Until I saw directions for packing sandwiches in a hundred-year-old cookbook, I never thought about how people packed sandwiches to take to school or work back then:

Keep sandwiches wrapped in a cheese cloth which has been thoroughly dampened with cold water, and pack in a closed box until ready to use.

Lowney’s Cook Book (Revised, 1921 Edition)

Sounds like a good way to get a soggy sandwich – but apparently if the cheese cloth is merely “dampened” and not “wet,” this is not a problem.

The tip was supposed to provide cooks with guidance so they could confidently pack sandwiches. But I’m left with more questions: Was the cheese cloth reused for multiple days, or was it discarded after one use?Why didn’t the cook book suggest using waxed paper to wrap sandwiches? I’ve seen hundred-year-old recipes that call for using waxed paper to line pans, so I know it was available back then.

Packing sandwiches sure was more complicated in the days before Ziploc bags!

I’ve seen several hundred-year-old articles which state that coffee is bad for your health, so I was surprised to see information in a 1921 cookbook about the benefits of coffee. Here is what it said:

The stimulating property of coffee is due to the alkaloid caffeine, together with an essential oil. Like tea, it contains an astringent. Coffee is more stimulating than tea, although, weight for weight, tea contains about twice as much theine as coffee contains caffeine. The smaller proportion of tea used accounts for the difference. A cup of coffee with breakfast, and a cup of tea with supper, serve as a mild stimulant for an adult, and forms a valuable food adjunct, but should never be found in the dietary of a child or dyspeptic.

Coffee taken in moderation quickens action of the heart, acts directly upon the nervous system, and assists gastric digestion. Fatigue of body and mind are much lessened by moderate use of coffee; severe exposure to cold can be better endured by the coffee drinker.

In times of war coffee has proved more valuable than alcoholic stimulants to keep up the enduring power of soldiers. Coffee acts as an antidote for opium and alcoholic poisoning. Tea and coffee are much more readily adsorbed when taken on an empty stomach; therefore this should be avoided except when used for medicinal purposes. Coffee must be taken in moderation; its excessive use means palpitation of the heart, tremor, insomnia, and nervous prostration.

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1921)

 

Sometimes old books provide clues about the original owner. For example, I have a 1921 home economics textbook called Elementary Home Economics. It was written by Mary Lockwood Matthews. The book itself is fascinating. It’s fun to see what students learned a hundred years ago – as well as to see how recipes, and cooking techniques and equipment, have changed across the years.

But what I really enjoy about this book are the drawings and pencil marks made by a girl (and back then it would have been a girl) who once used the book. Whenever I open the book I spend many minutes lingering over the drawings. Where did the girl live? What was her family like? Was she a good student? Did she sometimes frustrate her teacher? Was she quiet?. . . or perhaps a very popular student?

Pies sometimes don’t turn out quite as intended, and cooks both today and a hundred years ago try to figure out why. In a question and answer column in the November, 1921 issue of American Cookery, a reader asked:

Will you tell me in your paper why my Lemon Pies become watery when I return them to the oven to brown the meringue?

The answer was:

A lemon pie may become watery when put in the oven to brown the meringue, if it is left in the oven too long; or it may water because the filling was not sufficiently cooked before putting into the pastry shell, or it may be from an insufficiency of flour being used in making the filling. If you had told us just how your pies are made, we would be better able to answer your question.

 

My mother knew how to dress a chicken. I’m (happily) clueless about how to even approach dressing a bird. A hundred years ago,  dressing a chicken was apparently considered such an important skill that a home economics textbook contained directions for how to do it. Times sure have changed!

In case you ever need to dress a chicken, here are the directions:

To Dress a Chicken

1. Remove feathers by pulling them out, after plunging the fowl into boiling water and holding it there for a moment or two. Fowls are sometimes picked without scalding, if the work can be done immediately after they are killed.
2. Singe the plucked fowl by holding it in a flame of gas or burning paper, being sure that all parts are exposed during the process so that all hairs are removed.
3. Cut off the head, if it has not been removed. The neck may be removed by pushing back the skin and cutting it off.
4. Remove the feet in cutting and breaking the legs at the joints.
5. Make an incision one inch above the vent and crosswise between the legs. Draw out the intestines and other organs carefully, cutting away the vent. Remove from the mass the heart, liver and gizzard, being careful not to break the gall bladder which lies under the liver. Cut the gall bladder away carefully.
6. Remove the skin from around the gizzard; open the gizzard and remove the inner skin and contents.
7. Wash the liver, gizzard and heart, squeezing the latter to remove any blood. These organs are known as the “giblets.”
8. The crop and windpipe may be removed at the neck. Do this without breaking the crop, or tearing the skin at the neck.
9. Remove all pinfeathers with a sharp-pointed small knife. Remove the oil bag from the tail.
10. Wash the chicken well in cold water, both inside and out. Dry  with a cloth. The fowl is now ready to be used from baking.
11. When a fowl is to be cut into pieces, as for stewing, it is usually convenient to remove the wings and legs before removing the intestines and other organs from the body.

Poultry should always be allowed to stand several hours after dressing before it is cooked.

Elementary Home Economics (1921) by Mary Lockwood Matthews