Tag Archives: old

Canning, Food Storage, Preserving, Recipe

Miss Parloa’s New Cookbook 1882

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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!

Pickled Beets

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • beets boiled, skinned, and sliced
Per Each Beet
  • 1 onion slice
  • 1 tablespoon horseradish grated
  • 6 cloves whole
  • vinegar to cover

Method
 

  1. Cut boiled beets in slices. Lay these in a large glass jar or earthen pot.
  2. For every beet, put in one slice of onion, on tablespoonful of grated horseradish, six cloves, and vinegar enough to cover.
  3. The beets will be ready to use in ten or twelve hours. They will not keep more than a week.

Pickled Blueberries

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • blueberries fresh or frozen
  • molasses to cover

Method
 

  1. Nearly fill a jar with ripe berries, and fill up with good molasses. Cover, and set away. In a few weeks they will be ready to use.

Spiced Currants

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 3 pounds sugar
  • 1 pint vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 6 pounds currants

Method
 

  1. Add all of the ingredients (except currants) to a large pot and bring to a boil. Stir until thickened.
  2. Stir in the currants, and cook for 30 minutes.

Pickled Cucumbers, No. 2

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 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

Method
 

  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.

Salt Fish Recipes

To Cook Salt Codfish

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • salt cod
  • water

Method
 

  1. The fish should be thoroughly washed, and soaked in cold water over night.
  2. In the morning drain the fish and add fresh water. Turn on your burner to high, until it comes to a boil. As soon as the water comes to the boiling point, reduce to a simmer.
  3. From four to six hours will cook a very dry, hard fish, and there are kinds which will cook in half an hour

Salt Fish with Dropped Eggs

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pint cooked salt cod flaked
  • 1 pint milk or cream
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 6 eggs
  • 6 bread slices toasted
  • salt to taste
  • pepper to taste

Method
 

  1. Put milk on to boil, keeping half a cupful of it to mix the flour. Whisk in flour with 1/2 cup of milk. Once the milk boils, whisk in flour/milk mixture.
  2. Add the fish, season with salt and pepper, and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes.
  3. Heat water in a pot on medium high heat until it boils. Break each egg onto a small plate, then let the egg slide into the water. Poach all six eggs until desired doneness.
  4. Place the toasted bread on a platter. Pour the fish cream over each slice, then top with a poached egg.
  5. Garnish the dish with points of toast and parsley.

Salt Codfish, in Puree of Potatoes

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 6 potatoes large
  • 3 cups milk
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 slice onion
  • 1 pint cooked salt cod
  • salt to taste
  • pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon flour

Method
 

To Prepare The Potatoes
  1. Pare the potatoes and boil half an hour; then drain off the water, and mash them light and fine. Add the salt, pepper, one tablespoonful of butter, and the cupful of milk, which has been allowed to come to a boil. Beat very thoroughly, and spread a thin layer of the potatoes on the center of a hot platter. Heap the remainder around the edge, making a wall to keep in the cream and fish.
To Prepare The Fish
  1. Put the pint of milk on to boil with the onion. Mix flour and butter together, and when well mixed, add two tablespoonfuls of the hot milk. Stir all into the boiling milk, skim out the onion , add the fish and cook ten minutes. Season with pepper, and if not salt enough, with salt.
  2. Pour into center of the potatoes, garnish the outer ring with parsley, and serve.

Notes

This is a nice dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Salt Fish Souffle

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pint cooked salt fish finely chopped
  • 8 potatoes medium sized
  • 3/4 cup milk or cream hot
  • 2 eggs whole
  • 2 eggs separated
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • salt to taste
  • pepper to taste

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Pare the potatoes and boil thirty minutes. Drain the water from them, and mash very fine; then mix thoroughly with the fish.
  3. In a small saucepan, scald the milk or cream. Then add this, butter, salt, and pepper to the potato mixture.
  4. Let mixture cool while you beat the two whole eggs. Add to potato mixture, spread in a 13 x 9 inch baking dish, and bake for 10 minutes.
  5. Separate the last two eggs, setting aside the yolks. Beat the yolks. In a very clean bowl, beat the egg whites to a stiff peak, then fold in 1/4 teaspoon salt and the yolks.
  6. Remove baking dish from oven, spread egg white mixture over the top, then return to the oven to brown. Serve.