I know that when I eat soup, I’m supposed to use my spoon to scoop it away from me in the bowl, but that’s one, of many, etiquette “do’s and don’ts” that I don’t always follow. Directions for eating soup haven’t changed in a hundred years:
When using a spoon for serving, or for sipping soup, there is less danger of spilling the food if the spoon is moved away from, rather than toward, oneself (see Figure 38).
School and Home Cooking by Carlotta c. Greer (1925)
A 1925 home economics textbook provides recommendations for how to divide each dollar spent on food across the various food groups.
How Much to Spend on Food
Whether one is purchasing food for all the meals of a family or is only selecting a luncheon or one meal, it is desirable to spend money wisely.
The five food groups may serve as a basis for the purchase of foods. It has been suggested that each dollar used in buying foods be divided into 5 parts of 20 cents each.
Out of each dollar use:
- 20 cents, more or less, for vegetables and fruits
- 20 cents, more or less, for milk and cheese
- 20 cents, more or less, for meat, fish, eggs, etc.
- 20 cents, more or less, for bread and cereals
- 20 cents, more or less, for sugar, fat, tea, coffee, chocolate, flavoring
(A footnote indicates that this is from the United States Thrift Leaflet #15.)
School and Home Cooking by Carlotta C. Greer (1925)
Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much on food, but I’ve never really thought about how it should be divided across food groups. I wonder if the hundred-year-old breakdown still holds, or if the division across food groups should be different now.
I recently had some friends over and wanted to serve a nice dessert (and, of course, I wanted to make a hundred-year-old recipe), so I pulled out my 1925 recipe books and found a lovely recipe for Maraschino Cherry Cake.
The cake was colorful with cherry fragments throughout that gave it a delightful sweet, yet tart, flavor.
Here’s the original recipe:
This recipe calls for 1 cup of liquid. When, I made it, I used 1/4 cup of liquid from a jar of Maraschino cherries and 3/4 cup of milk.
The stores where I shop do not carry pastry flour, so I used all-purpose flour. It worked fine.
When I updated this recipe, I reduced the amount of baking powder from 4 teaspoons to 3 teaspoons. Four teaspoons seems like a lot, and I had a little difficulty with the cake falling. A possible cause is the use of too much baking powder, so I decided to reduce the amount.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
4 egg whites
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup liquid from jar of Maraschino cherries
3/4 milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups pastry (or all-purpose) flour
1/2 cup Maraschino cherries, chopped
Preheat oven to 350◦ F. Beat egg whites until stiff, then set aside.
Put butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, then cream. Stir in Maraschino cherry liquid and milk. Add salt, baking powder, and flour; beat until smooth. Stir in the chopped Maraschino cherries, then fold in the beaten egg whites. Put into prepared pans. A large loaf pan, round layer cake pans, or a rectangular cake pan may be used. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 35 minutes for cake pans or 45 minutes for a loaf pan). If desired, ice. (I iced the cake with a buttercream frosting. I substitute liquid from a jar of Maraschino cherries for some of the milk when making the frosting.)
Old-cookbooks occasionally refer to recipes as “receipts.” A hundred years ago, “receipt” was already considered an archaic term. Here’s what it said in a 1925 magazine:
“Receipt” or “Recipe”?
When our grandmothers wrote out the ingredients for any dish and the method of making it, they called this “a receipt,” and in their times the apothecaries had a monopoly of the word “recipe,” which meant to them the physician’s prescription. The tendency, today, is towards the use of the word “recipe” for the cooking formula, while “receipt” is more logically reserved for the written form of acknowledging payment, or the receiving of money.
American Cookery (April, 1925)
Rhubarb is one of my favorite spring foods, so I was pleased to find a hundred-year-old recipe for Rhubarb Turnovers. The turnovers were lovely.
Here’s the original recipe:
I was intrigued by the idea of using syrup from canned fruit as the topping for the Rhubarb Turnovers, so I used the syrup from a can of peaches canned in heavy syrup. A lemon sauce would also be tasty.
The instructions called for “red strawberry rhubarb.” The rhubarb I used was not particularly red, so the turnovers may not have been as attractive as they would have been if a redder rhubarb had been used, but they still looked nice.
I interpreted the instructions to roll the dough out to “less than 1/2 inch thick” to mean about 1/3 inch thick. I ended up with a few more turnovers than the 12 indicated in the recipe.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups rhubarb (cut into 1-inch pieces)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
water and sugar
lemon sauce or syrup from any kind of canned fruit (I used syrup from peaches canned in heavy syrup.)
Combine the sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan. Using medium heat bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the sugar syrup reaches the thread stage (225◦ F.). Add rhubarb pieces and cook until the rhubarb is soft and tender. Remove from heat.
In the meantime, preheat oven to 400◦ F. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a mixing bowl; then cut in the butter until the pieces are small (about the size of a peas). Add milk and mix using a fork until dough starts to cling together. Roll the dough on a prepared surface to about 1/3-inch thick. Cut the rolled dough into 4-inch rounds. (I used an inverted champagne coupe glass to cut the rounds.)
Using a slotted spoon, put a tablespoon of the cooked rhubarb in the center of each round. Fold in half. Moisten edges with water and seal by pressing edges with a fork. Put on baking tray, and bake for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Removed from oven and use a pastry brush to brush with water, and then sprinkle with sugar. Return the turnovers to the oven for an additional two minutes. Remove from oven.
Serve hot with lemon sauce or the syrup from any kind of canned fruit.
Electric stoves were just beginning to be commonly used in 1925. Here’s a description of electric stoves in a 1925 home economics textbook:
Electric Stoves
It was mentioned previously that electricity is not a fuel. Hence electric stoves are not provided with burners. They have heaters which contain coils of wires through which an electric current passes.
Electricity is the cleanest source of heat for cooking. But in order to operate an electric stove economically, it is necessary to utilize the current required for a heating element to its great extent. For example, if the current is turned on to heat the oven as many foods as possible should be cooked in the oven.
School and Home Cooking by Carlotta C. Greer (1925)
The textbook includes a note to teachers which indicates that if none of the pupils have an electric stove in their home that “the portion of the lesson regarding these stoves may be omitted.”
Onions are seldom the main attraction when making a vegetable side dish. I use lots of onions, but I generally use them as an ingredient in other dishes. That’s too bad. There are some lovely onion recipes, including a 1925 recipe for Stuffed Baked Onions that I recently came across.
The Stuffed Baked Onions were tasty. They are stuffed with a delightful savory bread crumb and cheese filling.
Here’s the original recipe:
I found it somewhat difficult to remove the inside of the onions after they were boiled. I have seen other Stuffed Onion recipes that call for removing the inside prior to boiling with a spoon or melon ball scoop. I think that the inside probably could be removed either before or after boiling.
Only a small amount of stuffing is needed to fill 3 medium onions. This recipe makes a lot more stuffing than is needed. I divided the stuffing ingredients by half when I updated the recipe (except for the paprika which I reduced from 1/6 teaspoon to 1/8 teaspoon.)
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
3 medium onions (They should be fairly flat so they sit evenly when stuffed.)
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated cheese + 1 tablespoon grated cheese (I used cheddar cheese.)
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel
water
Preheat oven to 350◦ F. Trim the onions and remove the outer peels. Put the onions in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and drain. Remove the insides of the onions using a knife, spoon, or melon ball scoop. Leave 2-3 outer layers. If the bottom of the onions are inadvertently removed, take an inner onion piece and lay it in the onion across the bottom. Reserve the onion scraps. Set aside.
Chop half of the onion scraps. (The other half of the scraps could be refrigerated and saved for use in another recipe.) In a bowl mix the chopped onion scraps, bread crumbs, 1/4 cup grated cheese, salt, paprika, ketchup and lemon peel. Then stuff the onions with the mixture. Garnish with the 1 tablespoons of grated cheese. Pour a little water into the baking dish (about 1/8 inch). Cover the baking dish and put into the oven. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the cover from the baking dish, and bake for 10 additional minutes to lightly brown the tops of the stuffed onions. Remove from oven.
