Old-fashioned Sweet Potato Pone

Sweet potatoes are part of my family’s Thanksgiving traditions, but frankly I’m tired of candied sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, so I dug through hundred-year-old recipe books looking for something “new.”

I found Sweet Potato Pone, and just had to give it a try.

The pone looked plainer than many sweet potato dishes; but it was lovely, with a sweet, ginger flavor and citrus undertones. It had an almost pudding-like quality.

Sweet Potato Pone

Servings: 6 - 8
Time: 1 hr. 15 mins.
Difficulty: easy
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1 orange

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

4 cups hot mashed sweet potato (6-7 medium sweet potatoes)

1 cup milk, heated until hot

2 tablespoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

Wash the orange. Using a grater, grate the orange rind. Set the grated rind aside. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice; set the juice aside.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat until creamy, and then add the remaining ingredients and beat until the mixture is smooth. Put into a casserole dish, and place in the oven. Bake for 1 hour.

Adapted from Lowney’s Cook Book (1912)

I’m not sure why this recipe is called a pone. According to the dictionary pone is a type of cornbread, but this recipe doesn’t call for any cornmeal.

Here’s a picture of the original recipe. Would you have interpreted the recipe the same way I did?

How Well Do You Treat Your Stomach?

Picture Source: Ladies Home Journal (April, 1914)

As we approach the holiday season, we sometimes forget to treat our stomachs kindly. Here are four hundred-year-old questions that I need to remember to regularly ask myself:

Have I eaten too much? Most digestive troubles are brought about by a systematic habit of overeating.
Do I eat hurriedly? Don’t eat with your eyes of the clock. Chew your food thoroughly and eat slowly. Lay aside the worries of business and pressure of social engagements at meal time. Take time, and plenty of it.
Do I take proper exercise? Physical activity increases the digestive powers and stimulates all the organs of the body, while sedentary habits favor a slow digestion and a sluggish condition of the system.
Do I eat improper food? Eat only food that agrees with you. If you find a certain food always produces ill results, let it alone. Why suffer innumerable torments for a fleeting pleasure of tasting something good?

National Food Magazine (February, 1914)

Old-fashioned Apple Raisin Stuffing

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching and I’m trying out old recipes to see which ones I want to serve on the big day. The stuffing I usually make contains celery, onions, and sage, and seems a bit boring, so I pulled out an old recipe for Apple Raisin Stuffing.

Apple Raisin Stuffing is wonderfully different from my old standby. It has a lovely, sweet cinnamon taste that reminds me of warm cinnamon bread. This recipe is a keeper. My children never have been fans of stuffing—but I actually think they might like this rendition, and plan to serve it over the holidays.

For my practice run, I divided the recipe in half and stuffed a chicken. I think that the full recipe would make about the right amount to stuff a small turkey.

Apple Raisin Stuffing

Servings: 4 - 5
Time: prep time: 10 minutes; cooking time: varies
Difficulty: easy
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Apple Raisin Stuffing

1 large apple, pared and diced (about 1 cup diced apple)

1 cup raisins

10 cups bread cubes

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup water

Combine diced apples, raisins, and bread cubes in a large bowl. In a separate bowl stir together the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, sugar, and water; then pour over the bread mixture. Stir gently to combine. If too dry, add additional water. Use stuffing with poultry or pork.

When I wrote this post, I was uncertain whether to call this dish stuffing. . . or dressing. . . or filling. My family often calls it filling—but I think that might be a regional term.

World War I: “With Meat at War Prices, Eat Cheese and Beans”

A hundred years ago meat was expensive, and in short supply, because much of it was needed to feed the soldiers fighting in World War I. Here’s what a magazine article said:

With meat at war prices, every housewife should learn to make tasty and nourishing meals with wholesome substitutes to be had at half the price of meat. One of the best substitutes for meat is cheese, and there are so many ways of preparing dishes of cheese that the housewife should learn to make use of this very wholesome food.

Another wholesome substitute is baked beans.

Roast beef— An average helping or portion, weighing 3 1/2 ounces, contains 360 food units, supplies 4/5 ounces protein, and costs 8 cents.

American pale cheese—An average helping weighing 2 3/4 ounces, contains 360 food units, supplies 4/5 ounce protein, and costs 4 cents.

Baked beans (as purchased in can)– An average portion, about 9 ounces, contains 360 food units, supplies 5/6 ounces protein, and costs 5 cents.

Other inexpensive foods rich in protein and therefore capable for building up the body are fish, eggs, oatmeal, lentils, dried peas and peanuts. Vary your diet and cut down your butcher bill!

National Food Magazine (November, 1914)

Old-fashioned Apple Custard Pie

Custard pies were very popular a hundred years ago. One of the old-time fall favorites is Apple Custard Pie. The delicate custard taste mingles with the apples and a hint of cinnamon to create a truly special pie.

Old-Fashioned Apple Custard Pie

2 1/2 cups apples (cored, peeled and sliced)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons water

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

1 10-inch (large) pie shell

Combine apples, cinnamon, and water in a saucepan. Using medium heat, bring to a boil and then reduce heat; stir occasionally. If needed to prevent scorching on bottom of pan, add a small amount of additional water. Continue to simmer gently until the apples are soft (approximately 10-15 minutes). Cool slightly; then strain the apple mixture. Keep the cooked apples and discard the liquid. Set aside.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, beat eggs slightly. Add sugar, salt, and milk. Beat until blended. Stir in the cooked apples. If the apples are still hot, use care to stir while pouring them into the custard mixture to ensure that none of the egg coagulates from the heat. Pour into the pie shell, then bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and bake an additional 1 – 1 1/2 hours or until knife inserted into center pie comes out clean.

This pie takes a long time to bake. If the top looks like it might start to burn before the center of the pie is solid, reduce heat to 325 degrees.

For this recipe, I used apples from a tree in my yard that, when cooked, get soft and do not hold their shape particularly well. I like how the cooked apples are widely dispersed in the custard; though, if preferred, firmer varieties may be used.

100-Year-Old Directions for Washing Dishes

Here are some hundred-year-old directions for how to wash dishes:

It is not difficult to wash dishes although many people make it a very disagreeable process. The necessary apparatus include a plentiful supply of hot water, a good soap, ammonia or borax to soften the water, a gritty soap or powder. Have a pan for washing and another for rinsing, and a tray for draining if there is no drainer attached to the sink.

Prepare the dishes by scraping and neatly piling articles of a kind together. Wash the cleanest dishes first, usually the glasses, next the cups and saucers, and the silver next.

Have the soiled dishes near the pan, and put in only one or two articles at a time. To pile in a number means the nicking of china, and scratching of silver.

Dip each dish in the rinsing water and then put in the drainer. Be careful not to use too hot water for delicate china and glass. Change the soapy water when it becomes in the least greasy.

Use dry towels to wipe the dishes dry.

Wash pots, pans, and utensils while they are still warm. Heavy pots and pans can be dried without wiping by placing on or near the stove. Do not put away until they are perfectly dry

When finished, wash out the towels and dish pan, and leave the sink and drain-board perfectly clean

Foods and Household Management: A Textbook of the Household Arts (1915)

Cranberries with Prunes

Cranberries are beginning to appear in the produce section at my supermarket. I remembered seeing a recipe for Cranberries with Prunes in a 1915 issue of Good Housekeeping, and just had to give it a try.

Cranberries with Prunes are a lovely taste treat with bright notes of both fruits. The rich sweetness of the prunes mingles with the tart cranberries to create a vibrant mixture. Like many hundred-old-recipes, this classic recipe is simple to make with only four ingredients.

This recipe combines two super foods. Both cranberries and prunes are noted for having lots of antioxidants, fiber, and other good things. Amazingly, even though terms like antioxidant were unknown to cooks a hundred years ago, people seemed to have an intuitive sense of healthy food combinations.

Cranberries with Prunes

3 cups cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup prunes

Combine cranberries, sugar, and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil using medium heat; then reduce heat and simmer until cranberries burst. Add prunes and remove from heat. Cool before serving.

Adapted from recipe in Good Housekeeping (November, 1915)

I’m often amazed how foods and cooking techniques have changed over the past hundred years. As with many old recipes, I needed to adapt this recipe. The original recipe provided detailed directions for preparing the prunes.

Cover the prunes with water and soak overnight. Simmer gently till thoroughly tender. Take up with a skimmer, and when perfectly cool slip out the stones. Add the cranberries to the water in which these were boiled, pouring in more water if necessary. . .

The prunes I used were already pitted and very moist, so there was no need to soak them overnight or to pit.