“Receipt” or “Recipe”?

Recipe for soft molasses cookies 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)

Old-Fashioned Rhubarb Turnovers

Rhubarb Turnovers

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:

Rhubarb Turnovers

Servings: Approximately 12 - 15
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: moderate
Print

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.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

1925 Description of Electric Stoves

1925 Electric Stove — Source: *School and Home Cooking* by Carlotta C. Greer (1925)

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.”

Old-Fashioned Stuffed Baked Onions

Stuffed Baked Onion

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:

Recipe for Stuffed Baked Onions — Source – Home Economics and Cook Book: The Daily Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Supplement – March 13, 1925

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:

Stuffed Baked Onions

Servings: 3
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
Print

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.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Hundred-Year-Old Tip for Storing Egg Yolks

egg yolks in water Sometimes a recipe calls for just the egg whites, and I end up with a couple extra egg yolks that I’m never quite sure how to use. I probably shouldn’t admit it, but sometimes I just toss the extra yolks. However, eggs are now so expensive that I want to keep them and use them in a day or two when making scrambled eggs or some other dish. I was pleased to come across directions for keeping egg yolks in a hundred-year-old cookbook:

TO KEEP EGG YOLKS

Egg yolks, if they are unbroken, may be covered with water and kept for several days. The water should be changed daily.

Source – Home Economics and Cook Book: The Daily Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Supplement – March 13, 1925

1925 Fannie Farmer Recipe Cabinet Advertisement

I have a wood recipe box that looks similar to the one in the picture. It was a gift at my wedding shower. Apparently, recipe boxes (or to use the term in in the old ad, “recipe cabinets”) have been considered good shower gifts for at least a hundred years. I wonder if brides today receive recipe boxes. I’m guessing not.

My recipe box and the cards in it are well worn. I’ve pulled recipes out of it on a regular basis for many years. It contains many special recipes that I got from my mother, mother-in-law, friends, and relatives. Each brings back lovely memories. My recipe box is not a Fannie Farmer one. It says on the bottom of my box that it is a Woodcroftery product.

Hundred-Year-Old Suggestions for Serving Food to Sick Children

food on tray When caring for a sick child it is important to keep them hydrated and well-nourished. Often a child will eat little while complaining that nothing tastes good. An article on serving food to sick children in the January, 1925 issue of American Cookery began:

The sick child that loved his “land of the counterpane” in Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem by that name must have had a resourceful nurse or mother to prepare interesting food for him, or he would have been just as irritable as any other youngster, recovering from the measles or grippe.

My first reaction to the sentence was not about food for a sick child. Instead, I started digging deeply into my brain trying to remember what “counterpane” and “grippe” meant. They’re words I’m familiar with, but that I don’t think that I’ve heard since I was a child. “Counterpane” is another word for bedspread. I did an online search and found Stevenson’s lovely poem: The Land of the Counterpane. “Grippe” is an old-fashioned word for flu.

The article continues with suggestions for making food more appealing to sick children:

The appearance of the tray has much to do with tempting the convalescent child. For instance, by folding a tent out of white wrapping paper, and standing it over the dishes, commonplace foods become delicacies of interest, particularly if a tin soldier stands near the tent to “guard your health.”

A little girl would, likewise, eat her food with more gusto if her tray were covered with a box that could be used for a doll house after dinner.

One little girl, who was too ill to go to a picnic she had planned attending, enjoyed her supper that night just because her mother thought to bring it to her in a picnic basket.

Children who have eaten toasted sandwiches in the sandwich shops will be delighted with three-deckers stuck together with toothpicks, and will eat them, even when the sandwich filling is composed of oft-despised scrambled eggs or stewed prunes.

Graham crackers are good, as well as nutritious, when served with milk. Try putting a few drops of hot syrup on the graham crackers, and standing an animal cracker on each one. It will be lots of fun to eat the circus parade along with the milk.

One child even learned to like grapefruit when his mother put the juice in a bottle, and let him pretend it was medicine.

To encourage the finicky child to eat up all the food on his tray, a meal ticket may be issued and every time the food is all eaten the ticket is punched. When a certain number of “meals” have been punched the child may be given a small reward.

American Cookery (January, 1925)