Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-02-20
Cookery "a Hundred Years Ago.

A quaint old volume, issued in 1776 from a
Hartford printing house, forms reading mat
ter of an interesting character.
1t is entitled american Cookery or the art
of dressing viands, etc, adapted to all grades
of life" Just here it may be remarked, that
if the manual de cuisine in question was adapt
ed to all the grades of the American people
one hundred years ago, the people OF that era
must have been generally more prosperOusly
situated than are those who came hundred
years later; for "all the grades" in this nine
teenth century OF ours can by no means COM
| mand the somewhat expensive materials that
entered into the "viands" which Miss Sim
mems, the authoress, treats Of
For instance, the cheapest pudding, for
which she furnishes the receipt, is whirlpool
| which in addition to the bread of which it is
mainly compounded, calls for two quarts of
milk, a half pound of sugar and nutmeg, and
| rosewater to taste. Her receipt for pump
kim pie sets forth as the necessaries for its
| construction, one quart of stewed and strained
pumpkin, three pints Of sweet cream, ten
| well-beaten eggs, two glssses of wine, with
sugar, mace, nutmeg and ginger, to be baked
in deep dish with rich puff paste. For "sim-
| pie rice pudding" she directs the
use of six ounces of rice in a quart
| OF very sweet cream, pound
of sugar, and fourteen eggs beaten
| to stiff froth, one pound of raisins, and wine,
spices and salt to taste, together with rich
puff paste with which the baking dish is to be
| lined. The ingredients for "a plain economi-
cal Indian pudding" are seven spoonfuls of In
dian meal, three pints of very sweet cream,
seven well beaten eggs, half pound ofrals-
| ms, half pound of butter, the same compli-
ment of sugar, besides tiavoring of spices.
An imperial plum pudding fol eight persons
| was to be composed of four pounds of raisins,
two of currants, three of slivered citron, three
of sugar, two OF finely chopped suet, and two
of fine bread crumbs, six ounces of candied
| IF n,,l
mon, pint of brandy, the same of Madeira
| wine, two lemons and three dozen of eggs,
well beaten. For "a plain loaf cake" there
are to be six pounds of sugar, two of lard,
three of butter, twelve of flour, one quart of
milk, two ounces of cinnamon. two ounces of
nutmeg, a tea cup full of coriander seed, one
pint of brandy, the same compliment of Ma
deira wine, twenty-fo well beaten eggs, six
pounds of stoned raisins, and one pint of
"emptins." Miss Simmons does not state the
number of persons which this "plain cake'
may serve, but she does add, iflarge milk pans
would then require two hours baking
in proportion to smaller loaves.
Among those samples of the cooking of our
great grandmothers there are creams, and
tarts, and trifes, and Syllabus upon equally
generous foundations and of marvellous con-
struction. "A fine syllabub from the cow
was made of quart of hard cider, sweetened
with double refined sugar, and seasoned with
plenty of nutmeg. Into this the cow was
MIXED in the proportion deemed necessary
and over it a pint of cream or more, as wished
of the sweetest cream obtainable was poured
In view of this sort of fare adapted to al
grades of society,"" it might be pertinent tc
inquire what becomes of the theory of the
simple habits in force in the early homes o.
our ancestors; SO far as cookery is to be con
, sidered, If these specimens are to be accepted
as fair representative of the whole, the
|
10 deal with in the relation of the family fare
and dyspepsia, it must be supposed, was
malady less prevalent then than now. In
deed nothing short of robust digestive
organization could have dealt successfully
with such bills of fare as Miss Simmons bool
provides for, and, in that view perhaps, we
find the solution of the tough snews anC
dauntless spirits that won US the freedom O
1.-THE land we cherish" Here is receipt for plair
soft gingerbread which, superadded to who's,
| given above, would be a revelation to tn,
geniuses Of to-day, who undertake to guild,
, families in the discovery of nutrimental ele
! ments in few cents worth of food, and where
five, six, OR eight persons are supposed unde
such direction to find full and satisfactory far
, ia the material that might be purchased TO
less than the half of an American dollar L,
make this "plain soft ginger breadn Won rnl
| three pounds of sugar and two pounds of but
Q ter into threep pounds of flour, and twenty eggs
four ounces each of ginger and cinnamon an,
:, four spoons of rose water. These being tn
!. plain dishes, imagination must suggest wha
I the more elaborate ones must have been
additionally we know our forefathers wer
fond of roasts whether of animal game O
poultry; their allowances of the "best brand
and wines" were something more liberal thai
the usages of the present day permit at tn
D family table. 'They delighted in oysters
0 smothered fowls in the same, and dresse,
turtles after the mode of to-day :" Breakfas
tables were laden with fapjacks Compose
principally of eggs,) delicate golden waffies
U swimming in melted butter and sugar, wit
= hot biscuits and ruskes, with fried sausage
0 (home made), with ham and eggs, and crisr
: fried potatoes, and aromatic coffee, of whic
one pound of coffee, cleared wit
: four eggs, and STEPPED, not boiled was though
to be sufficient for the refreshment of six pei
sons. Perhaps this picture of alimentary lif
! in the past holds justification of the sayin
= ''the good old times" In that sense how
II the progress of this nineteenth century to b
% estimated? Beside Miss Simmons Manual {
If American Cookery printed in the storm
= times of 1776, which comes to us to-day like
= leaf futtering down the years, we have th
], production of another maiden entitle
n twenty five cent dinners for family of six
If printed in 1878. The coffee alone for I'll
breakfast of the family of six in the last cent,
= airy would cost nearly double the sum that Il
= writer In the present devotes to the who
family dinner Of six persons, and this auth,