Vintage recipies

[Sweet Polly Purebred]

A shot of bourbon....I'll have to keep that in mind next time I make it!

I will definitely have to check out that book. Sounds perfect. Vintage food recipes and budget food recipes in one.
I'm extremely picky (I believe I've been classified as a 'mom's home cooking' picky)...I like simpler dishes. The funky modern stuff just doesn't appeal to me. The word 'Gourmet' or 'Bistro' is usually an indication that I won't like it. yucky! lol lol lol

Well you know, Berry .. the trend in modern cooking is actually going back to mom's home cooking and comfort foods. The "keep it simple, stupid" philosophy has taken most progessive kitchens by storm!

Nash, some of my all time favorite recipes are from Ladie's Club cookbooks that I collected when I lived in Appalachia, my best food memories are from that area too .. fresh ramps, roast pig, sorghum marinated pork .. I'd love to swap recipes!

 

[woodyinnyc]

beaucaillou,

I'm still looking for it, I have moved a few times in the last years and am still trying to find everything. As soon as I locate it, I will amke sure and get it posted.

 

[Lady Day]

My Mama's pound cake recipe is from my Great Aunt and over 100 years old. So is her from scratch caramel icing.

Cant post family secrets, you understand...

LD

 

[Sweet Polly Purebred]

Irish Tea Brack

Brack is traditionally a Holiday cake/bread, a little bit like American style fruitcake but SO much better! It's wonderful fresh from the oven with butter or clotted cream, sort of like bread pudding. It's yummy all year round ..

What makes it special is the Tea for a nice dark colour, and of course the Jameson's

I found this recipe today while cleaning out an old Inn kitchen in preparation for a remodel.
Ingredients

450g / 1lb Mixed Dried Fruit
150ml / 5fl.oz. Hot Black Tea
2 tbsp Irish Whiskey
225g / 8oz Dark Soft Brown Sugar
225g / 8oz Self Raising Flour
2 teasp Mixed Spice
2 Eggs

Method
Place the fruit in a large mixing bowl together with the hot tea and whiskey. Cover with clingfilm and leave to soak overnight.
After the soaking period, preheat the oven to 180ºC, 350ºF, and grease a 900g / 2lb loaf tin. Line the base with greaseproof paper.
Add the sugar to the bowl of soaked fruit then add the flour and sprinkle the spice evenly over the top.
Add the eggs and beat well with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed and soft.
Transfer the mixture to the greased loaf tin, smoothing the top with a palette knife.
Bake for 1 1/2 hours until firm and springy to the touch. Half way through the cooking, cover the top of the cake with greaseproof paper to prevent it getting too brown.
Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Serve cut into thick slices with plenty of butter at tea time.

 

[Dinerman]

blood sausage (made with animal blood)

What's wrong with blood sausage? It tastes really good.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

1930 desserts! Mmmmm!

 

[Nashoba]

What's wrong with blood sausage? It tastes really good.

Just never really sat well with me. I've never actually eaten it so I suppose I can't really say too much against it but I don't think I'd go out of my way to try it either.

 

[gluegungeisha]

Unfortunately, my mom's stepmother's cooking is notoriously bad (heavy cakes with too much baking powder, ketchup on everything, etc.), but I've learned some traditional Jewish recipes from my mother, and adapted a lot of them to suit my vegetarian preference. No gefiltefish!!

The other side of my family is southern Italian, and I would kill to get some recipes from those folks, but my dad's family doesn't think too highly of me.

There's this really interesting book out about the history of Betty Crocker; I recommend it. It's very funny to read, and it explains a lot about the participation of "Betty Crocker" in the war efforts, offering recipes and cooking tips utilizing WWII rations.

 

[Nashoba]

Nash, some of my all time favorite recipes are from Ladie's Club cookbooks that I collected when I lived in Appalachia, my best food memories are from that area too .. fresh ramps, roast pig, sorghum marinated pork .. I'd love to swap recipes!

Thora I'll go a huntin for them! I"ll PM you when I find them with a list and you can let me know which you'd like. It might take me a bit, I just rearranged things again and I'm not sure what I did with them!

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Most of what I know comes from the TV show, Good Eats, but I've collected a few family knockoffs, too. The only thing I've made enough times to be able to cook without a recipe on hand is Eggplant Parmesan. And yet, it still never tastes that great.

 

[WideBrimm]

High Altitude Baking

Thrift stores are packed with old cook books if anyone is looking to start a collection. They make for interesting reading and are very cheap.
!

Here in the Mile High City, Switzerland of America, Rocky Mountain West, the standard cook book recipes for baking cakes, etc. just do not cut it! Use a standard cook book (written at low altitude) and cakes will f-l-o-p :rage: However, thrift stores are just what the cake doctor ordered. Plenty of local organizations have produced lots of cook books over the years which have plenty of great (high altitude) cake recipes. And they work! I've got a whole stack of them from the thrifts.

Its both funny and sad how newcomers to our region don't understand at first why their cakes flop in the rarified air. Cakes still taste good even if they don't look good.

 

[Haversack]

A book I would recommend which is full of recipes from the 1920s-40s is _Dining By Rail_. It is half a history of the American railroad dining car and half a cookery book with recipes listed by rail line. It makes a big point that for most of the US, the railroad dining car was the only 'local' option for fine dining. The railroads also competed with each other to have signature dishes and foods representative of their region. (e.g. The "Great Big Baked Potato" of the Northern Pacific) One dish that nearly every road tried to come up with a unique version of was French Toast. My copy is presently at home, but I'll try to post a couple of recipes that I've tried over the next few days. Any requests?

Haversack.

 

[dhermann1]

I once gave a railroad and cooking buff friend a book called "Dinner in the Diner". Sounds very similar to the above mentioned one. They must have the same recipe for baked potatoes form the Great Northern RR. There was also a recioe from the Southern Pacific for cantaloupe melon pie. I wish I had a copy of that book!
However I think that if most of us were transported back to the Golden Era, we would find the food pretty drab. There's a mention in Robert Sherwood's book "Roosevelt and Hopkins" of a dinner at the White House (just for the pres and staff, not a state dinner) that consisted of hash and eggs, with chocolate pudding for dessert. A meal I love once in a while, but I think that was the standard level of culinary art in most of the country at that time.
The story of Duncan Hines should be inserted here maybe, also.
He was a traveling salesman in the midwest in the 20's, and he put together a little list of his favorite eating places around 1929, mimeographed it and sent it to friends for a Christmas present. Nothing fancy, just basic good food. From this came his famous guide, and eventually the whole foody movement.
Of course, if you want to get the true state of the art if that time, get an early edition of Mrs Rombauer's great classic, "The Joy of Cooking". It's been updated many times, but the originals are still around. You'll find them very tattered form years of loving use.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Some people called them 'receipts'

I'm interested in seeing the recipes you've tried, Haversack, thank you. Two of the perquisites of working at a public library is getting new books at a discount and seeing the trade rack: bring one in, take one home. People bring in old freebie recipe books that I collect and use. (I bring in many free new magazines I get in the mail, like Working Mother, Woodcraft, and Bassmaster.) I got the latest version of Joy of Cooking (75th anniversary) because it has some good new recipes and kicked out a lot of the ones that called for a food processor and the like, while keeping good classics.

 

[Ellie]

I haven't actually read this, but I stumbled across a mention of it in another book:

"Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression" by Rita Van Amber.

Speaking of which (the Great Depression that is), I will never forget one of the stories my great aunt told me from her experiences during that period.

She worked at a church in Oregon during the Depression where she was paid with part of the tithing from the townspeople. The townspeople often would tithe with the harvest of their crops. At one particular church service, a couple brought a sack of rutabagas to the altar for their tithe. Needless to say, she and her roommate (who also worked at the church) got stuck with this big sack of rutabagas. She had never even seen a rutabaga before, but figured out that you can cook them like potatoes.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Merely a bump...

So folks interested can see -where- the recipes can go!

Fill'erup folks!

 

[Earp]

I have in my file a lot of old recipes from the choctaw and cherokee side of my family...

This is extremely interesting to me. It sounds very rare and unique. I think there is a book in that collection of recipes if you ever wanted to write it. I would certainly buy a copy.

 

[Joie DeVive]

Scripture Cake

I just picked up the Methodist Missionary Society Cook Book from Oak Grove, LA 1933.

I haven't tried this, but it looked interesting:

Scripture Cake (this is it, in it's entirety)

1 cup Judges Chapter 5 Verse 25 (butter)
3 cup Jeremiah Chapter 6 Verse 20 (sugar)
2 cup 1st Samuel Chapter 30 Verse 12 (figs, raisins, 1 cup each)
1 cup Genesis Chapter 24 Verse 17 (water)
3 1/2 cup 1st kings Chapter 4 Verse 22 (flour)
1 teaspoon Exodus Chapter 32 Verse 20 (baking powder)
6 of Isaiah Chapter 10 Verse 14 (eggs)
A pinch Leviticus Chapter 2 Verse 13 (salt)
To Taste; 1st Kings Chapter 10 Verse 10 (spices)

 

[Joie DeVive]

Louisiana Pecan Cake

Here's another one from the same book. Still almost no directions. :eusa_doh:

Louisiana Pecan Cake

2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
4 cup flour
2 lb raisins or dates
1 qt shelled pecans
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup brandy
6 whole eggs
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon and spice
1-4 t salt

Bake in a slow oven 2 hours.

 

[Katie Brookes]

i keep hearing stories about my grandma doing this trick in the 60s of opening a can of pineapple rings, draining out the liquid and pouring in jello... i really need to try this, soon as i have a functional kitchen. could make a twist on it make it one big jello shot (to be divided into slices of course ), or does that just sound like an amazing idea to me?