Brenda Nolen

One of the biggest treasures I have found online is from Michigan State University. It’s a site called Feeding America and features over 70 American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century. I really can’t begin to tell you how much computer space I have in old cookbooks. If only I could have physical copies of them ALL.

Here’s one of the first I found (and tried recipes from). Please consider investigating the old cookbooks that are out there still. They can be invaluable, especially since they teach us so many things we have lost over the generations.

Miss Parloa’s New Cookbook: A Guide to Marketing and Cooking. New York:
C.T. Dillingham, 1882, c. 1880.

Here are just some of the recipes, which are fantastic!

Salt Fish Recipes

Print Recipe

Pickled Cucumbers, No. 2

Author: brendanolen Cuisine: American Courses: Appetizer

Difficulty: Beginner

Estimated Cost: $ 1

Ingredients

Servings

• 600 small cucumbers
• 2 quarts peppers
• 1 ¹⁄₂ cups pickling salt
• 1 cup alum
• 3 gallons cider vinegar
• 3 pints water
• ¹⁄₄ pound whole cloves
• ¹⁄₄ pound whole allspice
• ¹⁄₄ pound cinnamon sticks
• 2 ounces white mustard seed
• cabbage leaves (to cover)

Instructions

1. Wash and wipe six hundred small cucumbers and two quarts of peppers. Put them In a tub with one and a half cupfuls of salt and a piece of alum as large as an egg.

2. Heat to the boiling point three gallons of cider vinegar and three pints of water. Add a quarter of a pound each of whole cloves, whole allspice and stick cinnamon, and two ounces of white mustard seed, and pour over pickles.

3. Cover with cabbage leaves.

Keywords: pickle, cucumber, preserve, can