18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, May 2, 1913: My thoughts this evening are hardly worth writing about.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma—There must have been something worth writing a hundred years ago today. Did you ever try the menus that were published in Good Housekeeping magazine?
One of the foods listed on the May 3, 1913 menu is Baked Rhubarb with Orange. .
Baked Rhubarb with Orange
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups Rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
3 oranges
Preheat oven to 375°. In a small bowl combine the sugar, mace, cloves, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Wash the oranges, and pare off the peel thinly; coarsely chop and then set aside. Remove white inner skin and seeds from oranges and halve. Cut halved oranges into 1-inch pieces.
In a large bowl combine the rhubarb, orange pieces, chopped orange peel, and sugar mixture. Put into a 2-quart baking dish.
Bake in oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until the mixture is hot and bubbly—and the rhubarb is tender.
Serve hot or cold.
Adapted from recipe in Good Housekeeping (May, 1913)
This dish is excellent. The orange peel and spices nicely balance the tartness of the rhubarb.
According to the old Good Housekeeping magazine:
Rhubarb thus prepared keeps well, and is good morning, noon, and night. As a breakfast relish, nothing is finer than a very tiny saucer of it.
Previous posts with other rhubarb recipes include: