When making jams and jellies, pectin helps make the juice “jell.” A hundred years ago commercial liquid and powdered pectin was not available. Rather cooks used fruits with naturally occurring pectin – and often combined several fruits, including one with a lot of pectin, when making jelly. Here’s what it said in a hundred-year-old home economics textbook:

Fruit juice can be made into jelly when it contains two substances, (1) pectin and (2) acid. All fruits do not contain these in sufficient amounts to make good jelly, and often it is necessary to combine the juices of two fruits before the juice will “jell.” Sugar helps to make the juice form jelly, but unless pectin and acid are present, no amount of sugar will have that effect.

Fruits used for jelly should not be over-ripe, and sometimes it is better to use green fruits, because as fruit ripens it contains less pectin and acid. Tart apples, grapes, currants, crab apples and plums are good for making jelly. Sweet ripe apples, strawberries, blackberries, peaches and pears are poor fruits from which to make jelly.

Lemon and orange peel contain pectin in considerable amounts and are sometimes used to make fruit juices “jell.” Remove the yellow layers of the peel and put the white material that is left through the food grinder, cover with water and let stand for several hours, then cook slowly for two or three hours; strain the liquid and add it to the fruit juice that lacks pectin.

Elementary Home Economics (1921) by Mary Lockwood Matthews

 

 

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.