Many popular apple varieties today did not exist a hundred years ago; and some popular varieties a hundred years ago are seldom seen today. Both now and then, there were lists of which apple varieties were best for different uses. Today lists often refer to apples for eating, and cooking or baking. A 1924 list refers to apples for cooking, dessert apples, and cider apples. Were dessert apples ones that were particularly good to eat raw?
Government agencies have produced cookbooks for more than a hundred years that promote the use of local foods. I recently came across a small apple cookbook published in 1924 by the Fruit Branch of the Canada Department of Agriculture. The introduction to the book says that “Canada produces the best flavoured, most highly coloured and longest keeping apples.” I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that statement, but I can say that the book has some good recipes – though I used possibly inferior (??) U.S. apples.
One recipe was for Apple and Coconut Pie. The pie was delightful. This recipe takes a classic pie, and adds a fun tropical twist to it.
Here’s the original recipe:
I used cinnamon rather than lemon. When I made this recipe, in addition to flavoring the apples with sugar and cinnamon, I stirred in a little flour to help ensure that the pie won’t be overly juicy.
The recipe author spelled “cocoanut” with an “a.” I think that this is considered an archaic spelling now, so when I updated the recipe, I spelled it without an “a.”
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
6 cups thinly sliced apples (cored and peeled)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 10-inch deep dish pie shell
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put sugar, cinnamon, and flour in a small bowl; stir to combine. Add the sugar and cinnamon mixture into the sliced apples; gently stir until the apples are coated with the mixture. Set aside.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the coconut on the pie shell, then add the apple mixture. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and bake an additional 30 minutes or until the apples are soft. Sprinkle 1 cup of coconut on top of the hot pie. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until the coconut is just barely beginning to brown. Remove from oven.
Today it’s generally considered impolite to show up at a friend or relative’s home without texting first. And, I’m often uncertain about whether friends prefer me to make a home-cooked meal or for us to go out for dinner. I’ve always assumed that it was very different a hundred years ago, and that people just dropped by with no advance notice and that home-cooked meals were the norm when it came to entertaining, so I was surprised to learn that it was much more nuanced back then. Here are few excerpts from an articletitled “When We Entertain Our Friends” that was in a 1924 issue of American Cookery
In the old days, such a thing as taking our friends out to eat would have been considered inhospitable in the extreme. Our mothers and grandmothers considered that relatives and social acquaintances came for the joy of sharing the intimate association of the family life whether it was humble or elaborate.
The visitors often came unannounced, and for a stay of considerable length. It was nothing to have a “load” drive up just a meal time, and the well-stocked cellar and pantry always responded nobly to such emergency demands.
—
[The homemaker] reasons that, everything considered, it is easier and no more expensive to take her friends out to a hotel or restaurant, than to go through the nervous strain of trying to play the gracious hostess under more or fewer handicaps.
And so, this hotel, and that well-known eating place, and some noisy restaurant, where an orchestra discourses sweet (?) and very loud jazz music, all are enriched by our money. Quite as likely as not, the meal is followed by an evening of paid entertainment, and anything in the nature of a comforting exchange of confidences or inspiring discussions, or brilliant conversations is crowded out entirely.
—
We are just learning in how many ways we follow a cycle in our lives today. We do not go backward in doing this. We keep moving ahead. And one of the progressive signs of the times is the increasing interest in having our friends share with us as good as we have, right where we live.
American Cookery (October, 1924)
The article’s advice is a hundred-years old, but it reinforces what I intuitively knew – entertaining at home is special. It builds memories, supports the development of strong relationships, and is just plain fun.
Years ago I did a post on a hundred-year-old recipe for a spice cake called Feather Cake. I was anticipating a cake that was as light as a feather. But when I made the recipe, it had a nice taste – but was rather heavy. After I did the post, I promptly forgot the recipe. I had no desire to make it again, and it never was a popular post and got very few hits. So I was amazed last week when I suddenly started lots and lots and lots of hits on my Feather Cake post. I started researching the reason for the sudden bump in hits, and discovered that Simply Recipes had done a post on my hundred-year-old recipe for Feather Cake.
The Simply Recipes post was done by a baker at a Danish cafe in London. He made the Feather Cake recipe posted on my blog, and like me, concluded that it was not as light as a feather. He then adapted the recipe by adding additional fat and an additional egg. He also adapted how the ingredients were mixed together. Instead of putting all of the ingredients in a bowl and mixing, he first beat together the eggs and sugar, then beat in the fat and vanilla extract, and finally gently folded in the dry ingredients. He concluded that the “result is a fluffy, lightly spiced cake that lives up to its name.”
It’s amazing how a mediocre recipe was adapted to make an awesome cake. I think that I need to revisit some of the other “just okay” recipes that I’ve made over the years, and consider about how I might adapt them to turn them into amazing recipes.
A 1924 issue of Good Housekeeping had the following suggestions for ensuring that a dining room is friendly and welcoming:
The dining room of all rooms in the house, should have a sprit of friendliness. It may be dignified or it may be gay, but it should be a room which is conducive to the brighter, more sparkling side of life. Here the family meets three times a day. A sunny room in the morning will do much to make breakfast a pleasanter meal. A room prettily lighted at night, with a colorful background, may make dinner a happy as well as a necessary function. Just as a living room should be a place of comfort – somewhere to write, somewhere to read – so the dining room should be a place of cheer. The happiest families are those who taboo all the serious, annoying topics and reserve meal times for the lighter, gayer sort of conversation.
By reason of its definitely prescribed use, the dining room and the arrangement of the furniture can be varied but little, but this does not limit the choice of interesting background, in floor covering or wall color. The dining room is in many homes, the “step-child” room of the house, where color and design have been forgotten in an altogether utilitarian arrangement, whereas in the rooms we show, everything has been chosen to give color, ease, and charm.
Source: Good Housekeeping (December, 1924)
As students return to school, it’s time to think about how to make packed lunches that are fun and healthy. Families have been packing school lunches for a long time. Here are some menus for cold packed lunches in a hundred-year-old cookbook:
A hundred years ago many children went to one-room school houses, and had to always take their lunch to school. These schools were typically for students in grades 1- 8. Children in larger towns attended larger elementary schools and may have had the option of getting a hot lunch. Those students who continued their education by attending a high school may have been able to get a school lunch made by students in home economics classes. Back then it was considered good training for students to plan, prepare, and serve school lunches.
There’s an old saying that when a hog is butchered you can “eat everything but the squeal.” An image in a hundred-year-old cookbook suggests that this is an accurate statement. According to the cookbook, even the tail can be eaten. It says that the tail is an economical cut that can be boiled or sautéed. . . . Who knew?
Here’s some more pork facts that were in the old cookbook:
Facts to Remember about Pork
When pork is in proper condition the skin and fat are white and clear, except the kidney or leaf lard which is slightly pinkish in hue. The flesh is composed of fine-grained tissues and is pink in color.
The thicker the skin of pork the older the animal from which it was cut.
Pork contains a larger proportion of fat than any other meat. Consequently its food value is higher and special care should be taken in selecting other foods to combine with it.
Pork should always be thoroughly cooked. It is not only distasteful but even dangerous to health when underdone.
Ham that is very salty should be freshened before cooking. A slice is freshened by being covered with cold water and brought slowly to the simmering point. A whole ham should stand in cold water over night or at least for several hours.
Modern Priscilla Cook Book (1924)
