We hope these attempts at adapting 19th century recipes to the modern kitchen are helpful to you. Enjoy!


Baked Beans
The classic picnic dish in its older form. This will startle those who are used to the far sweeter modern version.

Boiled Potatoes
It's a potato. You boil it. So far so good? But now comes the tricky part...

Cauliflower Maccaroni
No, we haven't disabled our spellchecker. We're not sure what "maccaroni" meant in the 19th century, but just as a hint, this dish contains no pasta products whatever.

Chicken Pudding
"Pudding" was something of a catch-all term in earlier times and could contain just about anything, not unlike the word "casserole" today. This one contains chicken all right, but the surrounding materials may surprise you.

Chicken Salad
A dish at once commonplace in name and unique in execution, the secret ingredient is the dressing. The silver spoon is not mandatory.

French Pilau
This sounds exceedingly elegant while requiring nothing expensive, tricky or mystifying at all.

Fricassee Chicken
We suspect this was invented as a way to render older chickens tender enough for the dinner table. The sauce is rich, but...

Soft Gingerbread
This is a rich cake, not the sort of gingerbread intended for sculpted cookie making. Read the notes carefully and beware the Tidal Wave of Unbaked Dough!

To Make a Ham
If you have access to classic smoke-cured hams, this is the recipe to use when making one into an elegant and tasty dinner.

Ham Toast
A good breakfast or nice appetizer, and a happy ending for any leftovers from the previous recipe.

Oyster Stuffing for Fowl
Dedicated oyster lovers will think they have died and gone to heaven, and will probably be so distracted with delight that they will forget to eat any fowl.

Peas, Dressed
This is a family cookbook, so we will have none of those naked peas here, thank you very much.

Pork Cutlets
Classic 19th century cuisine, requiring more lard than the average modern cook has seen in all his or her previous lifetime.

Roast Partridge with Onion Sauce
Actual partridges are not required here, but the onion sauce is not to be missed. Stock up on the bread crumbs, though.

Hot Slaw
Sauerkraut lovers should not miss this one.

Sweet Potato Balls
A tasty and unique appetizer, somewhat tricky to make but entirely worth it for the end result.

Tomato Steak
This should be in the recipe box of anyone who raises garden tomatoes, as it will solve the problem of the occasional overload of too many tomatoes ripening at once.