RECIPES - 1877
RECIPES -- 1877
Household hints from: The Star, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana -- January 1877 -- thanks muches to Jerry Turner for this one :)
Laplanders: To 1 qt of milk add 8 eggs and 4 cups of flour. Bake in muffin pans. Serve hot with butter. They are rich, gold yellow and one of the most delicious of warm breakfast cakes. Baked Potatoes: To bake potatoes to perfection they should be washed and dried, other wise the steam at first prevents them from being mealy. Forty minutes is ample time with a good oven to bake ordinary potatoes.
Ham omelet: Although this is so common every one is supposed to know how to make it we will merely give our way. Allow 1 egg to every person, beat well with a pinch of salt to every egg, adding 1 even spoonful of finely chopped lean ham. Mix in well, fry in well-buttered frying-pans, roll up in handsome shape, serve very hot.
Veal Cutlets, breaded: Cut the meat ¾ of an inch thick; trim to a handsome shape and uniform size; dip in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs and fry in hot pork fat to a nice brown. It should be served very hot. Or it may be fried with a few slices of fat pork, a rich brown gravy made by thickening the drippings remaining with browned flour and seasoning with salt and pepper. Stir well cook 5 minutes and pour over cutlets to serve. In the latter case the cutlets must not be breaded, but browned "?to a turn."
Wheaten Grits: Do not need to be cooked all day, to be well cooked, as some imagine. Put 1 qt of grits in a saucepan and just cover with ½ milk and ½ water-milk warm- and add 1 teaspoon of salt. They swell very much in cooking, a quart is enough for a large family. When boiling slowly, stir often to prevent burning. One hour is sufficient to put the in perfect order for the table. Serve with sugar and cream or syrup if preferred.
A very superior fruit cake: One pound of flour, one pound of sugar, one pound of butter, twelve eggs, four pounds of currants, one pound of citron, one nutmeg, one tablespoonful of cloves, one tablespoonful of cinnamon, one tablespoonful of molasses. Will make 10-12 loaves of good size
We would like to say to an inquirer not to use turmeric, lard, or salts of tartar in making or repacking butter, as either will injure the flavor, unless it has already progressed beyond injured by such medicines. The butter might be like the old women's coffee, which on drinking, the man asked for a few leaves of wormwood to chew to take the taste of the coffee from his mouth. In that case, use turmeric or anything else. The statement having been circulated that good butter could not be made in limestone regions where the water is bad, Mr. O. S. Bliss, the best authority on butter, testifies: "The story about not daring to wash butter in a lime district with hard water is the merest bosh and about on par with the statement of a learned professor at the last meeting of the Vermont Dairymen's association, to the effect that he cold pick out the butter made ion soft-water districts. Some of the most reputable butter district in the US are in limestone regions, where all the water is hard, and all the butter is washed with hard well water."
The following is a tested recipe for sausage seasoning: for every 12 pounds of meat, use 6 ounces of salt, 1 ounce of black pepper, a tablespoonful of saltpeter, half a teaspoonful of red pepper, and 4 ounces of sage. The sage and red peppers are not essential and may be omitted by those who do not fancy them. It is difficult to suit all tastes with one recipe and these proportions should be tried on a small scale first before seasoning the whole batch to see whether it suits the palate. Some prefer less salt, others more pepper etc. A little experiment will enable each to make his own recipe and when once determined write it down so that it may be preserved.
Cream Sponge Cake: Break 2 eggs into a teacup, beat well then fill up the cup with thick sweat cream; add 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of cream-tartar; half a teaspoon of soda.
Cocoanut cake: 2 eggs, 1 cup of white sugar, half a cup of as sweet milk, a quarter cup of butter , one and a half teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Bake in moderate oven in pans 1 inch thick.
Sugar Drops; one pound of flour, ¾ pound of sugar, ½ pound of butter, 4 eggs, a gill of rose-water, bake on buttered paper in a quick oven. This makes 60 drops.
Bread and water poultice: Take a slice of stale bread, carefully pare away the hard brown crust which lies around the edge and then dip it into a vessel of hot water; lift it out at once and if not too hot apply to the part where it should go.
Bread and milk poultice: Take a slice of stale bread, carefully pare away the hard brown crust which lies around the edge and crumble the bread into a bowl. Pour on this enough sweet milk to cover it and simmer over a fire stirring it all the while until the bread becomes completely broken up. The poultice is now applied to the patient as warm as can be borne.
Troches: One ounce licorice, one ounce gum Arabic, one ounce cubebs. (These must be pulverized at the druggists.) One pound powdered sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls paregoric, water enough to moisten. Then take flour sufficient to make it roll out easily; cut out with thimble and dry thoroughly on platter.
Why not make your own vinegar? Take a common apple-barrel or make a small leach of clean boards and into these throw all the cores and parings of fruit as they accumulate. Let them ferment and drain the juice into jugs. It is vinegar at once. After fermentation, a little water may be added which will hurry the process.
Ginger Snaps: Two teaspoonfuls of molasses, one of sugar, one of butter or pork-fryings or half of each of the latter two; one tablespoonful of ginger, a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, one of cloves; one teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved, fill the cup with boiling water, stir all together , mix not to stiff, roll out a little thicker than four cookies, cut out, bake in a quick oven. Coloring cotton blue: Take 2 pounds of copperas, ½ pound of prussiate of potash, ½ pound of oil of vitriol. Dissolve the copperas in enough hot water to cover goods. Scald for 2 hours. Take out the goods and rinse in cold water; then empty the kettle and put in fresh, soft water, sufficient to cover the goods well; add the prussiate of potash, put in the goods and boil 20 minutes, take out the goods and to the liquor add oil of vitriol and stir well. Put the goods in again and let them remain until the color is dark as desired. Rinse in cold water.
Head Cheese: Clean the legs nicely and boil by themselves so that when done there will be plenty of the liquor. Coil the upper head, minus ears, eyes and nose with considerable lean meat, tenderloin is best. And when done remove bones and skin from head and legs; chop the lean; salt and pepper to taste' add the liquor the legs were boiled in, and last but not least, a teacupful of vinegar and teacupful of catsup to every gallon. When thoroughly cold it can be cut out in slices. This makes the best head cheese.
Source: Jan 25, 1877 Crawfordsville Star
"An inquiry is made how to purify a pork barrel, in which the pork spoiled last summer. The best way is to use it for a slop barrel until the hoops drop off, then burn the staves and feed the ashes to the hogs" - Iowa Register
Rice Muffins -- Half a teacup of boiled rice; a quarter pound of butter; a half teacup of sugar; one quart of sweet milk; half a teacup of yeast; one teaspoonful of salt; add flour enough to make a thin batter; mix the ingredients very thoroughly (except the flour) then stir in the flour. Let this rise over night. In the morning, bake in muffin-rings.
Jewel Pie -- Make a lemon or custard pie in the usual manner, reserving the white of one egg for frosting. When the pie is nearly done spread the frosting over it and return to the oven, taking care not to scorch the frosting. When it is finally removed from the oven turn a tin pan over it while it cools. The steam will condense on the pan and fall upon the frosting in pretty gold crops.
Moths love darkness; therefore, to keep them from clothing, air it repeatedly in the sunshine. To keep them from plus furniture, twice a year, on a sunny day, take the furniture outdoors, remove the bttoms from the chairs, if they can be removed and give the cushions a good switching with long, pliable switches till the dust is removed, then brush them thoroughly; while the cushions are being sunned, give the frames a coat of varnish. This will banish the pests.
Baked Puddings - All batter puddings fall soon after they are baked. They ought to be served immediately after they are done. Indian puddings require long and slow baking. Rice should be baked quickly. tapioca and other puddings of the kind should bake in a moderate even like custards. All cake puddings should be baked in the same manner as cakes of nearly the same composition, as, for instance, sponge puddings quick and plum puddings a long time.
Satinwood Stain - Take one quart of alcohol, three ounces of ground tunmeric, one and one-half ounces powdered gamboge. When this mixture has been steeped to its full strength, strain through fine muslin. It is then ready for use. Apply with a piece of fine sponge, giving the work two coats. When it is dry, sandpaper down very fine. It is then ready for varnish or French polish and makes an excellent imitation of the most beautiful satinwood, and is adapted for the inside of drawers.
Bread from Unbolted Flour - Put four pints of unbolted or Graham flour into the bread bowl. Make a hole in the middle and pour in a pint of lukewarm water; add half a tablespoon of butter, a little salt, a gill of molasses and teacup of good yeast. Stir into this enough of the flour to make a thin batter, cover over and leave to rise. When light, work in the remainder of the flour. Make it into a loaf as thin as can be handled, and put it into a baking pan to rise. When ligght, bake it rather slowly.
Doughnuts Without Eggs -- two quarts of flour, one pint of milk, one full cup of sugar and a piece of butter fully as large as an egg. Scald the milk and when tepid add the sugar, the butter, half a cup of yeast and half a teaspoon of soda.. Pour this all into the ccenter of the flour, using enough flour to make a sponge. Let it rise all night in a comfortably warm room. If light in the morning, sprinkle in whatever spice is preferred, knead in the remainder of the flour, then knead 15 or 20 minutes and let it rise till light. Then knead again for the same length of time. roll thin; cut out with a small biscuit or cake cutter. Let them stand 5 or 10 minutes, then fry in boiling lard - Christian Union.
Source: Crawfordsville Star Feb 1, 1877
Railroad Cake -- Break two eggs into a teacup, beat well, then fill the cup with sweet cream, one cup of sugar, one and a holf cups of flour, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar and one half teaspoon of soda.
Corn-Starch Cake -- One cup butter; four cups white sugar; two cups sweet milk; two cups corn starch; four and a half cups flour; whites of 8 eggs; 3 teaspoonfuls cream tartar; one and a half teaspoonfuls soda.
Delicate Cake -- The whites of four eggs; one half cup of butter; one half cup of milk; one and a half cups of sugar; two cups of flour; one half teaspoonful of soda; one teaspoonful of cream of tartar; two-thirds teaspoonful of almonds.
Quick Loaf Cake - two cups of sugar; one cup of butter; two cups of sweet milk; five cups of flour; three cups of raisins; one egg; one nutmeg; one teaspoonful of cinnamon; one teaspoonful of soda; and one teaspoonful of cream of tartar.
French Cake - Two cups of sugar; one half cup of butter; 3 eggs; one cujp of milk 3 1/2 cups of flour; one teaspoonful of cream of tartar; one-half teaspoonful of soda; and one teaspoonful of essence of lemon. The same ingredients, minus the butter make a very good sponge cake.
Lu's Sponge Cake - One cup white sugar; one-fourth cup butter; one-half cup sweet milk; yolks of four eggs; one cup of flour; one teaspoonful cream-tartar; one-half teaspoonful soda. Beat all thoroughly, then add the beaten whites of 3 of the eggs and only stir a little; bake in a shallow tin in a quick oven; frost with the other white of egg and 9 teaspoonfuls sugar.
Marble Cake - Light part - white sugar, one and one half cups; butter, one half cup; sweet milk, one half cup; soda, one half teaspoon; cream of tartar, one teaspoon; whites of four eggs; flour, two and one-half cups; beat the eggs and sugar together; mix the cream of tartar with the flour and dissolve the soda in the milk. Dark part - brown sugar, one cup; molasses, one-half cup; butter, one-half cup; sour milk, one-half cup; soda, one-half teaspoon; flour, browned, two and one-half cups; yolks of four eggs; cloves and cinnamon, ground each one-half teaspoon; ingredients mixed the same as light part. When both are prepared, put in the cake-pan alternate layers of each or put them in spots on each other, making what is called leopard cake, until all is used, then bake as usual.