February 17, 2010

Beaten Biscuits

To one quart of flour add one teaspoonful salt, one pinch soda, sift these alltogether, then mix in one tablespoon of lard, which has previously been on ice. (It must be cold and stiff.) Moisten all with half a pint of milk, which also has been on ice and in which two tablespoonfuls of crushed ice is put. Mix all well together, beat or work in machine until light, and bake in a moderate oven. A hot oven blisters them.
—Laura Thornton Knowles, Southern Recipes Tested by Myself. New York: George H. Doran, 1913.

October 22, 2009

Stew apples and strain them: whip the whites of 3 or 4 eggs: add to them pulverized sugar; to this slowly whisk in the apples. Eat with cake.
— Mrs. William S. Donnan, ,A Collection of Virginia Recipes. Richmond, VA: Whittet & Shepperson, 1891.

October 9, 2009

Clean thoroughly and scrape it. Put it into a stove-pan with sufficient cold water, a pod of red pepper and salt. Baste frequently to make it crisp. Cook well done. Serve cold.
—Church of the Epiphany (Danville, Va.). Key to the Pantry: Choice, Tried Recipes. Danville, Va: Boatwright Bros, 1898.

August 22, 2009

Tipsy Parson is an English dessert that was a staple in the Nineteenth Century South.  It is made by soaking sponge or pound cake in brandy or wine and topping it with a custard pudding.

“Soak a whole sponge-cake (or any pieces of dry cake will answer) in some sherry; when saturated with the wine, pour over it a rich boiled custard flavored with what you like and stick blanched almonds thick all over the top.”
—Mrs. Clement Carrington McPhail, F. F. V. Receipt Book. Richmond, Va.: West, Johnston & Co., 1894.
(FFV is the First Families of Virginia, a genealogical and historical group made up of descendants of Virginia’s original colonists).

March 23, 2009

“Cover the berries with cold water and let boil a few
minutes until done. Then strain, and to every pint of juice
add one pound of granulated sugar. Put back on the fire.
Tie up a little cinnamon, allspice and cloves in a thin muslin
bag, and let boil with the juice until the latter is a pretty
thick syrup, then take off, and when it is thoroughly cold
add one-third as much good brandy or whisky as you have
syrup. It is not necessary to seal it.”

—Echoes Of Southern Kitchens, Compiled and Published by the Robert E. Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy No. 278, Los Angeles, 1916

March 1, 2009

Caramel cake is a Southern favorite, one of those cakes that if you notice one on a church buffet table, you might have to strong-arm your way past the preacher and head deacon to get a piece before it gets gone.
The cake dates at least to the last quarter of the nineteenth century; the earliest published recipe I hace been able to find is in The Dixie Cook- Book by Estelle Woods Wilcox, published in Atlanta in 1883.
This recipe is typical; it comes from Eudora Garrison’s Favorite Carolina Recipes. Mrs Garrison was a longtime food editor of The Charlotte Observer.

Yield: 1 9-inch Layer Cake

1/3 cup plus 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided use
1/4 cup boiling water
3/4 cup butter or margarine
3 eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Caramel Frosting (recipe below)

Melt the one-third cup sugar in a heavy skillet, stirring constantly until deep-brown syrup is formed - a process called caramelization. Remove from heat and slowly stir in boiling water, being careful that steam does not burn your hand. Set syrup aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans, place parchment paper in the bottoms, then grease and flour the bottoms and sides.

Cream butter in bowl of electric mixer. Add 11/4 cups sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is well-incorporated. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the reserved syrup.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Combine milk and vanilla. Add flour mixture to the batter alternately with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until smooth. Divide batter evenly among the two prepared pans and bake 25 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove pans from oven and let stand about 10 minutes, then turn out cakes onto wire rack, peel off paper and cool completely.

Frost cooled cake, stacking layers.

Caramel Frosting

3 cups (light) brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons half and half
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix sugar and half and half in a heavy saucepan and cook, stirring over low heat until syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 235 degrees on a candy thermometer. If lacking a thermometer, check doneness by dropping a tiny bit of syrup into a cup of cold water. When the syrup can be gathered up in fingers and will almost hold its shape, it has reached the soft-ball stage.

Remove pan from heat. Stir in butter, then let syrup cool. Add vanilla and beat until frosting reaches spreading consistency. A little cream (or half-and-half) may be added is mixture is too thick.

February 10, 2009

“Kill your hogs when the wind is from the north-west. The night before you salt the meat take a string of red pepper and make a strong tea. (Let it remain on the stove over night.) Put in the tea 2 heaping tablespoons of saltpetre to every 2 gallons. Take this strong tea and pour on the salt. Salt the meat lightly the first time to run off the blood. Let the meat lie packed 3 days–longer, if the weather is very cold. Then overhaul the meat and put 1 teaspoon of pulverized saltpetre on the flesh side of each ham and rub in well. Then rub with molasses mixed with salt. Pack close for 10 days. After this overhaul again, rubbing each piece, and pack close again. Hang the meat in 3 weeks from the time the hogs were killed. Before hanging, wash each piece in warm water, and while wet roll in hickory ashes. Then smoke with green hickory wood, and tie up in cotton bags in February.”

—Minerva C. Fox, The Blue Grass Cook Book. New York: Fox, Duffield & Company, 1904

February 9, 2009

2 cups corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
1 whole egg
l /2 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons onion, (grated fine)

Mix all dry ingredients, add onion, then enough buttermilk
to make a stiff dough, add the egg, mix well then drop by spoonsfull in hot deep fat, when done they will float, lay on paper and serve with fried fish.
In Florida they fry the Hush Puppies in the grease in which
they have just fried the fish. Mrs. Jessie E. Lawson
—The American Legion Auxiliary, Beppo Arnold Knowles Post No. 32 (Greenville, MS). The Delta’s Best Cook Book. Greenville, MS, privately published. ND, probably late 1940s-early 1950s.

January 30, 2009

“One calf’s head, mashed throughly; then boil four hours; take head out; cut meat off; strain the soup; add one pint of veal, chopped fine and fried in butter; a hard boiled egg, two boiled potatoes, both chopped fine; six tablespoonfuls of flour, browned in butter. Add butter balls, size of pea, made of one cup flour, tablespoonful of butter and little salt. Season soup with salt, pepper, sweet marjoram, all-spice and cloves to taste. Everything to boil in ten minutes.”

– Ladies’ Aid Society, Freemason Street Baptist Church, Norfolk, VA: Jamestown Cook Book. Norfolk, VA: Burke & Gregory, Printers, 1907

January 26, 2009

“One cup of preserves, one cup of butter, one cup of sugar, one cup of flour, five eggs. Cream the butter and sugar together, add the flour and eggs well beaten ; lastly the preserves. Bake in a quick oven. Serve hot with sauce.”

–Mrs. W. A. Horne, Echoes Of Southern Kitchens. Compiled and published by the Robert E. Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy No. 278, Los Angeles, 1916

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