Time machines!!!

Proverbs 31:25-28   Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

There is a chill in the air, Autumn is closing in all around us here in Kentucky. Which always give me a cozy feeling inside, a feeling of wanting to snuggle in at home. With detail house cleaning, knitting and lots of baking and comfort foods!! Which gives me a yearning to read my antique cookbooks. Looking for a new recipes to try. I think of my antique cookbooks as time machines, because they take me back in time when I read them. When ever I open one, and begin to read it. I think about the woman who owned it 150 years earlier. About how she cared and nurtured her family with it.  Maybe what her kitchen might have look liked, and exactly how did the food she made from that book taste. It is a time machine in my hand. I love getting a glimpse into the past. Time traveling while sitting in my comfy chair at home. Women from the past encourage me. To be a better wife and Keeper at Home.  They took seriously their roll as a Mother, wife and Keeper of the Home!! Cookbooks usually were more than just recipes. They were full of chapters on nursing your family when sick, tip on cleaning your home, doing your laundry, to making homemade paint. I keep them in a wooden box. I'd like to share them with you all. So we can all travel together. As we go though the books I will have to help you interpret them. You see, cooking and baking back then was different then now. They used different measurements then we do. They used quarts, pints, gills, jills,wine glasses, tea cups, coffee cups, They cooked over the fire, in dutch ovens, and or on a wood burning stove, so temperatures and cooking times will be different. and the ingredients were sometimes different also, like they made their own yeast for bread making.  plus several other things I will explain later if they come up. The recipes were even written differently than today. They wrote them in paragraph form, without the list of ingredients. So all and all it is like another world than ours. Like I said time travel in my own home.

My Wooden box. Where I keep most of my Antique cookbooks

I found this written in one of my cookbooks, I found it very interesting how important the mother-homemaker was to the home!!

To attend to the nursing, and at least, early instruction of children, and rear a healthy progeny in the ways of piety and usefulness: – to preside over the family, and regulate the income allotted to its maintenance: to make home the sweet refuge of a husband fatigued by intercourse with a jarring world: to be his enlightened companion and the chosen friend of his heart; these, these are woman’s duties! (Rundell 7).

Here are just a few of the books I own. My cookbooks range from 1845-1950's.

Here is a few more of my collection. The Improved Housewife is my oldest cookbooks I own 1844.

I love love this picture! It show just what a early to mid 19th century kitchen would look like. This is a look back in time. If you look close you would see a lot of things they use from day to day. There is a chair by the fire, which they would have sat in to maybe turn the chicken that will be inside that reflector oven in front of the fireplace, or maybe use the hand held bellows to start a fire, that are hanging on the wall next to the fireplace. There is a iron crane swung over a fire in the fireplace, with 3 different size S hooks and a large cast iron pot hanging on it, maybe cooking a hearty stew. On the  mantelpiece there is a clock for them to watch the time when cooking something, also on the mantel is a box probably full of loose leaf tea, a candle stick, several assorted bowls, and a measuring cup. I also see different kinds of meat, fish, and animals hanging on the walls waiting for use. The woman on the left is preparing a chicken to be put in the reflector oven. You can see the long iron pole that she will put the chicken on to roast it in the reflector oven. It is  leaning up against the chopping table next to her. The other woman is making pie dough to cover the fruit filled pie pan that is in just front of her. Then under her table are two large footed kettles, and a wooden bucket. And last but not least the large basket over flowing of fruits and vegetables in the middle of the room. I found this very interesting picture inside one of my cookbooks, it's called New England Economical Housekeeper and Family receipt book, by E.A. Howland. It was written in 1847.

This is Miss Eliza Leslie, She is my MOST favorite Cookbook author!! She writes in such a way that it is like she is right there teaching you, very detailed instructions. 

Since Eliza Leslie is my favorite author, her's will be the first book I share with you all. The only book I own of her's is Miss Leslie's New  Receipts For Cooking.

Here is the weights and measures that Miss Leslie uses in her cookbooks.

Just to make sure you all know, I will clarify a few of these measurements.

Liquids
4 quarts=1 gallon 
1 quart=4 cups
1 pint=2 cups
1 large coffee cup= 1 cup
1 jill or gill=half a cup
 1 wine glass=1/4 cup

Dry 
1 pound of sugar=2 cups
1 pound of flour=4 cups

Hope this helps!

Here are a couple receipts for you to look over, I will decipher them for you all so you can make them if you want to. I call them receipts instead of recipes because that is what recipes were call up to the early 20th century.

 This is the first page of  Beef Steak Pot Pie. 

Second page of Beef Steak Pot Pie.

Beef Steak Pot Pie
2 pounds of tender beef steak cut up in small pieces.
Salt and pepper to taste
5 Tablespoons cut up and rolled in flour.
1 dozen small or 8 large potatoes cut up in med size pieces
mushrooms cut up if desired 
I think corn or peas add to this would taste rather good also.

Pie Dough(paste)
3 cups lard little more if needed 
12 cups flour
salt to taste
little water
2 cups of warm water

Season cut up meat with salt and pepper. and put in a pot with the butter rolled in flour, with just enough water to cover the meat. Let them simmer slowly for 1 hour. While the meat simmers, cook the potatoes in another pot until done. Now to make the dough. Rub the suit and the flour in a bowl completely. Then add salt and enough water to form a lump of dough. Divide the dough in half. Roll out on lump thicker than the other. Line the sides of a iron pot 1/2 to 2/3rd up with the thin dough. In the bottom of pot put some gravy that was made in the meat pan while it was cooking. Then some meat, then some of the thicker dough cut up in long squares strips,then some potatoes, then repeat until all is in the pot. Then just before putting last layer of dough on top, all the last of the gravy, and 2 cups of warm water. Then cover the top with one large piece of dough. Making sure that the top is not sealed around the edges. Then put on the stove on med heat and cook for 1  1/2 hours.

Pumpkin Indian Pudding
3 cups of cold baked and mushed pumpkin
3 cups of corn meal
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground ginger
4 cups milk
1 2/3 cups dark molasses

Mix the pumpkin and the corn meal together in a large bowl. Then  Add the ginger to the pumpkin mixture. Now in a large pan bring the milk to a boil. Then take from the heat and add the molasses to it. Then gradually add it to the pumpkin mixture. Then beat it hard and well. Have ready on the stove  a really large kettle of water already hot and boiling. Dip a large square cotton cloth ( pillow case will do fine) in the hot water. Then ring out and lay out on a table and cover it with flour. Not to much not to little. Pour the mixture in to it. Then gather it all up. Leaving a fist full of room between the batter and were you are going to tie it. This will help it when it swells. Then tie it and but it in the boiling water. Making sure you have a plait in the bottom of the kettle to make sure the pudding won't burn if it goes to the bottom of the pot. This is very important!! Let it boil for 3-4 hours turning it every 1/2 hour. Then when done gentle turn it out on to a plate and eat it with molasses sauce.

I hope you decide to give these recipes a try !!!

 This is a list of  Miss Leslie's cookbooks. 

Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats (1828) 
Domestic French Cookery (1832)
Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches (1837)
The Indian Meal Book (1847)
The Lady's Receipt-Book: A Useful Companion for Large or Small Families (1847) 
Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book (1850)
Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery (1851)
More Receipts (1852)
Miss Leslie's New Receipts for Cooking (1854)
Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book (1857)

Here is a link to all her books so you can read them for yourself for free!! 

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Leslie%2C%20Eliza%2C%201787-1858

Well Ladies This post has been longer than I was planning, Hope you were blessed by it!! God bless

Kelly

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