A Novel, New Way to Save Recipes–Recipe Boxes and Cards

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

Thursday, January 18, 1912: To write something when you have nothing to write is an impossible task.

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to go off on a tangent.

When I began working on this blog I knew that cars, airplanes, and telephones were all relatively new technology in 1912–I was amazed to discover that recipe boxes and cards were also a new idea.

DSC05317.crop — I got my recipe box when I got married many years ago--and many of the recipes in it are old family recipes that were copied at that time. Who would have guessed that I was compiling the recipes in the modern way?

Here are some excerpts from an article called “A Housekeeper’s Filing Cook Book A Novel Way to Save Recipes and Household Hints in a Systemic and Convenient Form,” that was in the March 1912 issue of National Food Magazine:

Every year housekeeping becomes more of a science. Shiftless methods and poor tools give place to system and efficient utensils, so that housekeeping is taking the rightful place by the side of other well-managed businesses.

One of the greatest aids to system in business offices is the filing drawer, or cabinet. A clever housewife has adapted the filing idea to her own needs and developed a filing cook book which she and several others have been using successfully for some time past.

Cards measuring 5×8 were bought at a stationer’s and fitted into a pasteboard drawer such as can be bought to fit the cards. The drawer holds over two hundred cards. Any size card may be used but the above has been found the most convenient.

The cards are grouped under sub-heads is alphabetical order, as Bread, Cake, Desserts, Meats, Pastry, Oysters, Salads, Specials, Vegetables, etc.

On these cards are written or typed, under their proper sub-head, choice recipes from friends, the favorite dishes of the hostess or more particularly, recipes taken from culinary magazines such as the National Food Magazine.

The “old way,” to save a recipe was to paste it anywhere on any page in an old note-book which became covered with flour and mayonnaise whenever used. Or the recipe was just “tucked away” among the leaves of the real cook book—and never found.

Here instead of writing down your friend’s recipe for her best sponge cake or pasting some of the fine recipes you have read in the National Food Magazine into a messy book, in a disorderly fashion—you write the recipe on a card, or paste the clipping on a card and slip it into its proper place . . .

Old-fashioned Fried Potatoes

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

Tuesday, January 16, 1912: There is nothing much to write about for today. Things go on as usual.

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

Since Grandma wrote little a hundred years ago today, I’m going to give you the recipe for an old winter staple–fried potatoes. Potatoes and other locally-grown vegetables that could be stored for many months were an important part of the winter diet.

Old-fashioned Fried Potatoes

1/4 cup lard

approximately 6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced

salt

Melt lard in large heavy skillet (preferably cast iron) using medium heat. When the lard is hot add the sliced potatoes. Generously sprinkle with salt. Turn potatoes with a spatula and again sprinkle with salt. Continue cooking (and occasionally turning) until potatoes are tender, with a crisped, lightly browned coating.

Old-fashioned fried potatoes cooked in a cast iron skillet are one of my favorite foods. They brown beautifully and are very crisp. And, the lard really enhances the subtle flavor of the potatoes.

Hundred-Year-Old Recipe for Caramel Corn (Sugared Popcorn)

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

Sunday, January 7, 1912: Walked to Sunday School this morning though the new fallen snow. I wore my old hat because I didn’t want to get snow on my new one. Miss Carrie was over this afternoon, and we had popcorn by the way of refreshments. By so doing I broke the third commandment for I was the one who did the popping.

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

Miss Carrie was Grandmas’ friend Carrie Stout. She lived on a nearby farm. I believe that the third commandment refers to “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Today that is generally the fourth commandment, but I believe that some denominations number the commandments differently.

The popcorn that Grandma popped was raised on the Muffly farm. In May 1911 she wrote about planting popcorn. In the fall it would have been harvested and hung to dry. When the corn had just the right amount of moisture for popping, the family would have shelled it and stored it in a glass jar until they were ready to pop it.

Grandma probably popped the corn in a cast iron skillet. I bet that she sometimes “dressed it up” and made Caramel Corn.

Here’s a great hundred-year-old recipe for Caramel Corn that was in the 1912 Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer. (It is called Sugared Popcorn in the book.)

Sugared Popcorn (Caramel Corn)

2 quarts popped corn

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup water

Put butter in saucepan, and when melted add sugar and water. Bring to boiling point, and let boil for sixteen minutes. Pour over corn, and stir until every kernel is well coated with sugar.

I salted the popped corn before mixing with the syrup. This recipe is a keeper. The Caramel Corn turned out perfectly.

Interpreting Old Recipes: The Case of Coffee Candy

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

Saturday, December 30, 1911: I came to grief today. Had a knock down and drag out. Am ashamed to launch into details. Suffice to say it was my own fault and nobody dies. Picked out some walnut pits for my candy. Ruthie made it because she said she would. I haven’t as yet tried the experiment, and don’t know how. Will be glad when this long vacation is over.

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

Whew ,sounds like some fight. Was it with her six-year-old brother Jimmie? Grandma mentioned on the 26th that she and Jimmie were turning into “fight cats.” And, on the 27th she wrote that Jimmie was making things lively with a switch that he made from a lower branch of the Christmas tree.

Or maybe the fight was with her older sister Ruth. On November 27 Grandma wrote that her sister had pummeled her.

Making Candy

Grandma frequently mentioned made candy in the diary—and I’ve enjoyed replicating old-time candy recipes.

Grandma had her sister Ruth to help ensure that candy “experiments” were successes–I’ve been on my own and have occasionally failed. Coffee Candy was one such failure.

I found the recipe for Coffee Candy in a 1907* central Pennsylvania cookbook called the Lycoming Valley Cook Book. It was compiled by the Ladies of Trout Run M.E. Church .

Coffee Candy

Boil together, without stirring, until thick enough to spin a thread, one-half cup strong coffee and two cups sugar. Remove the pan from stove and place in a dish of cold water. Beat rapidly until it creams. Stir in a cup of chopped nut meats, pour into a flat tin and cut into squares.

I cooked the candy until it formed threads at the soft crack stage (270-290 degrees). I didn’t stir while cooking—though I did dip a spoon into the pan several times to get a little of the boiling syrup to test what stage it was at.

After I removed the mixture from the heat and put it in a dish of cold water I beat it. Large coffee-flavored granules formed rather than a creamy candy.

I stirred nuts into the granular mix, and firmly pressed into a buttered pan. The candy didn’t want to stick together very well when I pressed it into the pan, but I hoped for the best.

However, when I tried to cut the candy, it crumbled into small pieces. The Coffee Candy looked terrible, but the candy still had a very nice taste—and I enjoyed eating it.

I must have cooked the candy too long (or maybe not long enough) . . .or maybe dipping the spoon into the boiling syrup to test it caused the boiling sugar to crystallize . . or . . ??

Next year I’ll have to experiment a little with this recipe and try to figure out what I did wrong.

Other old-time candy recipes that I’ve more successfully made include:

Two old fudge recipes (including one that calls for molasses)

Cocoa Fudge

Sugar Taffy

Butterscotch

* I got the recipe out of a 1992 reprint of the 1907 book. Kwik-Kopy Printing, Williamsport PA published the reprint.

Old-Time Black Walnut Cake Recipe

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

Wednesday, December 20, 1911: Pa went to Sunbury this morning and I had all the barn work to do at noon and this evening, but I managed to get through with it at last. Picked out some walnuts for Xmas candy and then Mater had to go and swipe some to stick in some cakes for Jimmie. Maybe they’ll all be gone where they’re wanted.

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

This year my husband and I have enjoyed eating foods mentioned in the diary that we hadn’t eaten in years.

We picked the last of the black walnuts that we gathered last fall out of their shells last week-end. It’s the first year that we’ve gathered them since we were children. Next year we’ll need to collect more.

I used the nuts to make a black walnut cake. The cake brought back warm memories of my childhood when I ate black walnut cake at reunions and church dinners. At those gatherings, elderly woman proudly brought black walnut (and hickory nut) cakes that they’d lovingly made using nuts that they’d gathered, hulled, cracked, and picked the nut meats out of.

Black Walnut Cake

1/2 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup water

2 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup black walnuts (chopped)

2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Butter icing (optional)

Additional finely chopped black walnuts (optional)

Cream the butter with powdered sugar and cold water. Add egg yolks, cinnamon, flour, and baking powder; beat until combined. Stir in the walnuts. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Put batter into a well-greased loaf pan and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for approximately 40-45 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

If desired, glaze with butter icing; sprinkle with additional finely chopped walnuts.

Old-Fashioned Butterscotch Recipe

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

Wednesday, December 13, 1911: Must keep at my lessons in the evening or else get growling at school Got my report today. It isn’t so very great. Ruthie treated us to candy this evening. She is going to treat her kids and had to treat us also while she was getting it divided up.

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

Grandma’s sister Ruth as a teacher at a one-room school house near McEwensville, and she must have been going to give her students candy as a Christmas gift. (The holiday break was longer back then—and students didn’t have school for the last two weeks of December).

Two days ago the diary entry said that Ruth made candy. I wonder how many types of candy she made–and then divided amongst her students (and family members).

Maybe she made old-fashioned Butterscotch. It isn’t anything like the artificially colored orange butterscotch disks that they make today—rather it is similar to Werthers Original Candy.

Butterscotch

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon vinegar

2 tablespoons butter

Stir to combine all ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil using a medium heat. Once the sugar has melted, quit stirring. Reduce heat to a level where the mixture steadily boils. Boil until it becomes brittle when a little is dropped in cold water. Pour into a buttered dish (I used a 7” X 7” dish). When the candy is partially cooled (semi-solid) score with a knife. After the candy is completely cooled remove from dish and break into pieces.

Hundred-Year-Old Recipe for Coconut Hot Chocolate

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

Sunday, December 10, 1911: Went to Sunday School this morning. Ruth as usual was on the go again today. She and Rachel had to go off to visit Miss Bryson. Went over to Carrie’s this afternoon. Had to walk through the mud and a sticky kind it proved to be. To do Ruthie’s share of the milking was my fate tonight. You see I must treat her accordingly, as Christmas is approaching.

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

Yuck—it’s not fun having to do a sibling’s share of the milking.

Here are the complete names of the friends that the Muffly girls visited: Rachel Oakes, Blanche Bryson, and Carrie Stout.

I wonder if Blanche or Carrie might have made hot drinks to serve their friends. (Plus I’m still enjoying trying 100-year-old recipes for hot drinks that appeared in an article called “Hot Drinks for the Holiday Season” that was in the December, 1911 issue of Good Housekeeping), so I’m going to give you another recipe today.)

I few days ago I made Mulled Fig Juice (Ginger Cordial). Here’s the recipe for Coconut Hot Chocolate:

Coconut Milk Chocolate [Coconut Hot Chocolate]

Heat a quart of milk in the double boiler, and when very hot stir in four heaping tablespoons of grated, unsweetened chocolate, moistened with a little cold water; allow it to boil and thicken; have ready nearly a pint of coconut milk into which has been stirred half a cupful of sugar and the whites of two eggs; add this to the chocolate and cook for a few moments but do not allow it to boil. Remove from the fire and serve in cups, adding after it is poured into the cups a tablespoonful of sweetened whipped cream, which has been mixed with a little grated coconut.

Coconut Hot Chocolate is delicious—though extremely sweet.

Recipe Notes

I didn’t use a double boiler. Instead I used medium heat and stirred the milk constantly.

I poured the hot chocolate through a strainer before serving because I had problems with some of the egg white coagulating when I heated it. Maybe I didn’t stir rapidly enough when I added the coconut mixture to the hot milk. If I made the recipe again—I might just skip the egg white.

I skipped the whipped cream topping—but it sounds like it would be good.