Month: June 2012

Angel Food Cake with Black Raspberries Recipe

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Sunday, June 23, 1912: Went to Sunday School this morning. Tweet came home with me. Ma and Pa had gone away and we had the place to ourselves. Miss Carrie was over after dinner.Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Sounds like a fun Sunday with visits from two friends—Helen “Tweet” Wesner and Carrie Stout.

I wonder if Grandma made any deserts to serve her friends. Black raspberries would have been  in season.

Maybe Grandma made Angel Food Cake with Black Raspberries.

Angel Food Cake with Black Raspberries

Cake

12 egg whites

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar plus an additional 3/4  cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Separate egg whites and bring the egg whites to room temperature. Meanwhile stir together the flour and 3/4 cup of sugar in a medium bowl.

After egg whites have reached room temperature, put the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt into a large bowl.  Beat until foamy. Slowly add the 3/4 cup of sugar (about 2 tablespoons at a time) while beating. Continue beating until the mixture holds stiff straight peaks. Gently stir in the vanilla and almond extract.

[Note: In Grandma’s day, they would have beaten the eggs by hand. I feel tired just thinking about it.]

Sprinkle a small amount of the flour and sugar mixture (about 2 tablespoons) onto the whipped egg mixture; and then fold it in. Continue sprinkling and folding the flour and sugar mixture until it all is folded in.

Gently spoon the batter into an ungreased 10 X 4 tube pan (angel food cake pan). Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake is lightly browned and the top springs back when lightly touched.

Invert pan until cool (at least 1 hour) and then remove cake from pan.

Black Raspberries

Crush a few black raspberries; stir in several tablespoons of sugar, and add enough water to make the consistency of medium sauce. Refrigerate for at least one hour to give the sugar in the sauce enough time to lose its granularity. Serve over the cake. Sprinkle which whole black raspberries.

An aside—When I was a child I loved the black raspberries that grew in the hedgerows. These days I never can find them in stores.

Two years ago my husband and I planted several black raspberry plants, and this is the first summer that we have lots of berries.

The black raspberries are awesome—even better than I’d remembered them.

Old-time Tips for Washing Dishes

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Saturday, June 22, 1912: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. I managed to get through with the dishes and then went for the cows. I found them having a picnic in the corn field, and they were quickly dispatched to safer premises.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Here’s some advice from the early 1900s for doing the dishes. It is abridged from a 1902 cookbook.

Do not be afraid of hot water in washing up dishes and dirty cooking utensils. As these are essentially greasy, lukewarm water cannot possibly have the effect of cleansing them effectively.

After you have washed your saucepans, fish-kettle, &c., stand them before the fire for a few minutes to get thoroughly dry inside, before putting them away. They should then be kept in a dry place, in order that they may escape the deteriorating influence of rust.

Never leave saucepans dirty from one day’s use to be cleaned the next.

After washing up your dishes, wash your dish-tubs with a little soap and water and soda, and scrub them often.

Do not throw anything but water down the sink, as the pipe is liable to get choked, thereby causing expense and annoyance.

Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book (1902)

Cows Escaped

Whew–the cows escaped from the pasture, again! This must be at least the fourth or fifth time in 1912. (It’s happened so many times that I’ve lost track of the exact number.)

Dieting a Hundred Years Ago

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, June 21, 1912:  I’ve been thinking over an article I read in a magazine. It is about reducing a speck. I think I’ll try it at least, and be less of a pumpkin than what I am now.

1913 graduation photo of Helena Muffly. She doesn’t look heavy in this picture–but maybe she’d lost a “speck.”

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

It sounds like Grandma needed to lose a few pounds—or at least  that she thought that she did.

A hundred years ago people believed that the best way to lose weight was to eat “dainty” foods and to chew food more thoroughly. They thought that they would lose weight if they chewed each bite 30 times, 40 times, or even more, before swallowing. This was often called Fletcherizing.

At dinner last night I tried chewing each bite 35 times. The sandwich and potatoes (oops–they may not be dainty foods)  that I was eating liquefied in my mouth and it lost all flavor long before the 35th bite.

My family finished eating while I still had lots of food left on my plate.

I don’t think that I could Fletcherize my food meal after meal—but I do think that I’d lose weight if I did it consistently.

Previous Posts on Dieting and Obesity

Are You Obese?: 1911 and 2011

One-Hundred-Year Old Advice on How to Avoid Overeating

1911 Weight Loss Tip: Fletcherize Your Food

Pulled Little Brother’s Baby Tooth

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Thursday, June 19, 1912: Pulled a tooth for Jimmie. It was the first one to go, and then he got another yanked out before the day was over.

Jimmie Muffly

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

How did Grandma pull her little brother’s baby tooth? Did she tie a string around it and pull? . . . twist and wiggle the tooth back and forth with her finger?  . . . give it a quick tug?

100 Years After the War of 1812

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Wednesday, June 18, 1912:Ma went to Milton today. She bought me an umbrella. Went to Watsontown this afternoon, and some of my money went to.

Recent photo of downtown Watsontown. It’s about a mile and a half west of the Muffly farm.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma must have decided that she needed an umbrella after the rain the previous Sunday prevented her from attending Sunday School.

What did Grandma buy when she went to Watsontown?

_____

Since the diary entry is self-explanatory, I’m going to go off on a tangent.

I’m not sure why, but when I see something in the news I often view it through the frame of the diary.

For example,  in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal there was an article which said that the War of 1812 began 200 years ago on June 18. I guess it’s obvious that the War of 1812 occurred 100 years before Grandma’s diary entry–but I’d never thought about it that way before. In other words, the diary was written at the midpoint between the War of 1812 and the present.

I t also made me  think about how the Civil War began 151 years ago (51 years before this  diary entry)—and that War War I had not yet occurred in 1912 (it started in 1914).

Patent Medicine Cartoon

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Tuesday, June 18, 1912: I seemed to have had sort of a hard time today.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Sounds like things still weren’t going well. The previous day Grandma wrote that she didn’t feel well, but that no one took it seriously.

Yesterday, I posted an old advertisement for a patent medicine. A hundred years ago, they were controversial and were just beginning to be regulated by the government.

Here’s a cartoon about patent medicines that appeared in the September, 1910 issue of National Food Magazine.

A SUGGESTION FOR AN “AD” FOR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING BABY KILLERS:

BEFORE TAKING

“That’ll make it stop crying, 50 cents, please.”

—

AFTER TAKING

<<drawing of crying mother>>

Old Patent Medicine Advertisement

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Monday, June 17, 1912: I tried to play the sick cat this afternoon, but no one took it very seriously. In fact I really didn’t feel very extra anyway.

Did Grandma take any of the old patent medicines? (Click on picture to enlarge.)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

What chore was Grandma trying to get out of?  It isn’t fun to not feel well, and not have anyone believe you.