The CWI Cookbook

Posts Tagged ‘flour’

 10 c. flour
6 c. sugar
3 c. butter
3 c. buttermilk or sour cream thinned with milk
8 eggs
1 c. wine
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg, ground
1 lb. currants
1 lb. raisins

To ten cups of flour, put six of sugar, three of butter, three of sour milk (a little warm), eight eggs, a glass of wine, a large teaspoonful of saleratus, a nutmeg, a pound of currants, a pound of raisins.

From The Young Housekeeper’s Friend by Mrs. [M. H.] Cornelius, 1865.

Comment: We know this is intended to be a “cup cake” because it is in a section of Mrs. Cornelius’ book with that overall label. As the little paper cupcake holders with which we are familiar today had not yet been invented, these were normally baked in, well, cups. Regular cups normally used for coffee, tea or the like. One would probably not use the finest family china for this task, but any sturdy porcelain or other smooth drinking vessel would be appropriate.

“Saleratus” was a precursor of baking powder used to produce rising in baked goods for which yeast was not appropriate. Use regular baking powder in similar proportions. Using the quantity of ingredients listed here will produce a great whacking lot of cupcakes, so for family use one might want to consider cutting the amounts called for in half.

 1 roast (beef, ham or poultry)
1/2 pint flour
1/2 pint water
Salt as desired

Most people put a half a pint of flour and water into their tin-kitchen, when they set meat down to roast. This does very well; but gravy is better flavored, and looks darker, to shake flour and salt upon the meat; let it brown thoroughly, put flour and salt on again, and then baste the meat with about half a pint of hot water (or more, according to the [amount of] gravy you want.) When the meat is about done, pour these drippings into a skillet, and let it boil. If it is not thick enough, shake in a little flour; but be sure to let it boil, and be well stirred, after the flour is in. If you fear it will be too greasy, take off a cupful of the fat before you boil. The fat of beef, pork, turkeys and geese is as good for shortening as lard. Salt gravy to your taste. If you are very particular about dark gravies, keep your dredging-box full of scorched flour for that purpose.

From The American Frugal Housewife by Mrs. [Lydia] Child, 1833

Comment: “Scorched flour” does not sound like a very attractive item, but under its more common name of browned flour is well regarded even today for gravy-making. It is made by simply putting common flour–either white or whole wheat–into a dry frying pan and cooking it over low to medium heat, stirring continually, until it looks cooked. (White flour will become brown, and since whole wheat is browner to begin with it will simply become more so.) More important than the greater darkness of the resulting gravy is the fact that the scorching process cooks the flour in advance of its actual addition to the sauce. Many failures in gravy-making can be traced to the flour or other thickening agent being insufficiently cooked in the pan, resulting in a pasty consistency and unpleasant taste.

 4 lb. flour
1 lb. butter
1 lb. sugar
6 eggs
1 pint milk
1/2 pint yeast (use 2 cakes or packets commercial yeast)
Carroway seeds as desired

Four pound flour, 1 pound butter, 1 pound sugar, 6 eggs, 1 pint milk, half pint yeast; mix the flour and sugar with carroway seed, melt the butter, and with the milk mix it all together; bake them quick.

From American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, 2nd edition, Albany NY 1796

Comment: This recipe is so old that the original book uses spellings with the “medial S,” a now (thankfully) obsolete letter resembling a lower case “f”. Assuming that our readers do not wish to wade through directions like “1 pound fugar” and “half pint yeaft,” we have taken the liberty of modernizing things a bit.

“Bake them quick” does not mean to tear through the process as if you were trying to set a speed record, it means to use a hot oven. We suggest trying 400 degrees, checking them frequently, and removing when they appear done, then noting the time required for future reference in case they prove popular and you want to make them again.

The fact that yeast is involved suggests that after mixing this dough should be given some time to rise, but since Ms. Simmons does not make mention of any such thing we can only shrug helplessly and leave the matter to the discretion of the cook.

 4 1/2 c. flour
3 c. sugar
1 c. butter
1 c. cream
1 tsp. baking powder
6 eggs
Spices to taste
Currants
Citron
Wine

The cup used as a measure for the receipts in this book is not the tea-table china cup, but the common large earthen teacup, except where a small one is specified; and the teaspoon used is neither the largest or smallest, but the medium sized.

The Young Housekeeper’s Friend by Mrs. [M. H.] Cornelius, 1865.

Comment: Mrs. Cornelius added the above note before her overall section on Cup Cakes. Other than that, the recipe for each individual variant was precisely as you see here: a list of ingredients. Other than that, bupkis. No specific mixing instructions, no baking temperature of even the “moderate” vs. “quick” oven variety common in the books of the day. Nothing. Nit. Nil. Nada. Zip.

So put the things into a bowl in the order given, add such spices as the spirit moves you to include, likewise the quantities of currants, citron and wine. (Yes, it does make a difference if you put the wine into the batter first, versus cutting out a step and just putting it into the cook directly.) Make it as thick as you think cake batter should be, put it into muffin tins and bake until it appears to be done. This is 19th century cooking at its finest, folks.

 5 cups flour
3 cups sugar
two cups butter
5 eggs
one tsp. soda
2 tsp. cream of tartar,
one glass of wine
one glass of brandy
one nutmeg
one pound of raisins

Composition Cake; 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar, two cups of butter, 5 eggs, one tsp. soda, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, one glass of wine, one glass of brandy, one nutmeg, one pound of raisins.

From the diary of Sgt. Samuel Andrew Jackson Creekmore, Jeff Davis Legion, Mississippi Cavalry. Submitted by CWi reader “Dameron”.

  “Cooking instructions: Beat butter and sugar together. Beat eggs, mix in soda and cream of tartar and nutmeg, then mix in liquors. Mix into flour, then add butter-sugar blend. Mix all thoroughly. Divide into bread or cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes or until it looks done enough. If it’s brown on top and a knife or skewer inserted into the center comes out dry, it’s probably about right.”

Comment: One of the very few recipes we have ever heard of mentioned in an actual soldier’s diary from the Civil War period. The diary entry itself consists only of a list of ingredients, but that was the normal form for the time. Cooking instructions were added by Dameron.

This would appear to be a good deal more manageable than the Election Cakes, although it would be a fortunate soldier indeed who had access to all these ingredients during the War years.

“Cooking instructions: Beat butter and sugar together. Beat eggs, mix in soda and cream of tartar and nutmeg, then mix in liquors. Mix into flour, then add butter-sugar blend. Mix all thoroughly. Divide into bread or cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes or until it looks done enough. If it’s brown on top and a knife or skewer inserted into the center comes out dry, it’s probably about right.”

Comment: One of the very few recipes we have ever heard of mentioned in an actual soldier’s diary from the Civil War period. The diary entry itself consists only of a list of ingredients, but that was the normal form for the time. Cooking instructions were added by Dameron.

This would appear to be a good deal more manageable than the Election Cakes, although it would be a fortunate soldier indeed who had access to all these ingredients during the War years.

 1 quart buckwheat flour
4 tbs. homemade yeast (1-2 packets or cakes commercial yeast)
1 tsp. salt
1 handful Indian [corn] meal
2 tbs. molasses-not syrup

[Add] warm water enough to make a thin batter. Beat very well and set to rise in a warm place. If the batter is in the least sour in the morning, stir in a very little soda dissolved in hot water.

Mix in an earthen crock, and leave some in the bottom each morning–a cupful or two–to serve as sponge for the next night, instead of getting fresh yeast. In cold weather this plan can be successfully pursued for a week or ten days without setting a new supply. Of course you add the usual quantity of flour, &c., every night, and beat up well.

Do not make your cakes too small. Buckwheats should be of generous size. Some put two-thirds buckwheat, one third oat-meal, omitting the Indian.

Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comment: Buckwheat has always been a sort of poor relation in the cooking world. It is not only no relation to a male deer but not any sort of kinfolk to wheat, either–and to go for a clean sweep it is not, botanically speaking, even a grain at all. Here the buckwheat is treated the same as, and probably stored in a crock next to, the home’s yeast supply. When prepared as directed it would be ready to go on the stove as soon as the cook was up, dressed, had the fire in the stove started and built up to the proper stage, had gone out to the smokehouse for meat and the chicken coop for eggs–and if you had to do all that every morning you would appreciate any slightest bit of time-saving convenience too.