Old Recipe's from the Past

My Family History (Genealogy Site)

Old Recipe's from the Past

Ever wondered what kind of food our ancestor's had for their meals and how they prepared them. I have added some old recipes and if you have an old recipe that you would like to add email it to me and I will add it on here.

Refrigeration was not easy so most meats had to be preserved. That is why it was smoked, sugar or salt cured or sausages made. Cuts of meat were hung in smokehouses and treated with smoke to toughen the outer part making them hard for a critter to get into. It also removed moisture that otherwise would have allowed bacteria and fungus to grow and spoil the meat. Salt, pepper and sugar were used together or separately to preserve some meats. Dried or jerked meat would last for untold lengths of time. Pickling, by a process much like making brined pickles or sauerkraut, was also used — even fish was pickled. Sausages were not only a different taste treat, but also, their shapes made them easier to store. They could simply be hung up. Actually, much of the family's meat supply was stored by hanging either in the smokehouse or larder. Nearly every homestead had a smokehouse and its size might indicate how many people lived there and how prosperous they were. Often the smokehouse had racks in it for smoking fish or other small items.

There were actually some cooling means, but most were not sufficient for meats. People sometimes had a creek that they could dig out a bit and cover to keep away heat from the sun. They stored milk and butter or other "not too fragile" items there. Some folks made boxes to keep ice in. A box would be constructed to hold ice, then it was placed into a second box and the space in between packed with sawdust or straw. Still, until the advent of the commercial icebox and icemaking machines, refrigeration was sketchy at best!

This recipe is at least 150 years old or older. This was Beddie O'Rear's family recipe. This is a very good cake, i've eaten it several times. Ed Lum

Plain Cake (pound cake).

1 cup ( lard ) shortening

3 cups flour

1 cup milk

1 tsp. baking powder

4 eggs (separated) Yoke & Whites

2 1/2 cups sugar

2 tbsp. vanilla flavoring

pinch of salt

Mix cake, using all ingredients except egg whites. when cake is mixed, beat egg whites until stiff and fold into cake. Bake 1 hour at 300 deg.

Roast Pigeons
Clean, wash and dress as you would chickens; lay several in your dripping-pan, in rows; add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan; baste three or four times with butter, after that baste often with their own gravy. Thicken the gravy with a little flour. Lay them close together on a plate, and serve with crab-apple or quince jelly.

"To Make Chocolate"

To each square of chocolate cake allow three jills [two jills=1/2 pint] or a chocolate cupe and a half of boiling water.
Scrape down the chocolate with a knife, and mix it first to a paste with a small quantity of the hot water; just enought to melt it in.
Then put it inot a block tin pot with the remainder of the water; set it on hot coals; cover it, and let it boil (stirrint it twice) till the liquid is one third reduced.
Supply that third with cream or rich milk; stir it again, and take it off the fire.
Serve it up as hot as possible, with dry toast, or dry rusk.
It chills immediately. If you wish it frothed, pour it into the cup, and twirl in it the little wooden insturment called a chocolate mill [like the Mexican "molinillo"], till you have covered to top with foam.

Green Corn Pudding
Take a half a dozen ears of green sweet corn, and with a sharp pointed knife, split each row of kernels and scrape from the ear; mix with this pulp two eggs, well beaten, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one tablespoon of butter, one saltspoon of salt, half a pint of sweet cream (or or milk with an extra spoonful of butter), and one dozen crackers, pounded fine. Mix well together and bake two or three hours. Use the corn raw.

Roast Goose with Potato Stuffing Recipe
1 goose (about 8 pounds)
Potato stuffing
Salt pork if goose is not fat
Salt and pepper
Flour
Select a goose that is about four months old; an old goose is better braised than roasted. Singe the goose, wash it carefully in hot water, and wipe it dry before drawing it. Flatten the breast bone by striking it with a rolling pin. Partly fill the goose with potato stuffing, stitch up the openings and truss it. If it is not fat, lay thin slices of pork upon the breast, but if the goose has considerable fat, omit the pork. Bake in a hot oven (400-480 degrees F.) For forty-five minutes, remove it from the oven, pour out all the fat, sprinkle the bird all over with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and return it to the oven. When the flour is a good brown, pour one cup of hot water into the pan and baste the goose often, dredging it each time with a slight sifting of flour to absorb the fat. Allow eighteen minutes to the pound for a young goose and t wenty-five for one that is old. Remove the goose from the pan, add a cup of hot water to the gravy and thicken it, if necessary, with browned flour. Garnish the goose with parsley and serve with giblet gravy. Apple sauce is often served with roast goose. Goslings may be roasted in the same way, allowing, however, only fifteen minutes to the pound for cooking.

This recipe dates back to the 1700's

Origional Natchitoches Meat Pie Recipe

Meat Pie Filling:

2 tsp.shortenimng

1 lb. ground beef

1lb. ground pork

1 bunch green onions chopped

1 pod garlic, minced

1 bell pepper chopped

1 med.onion chopped

Salt, black pepper,red pepper to taste

1 tbl. spoon flour

Meat Pie Crust

1 quart plain flour

2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bakimng powder1/2 cup shortening + 1 tablespoon full

1 cup milk

Instructions:

Melt shortening in heavy pot. Add meat cook until pink is gone. Add vegatables

season to taste.

(season well, as meat will lose seasoning during frying) When meat is completely done ans vegatables glazed, remove from heat and drain excess loquid. Stir in 1 table soppn flour.

Sift dry ingredients together. Cut in shortening. Beat egg and add to milk. Work gradually into dry ingredients until proper consistancy to roll. Break imnto small pieces and roll very thin. Cut into rounds using a saucer as a guide.

To Assemble:

Place a large tablespoon of meat along edge and halfway in the center of round dough. Fold the other half over , making edges meet and seal with fork. Drop in deep fat and cook until golden brown. Drain and serve hot. Makes approx 18.

Donated by Ed Lumm

Confederate Johnnie Cake Recipe

two cups of cornmeal
2/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Mix ingredients into a stiff batter and form eight biscuit-sized "dodgers". Bake on a lightly greased sheet at 350 degrees for twenty to twenty five minutes or until brown. Or spoon the batter into hot cooking oil in a frying pan over a low flame. Remove the corn dodgers and let cool on a paper towel, spread with a little butter or molasses, and you have a real southern treat!

Some of the other items that soldiers received were salt pork, fresh or salted beef, coffee, sugar, salt, vinegar, dried fruit and dried vegetables. If the meat was poorly preserved, the soldiers would refer to it as "salt horse". Sometimes they would receive fresh vegetables such as carrots, onions, turnips and potatoes. Confederate soldiers did not have as much variety in their rations as Union soldiers did. They usually received bacon and corn meal, tea, sugar or molasses, and fresh vegetables when they were available. While Union soldiers had their "skillygallee", Confederates had their own version of a quick dish on the march. Bacon was cooked in a frying pan with some water and corn meal added to make a thick, brown gravy similar in consistency to oatmeal. The soldiers called it "coosh" and though it does not sound too appetizing, it was a filling meal and easy to fix.

Union Hardtack Recipe

2 cups of flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat
6 pinches of salt
Mix the ingredients together into a stiff batter, knead several times, and spread the dough out flat to a thickness of 1/2 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake for one-half an hour at 400 degrees. Remove from oven, cut dough into 3-inch squares, and punch four rows of holes, four holes per row into the dough. Turn dough over, return to the oven and bake another one-half hour. Turn oven off and leave the door closed. Leave the hardtack in the oven until cool. Remove and enjoy!

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