Lamington Cake (1902) ★★★★★

1:02 PM 1900s , 20th century , 5 stars , australia , cake , cakes , dessert , edwardian , holiday , snacks 7 Comments

National Peanut Butter Day

9:43 AM 1940s , 1950s , atomic age , condiments , sandwiches 8 Comments

The internet is telling me that today is National Peanut Butter Day in the United States!
...Okay, so I'm not in the USA, but Canada is close enough, right? Plus, any excuse to celebrate peanut butter is okay with me.
So here's a retro advertisement for Peter Pan peanut butter, from 1954. Is it just me or does that little girl look a bit...off?
(From The Gallery of Graphic Design)

Here's another advertisement, this time for Ann Page peanut butter and dated 1949. This one is of a little more interest as it lists some lovely ways to use peanut butter...
(From The Gallery of Graphic Design)

PEANUT BUTTER SPREADS
1. Combine Ann Page Peanut Butter with chopped crisp cooked bacon.
2. Combine equal parts Ann Page Peanut Butter with Ann Page Orange Marmalade.
3. Combine equal parts Ann Page Peanut Butter with Ann Page Chili Sauce.
4. Combine equal parts Ann Page Peanut Butter and Ann Page Sweet Garden Relish.


What is with peanut butter and bacon?! It seems to be a popular combination - and one that is experiencing a revival today as well with the whole bacon fad. I'm wondering how peanut butter and orange tastes together. Unfortunately I don't have any of these ingredients on hand to try out the combinations!

Historic Recipe Bank

7:31 AM misc 1 Comments

No recipe today guys, sorry!
However, I did want to highlight a website I just found, literally minutes ago, the Historic Recipe Bank by The Henry Ford!
There's some old favourites as well as some new books, across a wide range of dates. The best part is that the recipes are scans from the actual pages, so you can see them exactly as they appeared. I'm always wary about the authenticity of typed-out historical recipes.
Check it out! And if you don't have time now, I'll be adding the link to my resources page.

Cramberry Tart/Royal Paste (1798) ★★★

1:35 PM 1790s , 18th century , 3 stars , dessert , fruit , georgian , pastry , pie , united states 3 Comments

I realize this cranberry-themed recipe is late, but better late than never, right?!

Cranberries are an essentially part of holiday food traditions, especially in North America, but also in Europe. Yes, cranberries do grow outside of the Americas, but they don't seem to hold quite the same cultural importance that they do there. Interestingly, cranberries seem to be relegated to three uses: sauce, jelly, and pie. Today we can see the cranberry branching out a bit, in juice, muffins, breads, and other baked goods, but this was not really the case in the past.

In North America - like with many other foods - Aboriginals were the first harvesters of cranberries. The 1999 Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink states: "The Native Americans of New England, who called them sassamensesh or ibimi, long enjoyed cranberries, both raw or sweetened with maple sugar." Catharine Parr Traill noted that, "The Indians attribute great medicinal virtues to the cranberry, either cooked or raw : in the uncooked state the berry is harsh and very astringent : they use it in dysentery, and also in applications as a poultice to wounds and inflammatory tumours, with great effect." Similarly, today we often recognize cranberries as an aid in urinary tract infections, so there is a long history here of food as medicine.

The other great thing about cranberries is that stored properly they will keep for quite a while, something which would have been valued in a food in a time when electric refrigerators and freezers didn't exist.

Cranberries were known by a variety of names, including bounce berry, marsh-wort, fen-wort, moss-berry, and fenberry. A few different explanations for the name cranberry exist. The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink states that the word is derived from the Dutch word kranbeer, while An A to Z of Food and Drink claims the term is German and relates to the long, beak-like stamens of the plant. The Oxford Companion to Food only notes the "dubious" theory that the name comes from the cranes that like to eat the fruit.

A more thorough history of cranberries can be read here.

Cranberries start to appear in text around the early 1700s, so this 1798 recipe for Cramberry Tart is one of the earliest recipes involving the fruit. This 1798 cookbook, American Cookery, was the first that was written by an American for Americans. Previously, all cookbooks had been imported or were re-written versions of European texts. One of the key aspects of this new American work was the inclusion of local ingredients such as squash, turkey, corn, potatoes, and - of course - cranberries. Not surprisingly, the book achieved considerable success.


Original Recipe:


The Verdict:
So, this recipe doesn't give amounts or instructions for the cranberries, which is always nice. What I did was pick over and wash my berries and simmer them in a pot with water and sugar. I think I ended up with about 2 cups of berries, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 cups of sugar. Roughly. The cranberries do give off a lot of liquid as they cook. I simmered this until the berries popped and most of liquid was gone. It's good to leave some liquid, because the cranberries will naturally gel up, and then you can stretch you yield if you don't have many berries, like I did. Also, sweetener is by whatever you like. I found I needed quite a lot of sugar in order to make it palatable for me. Also, this recipe suggests straining the berries. To be honest I find it kind of wasteful with what gets leftover in the sieve and it's a pain in the butt to clean that thing too, so I just pureed my cooked berries. I cheated. Sorry guys.
As for the paste, I halved the recipe, which was a good idea because even halved it made about double the amount I needed. So about a quarter of the recipe is enough for one tart. It's a pretty tough dough as well, so I really had to work my arm muscles to make sure the eggs were incorporated well enough.
When I tasted the tart, I found that the filling was still super tart. It needed way more sugar to be edible for me, which just ends up being a ridiculous amount of sweetener. Maybe if a sweeter fruit was incorporated, like apples or strawberries, it would cut the tartness of the cranberries on their own. The crust was good, but I could taste the eggs. That sort of bothers me, but I feel like most people wouldn't notice. I gave this recipe an average rating. It's not awful, but it needs some tweaking. The biggest issue was the filling, but that way my own fault - not that the recipe helped much.


Modernized Recipe:
(Adapted from American Cookery)

CRANBERRIES, about 2 cups
SUGAR, about 4 cups

1/4 pound FLOUR
1/8 pound BUTTER, cold
1 EGG, divided with the whites beaten stiff
1/2 ounce SUGAR

1. Pick over and wash the cranberries. Put them in a medium saucepan with 1/2 cup of water and about 4 cups of sugar, or to taste. Simmer gently until the berries are bursting and tender and the filling begins to thicken. When done, remove from heat and let cool.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare the crust by rubbing the butter into the flour until well-combined (or use a pastry blender or food processor - I like my hands). Add the sugar and the egg and knead well. Roll out with flour and line a tart or pie pan.
3. Use a blender or a food processor to puree the cranberry filling. Pour into the prepared crust. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling has set and the crust is golden brown. Let cool before serving.

-----
Sources

"American Cookery." Feeding America. Accessed 01 Jan. 2013. <http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_01.cfm>.

"Cranberries." Epicurean. Accessed 01 Jan. 2013. <http://www.epicurean.com/articles/cranberries.html>.

"Cranberries." The Food Timeline. Accessed 01 Jan. 2013. <http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq1.html>.

Traill, Catherine Parr Strickland. The Female Emigrant's Guide: And Hints on Canadian Housekeeping. Toronto: Maclear &, 1855, pg. 88 - 89.

Fiesta Flaming Peach Cake (1956) ★★★

12:00 AM 1950s , 20th century , 3 stars , atomic age , cake , dessert , fruit , united states 6 Comments

1 box SPICE CAKE MIX
WHIPPING CREAM
SUGAR, to taste
5 - 8 PEACH HALVES, drained
SUGAR CUBES
100 PROOF ALCOHOL

1. Make and bake the cake mix according to directions. Let cool.
2. Meanwhile, whip up the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in sugar to taste.
3. Assemble the cake and place the peach halves on top. In each peach half, place a sugar cube soaked in alcohol. Light the sugar on fire before serving.

Christmas Collection

12:00 AM misc 4 Comments

This Christmas I was lucky enough to get three new old cookbooks! My collection thus far is pretty small, but it is growing!
My lovely Mr. Man got me these two: The Woodlawn Cook Book (1898) and the Norfolk Street United Church Recipe Book (1968). The first is American, but the second is actually from the town I live in, which is pretty neat. It also has a unique format in that it is put together on rings rather than bound as a book. I found that the Norfolk Street United Church had been producing recipe collections for fundraising since at least the 1930s, so this later book is part of an established tradition.
The Woodlawn Cook Book is officially my oldest acquiry. Unfortunately I couldn't find any information on it. This book also came with a little something extra - a newspaper clipping titled "Hints for Home Life."


My third book was a gift from my mom. She picked up the Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus while on vacation in Hawaii! Although the book seems to be published in Cleveland? This one dates to 1927, although the edition I have was printed in 1928. This book was written for General Electric in order to advertise their new refrigerators. The author was Alice Bradley, the principal of Miss Farmer's School of Cookery - that is, the school established by the famous Fannie Farmer. Bradley took over the school after Farmer's death in 1915 and ran it until the mid-1940s. This book marks an important turning point in kitchen history. It advertises the new technological advances of the age, something which is taken entirely for granted in most parts of the world today. It also marked the beginning of an era, in which companies began to use cookbooks and recipes as agents of advertising. Other brands such as Kelvinator and Majestic were quick to follow the example set by GE in marketing new kitchen appliances.
I love the cover and color illustrations in this cookbook, they are really charming. The recipes are almost entirely desserts. Some look really delicious, especially the recipe for Vassar Devils, which I included a photo of. This book also had some hidden gems - a newspaper clipping with some recipes and a typed recipe for Ice Box Cake. You can read some of the book online here.

New Year's Day Menu (1887) ★★★★★

12:00 AM 1880s , 19th century , 4 weeks of yuletide , holiday , menu , united states , victorian 1 Comments

BAKED APPLES.
Get nice fruit, a little tart and juicy, but not sour; clean them nicely, and bake in a moderate oven—regulated so as to have them done in about an hour; when the skin cracks and the pulp breaks through in every direction they are done and ready to take out. Serve with white sugar sprinkled over them.

HAM OMELET.
Cut raw ham into dice, fry with butter and when cooked enough, turn the beaten egg over it and cook as a plain omelet.
If boiled ham is used, mince it and mix with the egg after they are beaten. Bacon may be used instead of raw ham.

POTATOES Á LA CRÊME.
Heat a cupful of milk; stir in a heaping tablespoonful of butter cut up in as much flour. Stir until smooth and thick; pepper and salt, and add two cupfuls of cold boiled potatoes, sliced, and a little very finely chopped parsley. Shake over the fire until the potatoes are hot all through, and pour into a deep dish.