Graham flour is a coarsely ground whole wheat flour that contains the endosperm, the bran, and the wheat germ. Year ago it was considered a health food. Graham flour is named after its inventor Sylvester Graham. He began making graham flour in the 1830s, and promoted it as part of a health movement which encouraged eating vegetarian meals and unseasoned foods.

A hundred years ago graham flour was a popular type of flour, and cookbooks contained recipes for graham bread, graham muffins, graham pudding, and other graham foods.  Several years ago I bought graham flour at my local store and made a couple old recipes that used graham flour for this blog:

Graham Nut Muffins

Steamed Graham Pudding with Lemon Sauce

Orange Nut Bread

Graham Popovers

However, when I recently wanted to make a recipe from a 1924 cookbook that called for graham flour, I looked for it at half a dozen stores and couldn’t find it. I eventually bought some (at an outrageous price) off the internet.  Each of those stores probably sold at least two dozen other types of flour, some of which sounded very exotic to me. But, why no graham flour? Have tastes changed so much across the past hundred years that a food that once was a common staple is now extremely difficult to find?

While searching for information on graham flour, I learned that modern graham flours sometimes have most of the wheat germ removed to prolong shelf life and to help keep it from going rancid. Some websites say that coarsely ground whole wheat flour can be substituted for graham flour, though as with modern graham flours, most of the wheat germ may have been removed. I guess that even if I follow an old recipe calling for graham flour exactly that I’m probably not accurately replicating it. Sigh. . .

Ever struggle to use left-over pancakes? They tend to just languish in my refrigerator (if I don’t immediately toss them).  There actually are lots of ways to use them. Here’s two suggestions in a hundred-year-old magazine:

Other Ways to Use Cold Pancakes

“I use them,” writes our correspondent, “in two ways. First, after they are quite cold I cut them into very thick strips, like noodles, with a very sharp knife, put them in the soup tureen, and pour over them a well-seasoned beef broth. This makes, when served at once, a very good soup. My second way is to make them into a dessert. The cold cakes are spread with a mixture of sugar, ground cinnamon, and raisins, each pancake is rolled with the mixture inside, and they are placed in a baking dish in a row, and quite close to one another, milk is poured over almost to cover them, and then they are put in the oven and baked. This makes a very good pudding, not unlike a bread pudding.”

American Cookery (June/July, 1924)

 

A hundred-years-ago men’s roles and women’s roles were defined very differently. Women were responsible for cooking, and their culinary skills were considered a measure their success. This poem in a 1924 cookbook reminds me of the old saying that “food is the way to a man’s heart.”

I enjoy reading household tips in hundred-year-old magazines and cookbooks. Often the advice is good, and has stood the test of time. However, occasionally an old tip leaves me scratching my head. Like this tip about how to store grated cocoanut. Is it really a tip when the author says that the advice given is guesswork, and that she does not really know how it is done?

And, by the way, what is currently considered the correct spelling for “cocoanut”? I tend to think that “cocoanut” is an archaic spelling, and that it is usually is now spelled “coconut,” but am not sure.

Here’s how a hundred-year-old cookbook describes table clothes and other table coverings:

Table Coverings

The table-cloth is the form of table covering most frequently used, and if in an exquisite texture it may be considered the most formal type of cover. The table-cloth should always be laid over a silence cloth, which is usually of felt or a double-faced cotton material made expressly for this purpose. The silence cloth should drop over the edges of the table several inches. Many prefer to fold it at the corners and pin it underneath the table. The silence cloth prevent noise, protects the table and improves the appearance of the linen.

The table-cloth must be laid with great exactness. The center lengthwise crease should fall exactly in the middle of the table and extend over the sides and ends of the table until its edges just escape the seats of the chairs. For breakfast, luncheon or supper, a smaller cloth may be used, simply covering the top of the table or falling a few inches over the edge. Great care must always be taken that the threads of the cloth are parallel to the diameter of a round table, or parallel to the edges of a square or rectangular table. A table seldom presents as restful and interesting a picture when the cloth is placed diagonally as when it is placed with the treads running parallel to the edges of the table.

The small table-cloth, or the cloth used on informal occasions, does not need to be the snowy white linen used for the formal dinner.  Nothing is more satisfactory or pleasing than beautiful unbleached cloths with possibly a simple line design in color along the edges.

Doilies for each place are also used instead of the table-cloth and silence cloth, and are most satisfactory not only for their ease in laundering but for their appearance when correctly arranged on a well-polished table top. . .

Runners are another type of covering used on the bare table. These may be made of linen, or of the various cotton materials sold for such use. The runner is used for the informal meal.

Paper coverings are being used more and more for very informal occasions and may be secured in a very usable quality and size.

The New Butterick Cook Book (1924)

In the old cookbook, “table-cloth” was always hyphenated. I guess its an example of how words have changed across the years.

Here’s some excerpts from a hundred-year-old cookbook  about how to cook hot cereals:

Cooking Breakfast Cereals

Cereals are made from hard grains and contain much starch, so require long cooking to make them easily digested. Do not be deceived by directions on the box which say that the contents can be cooked in 15 or 20 minutes. This is never long enough to cook thoroughly and make them fit food for young children.

When the coal range is used, a very convenient way to cook the cereal is to start it cooking at supper time and leave closely covered on the back of the range all night. In the morning it will be found to be well done.

All of the cereals named above may be served hot as mush with cream or milk with or without sugar. Mush may also be served with syrup instead of milk. Cornmeal mush is much liked in this way.

Low Cost Cooking by Florence Nesbitt (1924)

The household hints section of a hundred-year-old cookbook had the following suggestions for getting more juice from a lemon:

• A lemon will yield nearly double the quantity of juice otherwise obtainable if it is heated thoroughly before squeezing.

• Lemons held in hot water yield more juice than otherwise.

The New Home Cook Book, 1924 Edition (Published by the Illinois State Register, Springfield, IL)