Old-fashioned Blackberry Pudding

Old-fashioned Blackberry Pudding is a delightful summer dessert. The recipe I made was from a hundred-year cookbook, and it turned out well. The cake-like topping is flavored with cinnamon, and is very light and fluffy because it contains beaten egg whites. This recipe is a keeper, and I anticipate making again this summer.

Blackberry Pudding

Here’s the original recipe:

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Blackberry Pudding

Servings: 4 - 5
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: moderate
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2 pints (4 cups) blackberries

1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 lemon (juice and grated rind)

3 eggs, separated

Put blackberries, 1/2 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan; bring to a boil using medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer until the berries soften (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat; set aside.

Put the egg whites in a bowl. Beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In the meantime, in another pan, melt the butter; stir in the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and cinnamon. Slowly add milk while stirring. Using medium heat, heat to boiling using medium heat while stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the batter thickens, about another minute. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice, and grated lemon rind.

Let cool slightly, then place a small amount (approximately 1 – 2 tablespoons) of hot batter mixture into dish with beaten egg yolk, stir quickly. Repeat with a more of the hot mixture. Then add the egg mixture to the batter; Stir. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Put the stewed blackberries in a 2-quart baking dish. Spoon the batter over the blackberries. Put in oven and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the topping is lightly browned. May be served either hot or cold.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

1923 Food Expense Record Sheet

Food is so expensive today. I don’t do a very good job of keeping track of how much I spend on food. I just know that it’s a lot. Maybe I should use this hundred-year-old food expense record sheet from a hundred-year-old home economics textbook. Here is what it said about the record sheet:

Food Expense Record

All expenses chargeable to the food account may be entered under the general heading of “food.” This does not give as much information as is frequently desired and it is helpful and quite usual to make a few subheadings.

Care should be taken to enter only food items under “groceries.” The bill from the grocery frequently includes other items than food – such as soap, brooms, matches, mouse-traps, etc. Frequently, the man of the household and sometimes school children must secure the noon-day meal away from home. The cost of these meals is chargeable to the food account.

Economics of the Family (C.W. Taber and Ruth A. Wardall, 1923)

Old-fashioned Maple Custard

Maple Custard

I love the old-fashioned goodness of custards, so decided to give a hundred-year-old recipe for Maple Custard a try. The recipe only had four ingredients – eggs, milk, maple syrup, and a little salt, and was easy to make. Maple Custard is a baked custard. It was lovely, and reminded me a bit of Creme Brulé – though the lovely maple flavor was dispersed throughout the creamy custard rather than concentrated in a caramelized top.

Here’s the original recipe:

This recipe made enough to fill six of my custard cups, so I ended up with six servings. Maybe the recipe author had larger custard cups.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Maple Custard

Servings: 4 - 6
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Difficulty: easy
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3 eggs

3/4 cup maple syrup

2 cups milk

dash salt

Preheat oven to 350° F. Put eggs in mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add maple syrup, milk, and salt; beat until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture into custard cups, leaving at least 1/2 inch at the top of each custard cup. ( 4 – 6 custard cups will be needed. The number of custard cups needed will vary depending upon the size of the custard cups.) Place the custard cups in a pan with hot water that comes to about an inch below the top of the cups. Bake for 40 – 60 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of the custard comes out clean. May be served warm or cold.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

1923 Carnation Milk Advertisement

Advertisement for Carnation Milk — Source: American Cookery (June/July, 1923)

I made strawberry shortcake for dinner last night – though I used 2% milk. Perhaps I should have followed the advice in the hundred-year-old advertisement, and used Carnation Milk. Maybe (I’m a bit of a skeptic), the shortcake would have been lighter and fluffier.

I was also surprised to see a photo in the old magazine with the mother and the background intentionally blurred. I tend to think of that as a more modern photography technique.

Old-fashioned Spinach (French Style)

Spinach (French Style)

I was looking for a quick and easy vegetable recipe, and came across a recipe for Spinach (French Style) in a hundred-year-old cookbook, and decided to give it a try. The spinach was served in a chicken broth sauce lightly flavored with nutmeg and grated lemon rind.

Here’s the original recipe:

I’m a bit befudled by this recipe. It calls for one peck of spinach. I think a peck is equal to eight quarts. That sounds like a huge amount of spinach- though I know that it wilts down a lot when cooked. In any case, I decided to use a 10-ounce package of frozen spinach when I made the recipe, though may be way off on the amount.

I think that the recipe calls for one-teaspoon of both salt and pepper – though am not positive. That also seemed like a lot, so I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. The recipe doesn’t give amounts for the nutmeg and lemon rind. I used 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon of grated lemon rind.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Spinach, French Style

Servings: 4 - 6
Time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
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1 10-ounce package frozen spinach

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind (peel)

2/3 chicken broth

Cook spinach following package directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour, powdered sugar, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and grated lemon rind. Gradually, add the chicken broth while stirring constantly. Continue stirring until it thickens. Stir in the spinach. Heat until hot and bubbly. Remove from heat.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Hundred-year-old Tip for Softening Butter

butter on plate with bowl Butter is sooo hard when I first take it out of the refrigerator. It’s impossible to spread. Also, I never seem to think about setting it out ahead of time to soften when I want use it in recipes. I could be imagining it, but I think that cold butter is harder today than in the past.

In any case, I was pleased to find a hundred-year-old tip for softening butter:

When butter is too hard to spread easily, turn a heated bowl upside down over the butter dish for a few minutes. This will thoroughly soften the butter without melting it.

Cookbook (Published by the Bethany Shrine Patrol No. 1, Rochester NY, 1923)

Old-fashioned Chicken Souffle

One of my hundred-year-old cookbooks has a recipe for chicken souffle, and I had some left-over chicken so decided to give it a try. The Chicken Souffle was lovely. The recipe called for chopped onions, thyme, and parsley, and they added a nice flavor to the dish.

Here’s the original recipe:

The old cookbook does not give an oven temperature for baking the souffle. When I made this recipe, I baked it at 350° F. The recipe says that this needs to bake for only 20 minutes, but it took close to 40 minutes for it to set and ligthtly brown when I made it. Maybe the author used a higher temperature.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Chicken Souffle

Servings: 2 - 3
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: moderate
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1 cup cooked chicken, chopped

2 eggs, separated

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons onions, finely chopped

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash pepper

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

1 cup milk

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, and stir in chopped onions. Sauté for several minutes until the onions are transparent. Stir in the flour, salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley. Gradually, add the milk while stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the white sauce thickens. Remove from heat.

In another bowl, beat egg yolks until smooth. Add a tablespoon of the hot sauce to the beaten egg yolk and stir quickly. Repeat with another tablespoon of the sauce. Then add the egg mixture to the sauce and quickly stir. (This helps keep the egg yolks from cooking when they are stirred into the sauce). Add the chopped chicken and stir again. Allow the mixture to cool. (I put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes.)

In the meantime, preheat oven to 350° F. Put the egg whites in a mixing bowl and beat until peaks form. Then fold the beaten egg whites into the chicken mixture. Put in a 1-quart baking dish. Place in oven and bake until the souffle is lightly browned (about 30-40 minutes). Remove from oven and immediately serve.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com