Parents both now and a hundred years ago sometime have difficulty getting their children to drink milk. The 1922 edition of Good Housekeeping’s Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries had the following tips:
I was looking for a soup recipe to make on a cold winter day, and saw a recipe for Poorhouse Soup in a hundred-year-old church cookbook, and was immediately intrigued.
The soup is a pureed white been soup with potatoes, onions, and tomato juice. A little cayenne (red) pepper is added to give it more flavor. The soup was nice, though even with the cayenne pepper I found it a bit bland. If I made it again, I’d probably experiment a bit with the spices.
A hundred years ago many communities had publicly-funded poorhouses where the financially challenged could live. The food in the poorhouses was notoriously bad, and the residents often had to work on the poorhouse farm. This was seen as a way of encouraging people to not stay for long. Was this recipe actually based on what they fed residents at the local poorhouse? . . . or was the recipe name an inside family joke? It was an inexpensive soup to make and contains no meat, so maybe the cook’s family felt slightly annoyed that they were eating such a “cheap” food and joked about it being Poorhouse Soup.
Here’s the original recipe:
Since “poorhouse{ is one word in online dictionaries, .I spelled “poorhouse” as one word when I updated the recipe even though it was two words in the original recipe. I’m not sure whether the way poorhouse is written has changed over the past hundred years or if the recipe author didn’t know how it should be written.
This recipe is lacking a few key details – such as how much water to add to the beans, both for soaking and for cooking. Based on the directions on the package of dried beans, I decided to soak the beans in 5 cups of waters of water overnight. I then drained the beans, and used 3 cups of water when I cooked them. This seemed like an appropriate amount of water, and the soup had a nice consistency.
I know that recipe is for Poorhouse Soup – and that it is supposed to be a very basic, economical food, but I just couldn’t help myself, and garnished the soup with a few thin slices of green onion. It made a plain soup look special.
The soup wasn’t as flavorful as many modern soups (maybe I didn’t add enough cayenne pepper), but I think that it now would be considered a healthy food option rather than something for the poor (though it still is very economical to make).
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
1 cup white beans (great northern, navy, cannellini, or other white beans) – I used great northern beans. 5 cups water for soaking 3 cups water for cooking 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 medium potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes 2 medium onions, chopped 1 cup tomato juice 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (red) pepper 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon butter, softened sliced green onions or other garnish (optional) Put beans and 5 cups water in a bowl, and soak overnight, then drain. Put the soaked beans, 3 cups of water, baking soda, potatoes, and onions in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil using high heat; then reduce and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until the beans are tender. Remove from heat, cool slightly, and then puree using a blender or food processor (or press it through a sieve). Return to saucepan, stir in the tomato juice, salt, and cayenne pepper; reheat until hot and steamy. In the meantime, put the flour and butter in a small bowl; stir to combine. Put a small amount of the hot soup in the bowl and stir until smooth. Then stir the mixture into the soup. Continue heating until the soup thickens slightly. If desired, garnish the soup with sliced green onions or other garnish.Poorhouse Soup
Are you exhausted from all the holiday cooking? This December, 1921 advertisement makes me think that cooks a hundred years ago were also exhausted – at least Campbell’s Soups seemed to think so and was ready to come to the rescue with their canned soups.
The local meat market recently had some lovely, very reasonable priced, skirt steaks for sale. I almost never buy this flavorful, juicy cut, but remembered seeing a recipe in a hundred-year-old magazine for skirt steak with a Raisin Sauce, so decided to give it a try, and was glad that I had. The skirt steak was lovely, and the sweet and sour Raisin Sauce was nicely balanced and enhanced the steak
Here’s the original recipe:
And, here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
1 skirt steak
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups water (use less if the raisins are very moist)
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine (I used butter.)
juice of 1/2 lemon r 2 tablespoons vinegar (I used the lemon juice.)
Grill, broil, or sear skirt steak. See Simply Recipes for more information about how to prepare a skirt steak.
In the meantime, make the Raisin Sauce (or prepare the sauce ahead of time, and reheat to serve.)
Put the raisins and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil using high heat; reduce heat and gently simmer for 15 minutes.
While the raisins and water are cooking, put the melted butter or margarine into a small bowl, and stir in the flour, salt and white pepper; continue stirring until smooth. Then after the raisins have simmered for 15 minutes, slowly add the flour and butter combination while stirring constantly. The mixture should return to a boil, and then simmer for an additional 3 minutes while continuing to stir constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice or vinegar.
The December, 1921 issue of Ladies Home Journal had several “little forest people” drawings that could be cut out. and used as Christmas decoration or for holiday table place cards. Here’s one I thought you might enjoy.
MERRY CHRISTIMAS
People often ask me if I ever have cooking disasters when making hundred-year-old recipes. And, I usually say, “No, that’s very rare. I like some recipes better than others, but most recipes turn out fine. A few I really like and they become part of my regular recipe repertoire, and I make them many times.”
But today’s post is an exception – I made a hundred-year-old recipe for Glace Nuts that was a disaster. Let me explain.
I wasn’t quire sure about using a pin to dip the nuts in the syrup as described in the old recipe, but I had some fairly long pins so decided to give it a try. (Did they use hat pins a hundred years ago when making Glace Nuts?)
First, I put the ingredients a saucepan and brought the mixture to a boil. I regularly checked the temperature with a cooking thermometer – 240° F. . . . 264° F . . . 285 ° F . . . 296° F. I decided that it was time to get some waxed paper (it probably was similar to oiled paper) out to put the nuts on after I dipped them in the sugar syrup.. I put pieces of waxed paper on several plates, and then looked at the boiling syrup – oh dear, it was brown. I turned off the heat and grabbed the candy thermometer. – 320°. Maybe the syrup was only slightly discolored.
I put some cold water in the sink and lowered the saucepan into it for a few seconds. Then I put some water in the microwave to heat. When it was hot, I poured it into a shallow pan, and then set the saucepan with the syrup in it. I inserted a pin in a walnut and carefully dipped it into the syrup; then I removed the sugar-coated walnut, and laid it on the waxed paper. I repeated the process with four more nuts – as the syrup rapidly began to thicken and then harden in the pan. Clearly not watching the cooking syrup closely enough and letting it reach a temperature of 320° was causing problems. I also noticed that the dipped nuts were sticking to the waxed paper.
I decided to make a fresh batch of the sugar syrup. Sugar doesn’t cost much. It would only take a few minutes to make the syrup, – and I’d watch it like a hawk to ensure that I took it off the stove at exactly 310°.
Twenty minutes later I had a another batch of the sugary liquid. I put it in cold water then, then set the saucepan in some hot water. And, I inserted a pin in a nut and began dipping once again.
One nut. . two. . . three. . . four. . . five nuts. . . the syrup again began to get very thick. I inserted a pin in the sixth nut, and immersed it into the syrup. The rapidly thickening syrup began to pull the nut off the pin. I instinctively reached with my hand to grab the nut before it fell off the pin – and my middle finger and thumb slipped into the hot sticky syrup. OUCH! I’m burned!
Dang it! My fingers hurt – but then I smiled. I always seem to have a minor crisis or disaster during the mad rush in the days before Christmas. This apparently is my disaster this year.
I do not recommend this recipe – and since I don’t recommend it, I not going to update it for modern cooks.
A hundred years ago home economics textbooks sometimes had “Christmas Lessons” where the students learned how to make candy. One book recognized that “small children are better without candy. . . ” before moving on to describing how to make candy.
This lesson reminds me of another lesson that I did a post on several years ago. That lesson was on making candy gift boxes.
How to Make a Triangular Candy (Gift) Box
