Edwardian Baked Potato Rolls

Tags

heritage recipes, historical food, potatoes, side dishes, vintage recipes

While putting together my menu for my vintage dinner party, I made a vow to include a potato dish for my husband, who is not a lover of salad or eggplant.

This is a super easy recipe appropriate for solving that common post-family dinner problem-what to do with all those leftover mashed potatoes!

The recipe comes from Dr. Allinson’s Cookery Book, published in 1915. Thomas Allinson was a British doctor who advocated the vegetarian diet and the consumption of whole-grain breads.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds cold mashed potatoes
• One boiled onion
• 3 tablespoons butter plus small dish melted butter
• Yolk of one egg
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Chop onion fine and mix it in a large bowl with the potatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients, ready for mixing. You’d think the nutmeg would be a weird addition but it gives the “dough” a unique flavor!

My friend Jen demonstrates how to separate an egg yolk and white without an egg separator. Basically, you just juggle the egg between the two halves of the shell until all the white is removed.

Roll the mixture into balls, about 2-3 inches round and place on greased cookie sheet.

Ready for the oven!

Brush over them with pastry brush dipped in melted butter and bake at 400 degrees for 10-20 minutes.

Potato, or po-ta-to… they’re cute and easy!

Serve while still warm!

White Mountain Muffins, ca. 1899

Tags

easy weeknight meals, heritage recipes, historical food, homemade bread, muffins, quick meals, side dishes, vintage recipes

I’ve told you I have the best friends, right? My bell choir partner Jane Masters has won a special place in my heart, by bringing me four vintage cookbooks salvaged from the basement of one of her friend’s relatives. These books are rare beauties, complete with handwritten recipes, clippings from newspapers, and-I kid you not-a dried up four-leaf clover tucked inside one of the copies! The oldest of the books dates back to 1879! I cried when she gave them to me-no kidding.

One of the books is The American Pure Food Cookbook and Household Economist.

How awesome is this cover? George Washington displays his prized, dead turkey to a guy with a coonskin cap.

Check out the inside cover.

Signed by original owner? With the date and her hometown, I presume. $3.00 is perhaps the selling price?

It credits six authors, including David Chidlow, President of the Chidlow Institute of Milling and Baking Technology, Myra Russell Garrett of the Providence, Rhode Island Cooking School, Mary Vail of the Indianapolis Industrial Training School, Cereal Specialist Ella Shuart (I want that job!), Eben Rexford of “Ladies Home Journal”, and R.W. Webster, M.D. from the Rush Medical College in Chicago.

She’s such a good cook, she’s got a star on her cap.

It may need rebinding but I am super thrilled to have this in my collection. My first dish is this easy muffin recipe-perfect for busy mornings or served as a side dish as dinner for a change from the usual biscuit or dinner roll. The muffins are plain and so they go well with butter, jam, peanut butter, or whatever you like. Their name pays homage to their puffy finished appearance.

Ingredients
• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 eggs, well-beaten
• One cup milk
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin tins (enough for 15 or 16 muffins) with cooking spray and place into oven while preheating.
Cream butter in a large mixing bowl.

This step is easy with a mixer. Just set it on speed two for about a minute.

Gradually add sugar, then milk, then eggs. Next add flour and mix, then baking powder, then salt.

This recipe is easy, because you just keep adding ingredients to the mix. No prep.

Pour mixture into hot greased muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes, until tops are brown and puffy and resemble little mountains!

See how puffy?

Enjoy!

They’re yummy with jam!

Meat and Potato Turnovers, ca. 1919

Tags

beef, easy weeknight meals, leftovers, mashed potatoes, potatoes, quick meals, side dishes, turkey

In my kitchen, making mashed potatoes is like making pasta-no matter how I try to calculate how much I’ll need, I always end up with leftovers. And I think plain leftover mashed potatoes are boring. So I’m always looking for recipes to use up the excess. I’ve done a couple of  recipes in a row with mashed potatoes so… that’s the theme for this weekend’s recipe posts!

The nice thing about this recipe is that it also uses up any leftover meat you may have.  It says you can fry or bake the turnovers. I did both-and of course, frying tasted better!

This recipe comes from Vaughan’s Vegetable Cook Book, published in 1919. Vaughan’s was a seed company. This makes about 12 turnovers.

Ingredients
• 1 ¼ cup mashed potatoes
• 12 tablespoons of flour
• 6 tablespoons butter, diced
• Minced meat-beef, poultry or fish
• Seasoning to taste
• Oil for frying (optional)

Instructions
Put the mashed potatoes in a large bowl. Add the flour, one tablespoons at a time, blending each tablespoons in with a mixer. Do that same thing with the butter-add it a little bit at a time and blend.

The mashed potatoes blended with flour and butter.

Flour a surface, a rolling pin, a biscuit cutter, and your hands thoroughly (the dough is very sticky).

See how sticky?

Pick up the dough as best you can, rolling it in the flour until it’s easier to manage. Then roll out the dough to about an inch thick.

It looks like this when rolled out

Cut circles with the biscuit cutter.

Making potato circles

On half the circles, place about a tablespoon of minced meat. Season (I used Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle).

With the meat and seasoning

Lay another plain circle on top of each meat-covered circle and pinch the edges together.
If you choose to fry, heat about half a cup of oil in a heavy saucepan or skillet. On medium low, fry the turnovers about 5-7 minutes on each side or until dark brown and crispy. Lay on paper towels to drain.

Baking is healthier-but frying tastes better.

If you wish to bake the turnovers, heat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Lay the turnovers on the cookie sheet and bake about 20-30 minutes, until lightly brown and crispy.

Finished-they were really delicious!

Enjoy!

Escalloped Egg Plant, ca. 1898

Tags

heritage recipes, historical food, side dishes, vegetables, vintage recipes

Eggplant is a tricky vegetable-people either love it or hate. I fall into the former category-I love it’s gorgeous, deep purple hue and it’s wonderful, soft center. And I had six of these beauties in the frig as I planned my vintage dinner party so… I decided to take a chance and parade them out in a vintage dish.

My gamble paid off. Escalloped eggplant was well received! No doubt, the cream had something to do with it. Julia Child would have approved.

This recipe comes from the Golden Age Cookbook, published in 1898 by Henrietta Latham Dwight. The title refers to Dwight’s hope that turn of the century would usher in a “golden age” of vegetarianism. I admit to taking some liberties with the original recipe-I used more bread crumbs and spices. The original also calls for onion juice, which I dropped. And the original calls for topping the dish with breadcrumbs and butter *before* baking-personally, I think that is going a bit overboard.

This recipe is a departure from my standby uses for eggplant-either as part of ratatouille or fried in cornmeal. It would make a great addition to the Thanksgiving table!

There may be moments as you prepare it where you wonder why the heck you bothered-and whether it’ll turn out. Have faith-it’s really worth the effort!

Ingredients
• 6 small to medium size eggplant
• ½ cup bread crumbs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon Old Bay spice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Slice the eggplant in half, lengthwise. Place the halves in a large stew pot and cover with water.

You’ll notice that eggplant is one of those vegetables that goes brown as soon as you cut it. Fear not-the color does not affect the flavor.

Boil on high until the flesh is pretty soft and the skin peels easily away from the flesh, about 30 minutes. (Warning: boiling eggplant does not smell very good). Drain and allow to cool.

Boiled and cooled eggplant

When the eggplant is cool enough to handle, use your fingers to remove the skin-throw it away. (Warning-peeling eggplant will temporarily stain your fingers).

You may wonder why I didn’t peel the eggplant before boiling. The peel actually keeps the flesh from overcooking. It comes off very easily anyway-it was less work that using a peeler.

Remove the seeds from the eggplant if you can. I did this by running my fingers along the seeded areas and popping them out in one section. I did end up with some seeds in the dish-it didn’t seem to have any impact on the final product so if you can’t get all the seeds out, don’t fret!

Run your thumb along the seeds and pop them right out of the flesh!

Cut the remaining flesh into bite size pieces and place them in a large bowl.

Peeled and deseeded

Mix them with the remaining ingredients.

Cream and spices and butter!

Turn the mixture into a greased casserole dish and bake it at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until it’s slightly brown and crusted. Serve!

Finished product!

As I said, it’s a very French dish-creamy and rich. My guests expressed surprise at how much they liked it. Enjoy!

Winter Salad Marinated in French Dressing, ca. 1920

Tags

heritage recipes, potatoes, salad, side dishes, vegetables

Did you ever get halfway through a recipe and then think, ”Uh-oh, I don’t think this one is going to be as good as it sounded on paper!”

I had that moment while preparing this salad for my recent dinner party. The dressing was the culprit-I was worried it would be too “bitey.” Thank goodness, my fears turned out to be completely unfounded. It was really delicious!

I chose this from the recipe book for the Women’s Institute of Cookery, which is a division of the Women’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences. The institute was founded in the late 1890’s to help women learn the basics of household management, including food preparation. The volume of recipes was published in the 1920’s.

It comes with this preface: A salad made entirely of winter vegetables may be prepared when there are no fresh vegetables in supply. A good plan to follow when carrots, turnips or potatoes are being prepared for a meal is to cook more than is necessary for the one meal and then set aside part of them for a salad to be served at another meal.”

One recipe serves six people as an appetizer.

Ingredients
• 1 cup diced turnips
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced potatoes
• 1 tablespoon chopped onion
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon prepared mustard
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon paprika
• ½ cup oil
• Head of iceberg lettuce

Instructions

Place turnips, carrots and potatoes and onions into water and bring to boil.

Veggies, just before I set them to boil.

Boil for about 2-3 minutes, then turn off the water but allow to stay on the heat until they are cooked just to fork tender stage. (you do not want them to be mushy at all). Drain and set aside to cool in large bowl.

Place salt, mustard, pepper, vinegar, paprika and oil in a bowl. Add an ice cube.

The trick, I’ve learned, to quickening emulsion in oil/vinegar dressings is to add an ice cube.

Whisk the dressing until emulsified. Refrigerate until two hours before serving. You may have to remix the dressing before you pour it onto the vegetables.

Two hours before serving time, pour the dressing over the vegetables, mix thoroughly so all the vegetables are covered with dressing. Cover bowl and refrigerate to marinate.

Dishing out the salad.

Before serving, place a leaf or two of iceberg lettuce on salad plate. With a slotted spoon, dish out the marinated vegetables onto the iceberg. Serve!

The finished product. It’s really delicious and beautiful!

Egg Biscuits, ca. 1887

Tags

biscuits, bread, heritage recipes, historical food, old recipes, side dishes, vintage recipes

I think my epitaph should read: “She liked bread… all kinds.”

On a recent busy night, with a hankering for a side of bread but without the time to make a full loaf, I ran across this quick and easy biscuit recipe in the White House Cookbook, published in 1887. I halved the original recipe, and I still got two cookie sheets worth of biscuits, enough to last for several days for my family of four.

The taste reminds me a lot of Parker House Rolls-the consistency of the dough is similar-without all the work. They’re great warm out of the oven with butter or at room temperature with jam and tea!

Ingredients

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of butter, chopped
• 1 well-beaten egg
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup of milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together flour and baking powder. Mix the butter in thoroughly until it resembles course crumbs.

Everything tastes better with butter-even biscuits!

That’s the look you’re going for.

Add eggs, sugar, salt. Add the milk and mix all together quickly into a soft dough.

It should look like this before rolling.

Roll out nearly half of an inch thick. Cut into biscuits, and bake immediately for 15 minutes or until done and lightly brown.

Cutting biscuits with the cutter I inherited from my grandmother-in-law.

Delicious and super-easy!

Butter, anyone?

Enjoy!

Stewed Okra and Tomatoes, ca. 1860

Tags

easy weeknight meals, historical food, okra, onions, side dishes, tomatoes, vintage recipes

I’m back!

In case you’ve been wondering, I took a three week hiatus to help my husband put a new roof on our house. Mostly by ourselves and with the help of family and friends on weekends. Yep, we’re crazy.

We went from this…

Tearing off two layers of shingles-what a mess.

to this…

New sheeting, weather-proof paper, and new shingles. Check out the scissors lift!

to this.

All done. The shingles are Owens-Corning Colonial Slate. Yep, I picked it because it’s colonial!!

I spent a lot of time up there, thinking about the pioneers and the pilgrims, building their own homes together without a Lowe’s or Home Depot within a 10 minute drive for supplies-and without a pizza place or burger joint to supply them with food after a long day’s work.  For once, I’m glad to live in modern times.

I was happy to finish because it meant I could get back into the kitchen and the garden! I managed to make one last harvest before the garden goes dead for the winter.  Armed with okra and tomatoes, I got cooking.

I found this recipe in “The Virginia Housewife” by Mary Randolph, published in 1860. You might also call this “the easiest vegetable side dish ever created.”

Here’s the original instructions: Take an equal quantity of each, let the ochra be young, slice it, and skin the tomatos; put them into a pan without water, add a lump of butter, an onion chopped fine, some pepper and salt, and stew them one hour.

Ingredients
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 6-8 young okra pods, sliced
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place the onion in the pot.

Red onions are prettiest, don’t you think?

Then the okra!

Okra-check!

Next come the tomatoes.
Top with the butter and salt and pepper.

Such a pretty dish!

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for one hour.

This tasted like ratatouille, without all the work

Enjoy!

City Tavern’s Potato, Mushroom and Onion Casserole

Tags

City Tavern, heritage recipes, historical food, mushrooms, potatoes, side dishes, vintage recipes

This is one of the best potato recipes I’ve ever made.

It comes from “The City Tavern” cookbook,  from the famous Philadelphia tavern where our country’s founding fathers once ate and talked over the business of the new United States. The chefs of the tavern have actually created this recipe by combining elements of potato dishes recorded by two famous colonial cooks-Mary Randolph, author of “The Virginia Housewife” and First Lady Martha Washington.

This is a great weeknight recipe. The most time-consuming part is the slicing of the ingredients. Once you have that done, it only takes about 30 minutes to get it to table.

Ingredients

• 7 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 pound button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 8 medium red skinned potatoes or 5 large Yukons, peeled and sliced very thin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 bunches fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat 4 tablespoons of butter and the oil in large skilled over high heat.

Add the mushrooms and sauté for five minutes until light brown and tender. Remove from skillet and reserve.

In the same skillet, sauté the onions and garlic for three minutes, until golden brown. Reserve.

Pat the sliced potatoes dry with paper towels. Place half the potato slices in the bottom of a large baking dish that’s been greased. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the parsley.

Top with the reserved mushrooms and onions.

Add the remaining potato slices. Sprinkle again with salt and pepper nad dot with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter.

Bake for 15 minutes. Pour the cream evenly over the potatoes, top with parmesan, and bake for another 10 minutes.
I moved my rack to the lowest position in the oven so the parmesan cheese wouldn’t get too brown.

When the potatoes are fork-tender, it’s ready!

Enjoy!

Julia Child’s Ratatouille

Tags

Julia Child recipes, side dishes, vegetables

Here’s the extent of what I knew about Ratatouille before attempting this recipe.
1.) It’s French.
2.) It involves vegetables.
3.) There’s a Parisian rat that really knows how to cook it well. Oh wait, that was a movie.

Thanks to an abundant harvest from my generous mother’s garden, I was able to attempt my first Ratatouille and there was no better time to do so than during the ten-day “Cook for Julia” event for PBS. Here’s what I learned from making it.
1.) It’s labor intensive and takes a long time.
2.) I can spell it now.
3.) It’s delicious.

Ingredients
• 1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into sticks about half an inch wide and three inches long
• 1 medium zucchini, peeled and cut to match the eggplant
• 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup diced yellow onions
• 2 medium sliced green peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, mashed
• 1 pound firm, red ripe tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons minced parsley

Instructions
Place eggplant and zucchini in a large bowl. Toss with one teaspoon salt. Let stand for 30 minutes.

At the end of the time, there will be some juice in the bottom of the bowl. Drain, and pat dry vegetables thoroughly with paper towels. Set aside.

Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and set to boil. Drop tomatoes, one at a time, into the boiling water for 10 seconds each. Remove. Peel skins off tomatoes.

Slice them in half widthwise, and squeeze out juice and seeds over wastebasket. Set juiced tomatoes aside.

Once the eggplant and zucchini are dried and ready, preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium-high heat in deep-set pan to prevent oil splashing. When it’s hot, sauté zucchini and eggplant in oil for about five minutes or until just lightly brown. Place just enough vegetables in pan to cover the bottom. Remove to side dish. Repeat until all zucchini and eggplant are cooked.

Reduce heat to medium. In the same skillet, cook the onions and peppers slowly in olive oil for about 10 minutes, until they are tender but not browned. Stir in garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
Slice the juiced tomato halves. Lay them over the peppers and onions. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, or until tomatoes begin to render their juices. Uncover, baste the tomatoes with their juices, raise the heat and boil for several minutes until the juice nearly evaporates.

Grease a casserole dish. Layer one-third of the tomato mixture in the bottom and sprinkle with one tablespoon of the parsley. Arrange half the eggplant/zucchini mixture on top, then another third of the tomato mixture and another tablespoons of parsley. Finish with the rest of the eggplant/zucchini mixture and the rest of the tomato mixture and parsley.

Cover and place in oven for 10 minutes. Raise the heat to 350 degrees. Uncover the veggies, gently stir, and cook for 15 minutes more.

Serve! Enjoy!
For more recipes from the Cooking for Julia event on PBS, click here!

Jane Austen’s White Soup

Tags

historical food, Jane Austen, side dishes, soup, vintage recipes

I’ve had a fascination with white soup after reading Jane Austen’s novels. She makes mention of it several times in describing dinner parties attended by her characters. Soup was usually served in the first course of the meal and white soup is mentioned in particular in Pride and Prejudice by Mr. Bingley as he fixes a date for the Netherfield ball, saying, “It is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my cards.” It’s also mentioned in the 2011 book, “Death Comes to Pemberly”, a very good Pride and Prejudice sequel by P.D. James.

I have learned that there are vast differences in the actual makeup of white soup, depending on the cook. I’ve seen four recipes so far-each consists of a water base and contain celery and onions. Some also throw in a little meat, anchovies, almonds, and egg yolks! I chose this version for several reasons-it’s easy to make, I had all the ingredients and, like my Regency counterparts, I wanted to serve it as a first course of a meal so I did not want the inclusion of meat. And I dislike anchovies!

The original version of this recipe is as follows:

Put in a clean sauce pan two or three quarts of water, the crum of a two penny loaf with a bundle of herbs, some whole pepper, two or three cloves, an onion or two cut across and a little salt: let it boil covered till it is quite smooth; take celery, endive and lettuce only the white parts, cut them in pieces, not too small and boil them till they are very tender, strain your soup off into a clean stew pan; put your herbs in, with a good piece of butter stirred in it till the butter is melted, and let it boil for some time till it is very smooth. If any scum arises, take it off very clean: soak a small French roll, nicely rasped, in some of the soup, put it in the middle of the dish, pour in your soup and sent it to table.

I will warn you that I found the soup very bland. I would suggest replacing the water with chicken or beef stock, at least in part, to add flavor. Also, feel free to leave out the cloves-they add an interesting taste to the broth but unless you’re an adventurous foodie, you will probably like this better without them. Finally, you can use any combination of greens in place of the endive and lettuce. For my version, I used a whole head of lettuce but I think spinach would also be very tasty.

Ingredients
• 3 quarts water (1 quart water, 2 quarts chicken or beef stock)
• 2 cups bread crumbs
• ¼ cup chopped-parsley, sage, oregano, thyme and basil
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 3 whole cloves
• 2 medium onions, peeled and halved
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 stalks celery, cut crosswise into 1 inch pieces
• 2 heads endive, coarsely chopped
• ½ head lettuce, coarsely chopped
• 3 tbsp butter

Instructions
In a stock pot, bring the water (or stock) along with the bread crumbs, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, onions and salt to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium low; cover , and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the soup through a fine strainer.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the celery and boil 5 minutes.

Add the endive and lettuce and boil till tender, about 5 minutes more.

Drain the vegetables and add them to the strained bread broth. Add the butter and stir until the butter is melted.

Pour the soup into bowls. Serve hot. Feel free to garnish with a piece of toasted French bread or a hard French roll, placed in the middle of each bowl.