August 22, 2011

Perch, brook trout, catfish, and all small fish are best fried. They should be cleaned, washed well in cold water and immediately wiped dry inside and out with a clean towel, and then sprinkled with salt. Use oil if convenient, as it is better than drippings or lard. Never use butter as it is apt to burn. See that the oil or lard is boiling hot before putting in the fish.

–Mrs. Charles H. Gibson’s Maryland and Virginia Cook Book. Baltimore: John Murphy & Company, 1894.

July 3, 2011

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

January 22, 2009

“Take five pounds of sugar, one quart of vinegar, one and one half ounces of stick cinnamon, one and one half ounces of cloves, one ounce of white mustard; boil all together. Pare and quarter eight pounds of apples; put in boiling water; let boil till tender. Then pour the boiling vinegar and spices over the apples.” ––Mrs. Amanda Clay

–The Ladies of the Presbyterian Church, Parish, KY. Housekeeping in the Blue Grass: A New and Practical Cook Book. Cincinnati: Geo. E. Stevens & Co., 1875.

January 17, 2009

The name for this early bread comes from the Algonquian Indian word apan, meaning, “baked.”

“Six or eight potatoes (according to size), two eggs, half a cup of sugar (brown), a cup of syrup, a little orange peel and a teaspoonful of cinnamon. Wash and grate, without peeling,  the potatoes. Beat sugar, and eggs together, mix syrup with potatoes, then sugar and eggs and orange peel and cinnamon. Put all in a dish and bake.”
—Laura Thornton Knowles, Southern Recipes Tested by Myself. New York: George H. Doran, 1913.

January 10, 2009

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse. This page is from the original 1747 edition.

To make Apple-Fritters

Beat the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of four well together and strain them into a pan; then take a quart of cream, make it as hot as you can bear your finger in it; then put to it a quartter of a pint of sack, three quarters of a pint of ale, and make a posset of it.When it is cool, put in nutmeg, ginger, salt, and flour, to your liking.  Your batter should be pretty thick, then put in pippins sliced or scraped, and fry them in a deal of butter quick.

—Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Alexandria, VA, 1805 Edition.

January 3, 2009

Whites of 5 eggs, 1 3/4 cups sugar, 3/4 cup of butter or butter substitute, 4 cups flour, 2 level teaspoons baking powder, 2 teaspoons flavoring, 1 cup sweet milk or water.

Dark part: yolks 5 eggs, 1 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter or substitute, 1/2 cup sour milk,     3 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon soda, 1/2 cake chocolate shaved in 1 cup water. Put on stove and boil until reduced to 1/2 cup; set off and cool, then add to cake mixture, 2 teaspoons vanilla. Bake in loaf or layer, alternating light and dark part. If in layers put together with chocolate filling.

–(Mrs.) C.P. Addington, Scott County Cook Book 1918. Gate City, VA: Boatright Printing Co., 1918.

December 19, 2008

George Washington was one of the wealthiest and most influential planters in Virginia after he returned to Mount Vernon after his years as president.

He enjoyed the elegant abundance of field and table at his estate, as witnessed by this account of a Christmas dinner at the plantation:

“Christmas Dinner at Mount Vernon: An Onion Soup Call’d the King’s Soup, Oysters on the Half Shell, Broiled Salt Roe Hering, Boiled Rockfish, Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, Mutton Chops, Roast Suckling Pig, Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing, Round of Cold Boiled Beef with Horse-radish Sauce, Cold Baked Virginia Ham, Lima Beans, Baked Acorn Squash, Baked Celery with Slivered Almonds, Hominy Pudding, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Cantaloupe Pickle, Spiced Peaches in Brandy, Spiced Cranberries, Mincemeat Pie, Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Chess Tarts, Blancmange, Plums in Wine Jelly, Snowballs, Indian Pudding, Great Cake, Ice Cream, Plum Pudding, Fruits, Nuts, Raisins, Port, Madeira.”
—The American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating & Drinking,.New York: American Heritage Publishing Co, 1964

December 13, 2008

Parboil the fish, pick out the meat, and mince or pound it in a mortar until very fine; it will require about fifty crayfish.

Add to the fish one-third the quantity of bread soaked in milk, and a quarter of a pound of butter, also salt to taste, a bunch of thyme, two leaves of sage, a small piece of garlic and a chopped onion.   Mix all well and cook ten minutes, stirring all the time to keep it from growing hard.

Clean the heads of the fish, throw them in strong salt and water for a few minutes and then drain them.   Fill each one with the above stuffing, flour them, and fry a light brown.

Set a clean stewpan over a slow fire, put into it three spoonfuls of lard or butter, a slice of ham or bacon, two onions chopped fine; dredge over it enough flour to absorb the grease, then add a pint and a-half of boiling water, or better still, plain beef stock.

Season this with a bunch of thyme, a bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste.

Let it cook slowly for half an hour, then put the heads of the crayfish in and let them boil fifteen minutes. Serve rice with it.
—Lafcadio Hearn, La Cuisine Creole, 1885

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