I have an early apple tree that is just loaded with apples this year. There’s no way my husband and I can eat all the apples, so last week-end I canned 14 quarts of apples. When I was flipping through a hundred-year-old cookbook for ideas for this post, this quote at the beginning of the chapter with jelly and preserves recipes really resonated with me. Maybe I’m the exception, but when it comes to canning for me, some things haven’t changed over the last hundred years.
Sometimes the most basic ways of preparing a simple food changes over the course of a hundred years. String beans are a good example. Here’s what it says in a hundred-year-old cookbook:
The old recipe calls for boiling the string beans 1-3 hours!! And, for breaking or cutting them into 1-inch pieces. Today, many people leave them whole. (I normally break string beans into 2 -3 inch pieces, but if preparing a meal for my children or grandchildren I would definitely leave them whole.) The old recipe also calls for removing the strings from the beans – which many string beans no longer have. (I guess that technically they may not be string beans.)
When I made the recipe I did cut the string beans into 1-inch pieces, but I couldn’t bring myself to cook the beans for 1-3 hours, and in the updated recipe say to boil them for 10-15 minutes – though I did provide information about cooking longer, if desired.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
1 pound string beans
water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
Trim the ends of the beans, and then cut or break the beans into one-inch pieces. Wash and put in a saucepan. Cover with water; add salt. Bring to a boil using high heat; then reduce heat and cook 10-15 minutes. Drain, then add butter. Let the butter melt, stir gently, then serve. (If desired, cook longer for a softer consistency. This will result in string beans that are prepared more similarly to how it was done a hundred years ago. A 1923 cookbook calls for cooking the beans 1-3 hours.)
A hundred years ago there was a coffee beverage called Cafe des Invalides. Not sure that name would work today (or that I’d buy this product), but I love the descriptive nature of the name.
I recently came across a recipe in a hundred-year-old cookbook for Lettuce with Cucumber Sauce. It is a tasty Wedge Salad recipe with a mayonnaise dressing that contains chopped cucumber, onion, and green pepper.
Lettuce with Cucumber Sauce is an intriguing combination of new and old. Wedge Salad is currently a somewhat trendy way of serving lettuce (and I actually was surprised to see a Wedge Salad-type recipe in the old cookbook), while the mayonnaise with chopped vegetables dressing seemed old-fashioned.
Here’s the original recipe:
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
2 small heads iceberg lettuce or 1 large head iceberg lettuce
1 slice onion, finely chopped
1/2 large cucumber, peeled and then finely chopped
1/3 green pepper, finely chopped
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
Cut lettuce into wedges. If the head is small cut into thirds; if large into sixths. Set aside.
In the meantime, put the onion, cucumber, pepper, and mayonnaise into a small bowl. Mix until the vegetables are evenly distributed in the mayonnaise.
To serve: Put each wedge on serving plate. Spoon 1/6th of the mayonnaise and vegetable sauce over each wedge.
Here’s advice in a hundred-year-old cookbook on the care of vegetables:
Care of Vegetables
Summer vegetables should be cooked as soon after gathering as possible; in case they must be kept, spread on bottom of cool, dry, well-ventilated cellar, or place in ice-box. Lettuce may be best kept by sprinkling with cold water and placing in a tin pan closely covered. Wilted vegetables may be freshened by allowing to stand in cold water. Vegetables which contain sugar lose some of their sweetness by standing; corn and peas are more quickly affected than others.
Winter vegetables should be kept in a cold, dry place. Beets, carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc., should be put in barrels or piled in bins, to exclude as much air as possible. Squash should be spread, and needs careful watching; when dark spots appear, cook at once. . .
A few years ago native vegetables were alone sold; but now our markets are largely supplied from the Southern States and California, thus allowing us fresh vegetables throughout the year.
The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1923)
Wow – it’s amazing that already a hundred years ago that the transportation system in the U.S. was good enough to allow vegetables to routinely be shipped across the country.
Old-fashioned lemonade is refreshing on a hot summer day, but it can get a little boring, so when I saw a recipe in a hundred-year-old cookbook for Pineapple and Lemonade, I decided to give it a try. The Pineapple and Lemonade was a little sweeter than the typical lemonade, and the pineapple flavor predominated over the lemon, but it was tasty.
Here’s the original recipe:
This recipe was in an Order of the Eastern Star organizational cookbook. The Order of the Eastern Star is affiliated with the masons. The recipe author was John Hamill. I think this is the first male recipe author that I’ve seen in a hundred-year-old cookbook. The initials after his name (R.W.G.T.) mean that he was the Right Worthy Grand Templar or Right Worthy Grand Treasurer.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple
juice of 3 lemons
4 cups mixture of ice and water
Put water and sugar in a saucepan; bring to a boil using medium heat while stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in the contents of the can of pineapple and the lemon juice, then strain. Add the ice and water mixture, and serve.
Here’s some hundred-year-old advice about the weight equivalents of various common ingredients. It’s interesting how a given volume of some foods weighs less than other foods. For example, 2 cups of granulated sugar equals a pound, but a pint (2 cups) of brown sugar equals 13 ounces.
I found this list in a cookbook compiled by an organization. It made me smile to see how the one item on the list that spilled over to a second line was out of alignment with the other items in the list. I’d probably do something like that – though maybe that’s how it’s supposed formatted. Not sure.
