Sunday, December 1, 2013
Merry Christmas!
Due to the busyness of the holiday season, I'm going to be taking a short break from my blogs. I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, and happy baking!
Friday, October 18, 2013
1845 Roll Recipe
My next attempt at a historic recipe comes from my book.
This recipe is called "15. Rolls."
Pretty simple. From the recipe, it sounds like a basic dinner roll. How hard can that be? A few weeks ago, I made a great potato sweet dinner roll over a cast-iron cook stove with great success. I'm pretty confident that I can make this with modern-day methods.
Famous last words.
Actually, the receipt turned out to be pretty good, but with some rather major changes. For some reason, this recipe, along with the cider cake recipe, was seriously lacking liquid. I don't know why, although my husband posed this answer with a chuckle: "More liquid means more trips to the well or the stream!" I suppose that could be partially true, but I also wonder if perhaps their measurements were somehow off compared to today, because everything we measure with is standardized, whereas back then, there were likely differences in some sizes of a cup or spoonful of an ingredient. I really can't say for sure, but as I was making this recipe, I realized just how dry and tooth-chipping these would be if made exactly to the original instructions. Hence, the reason for the changes that I made.
I began where everyone should begin, at the beginning.
"Warm an ounce of butter in half a pint of milk,"--let's stop there. I measured out the butter and milk, and (cheatingly) microwaved the mixture until the butter was melted into the milk, and the liquid was warm enough to activate the yeast. I thought about doing it in a saucepan on the stove, but I had some other things going on, so I opted to use the microwave instead. It took about 1:15 in the microwave on high.
"then add a spoonful and a half of yeast, and a little salt."
I used a teaspoon (the kind we eat with) to measure out a spoonful and a half into a measuring glass, then added "a little salt". Here is where I made the first change to the recipe: I added a little bit of ginger. I'd read recently that yeast back at this time was made at home, and would have had some other flavorings or spices added to it to help with the fermentation for making the yeast cakes. Because of this, the yeast that we purchase at the store today tastes different than that of the home-made variety, and I did find a recipe online for making yeast the old way that included things like potato, peach leaves and ginger. I didn't have any cooked potatoes, and I don't usually (okay, ever) have peach leaves on hand, but I sure had ginger! So into the measuring glass it went. I also added a small amount of sugar to help feed the yeast.
"Put two pounds of flour in a pan, and mix in the above ingredients."
Here we go with the pounds of flour again...flour was sold by the pound, and ground by the pound, so I understand the reasoning, but like I found out in the cider cake recipe, a pound of flour for me equals right around three cups. Two pounds of flour is therefore six cups. Six cups of flour mixed with one cup of liquid. Do you see the problem? Here is where I made the next major change: I stopped at three cups. Even with three cups of flour, I still needed to add another quarter-cup of warm water to the mix to achieve a bread-doughy consistency.
"Let rise an hour--or overnight, in a cool place;"--I had turned on my oven to 400 degrees to give the kitchen a little more heat. We do have our furnace on now, but we have no fireplace or hearth for me to leave this dough to rise near, so I set the bowl next to the vent on my oven, with the towel open to the heat coming out of the stove vent. Worked great! Within an hour, the dough had doubled in size.
"Knead it well, make into seven rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. Add half a tea-spoonful of saleratus, just as you put the rolls into the baker."
I floured my countertop and turned out the dough. I sprinkled a half teaspoon of baking soda on top of the dough before I began kneading, because these instructions seemed out of order in terms of adding the baking soda to the rolls right before putting them into the baker. I kneaded the dough until it was smooth and elastic, a little sticky, but certainly sticking together and not leaving any tacky dough on the counter. It was really easy to knead it to that texture, really, and then I began forming my rolls.
If I made only seven rolls with this recipe, they would be huge rolls--the size of a softball or larger. I opted for smaller balls of dough, more the size of between a golf ball and a baseball. They were still substantial in size, and I ended up with seventeen rolls from this recipe.
I buttered a 9" x 12" baking sheet, and placed six rolls on the pan. I baked the rolls at 400 degrees (the high end of a "quick oven") for 10 minutes. When I checked them at that point, they sounded hollow when tapped, so I took them out.
Now was the deciding time--the time to taste my creation. I sliced open a hot roll and spread a little bit of butter and raw honey on top. I took a bite, and was really impressed! The inside was soft and chewy, and the butter/honey combo on top was absolutely perfect on these.
Without any condiments, I think these rolls are a little bland, but perfect for absorbing a soup or stew broth. Perfect to go with the beef stew I made for dinner!
So now, here is the modern-day recipe for these rolls. I would recommend giving them a try!
Ingredients:
1 C milk, warmed to around 110 degrees F
2 TBSP butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp sugar (you can add more for a sweeter roll)
1/4 C warm water
3 C white whole-wheat flour (white flour or bread flour can be subbed)
1/2 tsp baking soda
Directions:
Combine the milk and butter (the butter will float to the top). In a small bowl, mix the yeast, salt, ginger, and sugar, then add to the milk mixture. Stir to wet the yeast.
In a large bowl, add your flour, then add your yeast/milk mixture. Add water. Mix together until the dough sticks together and there are no dry ingredients. Cover with a towel and place in a warm spot to rise for one to two hours.
Flour your kneading surface, then turn the dough out. Sprinkle baking soda over top of the dough before kneading, then begin to knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, about four or five minutes. Add more flour to your surface as needed. Form dough into a ball, and pull off pieces a little larger than a golf ball size, and roll into balls.
Butter the bottom of your 9" x 12" baking sheet, then bake six at a time at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Rolls are done when they sound hollow when tapped. Remove to a wire rack to cool slightly. Best eaten fresh from the oven!
 |
| Six burner stove at the McKinnis House |
Famous last words.
Actually, the receipt turned out to be pretty good, but with some rather major changes. For some reason, this recipe, along with the cider cake recipe, was seriously lacking liquid. I don't know why, although my husband posed this answer with a chuckle: "More liquid means more trips to the well or the stream!" I suppose that could be partially true, but I also wonder if perhaps their measurements were somehow off compared to today, because everything we measure with is standardized, whereas back then, there were likely differences in some sizes of a cup or spoonful of an ingredient. I really can't say for sure, but as I was making this recipe, I realized just how dry and tooth-chipping these would be if made exactly to the original instructions. Hence, the reason for the changes that I made.
I began where everyone should begin, at the beginning.
"Warm an ounce of butter in half a pint of milk,"--let's stop there. I measured out the butter and milk, and (cheatingly) microwaved the mixture until the butter was melted into the milk, and the liquid was warm enough to activate the yeast. I thought about doing it in a saucepan on the stove, but I had some other things going on, so I opted to use the microwave instead. It took about 1:15 in the microwave on high.
"then add a spoonful and a half of yeast, and a little salt."
I used a teaspoon (the kind we eat with) to measure out a spoonful and a half into a measuring glass, then added "a little salt". Here is where I made the first change to the recipe: I added a little bit of ginger. I'd read recently that yeast back at this time was made at home, and would have had some other flavorings or spices added to it to help with the fermentation for making the yeast cakes. Because of this, the yeast that we purchase at the store today tastes different than that of the home-made variety, and I did find a recipe online for making yeast the old way that included things like potato, peach leaves and ginger. I didn't have any cooked potatoes, and I don't usually (okay, ever) have peach leaves on hand, but I sure had ginger! So into the measuring glass it went. I also added a small amount of sugar to help feed the yeast.
"Put two pounds of flour in a pan, and mix in the above ingredients."
Here we go with the pounds of flour again...flour was sold by the pound, and ground by the pound, so I understand the reasoning, but like I found out in the cider cake recipe, a pound of flour for me equals right around three cups. Two pounds of flour is therefore six cups. Six cups of flour mixed with one cup of liquid. Do you see the problem? Here is where I made the next major change: I stopped at three cups. Even with three cups of flour, I still needed to add another quarter-cup of warm water to the mix to achieve a bread-doughy consistency.
"Let rise an hour--or overnight, in a cool place;"--I had turned on my oven to 400 degrees to give the kitchen a little more heat. We do have our furnace on now, but we have no fireplace or hearth for me to leave this dough to rise near, so I set the bowl next to the vent on my oven, with the towel open to the heat coming out of the stove vent. Worked great! Within an hour, the dough had doubled in size.
"Knead it well, make into seven rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. Add half a tea-spoonful of saleratus, just as you put the rolls into the baker."
I floured my countertop and turned out the dough. I sprinkled a half teaspoon of baking soda on top of the dough before I began kneading, because these instructions seemed out of order in terms of adding the baking soda to the rolls right before putting them into the baker. I kneaded the dough until it was smooth and elastic, a little sticky, but certainly sticking together and not leaving any tacky dough on the counter. It was really easy to knead it to that texture, really, and then I began forming my rolls.
If I made only seven rolls with this recipe, they would be huge rolls--the size of a softball or larger. I opted for smaller balls of dough, more the size of between a golf ball and a baseball. They were still substantial in size, and I ended up with seventeen rolls from this recipe.
I buttered a 9" x 12" baking sheet, and placed six rolls on the pan. I baked the rolls at 400 degrees (the high end of a "quick oven") for 10 minutes. When I checked them at that point, they sounded hollow when tapped, so I took them out.
Now was the deciding time--the time to taste my creation. I sliced open a hot roll and spread a little bit of butter and raw honey on top. I took a bite, and was really impressed! The inside was soft and chewy, and the butter/honey combo on top was absolutely perfect on these.
Without any condiments, I think these rolls are a little bland, but perfect for absorbing a soup or stew broth. Perfect to go with the beef stew I made for dinner!
So now, here is the modern-day recipe for these rolls. I would recommend giving them a try!
Ingredients:
2 TBSP butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp sugar (you can add more for a sweeter roll)
1/4 C warm water
3 C white whole-wheat flour (white flour or bread flour can be subbed)
1/2 tsp baking soda
Directions:
Combine the milk and butter (the butter will float to the top). In a small bowl, mix the yeast, salt, ginger, and sugar, then add to the milk mixture. Stir to wet the yeast.
In a large bowl, add your flour, then add your yeast/milk mixture. Add water. Mix together until the dough sticks together and there are no dry ingredients. Cover with a towel and place in a warm spot to rise for one to two hours.
Flour your kneading surface, then turn the dough out. Sprinkle baking soda over top of the dough before kneading, then begin to knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, about four or five minutes. Add more flour to your surface as needed. Form dough into a ball, and pull off pieces a little larger than a golf ball size, and roll into balls.
Butter the bottom of your 9" x 12" baking sheet, then bake six at a time at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Rolls are done when they sound hollow when tapped. Remove to a wire rack to cool slightly. Best eaten fresh from the oven!
Friday, September 27, 2013
Cider Cake--1836 Reciept
Well, I hope you don't get mad at me, but my first test recipe is not out of my book. It's from another well-known receipt book, though, so I hope that will redeem me to you. I had to make a period-appropriate, season-appropriate cake for the living history program I'm participating in this weekend, and found this recipe on The Henry Ford website. It's from The New England Cookbook, first published in 1836. They scanned the recipe into their online collection. You can find a link to every entry in the book here.
As you can see from the recipe, it's a bit vague. Notice the author doesn't even mention the baking temperature? Back when receipts were written like this, there were certain "givens" to cooking and baking. Young women were taught what to do by the older women before them, and therefore, it wasn't necessary to put that information in the receipt because it was already known. Plus, there was the added complication of having a variety of baking methods available, from a hearth fireplace bake-oven to a cast-iron wood-burning cookstove oven. The cook/baker would have a good idea of how to bake in their specific oven, so adding a baking temperature to the instructions might have caused more harm than good when writing out the receipt.
Also, what is saleratus?? After a quick Internet search, I found that it was a fancy term for sodium bicarbonate (or sometimes potassium bicarbonate). That means either baking soda or baking powder. To the pantry!
When I compared the components of my box of baking soda and my container of baking powder, baking soda lists sodium bicarbonate as the only ingredient, but the baking powder has sodium bicarbonate listed as third on the list of ingredients, so for this recipe, I'll be using baking soda. Is it just me, or does two teaspoons of baking soda seem like a large amount?
As I have never eaten this cake before, I'm making it as it's written above; however, I'm making a half recipe because, hey, ingredients ain't cheap. Here is the full-recipe conversion to modern-day measurements:
1 1/2 C granulated sugar (12 oz by weight)
2 sticks (1 C) butter, unsalted, at room temperature
2 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 6 TBSP water
1 C apple cider
6 C white whole-wheat flour (for a more authentic texture)
1 whole grated nutmeg
So, a step-by-step breakdown of the directions:
"Rub together three quarters of a pound of sugar, and half a pound of butter."
Rub together? What an odd step. Granted, they didn't have KitchenAid mixers back then, so maybe this was their method for creaming the butter and sugar. I put my room-temp butter in a bowl with the sugar, and mashed it all together with a fork. I smooshed and mashed until the butter and sugar were all combined.
Then, "Dissolve two teaspoonsful of saleratus in half a teacup of water, turn it into the cake, together with half a pint of cider, stir in two pounds of flour and a grated nutmeg."
I don't keep tea cups in the house. We have coffee mugs, but that's really a different size, so to be authentic to the recipe, I got out one of my china teacups from my grandmother's set. It's about a hundred years younger than this recipe, but that's okay--it worked great!
Two pounds of flour ends up being six cups. Six cups! There wasn't enough liquid in the recipe to absorb that amount of dry goods. My arms got a really good workout. After everything was worked together, I pressed it into a pan--there was no pouring this batter like today's cake. It was really more of a stiff cookie-type dough.
"Bake it about a half an hour."
I had preheated my oven to 350. I wasn't sure that this should be in the oven for a full half-hour, since I had halved the recipe. I put it in for 12 minutes to start. However, it needed probably another ten minutes or so, but this "cake" showed little signs of going from a dough to a baked good, so after 17 minutes total, I pulled it out to cool.
You can tell a difference in the unbaked and baked cake, of course. There really wasn't any browning, and the toothpick test showed no batter. However, I think it would have come out clean if I stuck a toothpick in the batter before I baked it!
"This cake should be eaten in the course of two or three days after it is made, as it gets dry very quickly."
Um, yep, I can see that happening.
This cake would have been so dry if I had baked it completely. As it was, the outer edges were pretty dried out. It is possible that a 325 oven would have been better, but honestly, this is just not the type of cake in the sense that we know it to be today.
I had an idea of what this cake might be like, based on previous experience with other baked goods. I have to say, though, that this was one bland cake! I could really taste the nutmeg, but there wasn't much else to the flavor. There wasn't an overwhelming butter taste, or sweetness, or anything. Just, kind of bland. The texture was strange--my husband, whose facial reaction to the cake when I offered him a bite was priceless, described it as "like cornbread with nutmeg in it"--it was very mealy. There just wasn't enough liquid to cause any sort of rise. I also think that eggs could have greatly improved the texture of this cake.
Overall, not a great cake recipe by today's standards. Food was just very different back then. Families were often restricted by finances when it came to food and pantry items, and sugar was a pricier item, so women tried to make due with what they could afford. Definitely not a cake recipe to take with me to our living history program on Sunday! I found a modern recipe that I believe was based on this recipe on Cooks.com, and I'll be making that instead. You can see that recipe here and compare the two!
 |
| Scan from The Henry Ford Museum website. |
As you can see from the recipe, it's a bit vague. Notice the author doesn't even mention the baking temperature? Back when receipts were written like this, there were certain "givens" to cooking and baking. Young women were taught what to do by the older women before them, and therefore, it wasn't necessary to put that information in the receipt because it was already known. Plus, there was the added complication of having a variety of baking methods available, from a hearth fireplace bake-oven to a cast-iron wood-burning cookstove oven. The cook/baker would have a good idea of how to bake in their specific oven, so adding a baking temperature to the instructions might have caused more harm than good when writing out the receipt.
Also, what is saleratus?? After a quick Internet search, I found that it was a fancy term for sodium bicarbonate (or sometimes potassium bicarbonate). That means either baking soda or baking powder. To the pantry!
When I compared the components of my box of baking soda and my container of baking powder, baking soda lists sodium bicarbonate as the only ingredient, but the baking powder has sodium bicarbonate listed as third on the list of ingredients, so for this recipe, I'll be using baking soda. Is it just me, or does two teaspoons of baking soda seem like a large amount?
As I have never eaten this cake before, I'm making it as it's written above; however, I'm making a half recipe because, hey, ingredients ain't cheap. Here is the full-recipe conversion to modern-day measurements:
1 1/2 C granulated sugar (12 oz by weight)
2 sticks (1 C) butter, unsalted, at room temperature
2 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 6 TBSP water
1 C apple cider
6 C white whole-wheat flour (for a more authentic texture)
1 whole grated nutmeg
So, a step-by-step breakdown of the directions:
"Rub together three quarters of a pound of sugar, and half a pound of butter."
Rub together? What an odd step. Granted, they didn't have KitchenAid mixers back then, so maybe this was their method for creaming the butter and sugar. I put my room-temp butter in a bowl with the sugar, and mashed it all together with a fork. I smooshed and mashed until the butter and sugar were all combined.
I don't keep tea cups in the house. We have coffee mugs, but that's really a different size, so to be authentic to the recipe, I got out one of my china teacups from my grandmother's set. It's about a hundred years younger than this recipe, but that's okay--it worked great!
I had preheated my oven to 350. I wasn't sure that this should be in the oven for a full half-hour, since I had halved the recipe. I put it in for 12 minutes to start. However, it needed probably another ten minutes or so, but this "cake" showed little signs of going from a dough to a baked good, so after 17 minutes total, I pulled it out to cool.
"This cake should be eaten in the course of two or three days after it is made, as it gets dry very quickly."
Um, yep, I can see that happening.
This cake would have been so dry if I had baked it completely. As it was, the outer edges were pretty dried out. It is possible that a 325 oven would have been better, but honestly, this is just not the type of cake in the sense that we know it to be today.
Overall, not a great cake recipe by today's standards. Food was just very different back then. Families were often restricted by finances when it came to food and pantry items, and sugar was a pricier item, so women tried to make due with what they could afford. Definitely not a cake recipe to take with me to our living history program on Sunday! I found a modern recipe that I believe was based on this recipe on Cooks.com, and I'll be making that instead. You can see that recipe here and compare the two!
Sunday, September 22, 2013
My Receipt Book
Here is the book that I'll start testing recipes from. The title is "The New England Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book." It was published in Worchester, Massachusettes, in the 1840s, and cost twenty-five cents, according to the cover. I purchased it on Ebay for little money, it has detached from the spine, and it's in pretty rough shape, but it attracted me for a few reasons:
1. It was published in 1845.
2. It had a well-loved look to it.
 |
| These pages were carefully hand-stitched back together. |
3. It had a great selection of recipes, as well as other domestic tips and advice.
4. It had hand-written recipes on the back pages.
5. It had a neat cover (or at least what is left of the cover).
6. It is very hard to come by old receipt books anymore.
I've had this book for several years now, but have never tried any of the receipts. It just never occurred to me, despite the fact that I bought it for use at the living history farm. At the time, I just enjoyed reading the old entries and (carefully) flipping through its 168-year-old pages. Now, it's time to put it to the test! This shouldn't be too hard, right?
Right?...
Gulp.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Welcome!
Howdy, and welcome!
I have a love of history. I'm hoping to pass that love along to others in the form of translating old receipts (the old-fashioned term for recipes, ask your grandparents) into modern-day recipes that can live on in our modern kitchens. I'll try to post recipes as frequently as my life allows.
I have been a living history interpreter for an 1840s farm, and have cooked on an antique cast-iron cookstove for three or four years. I have made numerous recipes at the farm, and am interested in creating them here in my home. Join me for a this adventure, won't you? I promise it will be fun!
I have a love of history. I'm hoping to pass that love along to others in the form of translating old receipts (the old-fashioned term for recipes, ask your grandparents) into modern-day recipes that can live on in our modern kitchens. I'll try to post recipes as frequently as my life allows.
I have been a living history interpreter for an 1840s farm, and have cooked on an antique cast-iron cookstove for three or four years. I have made numerous recipes at the farm, and am interested in creating them here in my home. Join me for a this adventure, won't you? I promise it will be fun!
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