

Homemade catsup with fresh tomatoes and spices
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Storing This Recipe

When this cook book was published, tomato catsup was considered a shelf-stable condiment, to be kept in a cool pantry or cellar storage. The wine and vinegar don’t just add flavor, but their acidity aided in making this a food item that could be bottled and stored for the winter. 

Not having a modern safety-tested canning recipe equivalent to this one, I personally decided to err on the side of caution and store my bottles of ketchup in the fridge. I’ll also be sharing bottles of it with family and friends. This really is good stuff, so it definitely won’t be making it through the winter!

Many thanks to all who voted in last week’s poll about which yeast recipe we should try. 90.5% of you voted for potato, with 9.5% opting for hops. Potato it is! I’ve got a great potato yeast recipe I’m looking forward to sharing later in the week, and then the baking can commence. 

We’ve had a lot of food preservation recipes lately, and “putting up” would have been high-priority for any country housewife of the era. Thanks for bearing with me, as I’m putting up my own harvest, and have been focussing so heavily on this type of recipes! As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

homemade ketchup with fresh tomatoes

Catsup (1859)

The 3-alarm condiment you didn't know you were missing. "Make this catsup once, and you will wish to make it every year." From The Young Housekeeper's Friend, 1859
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 7 quarts tomatoes, peeled and sliced
  • ¼ ounce mace
  • ¼ ounce cloves
  • ¼ ounce nutmeg
  • ⅓ cup horseradish
  • 2 red peppers (hot) (or large teaspoon cayenne)
  • salt to taste (I used about 2 tsp)
  • 1 pint wine
  • ½ pint vinegar (apple cider vinegar is a good choice)

Instructions

  • Skin and slice the tomatoes, and boil them an hour and a half.
  • Then put to one gallon not strained, a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of nutmegs and cloves, one handful of horseradish, two pods of red pepper, or a large teaspoonful of cayenne, and salt as you like it.
  • Boil it away to three quarts, and then add a pint of wine and half a pint of vinegar.
  • Bottle it, and leave the bottles open two or three days; then cork it tight.
  • Make this catsup once, and you will wish to make it every year.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Lemonade (1881)

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This 1800’s lemonade recipe is just perfection. The brightness of the lemons shines through, and it’s plenty sweet without being overpowering. Since trying it, this has become my go-to lemonade recipe.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Hey there, friends. 

It’s good to be back. I’ve missed this over the last few days.

Turns out those -20 something temps can really do some things to one’s plumbing. We have running water again (thank you Dad!) and are warm and well. But my oven decided this was a good moment to join the freeze-killed washing machine in taking early retirement, and I’ve needed a couple days to re-group.

Neat thing about all this 1800’s homemaking research. It keeps a body grateful. So many of the notes in these recipes contain vivid reminders of how good we really do have it. 

For the next little bit, we’ll just focus on recipes that don’t involve baking, until I get this oven replaced. And you know? That’s really ok. 

Let’s make some lemonade.

1800's recipe for lemonade
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

an old recipe for lemonade
Lemonade, from Practical Housekeeping, 1881. Page 143. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

HOW MUCH IS A TEA-CUP? 

In most reference guides to 1800’s measurements that I’ve seen, a “tea-cup” is generally considered to be ¾ of a cup, or 6 ounces. 

That said, I’ve seen at least one place that suggests as low as ⅔ cup. And this clipping (photo below) pinned inside a well-used 1882 cookbook says that “two teacups (level) of granulated sugar weigh one pound”…which would be 8 ounces, rather than 6.

Although interestingly, toward the bottom of the clipping, it also says that “one teacup holds one gill”…which is generally a liquid measure, but at least a well defined one: ¼ pint, or 4 ounces. 

an 1800's chart of volume equivalents
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

So there is definitely a little room for interpretation.

In general, I’ve found that using the 6 ounce, or ¾ cup, measurement works well and usually seems to give the intended result. So that’s what I went with for this recipe.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

BEFORE YOU MAKE THIS (delicious!) RECIPE: 

Sharpen your knife. One does not roll a lemon well, and then slice it thinly, using a dull knife. 

I tried two different knives before trading them in for one that hadn’t logged any use since being very well-sharpened. That extra-sharp edge made all the difference. Slicing a well-rolled lemon thinly is a lot like asking for wafer-thin slices of heirloom tomato when it’s dead-ripe, straight from the garden, and still warm from the August sun. A sharp blade is a must.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Tomorrow, we’re making mayonnaise from an 1868 recipe. I’m to beat it by hand with a wooden spoon. (Any bets on how long this will take?) 
‘Til then, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

Lemonade (1881)

This delicious lemonade recipe is absolute perfection! From Practical Housekeeping, 1881
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Servings: 10
Calories: 150kcal

Ingredients

  • 6 lemons
  • 12 ounces sugar
  • 1 gallon water
  • 10 ounces ice

Instructions

  • Roll six lemons well,
  • slice thin in an earthen vessel,
  • put over them two tea-cups white sugar; let stand fifteen minutes,
  • add one gallon water and lumps of ice,
  • pour into pitcher and serve.

Notes

Some add soda after the glasses are filled, and stir rapidly for “sparkling lemonade.”

Nutrition

Calories: 150kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0.3g | Saturated Fat: 0.03g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 22mg | Potassium: 90mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 36g | Vitamin A: 14IU | Vitamin C: 34mg | Calcium: 29mg | Iron: 0.4mg
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Mrs. Hale’s Peach Marmalade (1873)

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This brightly flavored peach marmalade is just perfectly sweetened, with a wonderful hint of lemon.

peach marmalade
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

The other day, my sweet neighbors from down the road showed up to bestow me with three big boxes full of gorgeous peaches from their trees. Good neighbors really are better than gold, aren’t they? 

Here’s the cool thing. The lovely “gentleman’s farm” they bought a few years ago used to be owned by dear friends of mine who also used to pop by with surprise bounty–including peaches from those same trees. How I mourned when they put that house up for sale…so sad for the loss of such dear neighbors. Who knew the wonderful retired couple that bought it would become cherished friends as well. Life is so often full of the best surprises. 

That lovely load of peaches was just asking to be turned into something special, so I grabbed Mrs. Hale’s 1873 cookbook, and followed her instructions for Peach Marmalade. In case you are wondering, this is the same Sarah Josepha Hale who was editor of Godey’s Lady’ Book, and campaigned so tirelessly for the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. 

Her cook book is one of my favorites from that decade, and this marmalade recipe is a keeper. In my opinion, the generous dose of lemon is what really makes it, brightening the flavor and keeping it from being “just” another jar of jam. 

It’s lovely, and well worth a try, if it’s still peach season where you are!

~ Anna

a jar of peach marmalade with bread and wooden spoons
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

PEACH MARMALADE
The fruit for this preserve, which is a very delicious one, should be finely flavored, and quite ripe, though perfectly sound. Pare, stone, weigh, and boil it quickly for three-quarters of an hour, and do not fail to stir it often during the time; draw it from the fire, and mix with it 10 ounces of well-refined sugar, rolled or beaten to powder, for each pound of the peaches; clear it carefully from scum, and boil it briskly for 5 minutes; throw in the strained juice of 1 or 2 goodlemons; continue the boiling for 3 minutes only, and pour out the marmalade. Two minutes after the sugar is stirred to the fruit, add the blanched kernels of part of the peaches. 
​
Peaches, stoned and pared, 4lbs.: three-quarters of an hour. Sugar, 2 ½ lbs.; 2 minutes. Blanched peach-kernels; 3 minutes. Juice of 2 small lemons; 3 minutes. 
Obs.–This jam, like most others, is improved by pressing the fruit through a sieve after it has been partially boiled. Nothing can be finer than its flavor, which would be injured by adding the sugar at first; and a larger proportion renders it cloyingly sweet. Nectarines and peaches mixed, make an admirable preserve.

Sarah Hale’s New Cook Book, 1873

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

A recipe for peach marmalade in an 1873 cook book
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
a recipe for peach marmalade in an old cook book
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

What I absolutely adore about this recipe, is how precise Mrs. Hale was with her timing. Three minutes for this step, two minutes for that step…

In fact, I was so focused on conscientiously adhering to the timing, that I don’t have a single process photo from actually making this marmalade. (Forget the camera, there’s a timer to watch!)

She’s so precise, it doesn’t leave much need for process notes, either, but here are a few of my observations that might help if you give it a go.

an antique colander full of peaches
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Boiling the fruit

Many modern recipes have you add a little liquid of some sort to the fruit when it’s first starting to boil, so that it doesn’t scorch. And many jams call for adding the sugar immediately along with the fruit, which also seems to speed up the process of ending up with enough juiciness in the pot that one doesn’t need to worry about scorching. 

Since this recipe goes straight to boiling the fruit, no sugar added yet, I started the pot over quite low heat until the peaches began to get juicy, and I felt I could slowly increase the temperature, until the whole lovely mass was boiling. It doesn’t take long, but do keep a close eye at the beginning, and stir often, as the instructions say. 

I didn’t start timing the 45 minutes of boil time until it had reached a good boil, and this timing worked well.

Peach marmalade in a glass jar
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Those blanched kernels

This made me think of my grandmother. When I was a child we had a peach tree, and while canning the peaches with my mother, I remember her talking about how “they used to say to put a few peach stones in each jar…” 

I don’t remember much more about it than that, but I do remember her talking about this being how it used to be done. 

The way I went about it was to put a little pot of water on to boil, while the peaches were simmering, and once it was at a full boil, put several handfuls of the peach kernels in to boil. Once they’d started to lighten in color, after a few minutes, I removed them to keep ready until the right moment for adding them.

an antique ladle full of peach stones
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Putting the fruit through a sieve

I don’t have a strong sieve, but wanted to at least approximate the results of following this step in her “Observe” note, at the end of the recipe. 

To do this, I put the boiled peaches through my old Foley food mill, then returned them to pot to finish boiling. None of the fruit was lost to the food mill, since the peaches were already pitted and peeled before boiling, so the volume stayed the same.

The hot peach pulp was nicely smoothed out after going through the mill, and I can definitely see why this is a step she encouraged, for a nice smooth marmalade.

glass jelly jars full of peach marmalade
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

What about canning this recipe?

The right answer here is that you should only can modern, safety-tested recipes, like those from the Ball Blue Book, and the ​National Center for Home Food Preservation​. 

The long and honest answer is that I did end up canning this marmalade, and here’s why I personally felt comfortable doing that, in this particular case:

The proportion of sugar to peaches is significantly less than the peach jam recipe in my Ball Blue Book, but of course much greater than in the “no sugar” peach jam recipe printed in the same book. The amount of lemon juice in this marmalade recipe is actually greater than the amount added in either of those recipes, which is included to ensure enough acidity for safe canning. Both recipes called for the same canning process–10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. So this 10 minute boiling-water processing is what what I used.

I did remove the peach kernels from the jars I processed for shelf storage, not wanting that to be a variable. For the jars headed straight to my fridge for more immediate enjoyment, I left those lovely peach kernels right in. 

To be clear though, please don’t let me sway you on issues of food safety here, nor encourage you to can a recipe that was written long before modern canning safety standards were established.

How much marmalade does this recipe make?

​I should have written this down immediately, because I gave away several of these jars almost before they’d cooled. I believe this recipe (as she has it written based on 4lbs of peaches), made just a little less than 9 half-pints. Note to self: replace the notepad that belongs in the kitchen.

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! Cherry cordial and cottage pudding folks…I see you, I’m just a little behind catching up with my replies, but we’ll definitely add those to the list! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

Peach marmalade in a glass jar

Sarah Hale’s Peach Marmalade (1873)

This brightly flavored peach marmalade is just perfectly sweetened, with a wonderful hint of lemon.
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Ingredients

  • 4 lbs peaches, stoned and pared
  • 2½ lbs sugar
  • 2 small lemons

Instructions

  • The fruit for this preserve, which is a very delicious one, should be finely flavored, and quite ripe, though perfectly sound. Pare, stone, weigh, and boil it quickly for three-quarters of an hour, and do not fail to stir it often during the time;
  • draw it from the fire, and mix with it 10 ounces of well-refined sugar, rolled or beaten to powder, for each pound of the peaches;
  • clear it carefully from scum, and boil it briskly for 5 minutes;
  • throw in the strained juice of 1 or 2 good lemons;
  • continue boiling for 3 minutes only, and pour out the marmalade.
  • Two minutes after the sugar is stirred to the fruit, add the blanched kernels of part of the peaches.

Notes

Peaches, stoned and pared, 4lbs.:three-quarters of an hour. Sugar, 2 ½lbs.; 2 minutes. Blanched peach-kernels; 3 minutes. Juice of 2 small lemons; 3 minutes. Obs.–This jam like most others, is improved by pressing the fruit through a sieve after it has been partially boiled. Other can be finer than its flavor, which would be injured by adding the sugar at first; and a larger proportion renders it cloyingly sweet. Nectarines and peach mixed, make an admirable preserve.
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Devilled Eggs (1877)

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Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

We’ve made some delicious recipes over the last few weeks. Composition Cake, really good Gingerbread, those ridiculously delicious little Lemon Snaps. 

If you’d told me that Deviled Eggs of all things would end up on my list of favorite recipes from this project, I would have been dubious at best. But dear reader, these are just that delightful. 

They’re a far cry from the sloshy Miracle Whip concoctions that graced many a church potluck table of my childhood. The tang of the vinegar, that hint of spice from the cayenne, the familiar warmth of the mustard…it all just works.

Next time I go to a church potluck, I’m bringing these.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

from Common Sense in the Household, 1877. Page 256 Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This quick little recipe hardly needs notes, but here are a few comments on how I made it. 

INGREDIENT AMOUNTS: 

For six eggs, I found that 4 teaspoon of butter seemed needed to keep this from being too dry. For spices, I used ⅜ teaspoon cayenne, ¼ teaspoon mustard, and 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. I loved it, and would enjoy these a little spicier if I weren’t sharing them with my kids. 

THAT SALAD: ​

Not finding cresses to be had, “not even for ready money”, I went with a spring mix that had some nice texture to it. When adding the vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar, I found that this whole thing works best if you toss the salad along with the accoutrements, to get it evenly and lightly coated. Then pile it on your serving tray. 

à la COLUMBUS:​

If that reference escapes you (and it did me at first), here’s what this is referring to. This pairs well with a quick read about Tesla’s Egg of Columbus exhibit at the world fair, because that’s fascinating too. (Although that exhibit wouldn’t come along until another 16 years after this cookbook was published.) 

IS IT ‘DEVILED’ OR ‘DEVILLED’?​

I’m going to quote the website, Grammarist on this one: 

Deviled is the accepted spelling in the United States and Canada for an adjective describing food that is seasoned with horseradish, mustard, paprika or pepper to impart a strong flavor. In other English-speaking countries, the spelling is devilled.

This cookbook does seem to have a slightly more British vocabulary than some other American cook books of the same era. But also, perhaps the two spellings hadn’t yet diverged in the 1870’s. Interesting, isn’t it?

📖 Recipe

Devilled Eggs

From Common Sense in the Household, 1877
The tang of the vinegar, that hint of spice from the cayenne, the familiar warmth of the mustard…this bright and flavorful party dish is just delightful.
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Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 4 teaspoon butter
  • ⅜ teaspoon cayenne
  • ¼ teaspoon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
  • 5 ounces cresses or mixed greens
  • for the greens: salt pepper, vinegar and sugar to taste

Instructions

  • "Boil six or eight eggs hard;
  • leave in cold water until they are cold;
  • cut in halves, slicing a bit off the bottoms to make them stand upright, à la Columbus.
  • Extract the yolks, and rub to a smooth paste with a very little melted butter, some cayenne pepper, a touch of mustard, and just a dash of vinegar.
  • Fill the hollowed whites with this, and send to table upon a bed of chopped cresses, seasoned with pepper, salt, vinegar, and a little sugar. The salad should be two inches thick, and an egg be served with a heaping tablespoonful of it. You may use lettuce or white cabbage instead of cresses."
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Scalloped Fish (1887)

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An absolutely delicious 1880’s recipe for scalloped fish. Perfect comfort food for cold weather!

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Hi friends, 

I’d originally intended to share a recipe for fish fritters today. But upon more closely examining the recipe within its context, I realized that particular recipe was really written for leftover salt fish, not leftover fresh fish–which is what I had on hand. 

And if we’re going to recreate 1800’s recipes, we’re going to do it right. 

SO, instead I’m sharing an absolutely delicious recipe for “Scalloped Fish”. 

This dish is what red flannel hash is to corned beef, what chicken pie is to roast chicken, and what thick-sliced turkey sandwiches are to a turkey dinner. 

It’s the kind of frugal recipe that coaxes you to enjoy re-mixed leftovers, even more than you did the original meal. 

Hope you enjoy it as much as much as I did!

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife. From New England Cook Book, 1887. Page 20

COOKING NOTES: 

This is really a pretty well-detailed recipe, so not much feels needed in the way of notes today. For the fish I used leftover fresh cod, and baked this in large ramekins at 350° F. 

25-30 minutes was just about right for getting those bread crumbs good and toasty on top. 

To my taste, the optional red pepper was just lovely in this, and I definitely vouch in favor of including it. I also recommend having a liberal hand when strewing those “bits of butter” in the final step. 

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

📖 Recipe

Scalloped Fish

New England Cook Book, 1887
An absolutely delicious 1880's recipe for scalloped fish. Perfect comfort food for cold weather!
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Calories: 563kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fish
  • 2 cups bread crumbs
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ teaspoon celery salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon onion juice
  • ⅛ teaspoon red pepper
  • 2 tablespoon butter
  • 2 tablespoon flour
  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup bread crumbs
  • 2 tablespoon butter

Instructions

  • Any cold fresh fish, or cold boiled salt codfish, must be pulled into fine flakes, carefully taking out skin and bones and dark parts;
  • mix in a bowl with equal quantity of bread or cracker crumbs;
  • season with salt, pepper, celery-salt, a little nutmeg, a very little juice squeezed from a cut onion, and a very little red pepper if preferred;
  • moisten the mixture well with a gravy made of melted butter, flour, and hot water;
  • put into a baking-dish, cover with dry crumbs and thickly strewn bits of butter;
  • bake till brown.
  • This is a pretty dish for supper, baked in small tin or earthen shells, or in the great sea-clam shells found on the ocean shore, or in the blue crockery dishes that are sold for such purposes. Serve very hot. –Mrs. Rose Terry Cooke. (By per. Pub. of Good Housekeeping.)"

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 563kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 39g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 1132mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 12g
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Asparagus on Toast (1877)

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A classic 1800’s recipe for boiled, scraped asparagus.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Friends, I cringed when I scraped the asparagus. Then I could’ve sworn the timer was broken, as minutes lapsed in slow motion, until I could rescue the precious stalks from that boiling water. And then I winced again when I had to dip that beautiful toast into the asparagus water. 

But then I ate every bite.

This is one of those recipes that reminds us how tastes change over the decades. Vegetables were generally very thoroughly cooked in the 1800’s. And for someone who’s been known to eat more than my share of the asparagus haul on the way from the garden to the kitchen…these vegetable recipes can challenge my modern sensibilities. 

This whole project is challenging my modern sensibilities…and what a lovely thing that is.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife. From Common Sense in the Household, 1877. Page 226
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife. Asparagus (boiled), continued.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

Scraping the asparagus​
I found that using a sharp knife, and scraping from the base toward the tip worked best. It takes a gentle touch to do this without breaking the stalks, if they’re young and tender. 

By the 8th stalk, I felt like I was finding my groove. There really is a difference between cooked asparagus that’s been scraped, vs. not scraped. So for the real 1800’s taste, this is a step you won’t want to skip, even if it seems like a waste.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Serving​
This is a dish you absolutely want to serve hot, because that dampened toast is delicious while it’s steaming, and disappointing once it’s cooled. This is one of those meals where you want the table set, and the family gathered, before you take the asparagus out of the boiling water. 

Butter 
​Use it liberally. In my opinion, it’s no mistake that she calls for buttering the bread, and also dotting butter over the asparagus. The butter really does bring the flavors all together.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

📖 Recipe

Asparagus (boiled)

Common Sense in the Household, 1877
A classic 1800's recipe for boiled, scraped asparagus.
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Calories: 25kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fresh asparagus

Instructions

  • Cut your stalks of equal length, rejecting the woody or lower portions, and scraping the white part which remains.
  • Throw into cold water as you scrape them.
  • Tie in a bunch with soft strings–muslin or tape–and put into boiling water slightly salted. If very young and fresh, it is well to tie in a piece of coarse net to protect the tops.
  • Boil from twenty to forty minutes, according to the age.
  • Just before it is done, toast two or three slices of bread, cutting off the crust; dip in the asparagus liquor, butter, and lay in a hot dish.
  • When you take off the asparagus, drain, unbind the bundle, and heap it upon the toast, with bits of butter between the stalks."

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 25kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 3g | Sodium: 16mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g
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Clove Cake (1877)

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This Clove Cake recipe from 1877 is one that I consider a “must-try”. Of all the recipes I’ve made during this project, this not-too-sweet, perfectly spiced cake is a favorite!

A slice of clove cake from an 1877 recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

With so very many recipes in these old cook books, just waiting to be tried, I tend to make most of the recipes you see featured here just once or twice. The next time I want to make something similar, I try a different recipe, from a different cook book.

Sometimes though, I make a recipe that stops me in my tracks, and I know it’s about to become a new family favorite–one I’ll make again and again. 

This clove cake recipe is one of those. It’s not just memorably tasty (which it is!), it’s simple and easy. This is the recipe you reach for when you’ve got company arriving in two hours, want something delicious and homemade that you can whip up at the last minute, but also still have to vacuum and clean the bathroom before they arrive.

A neat thing about this particular recipe, is that it was specially marked by some previous owner of this dear old 1877 volume. Somebody made this recipe for people she loved, marked up the amount of cloves to make it better suit their taste (a good move!), and made it again. Judging from the splatters on this particular page, I’m betting this may have been one of her go-to family favorites. 

I wish I knew her name, or a little something about her. There’s no inscription on the flyleaf. Whoever she was, I hope her family shared many happy moments over slices of this delicious cake, and I’ll think of her whenever I make it for mine…with one teaspoon of cloves, not three.

~ Anna

a loaf of clove cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


CLOVE CAKE

Two eggs, one and one-half cups of sugar, one cup of butter, once cup of chopped raisins, one-half cup of sweet milk, two cups of flour, one tablespoon teaspoon of cloves, one-half teaspoon of soda.

The Home Cook Book, 1877

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

An 1877 recipe for Clove Cake
From The Home Cook Book, 1877, page 336. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

First off, I just want to make sure you notice that lovely historic cooking note that was made right in this old volume. Was she right about the change in spice? Absolutely. 

I made this using her measurement of 1 teaspoon instead of 1 tablespoon, and everyone who tasted the finished cake agreed that the level of spice was perfect. Three times that amount of cloves would have been way too much.

a slice of clove cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

What kind of pan to use?

I really need to expand my collection of antique baking tins. Square, round, and loaf pans were all common to use for a cake like this. 

The pan I used was a long 12″x4″ loaf pan, and it came out beautifully. An 8″ square pan would work well too, or a round pan with center hole if you have one. 

If you don’t mind a bit of a baking anachronism, this would also be lovely made in a bundt pan…a form that wouldn’t be introduced to most American kitchens until the 1950’s.

raisins being chopped on a cutting board
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Chopping those raisins

Don’t skip it. Chopping raisins isn’t common in modern cookery, but those little bits of raisin well dispersed throughout the cake are really just perfect. I aimed for chopping them into halves. 

This particular cook book doesn’t specify flouring the raisins, but many cook books of the era instruct people to toss their raisins with some of the flour, before putting into the batter, so they’ll stay well dispersed rather than sinking toward the bottom of the cake. 

I always do this now, because it really does make a difference. When making this cake, I reserved ¼ cup of the flour, added it to a bowl with the chopped raisins, and tossed them well until they were coated, before adding it all to the cake batter.

spreading batter for clove cake in a baking pan
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Should you grease the pan?

Absolutely! In the 1800’s, it wasn’t common to include instructions on greasing pans, or even baking temperature, along with every single recipe, the way these things are noted in modern cook books. 

You’ll want to grease the pan well (butter or lard would be the right choice, if you want to be authentic.) Then dredge the well-greased pan lightly with flour.

mixing the batter for clove cake
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.com

Oven Temperature

In the cake making notes from this cook book, it specifies that “the oven should be pretty hot for small cakes, and moderate for larger”. Small cakes would be smaller than this one–more like little tea cakes. This recipe also wasn’t what I’d call large though, like some of the cakes that are made for feeding a crowd. 

I went with 350°F for making this, and it’s what I use again. I felt the cake cooked nicely through, without being dry on the outside before the inside was well baked. The crumb was nicely tender, and delicate without being dry.

How long to bake this?

In my 12″x4″ loaf pan, at 350°F, this cake took exactly 1 hour to bake perfectly. The top and edges were golden brown, and the center was well set. 

If you use a differently shaped pan, your cake may take a bit more or less time than mine. Check for golden edges and a center that’s fully set. The correct 1800’s way to check for doneness is by inserting a broom straw into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done, if bits of batter adhere to it, the cake needs a little more time. Feel free to use a toothpick, if you don’t keep clean broom straws handy!

What about icing?

Here’s the general icing recipe from this cookbook:

An 1800's recipe for cake icing
The Home Cook Book, 1877. Page 296. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

This is the icing I’ll use next time. Because I really did have company on the way as I was making this, I opted for a quick powdered sugar and water icing, from another cook book of the era. It was delicious and worked well, but this recipe above, with egg whites, would have probably been a more common choice for this cake, if the baker had time.

a loaf of clove cake with icing
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife

I shared the remnants of this cake at my daughter’s soccer game the next night, and everyone loved it. One dad mentioned that he doesn’t usually enjoy cake because it’s always so sweet, but this was just right. 

It’s definitely a keeper of a recipe, and if you try it, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well!

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

a slice of clove cake

Clove Cake (1877)

This Clove Cake recipe from 1877 is one that I consider a "must-try". Of all the recipes I've made during this project, this not-too-sweet, perfectly spiced cake is a favorite!
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Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Servings: 20

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup raisins, chopped
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon cloves
  • ½ teaspoon soda

Notes

MODERN COOKING NOTES:
Preheat oven to 350.
Beat together sugar and butter until light. Add eggs and milk, stir until well incorporated. Reserve ¼ cup of flour. Sift remaining flour, cloves, and soda, into batter, and stir well until thoroughly mixed. 
Toss chopped raisins with reserved ¼ cup of flour, and dump the floured raisins into the batter. Stir just until evenly distributed. 
Spoon batter into a well greased and floured pan. Bake until cake edges are golden brown, center is set, and a broom straw (or toothpick) comes out clean–about 1 hour depending on pan(s) used. 
Cool thoroughly, then frost or glaze if desired. 
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Sugar Cookies (1877)

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These soft and squishy sugar cookies are delectably addictive! Made with sour cream, they look and taste like a viral 1970’s recipe our grandmothers all copied from each other’s recipe boxes…but they’re pure 1800’s goodness.

sugar cookies from 1800's recipe with old cook book
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

For an easy little recipe, I really tinkered with this one! 

It’s from a delightful 1877 cook book that was published in Toronto, and an interesting thing about this volume is that it has a bigger selection of cake and cookie recipes than most of my other cook books from the era, perhaps with the exception of The White House Cook Book. (Lots of rich cookery in that one too!)

This was one of those recipes that leaves the amount of flour up to the intuition of the baker, and for temperature says simply to “bake quick”, so it left room for interpretation, and was fun to experiment with. 

The result is a very light, slightly cake-y cookie, with a beautiful crinkly top. These are reminiscent of the “light tea cakes” that were still so popular, and which were generally rolled and cut into circles, rather than baked in pans. It’s also a great recipe to share with a crowd–this makes about 6.5 dozen 2″ cookies!

1800's recipe for sugar cookies
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

1877 recipe for sugar cookies in an old cookbook
From The Home Cook Book, 1877. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

Let’s talk about sour cream

At the time this cook book was published, they of course weren’t buying pasteurized sour cream in tubs like we do now. This would have been “clabbered cream”, or cream that had just begun to turn pleasantly sour. (Gil Marks, the beloved food historian, has a great section about 1800’s sour cream halfway through this article on the history of coffee cake, which he wrote before he passed away.)

Raw cream goes through a whole different magic when it “turns”, as opposed to pasteurized cream, which would get extremely unpleasant if left on the counter for several days. The White House Cook Book (1887) offers some tips about using sour milk or cream in baking, and instructs that it’s “always best when just turned, so that it is solid, and not sour enough to whey or to be watery.” (If you’ve ever accidentally let raw sour cream get away from you and go too long, you’ll know exactly what this passage means.)

Making this cookie recipe today, I did use commercially available sour cream. I’ve baked quite a bit with homemade raw sour cream in the past, and while it does very slightly change the flavor profile (depending on how sour your cream is), the texture and taste in the finished baked goods are remarkably similar.

If you’d like to be as historic as possible about this, and want to make your own, I find the best consistency for raw sour cream comes from the cream that’s skimmed off fresh whole milk which has been allowed to sit undisturbed for 2-3 days. This gives a much thicker end product than cream skimmed from today’s milking.

If you’d like to make your own cultured sour cream from pasteurized milk, you can do that too, but you’ll need a starter (you can get it here), since pasteurized cream has no beneficial bacteria to steer the fermentation process.

sugar cookies made from an 1877 recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much flour to use?  

This recipe leaves the amount of flour up to the intuition of the baker, as many recipes at the time did. In fact, you probably notice that the word “flour” isn’t even mentioned. 

This wasn’t unusual for recipes of the mid-1800s, and phrases like “mix to roll, mix just enough to roll, flour enough to roll, or mix stiff enough to roll” were common ways of instructing the baker to add flour until the batter or dough was the right consistency, usually as the final step after all other ingredients had been incorporated.

I tinkered quite a bit with this, and found that 2 and ⅔ cups unbleached flour was the amount that made it possible to roll this dough and cut it out, without it ending up dense and cake-y.

sugar cookies made from an 1800's recipe

Oven temperature​

The recipe tells us to “bake quick”, which really could be anything from about 375°F to 425°. So I tried that entire range of temperatures. I found that 375° really worked best for this recipe, since 400° made the bottoms of the cookies a bit too brown, by the time the tops were set. 425° is right out.

How thick to roll the dough

Of course, as with all of these variables, there’s room for personal preference here. After a bit of experimenting, I found that rolling the dough ¼″ thick gave me the results I enjoyed the most.

sugar cookie dough with antique cutter
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Cookie size​

This is a fun time to get out the cookie cutter stash and have at it! Circles and diamonds were the most frequent “every day” shapes for cookies, but there’s no reason you can’t have fun with this. Keep in mind that these are a puffy cookie, so simple shapes work best.

I used an antique circle cutter from my grandmother, which is 1.5″ in diameter. At 375° for 8 minutes, that gave me perfectly-done, 2″ round cookies. 

A nice thing about this size is that they fit beautifully in a 4″ square bakers box, in sets of 12 or 16…perfect for gifting. (Fun note, I actually came across a tutorial for making “paper boxes” for baked goods in an 1880’s cookbook the other day. You can let me know in the poll below if this is something you’d enjoy seeing in the newsletter.)

sugar cookies from an 1800's recipe, with a bakery box
So giftable. A dozen 2″ cookies fits perfectly in a 4″ bakery box. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How long to bake these

I found that 8 minutes at 375 F cooked my 1.5″ diameter cookies to perfection. If you wanted to use a larger cookie cutter, you’ll want play this by ear and just keep a close eye on them. These are done when the centers are set, and the edges just barely beginning to be golden.

A always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

sugar cookies from an 1800's recipe

Sugar Cookies (1877)

These soft and squishy sugar cookies are just delectable. Made with sour cream, they look and taste like a viral 1970's recipe our grandmothers all copies from each other's recipe boxes…but they're pure 1800's goodness!
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Servings: 78 cookies
Calories: 56kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 ⅔ cups all purpose flour

Instructions

  • Mix just so that you can roll it out;
  • then sprinkle with sugar just before putting in oven;
  • bake quick.

Notes

MODERN INSTRUCTION NOTES
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. Mix all ingredients gently, until thoroughly mixed.
  3. Roll dough on a floured counter, ¼″ thick.
  4. Cut with a 1.5″ round cutter for same results as what you see here. OR, enjoy using your own cookie cutters, and adjust baking time as needed.
  5. Sprinkle cookies generously with sugar.
  6. Bake 8 minutes, or until centers are set, and edges are just turning golden.

Nutrition

Calories: 56kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 35mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 88IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.2mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
sugar cookies from an 1800's recipe
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Lentil Soup (1885)

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Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Hey there, friends. 

I’m learning so much from this project. Today’s lesson: don’t describe a recipe until you make it. 

When I told you this lentil soup recipe was coming, I called it “hearty”. When I think of lentil soup, “hearty” is the word that comes to mind. I think of my neighbor’s famous lentil soup that called for half a cup of butter and every vegetable in the fridge. That was a hearty lentil soup. 

This one…this is the lentil soup you make to warm six cold pairs of hands, to fill six hungry bellies, and to bring six tired hearts together around a loving table at the end of a day. This is the lentil soup recipe written for the mothers of New York City in 1885…the ones who had ten cents to spend on dinner, and not a penny more. 

This isn’t a soup you tuck into with a big spoon, it’s a soup that you want to pick up and sip from the edge of your bowl, grateful for the bulk of those dry or toasted bread bits in the bottom, when you get to them.

Amazing how a bowl of soup can make everything I’ve read about city life during the industrial revolution a little more tangible. 

I’m feeling a little extra grateful today…for my warm house and full pantry, and for all of you out there reading along and partaking in this project. Thank you for doing this with me. 

~ Anna


LENTIL SOUP

“For two quarts of soup half a pint of yellow lentils, (cost five cents,) washed, and put to boil in three pints of cold water, with one cents’ worth of soup greens, and boiled gently until the lentils are soft enough to break between the fingers; every half hour a gill of cold water should be added, and the lentils again raised to a boiling point, until they are done; they should then be passed through a sieve with a wooden spoon, using enough of the liquor to make them pass easy, and mixed with the rest of the soup; it should be seasoned with salt and pepper, and is then ready to simmer for half an hour, and serve hot, with dice of fried bread half an inch squre, like those used for pea soup, or with bits of stale bread. A plentiful dinner of lentil soup and bread costs only about ten cents.”
​

Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six, 1885

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

An 1800's recipe for lentil soup
From Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six, 1885. Page 33. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
an 1800's recipe for lentil soup
Lentil Soup, cont. Page 34. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES:

Soup Greens.

I relied on quite a few bits of context, scattered throughout this little cookbook, when I was making this recipe. It feels straightforward, until you find yourself wondering “What were soup greens in 1885, and how much of them could you buy for a penny?” Not finding concrete guidance on this, even in the marketing section of the book, I ended up going with the belief that these were “lesser greens” and used about a cup of mixed celery, onion, and leek tops.

How does this add up to two quarts? ​

Unlike the pea soup recipe we made a few weeks ago, this recipe doesn’t start out with extra water and boil down to two quarts. It starts out with less than two quarts of ingredients, and simmers down to less than that (even with the addition of those gills of water), as the lentils cook. So that extra liquid to make the final “two quarts of soup” has to come from somewhere. 

From the context, I believe the author (Juliet Corson) means this to be broth. On page 31, she writes “For instance, the pot-liquor in which meat has been boiled needs only the addition of a few dumplings or cereals, and seasoning, to form a perfect nutriment.” I think that’s what she’s doing with this recipe…preparing the cereals and seasoning to addto broth for that “perfect nutriment”. I used venison broth for making this, but any broth would work well. On page 32, she gives a recommendation for always having broth available, by keeping a “pot on the back of the stove to receive all the clean scraps of meat, bones, and remains of poultry and game, which are found in every kitchen…”

What kind of lentils to use. ​

This, at least, should be easy, right? She specifies “yellow”. And yet…later in the book where she talks about lentils, she only refers to two types- “small flat brown”, and “larger, about the size of peas, and of a greenish color”. So for this recipe, I do not believe she was talking about the very bright yellow lentils we sometimes find available today, but instead I went with the common “small flat brown”, that she describes. It’s comforting that she goes on to say that “both types are equally well flavored and nutritious”, and I think that using what you have at hand fits the approach of this cookbook, so would certainly encourage you to try this recipe with whatever type you have available.

How much is a gill?

A gill would have been right about half a modern cup, or 4 ounces.

How much bread could you buy with the remaining 4 cents?

About ⅔ of a loaf. Elsewhere in the book she refers to a store-bought loaf of bread as costing six cents. If using homemade bread, that would go a little further.

a bowl of lentil soup being filled from a ladle
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

This is one of those recipes that would wonderful to make with kids, as part of a homeschool unit on the industrial revolution. Nothing brings home history, like tasting it!

I also love what an invitation to gratitude this recipe offers. I may not make this recipe again for dinner, but of all the meals I’ve made throughout this 1800’s cook book project, this is truly one of those that’s stuck with me the most.

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests. Getting emails from y’all is such a joyful part of what I do, and they’re always welcome.  ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Mrs. Rundell’s Raspberry Jam (1859)

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This 1859 recipe for raspberry jam is bright, delicious, and tastes like summer in a jar.

raspberry jam
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife

A few years ago, I planted a huge raspberry patch, in what used to be a little sheep pasture along one side of our yard. This year that berry patch has truly come into its own, and we are in raspberry heaven over here at the moment.

One of you lovely readers had requested to see a particular Naples Biscuits recipe featured here in the newsletter. Since it calls for jam, I thought what a lovely thing it would be, to make a batch of authentic 1800’s raspberry jam to use for it.

The jam recipe I settled on comes from Mrs. Rundell’s beloved tome, A New System of Domestic Cookery. First published in 1806, it’s widely considered to have been the most popular English cookery book, throughout the first half of that century.

It was widely reprinted, and went through many editions. The volume in my collection is from 1859, and it’s such a delightful little book.

This jam recipe does not disappoint. It’s everything you want it to be… brightly flavored, not fussy, quick to make, and tastes like summer. Hope you love it!

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

a recipe for raspberry jam in an old cookbook.
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES:

“Boiling Very Quickly” This recipe is just so easy and straightforward, there’s almost nothing here that begs clarification. 

The one thing I’ll say is that finding the balance between “boiling very quickly” and scorching those gorgeous berries on the bottom of your “preserving-pan”, is all about the constant stirring. 

Stir, stir, stir.

raspberry jam being stirred while cooking
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

About that juice getting “wasted” Of course what they mean here is that you’re going to simmer until the whole lovely mass cooks down, so that it’s getting thick and not very juicy anymore. 

This is, to be sure, a bit subjective. I cooked mine until it was easy to see the bottom of the pot just for a moment, as I drew the wooden spoon through the mixture, before the remaining juice covered the bottom again. I was afraid I’d not cooked it quite dry enough, but once the jam was done, I realized those fears were unfounded. Don’t worry about cooking down all the juice, just cook until it’s reduced quite significantly.

1859 raspberry jam
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife

Is half an hour really enough? 

Yes. If you start the timer once it begins to simmer again after adding the sugar, half an hour is perfect. You may be tempted to cook it longer, since it won’t seem very thick while it’s hot and simmering, but hold fast and follow the directions. That jam will thicken up beautifully as it cools. 

Can you can this jam? 

The right answer here is that you should only can modern, safety-tested recipes, like those from the Ball Blue Book, and the ​National Center for Home Food Preservation​. 

The long and honest answer is that I did end up canning the jam from this recipe, and here’s why I personally felt comfortable doing that, in this particular case:

The Ball Blue Book’s canning recipe for raspberry jam lists ingredient measurements in cups, (instead of the more precise measurement by weight that our 1859 recipe uses). Out of curiosity I measured the volume, in cups, of my 50 ounces of berries and 50 ounces of sugar, and found the ratio to be so close to that of the measurements listed in the Ball Blue Book recipe, that I felt comfortable canning this 1800’s recipe according to the 10 minute waterbath method prescribed by Ball. 

The volume of my berries was just a fragment short of being in exact proportion with the Ball recipe, but if I’d crushed and measured them immediately after picking, instead of after they’d sat in a big bowl in my refrigerator over night, that same 50 ounces of berries would have more generously filled those measuring cups. (I do SO prefer the precision of measurement by weight, if you can’t tell.) 

To be clear though, please don’t let me sway you on issues of food safety here, nor encourage you to can a recipe that was written long before modern canning safety standards were established.

homemade raspberry jam
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much jam does this recipe make? 

It all depends on the amount of berries and sugar you use. One day’s picking (after the kids ate their weight in berries for lunch) was 50 ounces, so I matched that with 50 ounces of sugar. This yielded just shy of 8 half-pint jars of beautiful jam. 

Just a reminder that if you ever have a particular type of recipe you’d like to see here, just send me an email and I’ll try to find one. I’m always happy to hear from you!

📖 Recipe

raspberry jam from an 1859 recipe

Mrs. Rundell’s Raspberry Jam (1859)

A heavenly raspberry jam recipe from Mrs. Rundell's cook book, A New System of Domestic Cookery, 1859
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Servings: 144
Calories: 41kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 lb raspberries
  • 3 lb sugar

Instructions

  • Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar;
  • put the former into a preserving-pan, boil and break it, stir constantly, and let it boil very quickly.
  • When most of the juice is wasted, add the sugar, and simmer half an hour.
  • This way the jam is greatly superior in color and flavor to that which is made by putting the sugar in first.

Nutrition

Serving: 1tablespoon | Calories: 41kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.002g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.04g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 0.2mg | Potassium: 14mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 3IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Corn Muffins (1876)

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This easy Corn Muffin recipe from 1876 is simple and hearty.

corn muffins in a cast iron pan
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear friends ~

Nights have been cold here in Maine, and we’ve seen the first hard frosts adorning the yard and gardens in the mornings. Things have taken a turn toward winter. 

With the frosty mornings, warm and cozy breakfasts have been welcome, even if it means I need to get into the kitchen a little extra early on school mornings. 

These corn muffins were a tasty little recipe to try this week, and I love it that they come together so quickly. Five minutes of heating the pan while mixing ingredients, another 14 or so for the muffins to bake, and they’re ready for the table. 

You’ll notice there’s no salt or sugar in this recipe, so the flavor of the corn really comes through (if you can get your hands on fresh-ground corn meal, it’s absolutely worth it!). That nice neutral flavor profile makes it easy to top these with just about anything you like, whether sweet or savory. 

If you’re looking for something easy and different to try along with breakfast this weekend, these feel hearty and wholesome, perfect for a cozy morning.

~ Anna


CORN MUFFINS

Two cups of Indian meal, two cups of flour, two eggs, piece of butter size of an egg, melted, two teaspoonsful of cream of tartar, one teaspoonful of soda, and one pint of milk.

The Economical Cook Book, 1876
pan of corn muffins next to an old cook book
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This is such a quick and easy little recipe, but a here a few notes that might help if you’re giving it a go.

a cast iron pan with corn muffins
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much butter is “size of an egg”? ​

The classic conversion for this old measurement of butter, is that it equals ¼ cup. You can see this in the table below, which appears in Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book (my copy is from 1883).

an 1800's table of measures
Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book, page 31. 1883. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Personally, if I were matching the size of my own chicken’s eggs, I’d go closer to ⅓ cup, and I actually think this recipe could handle this if you wanted to play around with it. For the sake of adhering to the common conversion though, I went with ¼ cup.

Indian Meal​

This simply means cornmeal. Throughout the entirety of the 1800’s this is what cornmeal is most commonly referred to, in every cook book I’ve studied, all the way from the 1820’s through the 1890’s. It took until well into the 20th century, before this terminology finally began to be widely dropped, in favor of simply “cornmeal”. 

The freshest, stone-ground cornmeal you can get will definitely give the best result, especially since the corn flavor really has the chance to shine through in this very simple recipe.

a corn muffin sitting on the cast iron pan it was baked in
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

What type of pan to use? ​

If you’re lucky enough to have a good cast iron muffin pan, by all means use that. Nothing is better than a nice crusty muffin straight out a cast iron pan!

The 1800’s way to make muffins in cast iron, is to grease the pan, then heat it in the oven. When it’s good and hot, take it out to spoon the muffin batter into the hot pan, and then put it right back into the oven for the muffins to bake. When you follow this method, using a well-seasoned pan, it’s almost impossible to end up with baked goods stuck to your pan. The muffins come out cleanly, and with a perfectly crisp exterior. 

If you don’t have a cast iron pan, go ahead and grease your muffin pan, using it as usual, without pre-heating it as you would for an iron pan.

a corn muffin being spread with butter
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Oven Temperature

Breakfast breads were made in quite a hot, or “quick” oven. I set mine to 400° F, and found that worked well.

How long to bake these muffins?​

In my cast iron muffin pan, at 400°F, these take 14-15 minutes to bake perfectly. You want the tops to be noticeably golden brown, and the centers to be well set. 

If you’re using a different type of muffin pan, and haven’t pre-heated it, your muffins might take just a little longer.

We definitely enjoyed these, especially the way the simple, minimal ingredients allowed the flavor of the cornmeal to shine through. They’re a fairly solid little muffin, though the crumb is not what you’d call dense, and they’re really quite lovely. 

I’m eager to try a few different corn muffin recipes from other cook books, representing different decades, to see if others might result in lighter, more lofty muffins. I’ll definitely keep you posted!

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

📖 Recipe

corn muffins in a cast iron pan

Corn Muffins (1876)

This easy Corn Muffin recipe from 1876 is simple and hearty, perfect for a cozy breakfast on a cold day.
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Servings: 21

Ingredients

  • 2 cups corn meal
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 pint milk

Notes

Modern notes: 
Preheat oven to 400 F. If using a cast iron pan, grease well and pre-heat pan.
Mix all ingredients just until well incorporated. 
Drop into well greased pan, filling muffin cups ⅔ full. Bake 14-15 minutes or until golden brown and centers are set. 
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

Spice Salt (1885)

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Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Dear Friends, I’m keeping it short again tonight, because I have a sick little one who needs her mom close. 

Making up this spice salt while she napped today was such a pleasant little project, because the scents of all the spices mingling together are just so warming, body and soul. Plus, there’s really something a bit meditative about measuring out spices, and grinding them up by hand. 

This is a much warmer, more exotic-feeling spice blend than what we tend to think of as “seasoned salt” today, and I’m thinking it’s likely to become one of my most reached-for spice blends.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

from Twenty-Five Cent Dinners, 1885. Page 19 Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

No cooking notes today… 

It doesn’t get much more straightforward than measuring and combining spices, so I don’t think I have anything to offer in the way of clarification. 

However, I did notice that the spices listed in the recipe add up to exactly 2 ounces. So when she says to use one ounce of salt for every 4 ounces of spice mix, that would be ½ ounce of salt to go with the quantity of spices listed. 

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

By the way, you can print those spice labels, if you like.

I couldn’t help but make up some little spice labels when I was photographing the spice salt. So I thought I’d share those with you in case you’d like some for yourself. 

You can download them here, and if you have any trouble, just shoot me a reply to this email and I’ll send them to you. 

There’s a label for each spice included in the blend, as well as for the Spice Salt itself. 

The font was created by a brilliant typeface artist right here in Maine, and is based on the handwriting of Abigail Adams–specifically her letters from the 1780’s and ’90s.

📖 Recipe

Spice Salt

Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six, 1885
This warming spice blend is one you'll want on hand for savory dishes of all kinds.
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Calories: 9kcal

Ingredients

  • ¼ ounce thyme
  • ¼ ounce bay leaf
  • ¼ ounce pepper
  • ⅛ ounce marjoram
  • ⅛ ounce cayenne
  • ½ ounce ground cloves
  • ½ ounce nutmeg
  • ½ ounce salt

Instructions

"You can make this very nicely by drying, powdering and mixing by repeated siftings the following ingredients:

  • one quarter of an ounce each of powdered thyme,
  • bay-leaf, and
  • pepper;
  • one eighth of an ounce each of marjoram and
  • cayenne pepper,
  • one half of an ounce each of powdered clove and
  • nutmeg;
  • to every four ounces of this powder add one ounce of salt, and keep the mixture in an air-tight vessel. One ounce of it added to three pounds of stuffing, or forcemeat of any kind, makes a delicious seasoning.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 9kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Sodium: 277mg | Fiber: 1g
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Mayonnaise (1868)

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Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

There are some things in life you do just once.

Polar bear dipping in January. Eating raw conch off the dive boat. Making mayonnaise by hand with a wooden spoon.

You know, in the end, it only took me 47 minutes to make this genuinely divine mayonnaise by hand. But dear reader…that was my third try. I broke the first two. 

All in all, I spent just under two hours beating egg yolks and oil today, and let me just say that I feel it. 

This recipe really does make a bright and delicious mayonnaise, though, and it’s truly well worth making. If you give it a go by hand, check out today’s cooking notes, which hopefully might save you those first two tries.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:


Thought I’d include the whole page today…so many interesting sauces! From Warne’s Model Cookery and Housekeeping Book, 1868 Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

HOW MUCH IS A SPOONFUL? 

In this recipe, I feel pretty confident that she is referring to a salt-spoon, which would be ¼ teaspoon. 

This is the amount I used, and it makes a wonderfully bright and well-flavored mayonnaise. 

WHAT KIND OF “SALAD OIL” TO USE: 

Generally, olive oil was the choice for salad dressings. It’s common in old cook books for olive oil to be referred to as “salad oil” or “sweet oil”. 

Several of the Mayonnaise recipes in my other 1800’s cook books specify olive oil, and none of them specify another specific type, so olive oil is what I went with. 

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

HOW MUCH OIL TO USE?​

I used 1¼ cups of olive oil, total. It would also have been a lovely mayonnaise, had I stopped at 1 cup–so anywhere in there is a good amount to plan on. 

HOW MUCH OIL TO START WITH?

THIS was the part the messed me up the first two times. I put in about ¼ cup of oil for the initial beating with the egg yolks, like so many of the blender or food processor methods call for these days. 

This did not work with beating by hand. I ended up with broken emulsions on my first two attempts. 

What ended up working for me, was beating the yolks alone until they were slightly lighter in color, then adding two teaspoons of oil, and fully incorporating that before adding more. Then adding just a teaspoon at a time of the oil (all the while beating away as though your life depends upon it), until all of a sudden things start to change and you’ve got a lighter, thicker mixture that is clearly “working”. 

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

WHEN TO START PUTTING IN LEMON JUICE

On my second attempt, I rushed putting in the lemon juice. Because of the wording “as soon as the oil and eggs begin to mix”, it felt like there was some urgency. But what ended up working for me was waiting to put any lemon juice in, until after I absolutely knew I had a good emulsion, once the mixture was unmistakably lighter and thicker.

📖 Recipe

Mayonnaise Sauce

Warne's Model Cookery and Housekeeping Book, 1868
This classic mayonnaise is bright and flavorful–everything you want in a vintage "salad dressing".
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Calories: 105kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 ¼ cups olive oil
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon sugar

Instructions

  • "Yolks of two eggs; one lemon; salad oil; one spoonful of pepper; one spoonful of salt; same of moist sugar. A Mayonnaise is simply a French dressing for salad."
  • Mix the yolks of two or three eggs with the pepper and salt;
  • then work together with them the salad oil; mix it so thoroughly that it may appear a perfect cream.
  • Keep by your side a lemon cut in two.
  • As soon as the oil and eggs begin to mix, squeeze in the lemon juice, add more oil, drop by drop, then more lemon juice, till the mixture is finished. Add the oil by degrees, not all at once. Let it be a perfect cream before you use it.
  • Use a wooden spoon, and mix in a cool place.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 105kcal | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 25mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Washington Omelet (1881)

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Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

For someone who grew up dreading quiche night, I am surprisingly smitten with this 1881 recipe that’s an awful lot like…fried quiche.

It’s one of those quick and easy dishes that could equally suit any meal of the day, from breakfast to supper. Some of these nineteenth century recipes are ones I may only make a few times, but this one’s going on the regular weekly meal rotation. Hope you love it too!

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Here’s a picture of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

from Practical Housekeeping, 1881. Page 150. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Cooking Notes:

This is such an easy dish, notes hardly seem needed on this one. Don’t skimp on that butter, and do have the skillet hot before you put in the egg mixture. That’s really about it!

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

It does take a patient hand turning the squares of omelet after they’ve been cut, and I hope I’m not the first cook to cheat by removing a few edge sections to make this easier. It worked well to have a little more maneuvering space, then quickly fry up the removed pieces after the rest of the omelet is done.

Also, this is not authentic in any way, so do forgive the anachronistic serving idea...but these heavenly little squares of omelet are sturdy enough to hold up to some wonderful toppings. This recipe is already on my meal plan for dinner one night next week, and I’m dreaming about pairing it with smoked salmon, crème fraîche, and bits of fresh chives.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Just a reminder that if you ever have a particular type of recipe you’d like to see here, just send me an email and I’ll try to find one. I’m always happy to hear from you!

📖 Recipe

Washington Omelet

Practical Housekeeping, 1881
This delicious egg dish works just as well for dinner as it does for breakfast.
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Servings: 4
Calories: 263kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Let one tea-cup milk come to a boil,
  • pour it over one tea-cup bread-crumbs and let stand a few minutes.
  • Break six eggs into a bowl;
    stir (not beat) till well mixed;
  • then add the milk and bread; mix;
    season with salt and pepper and pour into a hot skillet, in which a large tablespoon of butter had been melted;
  • fry slowly, cut in squares, turn, fry to a delicate brown, and serve at once.
  • –Mrs. D. Buxton.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 263kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 260mg | Sodium: 337mg | Potassium: 236mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 543IU | Calcium: 162mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Graham Gems (1887)

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Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

Earlier this week, while in our small town’s food co-op, I noticed a new product from my favorite local grain mill: graham flour.

Immediately, I knew which nineteenth century recipe I needed to try next. In the pages of almost every 1800’s cookbook, I’ve been noticing recipes for a type of breakfast muffin called “graham gems.” They’ve been calling to me.

The particular recipe I decided to try was from the 1887 White House Cookbook, and to be totally honest with you…I picked that one because it had more sugar than most graham gem recipes I’ve seen. (And as you’ll notice, that’s still not much!)

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

These mix up in five minutes, bake in fifteen, and are best eaten while they’re good and hot. Slather them with butter or something sweet like raspberry jam–they’re lovely either way!

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

Graham Gem recipes numbers 1 & 2, The White House Cook Book, page 230 Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

A FEW BAKING NOTES:

Let’s talk about gem pans. These were usually cast iron, and made like a shallow muffin tin. If you’re lucky enough to have one, you want to grease it well, put it in the oven when you turn it on to pre-heat, and let it get good and hot before you put the batter in.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

If you don’t have a gem pan, no worries. I’d suggest making these in a well-greased muffin pan, not pre-heating it (unless it’s cast iron), and filling the wells about half full. Don’t let not having a gem pan keep you from enjoying this recipe.

Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

How much graham flour should you use?
​I found that 4½ cups of graham flour made a batter that dropped nicely, and baked in exactly 15 minutes, like the recipe says. (I followed the instructions for the sweet milk version of “Graham Gems No. 2.”, and loved it.)

One egg or two?
​I used two, and would definitely do the same again.

How hot should the oven be?
​A hot oven in the 1800’s would have been in the 400-425° range. I went with 400, and with a thoroughly pre-heated gem pan, found that these cooked in exactly the fifteen minutes specified in the recipe.

How many gems does this make? ​
About 24. My gem pan makes 11 gems, and a half batch of this recipe fills each space with just a little extra batter left over. If you have one gem pan and mix up a full batch of batter, it actually works just fine to bake these in batches. Gems can be removed easily from the hot gem pan if it’s been well-greased, then you can return it to the oven for a few minutes to get good and hot again, before re-filling with the second half of the batter.

If you’d like to hear more about breakfast gems, and making this recipe, I made a video to go with this one. You can watch it right here:

As always, feel free to reply to this email or comment on the video to let me know if there’s a particular type of recipe you’d like to see featured here. I’ll see what I can do!

📖 Recipe

Graham Gems No.2

The White House Cook Book, 1887
This delicious breakfast muffin is really a must-try. Perfect with butter or jam, it's a delicious way to start the day!
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Calories: 119kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 cups sour milk or see note
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter or lard
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 ½ cups graham flour

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400F. Thoroughly grease a cast iron gem pan, or muffin tin. If using a gem pan, pre-heat the gem pan while you prepare the batter.
  • Three cups of sour milk, one teaspoonful of soda, one of salt, one tablespoonful of brown sugar, one of melted lard or butter, one or two beaten eggs;
  • to the egg add the milk, then the sugar and salt, then the
    Graham flour (with the soda mixed in), together with the lard or butter;
  • make a stiff batter, so that it will drop, not pour, from the spoon.
  • Have the gem-pans very hot, fill and bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven.
  • The same can be made of sweet milk, using three teaspoonfuls of baking powder instead of soda, and if you use sweet milk, put in no shortening. Excellent.
  • Muffins of all kinds should only be cut just around the edge, then pulled open with the fingers.

Notes

If using fresh milk instead of sour, substitute 1 tablespoon baking powder for the baking soda, and omit the butter or lard.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 119kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 97mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Lemon Snaps (1881)

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This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife daily newsletter, on January 22, 2023. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive the daily recipe and cooking notes straight to your email.

Today’s recipe comes from Practical Housekeeping, published in 1881, by the Buckeye Publishing Company.

My dear Hattie –

Received your letter this week, and smiled to hear you so warmly remember the cookies I served, during your last visit to us. Was that really two months ago already?

With four little ones, I am often making cookies–usually jumbles. But since you mention the taste of lemon, I am sure it is Lemon Snaps that you remember so fondly. I am happy to share it with you, and have copied out the recipe, which you will find enclosed.

These are easy to make and keep well. Have your oven very hot, and be cautious not to add too much flour. I find that one cup plus two tablespoons, and a very little more for rolling, is enough. One tea-spoon lemon essence flavors them nicely.

This is from Practical Housekeeping, which I use more than probably any other cook book.

We roasted the last of the turkeys from last summer’s hatchings today. I had intended to save him for when Alice comes to visit next month, but the big fellow had chased poor Thomas so many times lately, that I decided that enough was enough. So we all enjoyed the special treat of an excellent turkey dinner. Thomas most of all, I think.

How exciting to read in your letter about your gardening plans for spring, now that you are at last settled in your own home and yard. Of course I would be more than happy to offer whatever little suggestions and tips may be helpful, as you make your plans.

Enclose a sketch with the layout of the house and yards in your next letter if you can, and I will be glad to help.

Ever your affectionate cousin,
Florence Nelson

From Practical Housekeeping, published in 1881. Page 98
Cookie-baking advice from the preceding page. Practical Housekeeping, page 97

MODERN BAKING NOTES:
Roll the dough thin, like pie crust–about ⅛ inch.
Bake on un-greased tins, at 420°, until golden brown around the edges.
5-6 minutes should do it!

Below is a printable version of the recipe. Hope you enjoy it! ~ Anna

📖 Recipe

Lemon Snaps, 1881

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Ingredients

  • 1 ⅛ cup sugar
  • ⅔ cup butter
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon hot water
  • 1 ⅛ cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions

"A large cup sugar, two-thirds cup butter, half tea-spoon soda dissolved in two tea-spoons hot water, flour enough to roll thin; flavor with lemon"

    Notes

    {MODERN BAKING NOTES: Roll the dough thin, like pie crust–about ⅛ inch. Bake on un-greased tins, at 420°, until golden brown around the edges. 5-6 minutes should do it!
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Beef Soup (1877)

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    A company-worthy beef soup, heartily flavored with warming spices, and the sweetness of onions and wine.

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    It’s an interesting thing, cooking through all these 1800’s cookbooks. Some were written for lower income families, while others were geared toward those of more means. 

    As I bounce back and forth between them, it’s impossible not to be struck by the sharp contrast between “economy” cooking, and richer fare. A few weeks ago, we learned to stretch a cup of lentils and a handful of vegetables into two quarts of main-dish soup, meant to feed a whole family. 

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Today, we’re creating a starter-course beef soup that calls for a pound of meat to every quart of water. And oh, the lovely spices that are lavished on this soup! 

    Both soups were meant to be made with time and care. And somehow, of all the foods we’ve made so far, it’s these soup recipes that are staying with me…making tangible the broad spectrum of what it meant to put good food on the table, in the 1800’s. 

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Today’s soup takes time, and it’s not economy food, by any stretch. But it is absolute heaven, and the sort of soup anyone would be proud to set in front of a guest. The warmth of the cloves, mace, and allspice…the sweetness of the onions and wine. Just perfection.

    If you only ever try a handful of these recipes, I’d suggest this as one for the “must-try list”. It’s lovely.

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife. From Common Sense in the Household, 1877. Page 37

    A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

    What cut of beef to use
    ​    Any inexpensive, lean cut of beef would work well here. If you use a cut that’s not fairly lean, you’ll want to trim the fat, or there will be rather a lot of fat to skim from the soup as it boils (and boils, and boils). 

    Does it really need to boil for three hours?​
    It does. I actually found that mine needed about an extra half hour, for the beef to really be falling to bits. This is not a soup you can rush. 

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Also, don’t skip caramelizing those onions before adding them. The brown sweetness of the pre-caramelized onions really is part of the magic in this simple, but SO flavorful soup.

    What to do with the strained-off bits of beef and onion?​
    Once the soup is strained, you’re left with a pile of heavenly-smelling beef and onion “mush”. It’s not a huge pile, but enough to really do something with. I saved mine to use for the filling in individual little pot pies–something I think it’s going to be perfect for. 

    The scraps that are left after straining the soup are heavenly–definitely something to use in another meal! Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    What would they have done with this in the 1800’s?​
    ​Please know that I am speculating here, but my hunch is that it’s likely these beef and onion leavings may have been used toward making a dish to furnish the servant’s table, if this soup were made for a family of means.

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    If, however, it was made as a special occasion soup by a housewife, I expect she would probably have used it similarly to other “leftover beef” recipes. For example, “beef hash”, which sometimes was formed into patties, dipped in egg and bread crumbs, and fried. Or, similar to what I’m doing, in a leftover meat pie. 

    About that sherry…​
    Keep in mind that our “sherry cooking wine” of today has added sodium and preservatives to make it shelf stable. It absolutely can help give the depth of flavor that really takes this recipe over the top, and can be used in the same proportion as the wine in the recipe–but don’t salt the soup to taste until after you’ve added it. 

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Need a non-alcoholic substitute? There are lots of recommended substitutes for sherry, but I think that in this recipe I’d probably try using about an once of good apple cider vinegar, or red wine vinegar. 

    How much wine is “a glass”? ​
    Over the course of the 1800’s, the size of “a glass of wine” slowly increased from about 3.4 ounces, to about 5.4 ounces. There are many interesting articles that mention this shift, but this is one of my favoritesif you’d like to read more. I felt that using 4 ounces was a pretty safe bet here, and would use the same amount again. 

    📖 Recipe

    Beef Soup (brown)

    Common Sense in the Household, 1877
    A company-worthy beef soup, heartily flavored with warming spices, and the sweetness of onions and wine.
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    Course: Soups
    Author: Common Sense in the Household, 1877

    Ingredients

    • 3 lbs. beef cut into strips
    • 3 onions
    • 3 qts. water
    • 1 teaspoon cloves
    • ½ teaspoon pepper
    • ½ teaspoon mace
    • ⅛ teaspoon allspice 1 pinch
    • 1.5 cups celery
    • ½ teaspoon marjoram or savory
    • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
    • salt to taste
    • 4 ounces brown sherry or madeira

    Instructions

    • Put beef and water into the saucepan and boil for one hour.
    • Meanwhile, slice the onions and fry them in butter to a light brown.
    • Drop into the pot with a teaspoonful of cloves, half as much pepper, same quantity of mace as pepper, a pinch of allspice, and a teaspoonful of essence of celery, if you cannot get a head of fresh celery; also half a teaspoonful of powdered savory or sweet marjoram, and a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce.
    • Stew all for two hours more, or until the beef has boiled to pieces.
    • Strain the soup and return to the fire.
    • Salt to taste, and just before taking it off, pour in a glass of brown sherry or Madeira wine.
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Hermit Cookies (1894)

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    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    So…Hermits. Were you expecting dark, molasses-y cookies, spiced with cinnamon, and studded with raisins? Until recently, that’s what I’d have expected too. That’s the type of “old fashioned” hermits I grew up with.

    Interestingly, none of the oldest hermit recipes I’ve found call for molasses. They’re made with sugar (like Miss Parloa’s recipe from 1881), or brown sugar (like today’s recipe from 1894.)

    Spices and raisins you can count on though. Another little thing of interest is that all of the early hermit recipes call for not just stoning, but chopping, the raisins. What a fascinating thing to watch recipes evolve with the decades, isn’t it?

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    from The Century Cook Book, 1894. Page 135 Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    A FEW COOKING NOTES THAT MAY HELP: 

    OVEN TEMPERATURE: 

    I used 375°F for baking these, and found that it worked well. (A quick oven would be about 400-425 or a little higher)

    SPICES: 

    These are not a very sweet cookie, so I found myself wanting to go a little heavier on the spices. One teaspoon of cinnamon, one teaspoon of nutmeg, and half a teaspoon of cloves is what I used, and felt they were nicely spicy without being overpowering. (It’s also a similar amount to the two teaspoons of spice called for in Miss Parloa’s contemporary recipe, which is a little sweeter.)

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    HOW MUCH FLOUR TO USE: 

    The short answer, I felt that about 2 ½ cups worked well, with extra for rolling.

    Long answer: I struggled with this, trying everything from barely-stiff-enough-to-roll, to pretty stiff. In one ear, I was hearing the advice of one of these cookbook authors (I am SO sorry I’ve misplaced which one), that the trick with cookies and cakes that are “rolled upon the board” is to use as much flour as is needed to roll without sticking, and not a speck more. In the other ear, I was comparing this with other similar recipes that used as much as 5-6 cups of flour. After experimenting a bit, I found that about 2 ½ cups gave a cookie that rose and didn’t sharply hold it’s shape, while also not spreading much. They also had crispy edges while keeping a center that remained slightly soft, when the edges were brown and centers were set. 

    BAKING TIME: 

    I cut my cookies about 1.25″ square, and at that size they took 6-7 minutes. 

    If you make these, I’d love to hear how they turn out for you!

    📖 Recipe

    Hermits

    The Century Cook Book, 1894
    Soft and comforting little hermit cookies, perfectly spiced.
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    Calories: 126kcal

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup butter
    • 1 ½ cups brown sugar
    • 3 eggs
    • 1 cup seedless chopped raisins
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 2 tablespoon milk
    • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
    • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
    • ½ teaspoon cloves
    • 2 ½ cups flour

    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 375F.
    • Beat together buter and sugar
    • Add eggs, and baking powder dissolved in milk. Stir well.
    • Add flour, and spices. Stir until well mixed.
    • Roll about ¼" thick, and cut into squares.
    • Bake 6-7 minutes, or until centers are just set.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1g | Calories: 126kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 29mg | Sodium: 85mg | Sugar: 10g
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Father Adam (1885)

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    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    SO. Father Adam.

    Is it an apple dish? A type of cake? “Father Adam” is actually an early twist on what most of us probably think of as Shepherd’s Pie. It was considered a family-pleasing use for leftover roast, and it’s another one of those great 1800’s comfort food dinners.

    I can imagine nineteenth century children rejoicing at hearing it was “Father Adam” for dinner tonight. That’s how my kids feel about Shepherd’s Pie.

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    In fact, the night I made this, I told them we were having something like Shepherd’s Pie for dinner. You probably know how this went down.

    When they discovered it was a vintage interloper with no green peas, the little knuckleheads begged for granola instead. (Just keeping things real over here). So it looks I’ll be eating Father Adam leftovers for lunch today, tomorrow…maybe the next day. And you know? I am totally ok with that.

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    From Virginia Cookery Book, Page 101 (continued on page 102) Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
    Father Adam recipe, continued. From Virginia Cookery Book, page 102​ Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    I don’t have many cooking notes today, because this is a pretty straightforward recipe.

    You do want to heed that advice to keep the heat gentle as the meat stews, because with the flour in there, it can be easy to burn on. But don’t be tempted to wait and put the flour in at the end, because that long stew time with the thickening is what gives it all a chance to develop that deep caramel color and depth of flavor. This is a lazy little recipe that doesn’t want to be rushed, and just works.

    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    For the final browning in the oven, I found that about 20 minutes at 350°F did the trick.

    Personally, I found “Father Adam” to be a much more interesting and satisfying dish than the modern version of Shepherd’s Pie, made with ground beef. Next time you’ve got roast leftovers, I heartily recommend this as a worthy way to use them.

    📖 Recipe

    Father Adam

    Virginia Cookery Book, 1885
    This classic comfort dish is reminiscent of Shepherd's Pie, and is a flavorful family favorite.
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    Calories: 573kcal

    Ingredients

    For the meat filling

    • 1.5 lb cooked beef
    • 1 small sliced onion
    • 2 T butter
    • Leftover gravy if available
    • salt and pepper to taste
    • 1 T flour

    New Group

    • 4 large potatoes
    • ½ cup milk
    • 2 T butter or to taste

    Instructions

    • Whence the name came nobody knows, but the dish that bears it is one that is a favorite for common use with every family where it is known.
    • When you have a cold roast of beef cut off as much as will half fill a baking-dish suited to the size of your family;
    • put this sliced beef into a stewpan with any gravy that you may have also saved, a lump of butter, a bit of sliced onion, and a seasoning of pepper and salt, with
      enough water to make plenty of gravy;
    • thicken it, too, by dredging in a
      tablespoonful of flour;
    • cover it up on the fire, where it may stew
      gently, but not be in danger of burning.
    • Meanwhile there must be boiled a
      sufficient quantity of potatoes to fill up your baking-dish after the stewed meat has been transferred to it. The potatoes must be boiled done, mashed smooth, and beaten up with milk and butter, as if they were to be served alone, and placed in a thick layer on top of the meat.
    • Place the dish in an oven, and let it remain there long enough to be brown. There should be a goodly quantity of gravy left with the beef, that the dish be not dry and tasteless.
    • Serve with it tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or any other kind that you prefer.
    • A good, plain dish.

    Notes

    To finish, bake 20 minutes at 350F.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1g | Calories: 573kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 36g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 121mg | Sodium: 234mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 4g
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Christmas Plum Pudding (1887)

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    There’s nothing like an old-fashioned Christmas plum pudding, and making one is easier than you might think!

    an old-fashioned plum pudding surrounded by holly
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Dear friends ~

    Can you believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve? It always feels a little surreal how quickly that sneaks up. 

    Today’s recipe is an old-fashioned plum pudding, another recipe from The White House Cook Book. It’s been years since I’ve made a proper boiled pudding, and after how well this turned out, it has me wondering why I don’t make puddings more often. Maybe it’s that 4 hours of boil time!

    If you can get your hands on the ingredients, it’s definitely not too late to whip up this Christmas classic. It’s not as fussy a recipe as it sounds, and once the pudding is boiling away in the mold, the whole process is pretty hands free. 

    Forgive me if today’s email feels a bit rushed–it is. My heater and water tank both decided to die at the same time, so it’s a bit like camping over here. Thank goodness for the wood stove!

    ~ Anna

    a plum pudding
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


    CHRISTMAS PLUM-PUDDING. (By Measure.)

    One cupful of finely chopped beef suet, two cupfuls of fine bread-crumbs, one heaping cupful of sugar, one cupful of seeded raisins, one cupful of well-washed currants, one cupful of chopped blanched almonds, half a cupful of citron, sliced thin, a teaspoonful of salt, one of cloves, two of cinnamon, half a grated nutmeg, and four well-beaten eggs. Dissolve a level teaspoonful of soda in a tablespoonful of warm water. 
    Flour the fruit thoroughly from a pint of flour; then mix the remainder as follows: In a large bowl put the well-beaten eggs, sugar, spices, and salt in one cupful of milk. Stir in the fruit, chopped nuts, breadcrumbs, and suet, one after the other, until all are used, putting in the dissolved soda last, and adding enough flour to make the fruit stick together, which will take all the pint. Boil or steam four hours. Serve with wine or brandy or any well-flavored sauce.

    The White House Cook Book, 1887

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    an 1800's plum pudding recipe
    From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

    Don’t let yourself be intimidated by those directions. This recipe is honestly very easy to make successfully. Here are a few cooking notes that come to mind having just made this. If you have additional questions, don’t hesitate to reply to this email and ask away!

    Sourcing raw suet

    If you’re lucky enough to have a good butcher shop nearby, that’s the first place I’d look. You may also find suet right at your grocery store’s meat counter. If you don’t see any on the shelves, try asking the butcher or department manager directly. They may be able to get some for you. 

    Local farms that raise beef cows, would be another place to try. If the farmers don’t have any available, chances are they may have an idea where you can get some. Anyone raising meat animals tends to be pretty integrated into the locally-grown food community, and is likely to know who’s got what available.

    raw suet being chopped with a knife
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Those bread crumbs

    Regular, un-seasoned breadcrumbs are perfect here. I follow the 1800’s housekeeping tip of always grating the ends of dry bread as they go stale, so I’ve always got a 2-quart jar of good dried bread crumbs handy on my counter, but store-bought work just fine too!

    If you don’t have whole nutmegs

    If you can, I definitely encourage you to add whole nutmegs to your supply of spices, as well as a good grater–there’s nothing like fresh ground nutmeg! If you don’t have whole nutmeg on hand though, no worries. 1.5 teaspoons of ground nutmeg is about right for that half of a nutmeg this recipe.

    How much flour to use

    This recipe comes across a little wishy-washy about that amount of flour, but I found that simply using exactly the pint that’s initially called for worked perfectly. The pudding turned out well, and has a good texture. Any additional flour would have probably been excessive.

    plum pudding batter in a pudding mold
    Do not fill your pudding mold this full! ¾ full is about as high as you want to go. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Using a pudding mold

    I have an antique tin pudding mold with a well-fitted lid that I used. I loved how the pudding turned out in this, but I did realize that I overfilled it. In the future, I won’t fill the mold more than ¾ full. That pudding rose more than I expected. Also, really butter that mold well!

    a plum pudding in a pudding mold
    This pudding rose SO much more than I expected! If I hadn’t wired the lid on just to be safe, it probably would have pushed the lid right up. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    If you don’t have a pudding mold, that’s ok! I have not personally boiled a pudding in a cloth, though that’s something I want to tackle this winter. 

    However, I’m going include the page of tips for pudding making from this cookbook below, and they’re quite well-written directions. If you try this, I hope you’ll let me know how it turns out!

    a page from an old cook book
    From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Boiling the pudding

    I chose to boil this pudding, and it worked well. I used a small stock pot with enough boiling water to come just below the lid of the pudding mold, and kept the stock pot tightly covered. Halfway through the four hours of boil time, I lifted the lid just long enough to pour in some extra boiling water from a teapot, to bring the water level back up where it started.

    Un-molding the pudding

    I followed the instruction on the page above, to dip the mold immediately into cold water. Then I tipped it upside down and thumped the bottom of the mold good and hard. It did come out cleanly with just a bit of coaxing. If I hadn’t over-filled the mold, I think it would have slid right out more easily.

    a plum pudding
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    The sauce

    Here’s the recipe for the sauce that’s meant to be paired with this pudding, according to the suggested Christmas Day menu from this cook book:

    a recipe for plum pudding sauce
    From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    There’s something so special and festive about a real, boiled plum pudding. I’ll tell you, I felt like Mrs. Cratchit as I was waiting nervously to see how it would turn out!

    “In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered: flushed, but smiling proudly: with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.”

    ~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

    If you’d like to serve yours flaming, like the Cratchit family enjoyed, here’s a post I liked from another blog about how to do this.

    a Christmas plum pudding
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Well…I’ve just received the quote for getting running water back in the house, and it’s a doozy! For those of you who have asked how I keep this project going, here’s a rare moment of transparency. I’m actually a single mom–a domestic violence survivor, who supports my two kids by writing about gardening and homesteading. It’s tight, but the peaceful life I’ve made for us on this side of things is a joyful one, and I’m SO thankful that you’re part of it. 

    The 1800’s Housewife is my pet project, and one that doesn’t make an income yet, but at the gentle nudging of a couple readers, I’ve set up a “tip jar” where folks who want to (no pressure!) can be part of keeping us in ingredients, adding to the cook book collection, and you know…replacing that water tank.

    send a tip

    Please don’t feel pressured though, ok? That’s the last thing I want to do here!

    Please know that YOU–your kind emails in my inbox, and comments on the website, are my favorite part of doing what I do. Thank you for being part of the 1800’s Housewife family, and… 

    MERRY CHRISTMAS!

    Wishing you love and peace… Anna

    If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

    A Christmas Day Menu (1887)

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    Dear friends ~

    I’m suddenly realizing that it’s just three days ’til Christmas, and I actually haven’t shared an 1800’s suggested Christmas Day menu yet. Somehow in my head I’d done that ages ago!

    I’ve been without properly running water for a couple of weeks now, and won’t be back up and running until Dec. 30, so believe me that I am not functioning at the top of my game right now, by any means.

    If you’re on the email list, you may have followed along as we made Roast Goose, and Mince Pie. Today I’m making that Christmas Plum Pudding, so you can expect to see that in tomorrow’s email! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this festive menu…doesn’t it all sound wonderful?

    ~ Anna

    THE WHITE HOUSE COOK BOOK

    By Mrs. F. L. Gillette
    and Hugo Ziemann, Steward of the White House
    ​    1887

    An 1887 menu for Christmas Day
    From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Page 458

    I love how this menu includes suggestions for every meal of the day. The dishes really cover all the bases, and do it lavishly.

    Fish and seafood show up in three different ways, game is represented in that lovely soup as well as the canvas back duck, and the star of the show is a traditional goose, which would have been a domestically-raised, large bird.

    For dessert, there’s cake, pie, ice cream, and pudding–again covering all the bases. Fruit, nuts, and coffee are perfect for settling in, and “filling the cracks”.

    I also enjoy seeing the full day of suggested menus, because it’s such a visual reminder that dinner, the big meal in the middle of the day, was the main event during this era. Supper, the evening meal, was a much smaller repast.

    This is a cookbook that assumes a readership of very comfortable means, and that assumption shows up abundantly throughout this cook book. However, even written for a well-to-do audience, the supper menu draws on the leftover goose from dinner, offers just one fish, one vegetable, and one bread option, and two simple but lovely sweet dishes to finish it off, along with tea.

    an old fashioned mincemeat pie made with meat
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    I hope you enjoy reading over this suggested Christmas Day menu as much as I do.

    As always, thanks for being such a part of The 1800’s Housewife. Your emails, questions, and input make my day.

    See a recipe listed on that menu that you’d like to try? Feel free to send me an email with requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

    If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

    Roast Goose (1881 & 1856)

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    There’s nothing like an old-fashioned Christmas goose for a festive holiday dinner! Here are two recipes for roasting that lovely fowl–one from 1856 and another from 1881.

    an old fashioned roast goose for Christmas dinner
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Dear friends ~

    Today’s email is little more than a quick note (probably a relief after the epic wall of words I sent out on Monday, talking about mince pies!). 

    I wanted to make sure I got you my favorite recipe for Roast Goose in plenty of time, in case you may be thinking of an old-fashioned goose for Christmas dinner. 

    In fact, I’m going to include two different Roast Goose recipes here. Both are wonderful. The photos you’ll see in this email are from last Christmas Day, when I made the recipe from Practical Cookery, with the bread and sage stuffing. 

    I’m featuring the recipe from Miss Parloa’s New Cook Book and Marketing Guide though, because if I could only give a person one recipe for roasting a goose, it would probably be this one. It’s simple, no-nonsense, and that potato dressing is just a nice change of pace, after the bread-based stuffing most of us enjoy with our Thanksgiving turkey. 

    Both recipes are heavenly, and if you’re lucky enough to have access to a goose this holiday season, I’d encourage you to give either of these a try!

    ~ Anna

    a roast goose
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


    ROAST GOOSE

    Stuff the goose with a potato dressing made in the following manner: Six potatoes, boiled, pared and mashed fine and light; one table-spoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of pepper, one spoonful of sage, two table-spoonfuls of onion juice, two of butter. 
    Truss, and dredge well with salt, pepper and flour. 
    Roast before the fire (if weighing eight pounds) one hour and a half; in the oven, one hour and a quarter. 
    Make gravy the same as for turkey. 
    No butter is required for goose, it is so fat. Serve with apple sauce. 
    Many people boil the goose half an hour before roasting, to take away the strong flavor. Why not have something else if you do not like the real flavor of the goose?

    Miss Parloa’s New Cook Book and Marketing Guide, 1881

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    an 1881 recipe for roast goose
    From Miss Parloa’s New Cook Book and Marketing Guide, 1881. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

    I’m keeping today’s notes short, and thankfully this recipe is about as simple and low-fuss as it gets. 

    How juice those onions?

    ​There is probably a “right” way to do this, but what worked well for me was to dice half an onion, put the pieces into my handheld citrus juicer, and just press the juice out. Half an onion gave more than enough for the two “table-spoonfuls”. 

    This didn’t ruin the juicer, by the way. I let it sit with a sprinkling of baking soda while I finished getting the goose in the oven, then washed like usual. No lingering onion smell.

    How do you truss a goose?

    Basically what you’re doing with trussing, is tying or skewering the goose so that it stays in a pleasing shape, with wings and legs close to the body as it roasts. 

    This site describes how to truss using both skewers, and twine (the method I used for the goose pictured in these photos)

    Here’s a very quick video that tells how to truss waterfowl with just twine, which has since become my go-to method. It’s not a well produced video, but quick, simple, and doesn’t waste time.

    an uncooked goose, stuffed and trussed
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    What temperature should the oven be?

    When roasting a goose using this recipe, I went with a temperature of 350° F. My 6-pound goose cooked in the same amount of time as the 8-pound goose called for in the recipe (an hour and 15 minutes). 

    Next time I roast a goose, I’ll go with 375° F, and see if that gives me the same timing as the recipe. This is the temperature I’d suggest.

    When is the goose done?

    It should be richly golden brown, with loose joints, and the juices should run clear when a deeply-inserted skewer is withdrawn. According the USDA, goose should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165° F.

    an old fashioned roast goose
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Another recipe, with bread stuffing

    Here’s the other recipe I wanted to give you, in case you’d prefer a bread stuffing, and more involved instruction. This is from Miss Hall’s Practical Cookery and Domestic Economy, published in 1856.

    a recipe for roast goose from 1856
    From Practical Cookery and Domestic Economy, 1856. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    I love it how this recipe also suggests exactly what to serve along with your Roast Goose. (It reminds me that I want to make the “dressed celery” to go along with it this year…something I neglected last time around!) 

    If you’d like to go with all authentic dishes, here’s an 1845 recipe for apple pie, and an 1887 recipe for mince pie. Both are absolutely delicious!

    an old fashioned roast goose for Christmas dinner
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    If you’ve never had a goose for Christmas, and you’re able to get your hands on one, this really makes for a special dinner. 

    Don’t forget to save all that good fat that renders out of the bird for cooking other dishes with, it’s wonderful stuff!

    Also, I just want to pull us all back to the closing line of the recipe from Miss Parloa: “Why not have something else if you do not like the real flavor of the goose?”

    When I read that line, it was about so much more than whether to serve goose or not. It was an invitation to allow ourselves freedom from traditions that don’t actually bring us joy. 

    I think that’s a wonderful perspective, as we enter this final, busy week before Christmas.

    Until next time, ~ Anna

    This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

    If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

    Mince Pies (1887)

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    A proper, boozy mincemeat, this wonderful recipe comes from the chief pastry cook of The Astor House, by way of The White House Cook Book. Made with lean beef, suet, green apples, and lots of raisins, it’s finished off with both Brandy and Madeira, for a mincemeat worthy of the fanciest Christmas table.

    a crock full of real mincemeat
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Dear friends ~

    For ages, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making true, old-fashioned mincemeat–using minced beef, suet, and all the things. Somehow I’ve just never gotten around to it.

    After reading over the suggested Christmas Day menu from The White House Cook Book (1887), and seeing this recipe for mince pie on there, I knew this was the year I had to try it.

    This recipe does take a bit of work, but most of the effort is simply lots and lots of chopping. If you have a few friends who enjoy old fashioned cooking, this would be a great recipe to make together. Gather some extra sets of hands to make light work of the project, then when you’re done, share the very large batch of finished mincemeat with everyone who helped. (This is a ten-quart recipe, if you’re wondering!)

    The result is a wonderfully spicy, old fashioned mincemeat, perfect for Christmastime.

    Not too spicy or boozy, all those individual flavors meld together and complement one another, while still coming through on their own. There’s a lot going in this recipe, and after tasting it, that feels like exactly what a really good mincemeat should be. Hope you enjoy it!

    ~ Anna

    A large crock of old fashioned mincemeat pie filling
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


    MINCE PIES. No. 1.

    The “Astor House,” some years ago, was famous for its “mince pies.” The chief pastry cook at that time, by request, published the recipe. I find that those who partake of it never fail to speak in laudable terms of the superior excellence of this recipe, when strictly followed.
    Four pounds of lean boiled beef, chopped fine, twice as much of chopped green tart apples, one pound of chopped suet, three pounds of raisins, seeded, two pounds of currants picked over, washed and dried, half a pound of citron, cut up fine, one pound of brown sugar, one quart of cooking molasses, two quarts of sweet cider, one pint of boiled cider, one tablespoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of pepper, one tablespoonful of mace, one tablespoonful of allspice, and four tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, two grated nutmegs, one tablespoonful of cloves; mix thoroughly and warm it on the range, until heated through. Remove from the fire, and when nearly cool, stir in a pint of good brandy, and one pint of Madeira wine. Put into a crock, cover it tightly, and set it in a cold place where it will not freeze, but keep perfectly cold. Will keep good all winter.
    –Chef de Cuisine, Astor House, N.Y.

    The White House Cook Book, 1887

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    An 1800's recipe for mince pies
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

    This is one of those recipes that would be so much more fun to make with friends. I made only a half batch, and it still took me a couple hours to make this, working alone. If you had a few people set up with knives and cutting boards to handle all that chopping, you could certainly make quick work of it.

    If you do choose to make this all yourself, one small suggestion I have is to chop the meat, before you chop ALL those apples. The apples are easier to chop, but there’s such a volume of them, that you’ll have a tired hand by the time you’re through. Having tired hands isn’t a great way to go into finely mincing that meat, which takes more skill than the apples.

    You can tell that I did this the other way around, can’t you? After wearing my hand out chopping apples, I managed to nip a bit off the end of my finger while mincing the meat, and I’m usually extremely good with knives. Next time I’d chop the lean meat first, then the apples, and then the suet, which is just plain fun to chop into little waxy bits.

    a pot full of uncooked mincemeat
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    What cut of beef to use for this?

    ​The recipe specifies lean beef, and some other 1800’s mincemeat recipes that I’ve seen specifically recommend neck meat. With that information, I went down to my local butcher shop, and the kind ladies there suggested a Yankee Pot Roast as a good choice.

    That’s what I went with, and it really did work very well. It was an affordable cut at my local shop, but if it’s not easy to come by (or not affordable where you are), then I really do feel any good lean, tender cut of beef would work just fine.

    Those green tart apples

    I feel quite certain that what this recipe is indicating with the word “green”, is not apples that are specifically green in color, but “green” as in not quite ripe yet. Based on some other mincemeat recipes I’ve seen, and various contemporary mentions that mincemeat was usually made in the fall to keep all winter, this feels like the correct reading of it.

    Next year, I’ll plan to make a batch of this in September, when good tart apple varieties are still hard and bit unripe.

    For now, I made do with Granny Smith apples, which were certainly green in color, but were not very crisp, and by no means unripe. I do think using slightly unripe apples would be a benefit to the quality of the finished recipe, although it’s certainly delicious even with fully-ripe Granny Smiths.

    mincemeat cooking in a pot
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Sourcing raw suet

    If you’re lucky enough to have a good butcher shop nearby, that’s the first place I’d look. You may also find suet right at your grocery store’s meat counter. If you don’t see any on the shelves, try asking the butcher or department manager directly. They may be able to get some for you.

    Local farms that raise cows and sheep would be other great places to try. Remember that suet can come from lamb and mutton, as well as beef. If the farmers don’t have any available, chances are they may have an idea where you can get some. Anyone raising meat animals tends to be pretty integrated into the locally-grown food community, and is likely to know who’s got what available.

    The currants

    You can tell that the washed and dried currants were likely expected to be fresh, while most of us have a pretty hard time getting anything but dried currants these days.

    If you are lucky enough to live in a place where fresh currants can be sourced, I’d go for it. For myself, since my currants were already clean and dried, I added them just the way they were, and that worked well. Like the raisins, they plump up over time as the mincemeat sits.

    mincemeat pie filling in a crock with apples nearby
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Sweet cider and boiled cider

    The sweet cider is just good fresh apple cider, that’s not alcoholic yet.

    BOILED CIDER is cider that’s been slowly boiled down until it’s reduced in volume by half or more. It will get thicker and a little syrupy as it boils down. This was generally made and kept for flavoring baked goods, and has a wonderfully intense apple cider flavor. I already had a supply on hand, but if you’re making it just for this recipe, I’d take a quart of fresh cider, and simply simmer it slowly until it’s reduced to a pint, then use that.

    Those nutmegs

    If you can, I definitely encourage you to add whole nutmegs to your supply of spices, as well as a good grater. Ground nutmeg is handy, but there’s nothing like the flavor and scent of freshly ground nutmeg.

    If you don’t have whole nutmegs available, or want to keep things easy, I generally use 2.5 teaspoons of nutmeg as a substitute for each whole nutmeg.

    Choosing the right size pot

    For a half batch of this recipe, I used a 2-gallon stock pot, and really needed every bit of the space. If you were to make a whole batch, you’d want to use at least a 4-gallon stock pot, or something like a large canner.

    filling a pie shell with pincemeat
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Brandy and Madeira

    It says “good brandy”, but let’s just be honest that this mama can’t be looking at the prices on top-shelf brandy. I mean, I did look, but whoa Nelly. On principle, I did not buy the cheapest brandy, but went with the third-cheapest brandy.

    While we’re on the subject of alcohol, can we just talk about WHY are there so many booze options in a grocery store? Few endeavors feel more mentally draining, than trying to source an appropriate alcohol for a historic recipe, while deciphering the sea of labels in the tipsy aisle at Hannaford.

    That said, the issue I ran into with the Madeira was not an overwhelm of choices, but a lack of them. Thank goodness for the kind department manager who took pity on me and finally pointed out the single bottle of utilitarian-looking Madeira in that entire store. I spontaneously announced to the whole aisle that she’d saved Christmas, then felt compelled to make sure every poor bystander knew it was for a recipe. I cannot take myself anywhere, and clearly need to just learn to order booze online.

    If you can’t find Madeira, I hear that port or dark sherry would probably be suitable alternatives.

    An unbaked mincemeat pie

    Baking that pie.

    I made this as a single crust pie, using Sarah Hale’s “Family Pie Paste.” (That recipe is enough to make two single crust pies, or one two-crust pie.)

    Baked at 350°F, in a 10″ standard-depth pie plate, this took an hour and 5 minutes to bake to golden, bubbly perfection.

    How much does this recipe make?

    I made just a half batch of this, and ended up with exactly 5 quarts of lovely mincemeat. A whole batch should give you 10 quarts, or 2.5 gallons.

    An 1887 menu for Christmas Day
    Can’t have a proper Christmas Day dinner without mince pie!​
    Here’s the suggested Christmas Day menu from the same cook book. The White House Cook Book, 1887.

    This mincemeat is one of those old recipes that feels so special, it makes me want to share it with everyone I love…which works out, because it makes a big batch!

    I love that it’s less cloyingly sweet than any store-bought mincemeat I’ve ever tried, and the texture is hearty, though not in an off-putting way. 

    Much like the 1845 Apple Pie recipe I made for Thanksgiving, it has an old-fashioned taste that’s unique but accessible, and it’s absolutely going on my yearly must-make list. This is one definitely worth trying, if you enjoy mincemeat!

    Until next time, ~ Anna

    an old fashioned mincemeat pie made with meat
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy:

    Christmas Cookies (1845)

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    Made with just five ingredients, this historic Christmas cookie recipe offers a truly old-fashioned taste of the holidays. These caraway-studded little treats are a fun addition to Christmas cookie baskets, and would be a sure hit at any cookie swap!

    a plate of caraway Christmas cookies, surrounded by holly with berries
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Dear friends ~

    When we think of getting into the Christmas spirit, is there anything that summons more heart-warming nostalgia than a fresh batch of Christmas cookies?

    Most of us grew up with classics like gingerbread boys, linzer cookies, peanut butter kiss cookies, walnut crescents, and (if you were a child of the 80’s like me), magic cookie bars made with red and green M&Ms. 

    These Christmas cookies I’m sharing today have a whole different flavor profile than the modern flavors we tend to associate with the holidays though. No ginger, cloves, chocolate, or peppermint here! 

    These are studded with caraway seeds which (in my opinion) offer a wonderfully old-fashioned, almost “Old World” flavor. 

    These are such a fun way to share a truly historic taste of the season. I sent a batch of them in with my daughter for her fifth grade class, and she informed me that while everyone appreciated the chance to taste them, only two out of 18 kids “ACTUALLY liked them!” 

    Fair enough. Many folks have never tasted caraway beyond the context of a slice of rye bread, so I totally get it! If you’re feeling a bit adventuresome though, I hope you’ll give these lovely, caraway-studded cookies a try. They just might become a new family favorite!

    ~ Anna

    christmas cookies
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


    CHRISTMAS COOKIES

    Take one pound and a half of flour, three quarters of a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, half a cup of milk, and two spoonfuls of caraway seeds; melt the butter before you put it in. It is rather difficult to knead, but it can be done. Roll it out and cut it in hearts and diamonds, and bake it on buttered tins.

    The New England Economical Housekeeper, 1845

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    An 1845 recipe for Christmas Cookies
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

    As the recipe implies, the hardest thing about this recipe is working that stiff dough until it’s well and thoroughly mixed. Everything else is pretty straightforward. 

    We aren’t even left to guess at the amount of flour to use, like with many mid-1800’s cake and cookie recipes, so my baking notes are super short today!

    a plate of christmas cookies made from an 1845 recipe
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    How much caraway seed to put in?

    ​While the volume of spoon sizes is not specified clearly anywhere that I’ve found in the book, I’ve now made quite a number of recipes from this volume, and have found that when a “spoonful” is called for (as opposed to a teaspoon), it works well to use a modern tablespoon. When a “teaspoon” is prescribed, that’s when to reach for a modern teaspoon. 

    In this recipe, that usage worked well, since anything less than two tablespoons of caraway seeds really would have felt quite sparse–especially in a Christmas cookie.

    old fashioned caraway Christmas cookies
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Mixing the dough

    She’s right that this is quite a heavy dough, and mixing it well is an undertaking!

    I combined the melted butter with the milk, and sugar, then added the flour and caraway seeds last. Working the flour in by hand does make for a stiff dough. 

    In the future, this is one of those recipes that I would definitely mix by hand if recreating the recipe with a class. However, if making them for a family treat or to include in Christmas cookie baskets, this is one of those times I’d go ahead and let myself employ the stand mixer, now that I’ve had the experience of making this recipe “properly” by hand at least once. 

    All that to say…please know that I’m not over here judging, if you go straight for the stand mixer!

    a half eaten christmas cookie
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    What temperature should the oven be?

    Without an oven temperature specified, I tried baking these at both 325°F, and 350°. I found I liked the results best at 350°, since that allowed for golden brown edges, with a center that was still tender when enjoying the cookies warm from the oven. 

    Baked at either temperature, these will cool to a crisp cookie that keeps well, as cookies for holiday entertaining were supposed to.

    How thick to roll the dough

    ​I found that about ¼″ worked well for these. I did try making some a little thicker and others a little thinner, but ¼″ seems to give a result that feels like the “right” one. 

    You can tell from the photos that these cookies don’t spread or rise much, so the finished cookie remains about that same size as what you cut out. 

    I feel at this point I should draw attention to my failure in cookie cutting…while the directions clearly say to cut these in hearts and diamonds, you can tell I cut mine in hearts and circles! I’d just rolled out the dough, and that little round heirloom tin cutter sits just above the counter, so I grabbed it to cut just a few…and ended up totally forgetting to cut any of the dough into the prescribed diamonds! Ah, well. Next time.

    a plate of old fashioned Christmas cookies surrounded by holly and berries
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    How long to bake these?

    Depending on the size of the cookies, I found these cooked in 9-11 minutes, at 350°F. They’re done when the centers are set and edges are golden brown.

    I definitely enjoyed these more than either of my kids, but I have a feeling that if I just keep making them every year, eventually I’ll win everybody over, and they’ll enjoy them as much as I do. 

    Wishful thinking? Perhaps. More for me…

    Until next time, ~ Anna

    This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

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    Family Pie Paste (1873)

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    This all-butter pie crust is an easy, no-fail recipe that works as well for savory meat pies, as it does for sweet pies like apple or pumpkin. This has become my everyday “go-to” pie crust recipe.

    an unbaked apple pie from an 1800's apple pie recipe
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Dear friends ~

    The pie crust recipe you’ll find here is from Sarah Hale’s 1873 cook book. You might recognize that name, since she was the person who advocated so tirelessly for Thanksgiving to be recognized as a national holiday.

    Using her pie crust recipe for Thanksgiving pies just seems fitting, somehow. Plus–it’s just a classic, no-fail crust recipe that works well for both sweet or savory pies.

    It’s a tender, flaky crust that always seems to come out right, and especially for sweet pies, this has become my “go-to” crust recipe. Hope you enjoy!

    ~ Anna


    FAMILY PIE PASTE

    Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour, and add water enough to knead it thoroughly. 
    Another common proportion is half a pound of butter to a pound and a half of flour.

    Mrs. Hale’s New Cook Book, 1873

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    a pie crust recipe in a cook book from 1873
    From Mrs. Hale’s New Cook Book, 1873. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

    If you’ve never made an all-butter pie crust, you may worry that this will be difficult to roll out and work with. For some reason, all-butter crusts seem to have this reputation. 

    Honestly though, it’s become my everyday go-to crust recipe, because it’s easy to make, easy to roll, and works well for both sweet and savory pie recipes.

    a ball of pie crust dough on a floured board
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Salted or Unsalted Butter?

    Personally, when I’m making this crust for a sweet pie, I use unsalted butter. When making it for a savory pie, like a pork pie or a quiche, I use salted butter. 

    When in doubt, you really can’t go wrong with unsalted, in my opinion.

    Start by working that butter well into the flour, using a fork or a pastry cutter if you have one. It should be so well integrated that the whole thing looks like cornmeal. Then you’re ready to add the water.

    How much water?

    I find that using the amounts of ½ pound of butter, to 1 pound of flour, requires anywhere from 9 to 11 tablespoons of water. That amount can vary a bit depending on everything from the brand of flour you’re using, to the brand or temperature of the butter. I start with 8 tablespoons, and work in more as needed to get a nice, soft consistency. 

    Think “brand new play dough when you first take it out of a fresh container” consistency, not “play dough after your kid has used it 87 times” consistency.

    a pie crust filled with apple slices
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    How many pies does this make?

    It depends on the size and depth of your pie plates, but you can count on this recipe to generously provide bottom crusts for two single-crust pies, or a top and bottom crust for one two-crust pie. 

    If you’re using an old-fashioned pie plate like mine, these tended to be on the shallow side, and you really could get three bottom crusts out of one batch of this recipe.

    an apple pie from an 1800's recipe
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    After sharing this recipe in a recent email, I had a great question from a reader. She was wondering if this crust is more prone to browning, since it’s made with all butter…especially a highly ornamented crust with lots of small details.

    Here was my answer:

    “Yes, in my opinion, this all-butter crust is prone to browning just a bit, especially those small details. If I wanted to ornament it even more, I’d probably opt for a variation of this crust recipe that appears in quite few of these 1800’s cookbooks. It’s the same ratio of shortening to flour, but half of that shortening is lard or suet instead of butter. 

    I make this often, using ¼ pound butter and ¼ pound lard, to the one pound of flour, and it genuinely does make for a slightly flakier crust that can hold up to higher, more-prolonged heat, without browning as deeply as the all-butter crust. 

    I hope this helps! Happy baking!”

    I’ll have to share some good lard and suet pie crust recipes soon. Those are great as well, especially for savory pies!

    As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

    This recipe was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

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    Hickory Nut or Walnut Cake (1887)

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    This holiday nut cake from The White House Cook Book is really a spice cake in disguise! Featuring an entire “tablespoonful” of mace, it has a wonderfully old-fashioned flavor that spice cake aficionados will love.

    a walnut cake from an 1800's recipe
    Photo Credit: The 180’s Housewife.

    Dear friends ~

    We’ve been working our way through recipes in the two suggested Thanksgiving Menus I shared recently, from cook books published in 1845 and 1887. (You can find those menus here if you missed them.)

    As I type, there’s a turkey roasting in the oven according 1800’s instructions, stuffed with an authentic oyster dressing I opted for, after a special request from a reader (shout out to Dale, whose mother used to make oyster dressing!)

    You’ll hear all about those in Wednesday’s email. For today, let’s talk about that cake from the 1887 White House Cook Book menu.

    In the menu, it suggests serving a “Hickory Nut Cake,” from a recipe that’s said to be on page 271. If you look up that recipe, you’ll see that there, it’s called “Hickory Nut or Walnut Cake”. There’s a picture of the recipe further down in this email. 

    Now, I was pretty determined to make this with hickory nuts. I used to live on an Island where old Hickory and Heart-Nut trees could be found at the sites of old homesteads, and so I’ve always thought of them as fairly common nuts. 

    Turns out, where I am now in Maine, it can be a little harder to get good hickory nuts, especially at a price one can afford. SO, in the interest of getting this recipe made and sharing it with you in time for the holiday, I gave up the search (this time around) and made the cake with walnuts. 

    It turned out absolutely lovely–definitely a recipe I’d put on the “make this again” list. 

    That said, if (like me), you’re going into this with the idea of making a mild, nutty-tasting cake, please know that this is actually a SPICE cake in disguise….and a spicy one at that. We are talking a full tablespoon of mace here.

    If spice isn’t your favorite, it’s definitely worth adjusting either your expectations or, *gasp*, the recipe, as you’re making this. If you need permission to alter this to your family’s taste, just know that these old cookbooks are full of little penciled corrections and notations…mothers have been tweaking recipes to better suit their families since long before any of these volumes were printed. (This clove cake is a perfect example!)

    What makes this cake special, in my opinion, isn’t just the up-front flavor of the mace (a spice that’s sadly gone out style, but deserves a comeback). It’s the way those nuts and raisins show up in layers in the finished cake, rather than just scattered throughout. It makes for a cake that feels sophisticated, and slightly fussy, in the best possible way. It won me over, and I’d definitely suggest giving this one a go…especially for any of you spice cake lovers. Hope you enjoy!

    ~ Anna

    a frosted walnut cake from an 1800's recipe
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.


    HICKORY NUT OR WALNUT CAKE

    Two cups of fine, white sugar, creamed with half a cup of butter, three eggs, two-thirds of a cup of sweet milk, three cups of sifted flour, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder sifted through the flour. A tablespoonful (level) of powdered mace, a coffee-cup of hickory nut or walnut meat, chopped a little. Fill the cake-pans with a layer of the cake, then a layer of raisins upon that, then strew over these a handful of nuts, and so on, until the pan is two-thirds full. Line the tins with well-buttered paper, and bake in a steady but not quick oven. This is most excellent.

    The White House Cook Book, 1887

    Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

    an 1800's recipe for hickory nut or walnut cake
    From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
    the second half of an 1800's recipe for hickory nut or walnut cake
    Hickory Nut or Walnut Cake, cont. From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

    Compared to many recipes of the era, this one is quite detailed. For example, it specifies exactly how much flour to put in, rather than leaving it to the baker’s intuition. It also clarifies that the milk is to be sweet (as opposed to sour milk, which was often used in baking). 

    This was a pretty easy recipe to follow, but as usual, I do have a few notes that may be helpful if you decide to make this.

    An iced walnut cake from an 1800's recipe.
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    What kind of pan to use?

    Square, round, and loaf pans were all quite common to use for a cake like this. The recipe calls for lining the cake pans with buttered paper, so I feel it’s unlikely that a slope-sided pan with a center hole (another common shape of the era) would have been used for this particular cake. 

    Not having a larger round pan (yes, that’s embarrassing…I need to work on my cake pan collection!) I decided to make this recipe in two 6″ round cake pans. I actually loved how they came out, and once frosted, they were very cute and festive.

    Sweet milk

    Last time I shared a cake recipe that called for sweet milk, I received an excellent question by email from a reader. She was wondering if this meant sweetened condensed milk. 

    It actually just means good fresh milk that still smells “sweet”, as opposed to sour milk. Because sour milk was often used in baking (the increased acidity helped with the leavening), it wasn’t always taken for granted the milk to be used in a cake recipe was supposed to be fresh. 

    In this case, it is. Go ahead and use whatever nice, fresh milk you have in the fridge.

    a nut cake from an 1800's recipe with slices served
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    That tablespoonful of mace

    If this feels like a lot, it kind of is. One might even question whether the tablespoon sizes are actually equivalent to our modern measuring spoons. 

    For this volume, The White House Cook Book, that tablespoonful is a true tablespoon, just like you have in your measuring spoon set. The measurement is correct. 

    That said, it does make for a spicy cake. Not the most spicy 1800’s cake I’ve ever made, but it does make for a “love it or leave it” sort of result. Spice cake lovers will likely adore it, others may not make it through a whole slice. Personally, I loved it with the full tablespoon, and wouldn’t change a thing, but please know I wouldn’t judge, if you decided to cut that amount in half. 

    If you don’t have mace in your spice drawer, you should. You can almost always still find it at any well-stocked grocery store, and if you enjoy 1800’s cooking, you’ll use it again. I promise.

    raisins sprinkled on cake batter from an 1800's cake recipe
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Those layers of raisins and nuts

    You’ll notice that there’s no amount given for the volume of raisins to use. Personally, I took about ¼ cup for each layer and evenly scattered them. I ended up using about ¾ cup of raisins total. 

    For the nuts, it seemed to me that the directions meant for the first cup of nuts that we’d “chopped a little”, to get mixed right into the batter. So I did that, and then used an additional ¼ cup of nuts (also chopped a little), for each layer of raisins and nuts. This brought the total amount of nuts used to about 1 and ¾ cups. 

    The directions do seem a tad ambiguous, but I think if I hadn’t mixed the cupful of nuts into the batter, and instead used those for the raisins and nuts layers, this really wouldn’t have ended up seeming like a “nut cake”. 

    Having tasted the finished cake, I would definitely say that using the extra nuts in addition to the cupful seems like what was intended here.

    That buttered paper

    ​What a misery. Greasing paper to line cake pans is not a baking task I enjoy, but it does make for absolutely perfect finished cakes. 

    For a holiday cake, it’s worth it. 

    They would have literally used well-buttered “note paper”. My cheap printer paper is more absorbent than the popular note paper of that era would have been, so I allowed myself to use parchment paper, which I still greased well with butter.

    a cake with buttered paper
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    Oven Temperature

    ​“A steady but not quick oven”. 

    I ended up settling on 340 F as a temperature that felt accurate to this description, and liked how my 6″ cakes baked at that temperature. I’d definitely suggest it.

    How long to bake this?

    In 6″ round pans, at 340°F, these cakes took 1 hour and 5 minutes to bake perfectly. The top and edges were golden brown, and the centers well set. 

    If you use a differently shaped pan, your cake may take a bit more or less time than mine. Check for golden edges and a center that’s fully set. The correct 1800’s way to check for doneness is by inserting a broom straw into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done, if bits of batter adhere to it, the cake needs a little more time. Feel free to use a toothpick, if you don’t keep clean broom straws handy!

    an 1800's nut cake being spread with white icing
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    What about icing?

    Here’s the recipe I used from this cook book. When in doubt, if you’re making a spice, nut, or fruit cake, from an 1800’s cook book, going with whatever basic “egg white and sugar” icing recipe appears in the cook book is likely to be an appropriate choice.

    an 1800's recipe for icing
    From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.
    Sugar Icing, cont. From The White House Cook Book, 1887.
    Sugar Icing, cont. From The White House Cook Book, 1887. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    This icing is a lot like the “royal icing” that’s used for permanently cementing the architecture of gingerbread houses. Once it dries like it’s supposed to, it’s hard.

    Drying an iced cake in a "cool oven"
    Drying that icing, in the “cool oven”. Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    The perk of this is that as long as the cake stays un-cut, it remains tender, moist, and basically perfect inside…for days, if not longer. You could make a cake like well in advance, before when you needed to serve it. 

    an 1800's nut cake
    Use a SHARP, thin knife, for cleanly cutting through that hard icing.
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    I found myself leaving behind bits of frosting, while enjoying the cake, because golly, that’s a crunchy, hard layer of sugar. It’s very authentic to the era though, and certainly worth serving (and eating!)a cake this way at least once I think.

    slices of an authentic 1800's nut cake
    Photo Credit: The 1800’s Housewife.

    My kids didn’t enjoy this cake as much as they did the clove cake or coffee cake that I’ve made recently. It was a hit with the grownups though, and definitely one I’d made again. 

    Next up on our whirlwind roundup of 1800’s Thanksgiving recipes, we’ll be talking (roast) turkey, and oyster dressing!

    Until next time, ~ Anna

    This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

    If you liked this recipe, here are some others you may enjoy: