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And I mean old recipes - a hundred years old or more.
Yes. Do you want some really old recipes? Mrs. Beeton's book was published in the 1800's and many of the Victorian Age recipes from her book have now been published online on this website.
The book itself has much more information plus illustrations in it but the website has a good selection of recipes to choose from. Keep in mind that a lot of the medical care information and some of the safe food handling instructions are out of date by today's advanced standards.
I had a thread where I posted my grandmother’s handwritten recipe book. For the most part, the recipes used very simple ingredients, and the quantities were small....a cake was 8x8, a cookie batch was about a dozen.
I have tons of old cookbooks, although not 100 years old. I have them from the 1960s. I love them because they were written before convenience foods, so they are all solid scratch standbys that are always good.
And I mean old recipes - a hundred years old or more.
Sure. With varying success. Things like 'corn cakes' or chicken stewed in cream and vegetables, and meat croquettes. But it's always fun and interesting, and I collect old cookbooks (a lot of these are now available as free ebooks).
The closest I can come to a vintage recipe is my gingerbread. I got it from an old cookbook published in the 1960s. But the author says she has had it so long she could not remember where she got it. It is a family favorite.
The only other recipe that I have that has to be old is Wilted Lettuce Salad, which I have eaten as a child and have made for my family many times. It is a country recipe that is probably at least 100 years old. Spring green onions and fresh new radishes make it great. I’ve never written the recipe down
I collect vintage and antique cook books so yes, I've made some really old recipes. I would bet that some of the recipes in my 1920s books are 100 years old or older.
One of the funniest ones I ever made is called "eggs in prison." That's right - so you see of course that I HAD to try that out. Actually it's pretty good. All it is is something similar to shirred eggs. The funny thing is that in these oldest cookbooks of mine, they often just say "meat" instead of a particular kind of meat (chicken, pork, beef, etc). So the recipe, from what I can recall, is something like this:
Meat
Lard
Eggs
Bread crumbs or bread cut in circles
Salt and pepper to taste
Grease muffin tins with lard. Line with meat, leaving an indention in the middle. Break egg into indention. Cover with either bread crumbs or piece of bread cut in a circle. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake in oven (no temperature given) till eggs are set, about 20 minutes.
This was actually pretty darn good. I used sausage as the meat.
The comment “no temperature given” made me smile. My grandma had an old Majestic wood range, everything had to be turned 1/4 turn about every 10-15 minutes. She burned lots of ple, biscuits, cookies.
I find really old recipes hard to fix because they assume you know what they mean by a statement like "make one recipe finest paste" or mystery amounts like "1 measure of salt." Even MFK Fisher messes with you sometimes, saying "put it in a slow oven." If the amounts are understandable and the directions aren't written in riddles, hey, some of the recipes are great.
I make a really tasty loaf cake from an old recipe. I do not know where I first came upon this recipe, years ago, but my recollection from the source is that it is "President William Henry Harrison's favorite cake." He was president in 1841, died after a month in office, so it is plenty old enough. ;-)
President Harrison's Molasses Cake
1/4 t salt
1/2 t ground cloves
1 t baking soda
1/2 C butter
1/2 C sugar
1 C molasses
2 eggs
2 and 1/2 C all purpose flour
1/2 C sour cream
Blend first 4 ingredients until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, mixing well. Mix in molasses and 1/2 C flour. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add remaining flour and sour cream alternately, beating well after each addition. Finally, beat entire mixture well for about 1 more minute.
Bake at 325 (slow oven) for 60-75 minutes in a well greased 9x5x3 loaf pan. Cool in pan 20 minutes.
The "improvements" that I make are- In addition to cloves, I add 2 t ground ginger. (and 1/2 t allspice and 1 t cinnamon, if I'm feeling very spicy) Instead of 1/2 C butter, I use 1/4 C butter and 1/4 C neutral oil. Instead of 1/2 C sugar, I use a scant 1/4 C brown sugar. (the molasses makes it pretty sweet enough) Instead of 2 1/2 C all purpose flour, I use 2 C whole wheat flour and a scant 1/2 C of either wheat germ, ground flax seed, ground oatmeal or a combination of these three. Instead of sour cream I use plain fat free Greek yogurt. But with these changes, then I guess it is no longer a very old recipe. ;-)
I will be trying this one soon. I have Amish market molasses just begging to be used!
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