Lemon Citron Cake

This week I decided to make a hundred-year-old recipe for Lemon Citron Cake. I can already sense your questions. Why make this cake in February? Isn’t citron a holiday fruitcake ingredient that is usually only available in stores in December?

Well . . . let me explain.

Do you ever have ingredients left over after completing holiday baking, and don’t know how you’ll ever use them? Well, that’s how I felt about some citron that was still lingering in one of my kitchen cabinets. I thought that I might have to throw it out; but, then I happened across a recipe for Lemon Citron Cake in a hundred-year-old cookbook and decided to give it a try.

The cake was delightful. It had a lovely, light texture and a sunny citrus flavor. The original recipe didn’t indicate whether the cake should be iced. I decided to put a light lemon glaze on it, which worked well with the citron. Citron is too tasty to be relegated to just the winter holidays. Assuming you can find the citron, this cake would be lovely during any season.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Lemon Citron Cake — Source: The Whys of Cooking by Janet Mckenzie Hill (1924)

It seemed unusual that this recipe called for two egg yolks and three egg whites, so I decided that maybe there was a typo and used three egg yolks. It worked fine. I’m also not sure why the recipe called for creaming some of the sugar with the Crisco shortening and the remainder with the egg yolks, and then combining. I just put them all in the mixing bowl.

Any shortening will work for this recipe so I didn’t specify a brand. Additionally, I gently stirred the citron into the cake batter after all the other ingredients had been combined rather then adding pieces of citron “here and there” as the batter was being poured into the pan.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Lemon Citron Cake

Servings: 8 - 10
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: moderate
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3 eggs, separated

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

grated rind, 1/2 lemon

2 ounces citron (about 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Put egg whites in a medium mixing bowl and beat until stiff. Set aside.

Put the shortening, egg yolks, and sugar in a mixing bowl; beat until smooth. Add milk, flour, baking powder, and salt; beat to combine. Gently fold in the egg whites, then gently stir in the grated lemon rind and citron. Spoon the batter into an ungreased tube pan with removable bottom (angel food cake pan). Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is lightly browned and the top springs back when lightly touched.

If desired, glaze with a thin icing made with melted butter, confectioners sugar, and lemon juice.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

1924 Rumford Baking Powder Advertisement

Advertisement for Rumford Baking Powder — Source: American Cookery (April, 1924)

I don’t usually give much thought to baking powder brands, but this 1924 full-page advertisement on the inside cover of the April, 1924 issue of American Cookery made me realize that there used to be differences across brands. I definitely don’t want to spoil a cake by using a bad baking powder. I wonder if there still are significant differences.

Old-Fashioned Creamed Rutabaga

Creamed Rutabaga

I love to browse when I’m in the produce section of the supermarket. There are so many interesting vegetables and fruits. But after looking at them, I typically select the same old, same old – lettuce, potatoes, bananas, apples, and other items that I buy almost every week. One vegetable I almost never purchase is rutabaga. But when I saw a recipe for Creamed Rutabaga in a hundred-year-old cookbook, I decided it was time to give it a try.

The Creamed Rutabaga was lovely. The rutabaga tasted like a cross between turnips and carrots.

The cookbook that I got the recipe out of is called Low Cost Cooking. The author noted that rutabagas cost about 4 cents per pound. The one I bought weighed about 2 pounds and cost $1.99 per pound – which isn’t cheap, but I guess that it is a reasonable price for a fresh vegetable. I only used about half of it when making this recipe, so I’ll need to either find another rutabaga recipe or, more likely, I’ll make this dish again.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Creamed Rutabaga — Source: Low Cost Cooking by Florence Nesbitt (1924)

The recipe says that the cooked rutabaga chunks could be put into a white sauce which would be made using butter and milk, or that that the sauce could be made using water and milk (and skipping the butter). This reminds me that the cookbook is all about how to prepare inexpensive meals, and this probably was seen as a cost saver.

This recipe calls for a whole rutabaga, as well as for three cups of white sauce. Rutabagas are large- and this would be a lot, so I used half a rutabaga and made about of 1 cup of white sauce. (I decided not to go with the low cost water and milk option for the sauce.)

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Creamed Rutabaga

Servings: 2 - 3
Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
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2 cups chunks of rutabaga (about 1/2 of a medium rutabaga; chunks should be about 1/4 inch thick, 1/4 inch wide, and 1/2 inch long)

1 teaspoon salt +1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon flour

dash pepper

1 cup milk

Put rutabaga chunks in a saucepan and cover with water. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil using high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until the rutabaga is tender (about 30-40 minutes). Remove from heat and drain.

In the meantime, in another pan, using medium heat, melt butter, then stir in the flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Gradually, add the milk while stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the white sauce begins to thicken. Add the cooked rutabaga chunks and stir gently. Remove from heat and serve.

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Hundred-Year-Old Directions for Measuring a Spoonful of Shortening

Drawings of how to measure shortening — Source: The Whys of Cooking by Janet McKenzie Hill (1924)

A hundred-year-old promotional cookbook for Crisco shortening had drawings showing how to measure a spoonful (or a half- or quarter-spoonful) of shortening. I knew that the spoon should be scaped to accurately measure a spoonful of shortening. I never would have thought of cutting lengthwise for 1/2 spoonful.

It was expensive to print color pages in a book in 1924. Apparently the cookbook publisher thought that directions for measuring a spoonful of shortening was a high-interest topic. Who would have guessed?

Boston Roast Recipe

Boston Roast

A week or so I did a post on 1924 meatless menus that included menus for five meals. One of those menus included a dish called Boston Roast.

Several readers made comments about Boston Roast. A couple wondered what it was; another did an online search and found a recipe for Boston Roast and discovered that it was made using kidney beans, and still another noted that Boston is sometimes called “Bean Town” so it was made sense that the dish was called “Boston Roast.”

I’d found the meatless menus in a hundred-year-old cookbook. After getting all the comments about Boston Roast, I looked at the book’s table of contents and found the recipe for Boston Roast. The recipe called for kidney beans, grated cheese, onions, bread crumbs (cubes), chopped onions, and milk. The recipe also noted that “this is a good meat substitute.”

The recipe turned out well – though it had a slight tendency to fall apart when I sliced it. The kidney beans were the predominant flavor.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Boston Roast — Source: The New Butterick Cook Book (1924)

I used canned kidney beans rather than dried ones. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of dried kidney beans which is the equivalent of 3 1-pound cans of kidney beans. I didn’t use the 3 tablespoons of salt since I didn’t cook dried beans in salted water. Instead I just used 1 teaspoon of salt which I mixed in the with other ingredients.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Boston Roast

Servings: 6 - 8
Time: 55 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
Print

3 1-pound cans kidney beans

1 1/2 cups grated cheese (I used cheddar cheese.)

2 tablespoons onions, chopped

1 cup bread cubes (coarse bread crumbs)

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon salt

melted butter

hot water

Preheat oven to 375° F. Drain kidney beans and then chop. (A food processor or blender can be used to chop the kidney beans.) Put the chopped beans in a mixing bowl and add the cheese, onions, bread cubes, milk, and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined. Shape into a loaf (or put into a loaf pan) and put in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes. If the top seems dry while baking, baste with melted butter and water.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Hundred-Year-Old Tips for Frying Crullers, Doughnuts, and Fritters

Frying Doughnuts

Time to make doughnuts. It will be Fasnacht Day next week. Here’s what I wrote back in 2022:

When I was a child growing up in Pennsylvania, Fasnacht Day (the day before Ash Wednesday) was always a day when we ate doughnuts. Fasnacht Day was supposed to be a day to eat indulgent foods before the beginning of Lent – and doughnuts with their sugar and fat were considered the ultimate in indulgent foods. It is also known as Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday.

A Hundred Years Ago, February 27, 2022

Sometimes it’s tricky to make good doughnuts. Here are a few tips in a hundred-year-old cookbook for frying crullers, doughnuts, and fritters:

CRULLERS, DOUGHNUTS, AND FRITTERS

Facts to Remember

The products of deep fat frying have a reputation for indigestibility which is deserved only when there is something wrong with the procedure. One difficulty is that under certain conditions food absorb more fat in frying than can be easily taken care of by the digestion, and another, that at a certain temperature, differing with each kind of fat, a change takes place which develops an indigestible product called acreolin. This is recognizable by its acrid odor. Fat should never if used after it has reach this point.

The temperature of the fat is of upmost importance in frying. If it is not hot enough the food absorbs fat; if too hot the outside browns before the inner part is thoroughly cooked. A thermometer is essential for the inexperienced cook in controlling the temperature, and it is advisable in any case.

Next to the frying temperature, experience in handling the dough is the most important part of doughnut making.

Dough which has been chilled can be more easily handled and absorbs less fat than the same dough at room temperature. In putting doughnuts into the fat, have the part which has been next to the moulding board uppermost.

Only a few doughnuts or fritters should be fried at one time, because the cold dough cools the fat rapidly.

Fried foods should be drained on absorbent paper.

There is no marked difference in the amount of absorption power for the various fats and oils in common use.

Modern Priscilla Cook Book: One Thousand Home Tested Recipes (1924)

Old-Fashioned Canned Peach Pudding

Canned Peach Pudding

I was recently browsing through a hundred-year-old magazine, and came across a recipe for Canned Peach Pudding. Back then fresh fruit was scarce during the winter and early spring, so canned fruit was very popular. At the time, canned fruit (either home or commercially canned) was considered a modern option.

The Canned Peach Pudding was delightful. The pudding batter included pureed peaches, and whole peach halves (filled with a red jelly or strawberry jam) are placed in the batter and then additional batter is poured on top.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Canned Peach Pudding — Source: American Cookery (April, 1924)

When I put the baked pudding with the sugar on top under the broiler, the sugar did not brown, but the top of the pudding did begin to brown.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Canned Peach Pudding

Servings: 6
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: moderate
Print

12 canned peach halves (approximately 1 29 oz. can + 1 15 oz. can or 1 quart home canned peaches)

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted

6 teaspoons red jelly or strawberry jam (I used current jelly.)

granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F. Puree 6 of the peach halves. In a mixing bowl combine the peach puree, milk, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and melted butter. Put half of the batter into an 8″ X 8″ baking dish. Arrange 6 peach halves, hollow side up, on top of the batter. Fill the center of each peach half with 1 teaspoon of red jelly or strawberry jam. Pour the remaining better on top. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and lightly sprinkle with granulated sugar. Put under the broiler until the top of the baked pudding is lightly browned. Remove from oven.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com