Month: October 2015

Old-fashioned Apple Relish Recipe

apple relishSince I love to try interesting meat toppers and relishes, I was excited to see a hundred-year-old Apple Relish recipe in a 1915 Ladies Home Journal.

This recipe is a winner. The Apple Relish was easy to make, and is one of the best tasting relishes I’ve ever eaten. Its sweet-sour, spicy, fruitiness perfectly complements grilled or roasted beef or pork.

Apple Relish

7 cups  apples, peeled and chopped

2 cup raisins

1 cup vinegar

3 1/2 cups sugar

1 orange, peeled and chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a large pan. Bring to a boil, then stir occasionally and boil steadily for half an hour.

Ladle into hot half-pint or pint jars. Wipe jar rim, and adjust lids. Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Makes approximately 8 half-pints (4 pints)

Adapted from Recipe in Ladies Home Journal (September, 1915)

Hundred-year-old Double Boiler Advertisement

Double Boiler Ad (LHJ, 1-1915)
Source: Ladies Home Journal (January, 1915)

Double boilers apparently were extremely popular a hundred years ago. I’m intrigued that the Quaker Oats Company apparently considered them so desirable that they were part of the company’s marketing initiative. Customers were given double boilers when they sent in a dollar plus several trademark pictures cut off the oatmeal packages.

When I made the Coffee Pudding recipe earlier this week, the hundred-year-old recipe stated that it should be cooked in a double boiler.

Since many people today don’t own double boiIers, I adjusted the recipe to say that it should be cooked “in a saucepan (use a double boiler if available)”.

Double boilers reduce the likelihood that food in contact with the bottom surface of a pan will be scorched. If a double boiler isn’t used when making puddings, and other easy-to-burn foods, it is important to stir constantly, and ensure the spoon goes to the very bottom of the pan and regularly touches every single millimeter of the bottom surface.