Old-Fashioned Lettuce, Cucumber, and Chive Salad

Lettuce, Cucumber, and Chive Salad

I’m enjoying making various summer salads, so when I saw a recipe in a hundred-year-old cookbook for Lettuce, Cucumber, and Chive salad, I decided to give it a try. The salad had a light vinaigrette-style dressing on it and was lovely.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for Lettuce, Cucumber, and Chive Salad — Source: The Daily Argus-Leader Home Economics and Cook Book, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1925)

And, here is the original recipe for French Dressing:

I had a lovely bunch of leaf lettuce that I used to make this recipe. I’m not sure what type of lettuce the recipe author anticipated cooks using, but I did not try very hard to arrange the leaves as near as possible to the original shape. I thought that it was more important to have the lettuce in bite-size pieces than to worry about the shape.

The recipe called for serving this salad with French Dressing. I used a French Dressing recipe that was in the same cookbook as the salad recipe. It is a vinaigrette-style recipe and is quite different from the modern commercially-produced, orange-colored French Dressing. I’ve seen many French Dressing recipes in various hundred-year-old cookbooks over the years, and they have all have been vinaigrettes. I’m not sure when the shift occurred to the orange-colored type of French Dressing.

The French Dressing recipe called for a f.g. of cayenne (red pepper). I have no idea what unit of measure an “f.g.” is, but assumed that it wasn’t calling for much, so I interpreted it to mean a dash.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Lettuce, Cucumber, and Chive Salad

Servings: 3 - 4
Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
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1 head/bunch lettuce

1 cucumber, peeled and thinly slices

3 tablespoons chives, finely chopped

Dressing

1 clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

dash cayenne (red pepper)

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

6 tablespoons olive oil

Wash and dry the lettuce, then tear into pieces and arrange on plates or in a bowl. Put the chopped chives on top of the cucumber slices. Just before serving, top with the dressing.

To make dressing, cut the garlic clove in half, then rub a small bowl with the cut garlic. Put the salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, tarragon vinegar and olive oil in bowl and stir vigorously to combine.

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Keeping the Ice Bill Down

ice box Whew, prices have gone up a lot recently. Every time I go to the supermarket, I’m shocked how high my grocery bill is. But cooks a hundred years ago had some expenses that I don’t have, such as the purchase of ice. Here’s what it said in the April, 1925 issue of American Cookery magazine:

Keeping the Ice Bill Down

Exit the coalman; enter the iceman! That is how a well-known cartoonist typifies the coming of summer and the end of winter. And he means, of course, that no sooner is the item of fuel expense cancelled than the cost of ice begins boring a hole in the budget. Truly, a philosophical way of expressing a common truth.

The lengthy article contained advice for both icebox and refrigerator owners. Tips for icebox owners included:

Keep your ice chamber filled. It saves the ice and preserves the food.
A small piece of ice may seem more economical, but is it? When it melts, the food spoils and the walls of the ice chamber grow warm.
Remove or place all the food at one time, as quickly as possible, opening and shutting the door but once.

The article also addressed electric refrigerators:

With the rapid development of electricity, ice machines are being installed in the most modern refrigerators. . . Mechanical ice refrigeration has come and is here to stay.

Is Steam Hotter When the Lid is on a Pan?

Drawings of steam in saucepans — Source: School and Home Cooking (1925) by Carlotta C. Greer

Sometimes I learn bits of cooking trivia when browsing through hundred-year-old books. For example, a 1925 home economics textbook explains that when there is pressure (such as when the lid is on a pan), the steam is hotter than if there is no pressure.

Steam Under Pressure

Which is hotter, – the “steam” (i.e., water vapor) coming from boiling water in an uncovered saucepan or teakettle or the “steam” which has been held underneath the lid of a covered saucepan or teakettle? Steam confined in a small space or held under pressure may reach a temperature higher than that of boiling water.

School and Home Cooking by Carlotta C. Greer (1925)

Old-Fashioned Parsley Sauce

Parsley Sauce on Fish Since seafood is very healthy, I try to make it several times a week, but I tend to get into a rut and make the same few recipes over and over. So when I came across a hundred-year-old recipe for Parsley Sauce, I immediately thought about making it to serve over some perch that I had in my refrigerator.

The Parsley Sauce turned out well, and was delightful when served with the fish. It only took a few minutes to make. It is basically white sauce with chopped fresh parsley and a bit of lemon juice added. Parsley Sauce would also be tasty on meat or other foods.

My daughter called while I was working on this post, and she asked what recipe I made. I told her, “Parsley Sauce.”

She said, “Oh, that sounds so good. I went to a fancy restaurant last week and had a similar sauce on my steak.”

I said, “Really? I didn’t think that white sauce-type sauces were very popular now.”

She said, “They’re very popular. Many dishes use white sauce as a basis.”

I clearly am behind the times (which I guess shouldn’t be a surprise), but it’s good to hear that some of the foods that were common a hundred years ago are once again popular.

Parsley Sauce

Here’s the original recipe:

I thought that the sauce would get too thick if I boiled it for five minutes, so I removed it from the heat just as it came to a boil and began to thicken.

I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper, and that worked well.

The old recipe gave lots of details about how to prepare the chopped parsley to ensure that any green liquid created by the chopping process was removed so that the sauce would not be discolored. The recipe called for putting the chopped parsley in a cloth and then holding it under a water faucet. Instead, I put the chopped parsley in a tea strainer and ran water over it; I then dried the parsley by putting on paper towels that I rolled and squeezed.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Parsley Sauce

Servings: approximately 1 cup
Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: easy
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2 tablespoons chopped parsley (Stems and stalks should be removed before chopping.)

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash pepper

Put the chopped parsley in a strainer (I used a tea strainer.), then run water over it to wash away the green liquid created during the chopping process. Gently press the parsley to remove some of the water, then put the washed, chopped parsley on paper towels. Roll the paper towels then squeeze to remove the water. Set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan, then stir in the flour. Gradually, add the milk while stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the white sauce begins to thicken. Stir in the lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in the parsley.

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Hundred-Year-Old Directions for Holding a Soup Spoon

scooping soup out of a bowl with a soup spoon — Source: School and Home Cooking by Carlotta C. Greer (1925)

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)

1925 Recommendations on Division of Food Expenditures Across Food Groups

Food group expenditures pie chart — Source: 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.

Old-Fashioned Maraschino Cherry Cake

Slice of Maraschino Cherry Cake on Plate 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:

Recipe for Maraschino Cherry Cake — Source: The Home Makers’ Cooking School Cook Book (1925)

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:

Maraschino Cherry Cake

Servings: 12-15
Time: 50 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
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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.)

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