Source: Cook Book of the Susquehanna Valley Country Club, Sunbury, PA (1924)
I cook a lot and often the lack of detail in old cookbooks is not a problem. I just intuitively can figure out the how to make the recipe. However, when I make candy, it tends to be hit or miss whether it turns out exactly right. These 1924 tips are helpful, but not very detailed. I also find some more recent tips very useful:
When I was a child, I remember making Caraway Cookies to put on holiday cookie trays, but I had not had any in years; so when I came across a recipe for them in a hundred-year-old cookbook I decided to give it a try.
The Caraway Cookies were simple to make, and they turned out well. They have an old-fashioned goodness, and the warm, earthy flavor of the caraway seeds was delightful. They are not nearly as sweet as many modern cookies, and can nicely balance some of the other sweets on a cookie tray. They are also very nice with coffee, tea, or milk.
Here’s the original recipe:
Source: The New Butterick Cook Book (1924)
When I made this recipe, the dough was very sticky, so I added additional flour to make the dough a better consistency for rolling. I used butter rather than a butter substitute.
Preheat oven to 400° F. Cream butter and sugar; then stir in egg and milk. Add the baking powder and salt; stir until combined. Add the flour and stir until well mixed. If the dough is not the right consistency to roll; add additional flour. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick; then cut into shapes. Place on greased baking sheets. Bake 9-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Canapes and peek-a-boo sandwiches were popular a hundred years ago. Recipes for them, some of which seem very unusual today, are often found in old cookbooks.
A few weeks ago I posted a recipe for Mrs. Sigmund Weis’ Star Canapes which contained capers, hard-boiled egg yolk and white, chopped pickles and pimento, and anchovies on star shaped pieces of bread. Shortly after I did that post I was at a party and friends had lots of comments and questions. “That recipe you posted was strange.” “How do you pronounce “canape”? Did I say it right?” “Why was she called Mrs. Sigmund Weis? Didn’t she have a first name?”
This blog is always slightly quirky, but I came to the conclusion that the Star Canape post was quirkier than usual. Then I recently started working on my December posts and flipped through the December, 1924 issue of Ladies Home Journal. Amazingly, there was an entire article on canapes and peek-a-boo sandwiches. Apparently canapes and peek-a-boo sandwiches were the trendy food to serve at holiday parties a hundred years ago.
In case you wondered, canapes are a small piece of bread (sometimes toasted) or a cracker with a topping. They are a type of hors d’oeuvre. According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, canape is pronounced “kænəˌpeɪ”, and if you struggle with that you can hear someone actually say the word on the Oxford site.
According to the 1924 Ladies Home Journal article, peek-a-boo sandwiches are a little larger than canapes and the bread is not toasted. Two slices of bread (which often is in a round shape) are used to make each sandwich. The bread slices are buttered. A filling is put on the bottom slice. Then a peephole is cut out of the top slice using a small cookie cutter. A garnish, which the old magazine article calls a “tempting morsal,” is put in the hole.
Here are some recipes for canapes and peek-a-boo sandwiches in the hundred-year-old issue of Ladies Home Journal:
Canapes
Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1924)
Peek-a-Boo Sandwiches
Source: Ladies Home Journal (December, 1924)
(The photo at the top of the post is my interpretation of the Salad Peek-a-Boo recipe.)
I’ve had a large pumpkin sitting on my front porch for close to two months. Now that the Fall holidays are past, it was time to compost it – but then I remembered seeing a recipe for Preserved Pumpkin in a hundred-year-old magazine. I dug out the recipe. Preserved Pumpkin actually was a pickled pumpkin recipe. In addition to strips of pumpkin, it called for sugar, lemon juice and peel, and ginger. The recipe looked intriguing – but like many pickle recipes it looked like a lot of work and required letting the pumpkin strips sit in the syrup for several days before cooking. I kept thinking – just toss the pumpkin and be done with it. But. . .
I couldn’t get the Preserved Pumpkin recipe out of my mind (my life must be boring), and ended up making a small batch. And, I’m glad that I did. I peeled, seeded, and cut into strips about one quarter of the pumpkin and composted the rest.
The Preserved Pumpkin was wonderful with a lovely sweet, citrusy flavor. I’m not exactly sure how to describe the texture. The pumpkin strips were sort of crunchy – or perhaps they were slightly chewy. Maybe a better description is that the texture was at the intersection of crunchy and chewy, if there is such a thing. The Preserved Pumpkin almost seemed gourmet and I could picture it being served at a very nice restaurant as a palette cleanser. I anticipate that I will make this recipe again next year.
Here’s the original recipe:
Source: American Cookery (November, 1924)
When I made this recipe 1/2 inch seemed very thick for the slices, so I made them approximately 1/4 inch thick. I also ended up with about 2 1/2 pounds of pumpkin strips (rather than the 2 pounds called for when doubling the recipe). I decided to proceed with a little extra pumpkin and the recipe worked fine.
approximately 2 1/2 pounds pumpkin, peeled and seeded then cut into strips 1/4-inch thick
2 pounds sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
lemon peel from 2 lemons, cut into thin strips
juice from 4 lemons
1 cup water
Put a layer of pumpkin slices in an enameled pan, crock, or large baking dish. Put a layer of sugar over the pumpkin, as well as some lemon peel strips and ground ginger. Repeat alternating layers. Pour the lemon juice over the layered pumpkin mixture. Cover and set in the refrigerator or other cool spot for two t0 three days. Then put the mixture in a large enamel or stainless steel pan. Add the water. Bring to a boil using medium heat; then reduce heat and simmer until the pumpkin slices are tender and translucent (about 20-3o minutes). Lift the pumpkin slices and lemon strips out and pack them into pint jars. Continue boiling the syrup for another 10-15 minutes, then pour the hot syrup over the packed pumpkin and lemon. Fill to 1/4 inch of top. Wipe jar rims and put lid on. Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.
Here’s a hundred-year-old advertisement you might enjoy. So many things to think about when roasting a turkey. Wish I had a Lisk Roaster. The slogan, “Run no Risk – Be sure it’s Lisk” works for me.
I recently saw a recipe for Mushroom Stuffing in a hundred-year-old cookbook, and decided to give it a try. I used it to stuff a chicken.
Verdict: The Mushroom Stuffing was easy to make and tasted delightful. The seasoning was just right and the mushrooms were a nice change from the usual stuffing that contains celery.
Source: The New Butterick Cook Book (1924)
Two teaspoons of salt seemed like a lot, so I reduced it to 3/4 teaspoon which worked fine. I didn’t follow the order listed in the recipe for mixing the ingredients. I combined the butter, salt, and herbs first; then added the mushrooms, and finally stirred in the bread crumbs.
Note: This recipe makes enough stuffing to stuff a 2-3 pound chicken. Double recipe for a 5 – 6 pound chicken; quadruple for a 10-12 pound turkey.
3 cups bread crumbs (tear bread into 1-inch pieces)
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
In a large bowl combine butter, salt, thyme, and parsley flakes; stir in chopped mushrooms. Add bread crumbs; stir gently until thoroughly combined. Scoop stuffing into chicken or turkey body and neck cavities. Cook poultry thoroughly. Remove stuffing from poultry, and place in a bowl. Fluff with a spoon or fork, and then serve.
There are so many things to think about when planning a Thanksgiving dinner. Worried that your turkey won’t keep its shape or roast evenly? Maybe you should use string to truss it to pull the bird into a more compact shape that will help ensure that it roasts evenly. Here are the directions in a hundred-year-old cookbook.
Canapes and peek-a-boo sandwiches were popular a hundred years ago. Recipes for them, some of which seem very unusual today, are often found in old cookbooks.
