Old-fashioned Sweet Potato Pancakes (Waffles)

When I saw a recipe in a hundred-year-old issue of National Food Magazine for sweet potato waffles, I was intrigued—but I seldom make waffles. I then wondered if the same recipe would work to make pancakes.

Well, I gave it a try, and the Sweet Potato Pancakes were awesome. The recipe called for separating the eggs, and beating the egg whites until stiff. It definitely was worth the extra effort. The pancakes were incredibly fluffy and light.

I served the pancakes with maple syrup. The vivid, yet delicate, sweet potato flavor worked perfectly with the maple syrup to create a lovely taste experience.

Sweet Potato Pancakes would be perfect for an autumn brunch. This seasonal dish will impress even your most discerning foodie friends.

Sweet Potato Pancakes (Waffles)

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes

1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, separated

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine the mashed sweet potatoes*, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg yolks, milk, and butter. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the sweet potato mixture.

To make pancakes: For each pancake, put two heaping tablespoons of the batter on a hot, lightly-greased griddle. Using the back of the spoon gently spread the batter to make a 3-inch pancake. Lightly brown on both sides. Serve with butter and honey or maple syrup.

Makes 12-15 3-inch pancakes

Note: Batter may also be used to make waffles.

*Mash cooked sweet potatoes with a fork until smooth.

Adapted from recipe in National Food Magazine (September, 1914)

Is Your Cooking in a Rut?

Sometimes I worry that my cooking might be boring, and was recently relieved to learn that I am not unique. People have had similar concerns for at least a hundred years. According to the July, 1915 issue of Ladies Home Journal:

Is Your Cooking in a Rut?

Sometimes an apparently good meal leaves a person in a dissatisfied condition that invariably leads to longing for an elusive something or other that had not been provided.

Conservatism too often stands in the way of the average woman, with many housewives serving the same dishes, year in and year out, that their mothers provided before them.

Another reason that women get into “ruts” is because too many men seem to like monotony, appearing to be satisfied with frequent repetitions of a few good dishes, and often ridiculing any attempt toward growth and betterment in the family menu. The man who growls over the “high cost of living” is too often the one who demands the same old foods.

As appetite craves change, the essential in planning appealing meals is to combine a variety of foods so that they will harmonize.

To evolve meals that taste good, look well, and are digestible, it is a good plan to follow the infallible rule of “enough but not too much” as well as to consider the aesthetic beauty and appearance of the combination.

hmm. . . that sounds easy enough. I just need to balance variety with nutrition and aesthetics (though the devil is always in the details).

P.S. – I like the simpler life style of the early 1900s — but life wasn’t perfect. The gendered nature of these quotes–with women cooking and men “growling” — really bothers me. In 1915 women did not yet even have the right to vote. (They won’t get that right for another 5 years).

Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie Recipe

Tomatoes, tomatoes everywhere. The tomato plants are heavily laden with tomatoes–many still green.

When I wake up in the mornings I’m starting to feel a slight chill in the air. It won’t be long until there is frost. It’s time to make Green Tomato Mincemeat.

This traditional “mock” mincemeat has been made by frugal cooks for countless years. And, no wonder–it tastes as good, if not better, than real mincemeat and make the perfect mincemeat pie.

For my husband and me, Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie is an Autumn comfort food. We remember our mothers’ and grandmothers’ (and the church ladies) making this scrumptious pleasantly sweet, yet tart, traditional pie with its tangy blend of spices.

Green Tomato Mincemeat

6 cups green tomatoes

2 cups tart apples

1 cup raisins

2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup strong coffee

1 lemon (grated peel and juice)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

Core and quarter tomatoes and apples; put through food processor or chopper. Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally. May be canned or frozen.

Amount: This recipe makes enough mincemeat for 2 9-inch pies.

Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie

1 quart (approx. 4 cups) green tomato mincemeat

1/4 cup flour

9-inch double-crust pie shell

milk (optional)

sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stir the flour into the mincemeat; place in pastry-lined pie pan. Cover with top crust. Seal and crimp. Cut slits in top crust (or poke top crust several times with a fork). If desired, brush with a small amount of milk; sprinkle with sugar. Bake in oven for 10 minutes; then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake an additional 20 to 30 minutes or until crust is browned and juice just begins to bubble through slits in crust.

Serve Eggs Every Morning

Serve eggs every morning if you like, but do not repeat the same method of cooking more than twice a month.

Good Housekeeping (July, 1915)

Let’s see, I could make scrambled eggs one morning, fried eggs the next, then hard-boiled eggs, followed by soft-boiled eggs, and then poached eggs followed by an omelet. That’s only six different ways to make eggs.

Help! I have no idea how to make eggs 15 or 16 different ways.

Angel Tip (Nonalcoholic) Recipe

Happy Labor Day!

I plan to relax and enjoy the day with family and friends—and I may serve Angel Tip. This refreshing grape and mint cooler is perfect for all ages.

I found this recipe in a 1915 Good Housekeeping magazine. Angel Tip recipes generally include alcohol, but this one doesn’t. I’ve never seen a recipe that called for alcohol in a hundred-year-old women’s magazine. The 18^th amendment, which instituted prohibition, went into effect in 1920. In the years preceding its enactment, public opinion and the media strongly supported prohibition, so alcoholic drinks were generally taboo in magazine recipe sections.

Angel Tip

Crushed ice

Mint leaves

Grape-juice

Sweetened whipped-cream

Use tall ice tea glasses. Fill each glass with crushed ice. Stir in a few (5-7 per glass) crushed mint leaves. Add the grape juice, and top with the whipped cream, and a sprig of mint. Serve with straws or long-handled spoons. Home-made grape-juice is preferable for this drink, but the commercial varieties may be used successfully.

To make homemade whipped cream, use 1/4 cup whipping cream per glass of Angel Tip. Whip the cream until there are stiff peaks; then, for each serving, stir in 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar.

Adaptation of recipe in Good Housekeeping (October, 1915)

You may notice that this is my second post this month that uses mint. Last week I did a post on Mint Glazed Apples. The mint plants in my garden are succulent and green this time of year, yet I have few recipes that use mint. I’m excited to find some old-time recipes that call for this healthful herb.

Glazed Mint Apples Recipe

I love these last lazy-daisy days of summer. The apples are ripe, the mint plants in my garden are going wild—and I found a recipe that used both ingredients in a hundred-year-old magazine.

Glazed Mint Apples are easy to make: and a healthy, refreshing dessert. Life is good!

Glazed Mint Apples

6 apples (McIntosh or other variety that retains shape when cooked)

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

2 dozen mint sprigs

Boil sugar and water together for fifteen minutes. Pare and core apples, and place in a frying pan. Pour the sugar syrup over them, add eighteen of the mint-sprigs tied in a bunch, and simmer slowly. Turn often to prevent them from becoming mushy. Each time the apples are turned, use spoon to baste apples with sugar syrup. When the apples have softened (about 20 minutes), remove carefully from pan, baste with a small amount syrup, and put a sprig of mint in the hole of each apple. Serve warm or cold.

Adapted from a recipe in Good Housekeeping (October, 1915)

Food Gifts for Friends and Neighbors & Cherry Almond Cake Recipe

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

Tuesday, December 15, 1914: <<no entry>>

Front door decorated for Christmas — Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1913)

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

What was keeping Grandma so busy that she had no time to write in her diary? Maybe she was baking holiday treats to give friends and neighbors.

I have warm memories from my childhood of neighbors knocking on the door holding a tray of cookies, homemade plum pudding, or a tin of candy—and I’m guessing that food gifts were even more common a hundred years ago.

The many readers who are participating in the Bake-a-thon are giving Grandma a wonderful send-off to live the rest of her life as the diary winds down. As part of the Bake-a-thon, Pam (Quiall) at Butterfly Sand included a wonderful recipe for Cherry Almond Cake in a comment several days ago. Here’s her story and recipe.

My Mother and I would make several batches of Cherry Almond Cake. Some were small loaves for the neighbours and a big round one for us. Wonderful memories of Christmas,

CHERRY ALMOND CAKE

1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup almonds
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 1/2 cups glazed cherries
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

First:
Slice cherries and nuts (buy almonds already blanched and sliced). Combine 1/2 cup flour with cherries and almonds in bowl. Mix until fruit is well coated.

Second:
Combine remaining flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.

Third:
Cream butter until fluffy, add flavourings. Gradually add sugar, mixing until creamy. Beat eggs until light and lemon-coloured. Add to creamed mixture. Beat together well.

Fourth:
Add dry ingredients to butter, etc., alternately with almonds and nuts, folding in gently until well combined. Add lemon juice and then milk.

Turn into prepared tin. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.

If using small loaf pans (4 will do) bake for 1 hour and then check. Time will vary because of the size of the loaves.