Comment: Here again we run into difficulties figuring out how exactly to cook this dish. “Set the dish over a stove” does not make much sense in modern terms. Looking at the dish as a whole we suspect the best procedure would be to assemble as directed then place in the oven at the standard 350 degrees F. The “crumb” of bread is the inner part, or a regular slice with the crusts cut off, not broken up into “crumbs.” One letter can make a difference sometimes. Mrs. Lee’s devotion to the class struggle is also lacking, as her book does not contain a recipe for “eggs proletariat.”

Butter
Slices of bread, crust removed
Slices of cheese (type not specified)
8-10 eggs
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg

Spread some butter over the bottom of a dish, cover it entirely with thin slices of crumb of bread, on that lay thin slices of cheese, then eight or ten eggs, season them with salt, pepper and nutmeg, set the dish over a stove to cook gently till done.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “A Boston Housewife” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston, 1832

          

Comment: What we have here is a classic case of “stretching”–the hens gave you enough eggs for five people’s meals but you have a family of eight, or unexpected guests have dropped in. Every kitchen held a jar for breadcrumbs, holding everything from slices uneaten at the previous meal to literal crumbs brushed off the tablecloth. More than a half a cup could easily be used in this recipe if need be, with cream in proportion to moisten it all.  Breakfast was a substantial meal, often the largest of the day. Homes lacked central heating and strenuous physical labor was not an occasional activity at a gym but a requirement to get through every day’s life. The resulting dish would today be called “scrambled eggs” but in Mrs. Lee’s time the term omelet had a more expansive definition.

1/2 c. breadcrumbs
2-3 tbs. cream
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
10 eggs

Put half a handful of bread crumbs into a saucepan, with a small quantity of cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and let it stand till the bread has imbibed all the cream; then break ten eggs into it, and having beaten them up together, fry it like an omelet.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “A Boston Housewife” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston, 1832

          

Comment: This  seems like a very straightforward recipe except for one nagging question: What sort of cheese was Mrs. Nicholson using, and where did she get it? We have searched a great many cookbooks of the mid-18oos period and never seen a recipe for in-home (or on-farm) making of any cheese  more elaborate than what would today be called cottage, farmers or pot cheeses. We must assume that the process for making advanced items like cheddars was left to specialists, perhaps at the local monastery.  Anyone with knowlege of the history of cheese-making in America is invited to write in, or point us to a site with information.

6 eggs
2 tbs. cream
2 tbs. butter
Chopped parsley
Pepper
Salt
2 oz. grated cheese
Additional butter in pan

Beat six eggs very light, add 2 table-spoonfuls cream, butter the size of a walnut, a little chopped parsley, pepper, salt and 2 oz. grated cheese. Beat all well together, and pour into a pan in which a small piece of butter is melting; let it cook until of a light brown, then fold it over and dish for the table. Shake the pan while the omelette is cooking.

From The Home Manual or, Economical Cook and House-Book by Elizabeth Nicholson, 1865.

          

Comment: The phrasing “break into it [the bowl] a piece of butter the size of an egg” suggests that Mrs. Lee was perhaps a little over-tired that day. It was a very long book to write after all. The dish is perfectly straightforward poached eggs in cream, which raises another question of “what does glass have to do with it?”  It seems unlikely that a glass cooking pan was used since as far as we know they were not in use in the 19th century. At any rate this seems to date from a time when stove tops were warm all over, not just in the “burner” areas as we know them today. Very gentle heating is required for anything involving either cream or eggs, so proceed accordingly.

Butter for dish
Piece of butter “the size of an egg” (about 3-4 tbs.)
3/4 c. cream
4-5 eggs
Salt
Pepper

Butter a dish, and break into it a piece of butter nearly as large as an egg; add a tea-cupful of cream, and drop in four or five eggs; put upon each a little pepper and salt; set the dish upon a stove, and serve it when the eggs are firm, which may be in ten or fifteen minutes.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “A Boston Housewife” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston, 1832

          

Comment: This is best compared to Baked Alaska, except with eggs as the inner layer instead of ice cream. We recommend whipping the egg whites before starting the frying of the yolk mixture, since the latter will be done in a very short time.  The process of baking is rather difficult to translate to modern equipment: it calls for baking in a pan with a lid, suggesting that it is not desired that the whipped egg whites become browned, but baking for very long would turn the already-fried egg yolks into NASCAR-quality rubber. We would personally set this under a broiler for a few minutes.  If Mrs. Lee wanted us here in the future to be able to reproduce her recipe with authenticity she should have been more specific on this point.

8 eggs
1 tbs. water
Salt
Sugar
Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tbs.)

Beat up the yolks of eight eggs and the whites of four (set aside the remaining whites) with a spoonful of water, some salt, sugar, and the juice of a lemon; fry this, and then put it on a dish; whip the four whites (which were set aside) to a froth with sugar, and place it over the fried eggs; bake it in a Dutch oven, or with a high cover fitted for the purpose.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “A Boston Housewife” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston, 1832

          

Comment: This product appears to be making a bit of a comeback, particularly in the northwest US where spruce trees are common and microbrewries are always looking for a product to stand out from the crowd. “Essence of Spruce” can be obtained commercially but those outside the aforementioned northwest will almost certainly have to get it online. You can make your own by boiling bits of spruce–particularly the very tips of the branch which are the year’s new growth, easily spotted as lighter in color in the springtime–in water and boiling this down to thicken it. Beers can vary quite drastically in alcohol content, starting with “none at all” in things like root beer. We suspect this particular recipe is right on the borderline between beer and soda pop given the very short time advised for fermenting, not to mention the heavy sweetening and quantity of spices.

1 handful hops
2 handful chipped sassafrass root
10 g. water
1 g. molasses
2 spoonsful powdered ginger
1 spoonful pounded or ground allspice
1/2 pint yeast (homemade yeast similar to sourdough starter. Equivalent of powdered yeast would be about 1 envelope)

Boil a handful of hops, and twice as much of the chippings of sassafras root, in ten gallons of water; strain it, and pour in, while hot, one gallon of molasses, two spoonsful of powdered ginger, and one of pounded allspice; put it in a cask–when sufficiently cold, add half a pint of good yeast; stir it well, stop it close, and when fermented and clear, bottle and cork it tight.

From The Virginia Housewife: Or Methodical Cook by Mrs. Mary Randolph. First edition published 1824; recipe from re-issue of 1860.

          

Comment: Recipes for homemade beer are exceedingly common in 19th century cookbooks. They are unfortunately so varied that the resulting products would not be regarded as “beer” by most of us, and would get you put in jail in Germany where they have actual laws regulating this important subject. As best we can tell they were mostly an excuse to get people to boil water before drinking, and adding some flavoring ingredients to justify the effort. If it doesn’t contain yeast, and doesn’t sit and ferment a good long time (we tried to find an estimate of length of fermenting time but could only find “until it stops bubbling” as an answer) then it isn’t  beer. Those who enjoy experimenting with other flavoring agents are free to use some from these old recipes. Just not in Germany.

BRAN BEER

2 qts bran, wheat or rye
5 gallons water
3 pints hops
2 qt. molasses
1 and 1/2 c yeast  (12 oz.) (not dry yeast as is used today; this was homemade yeast of the sort known as a “sponge” to breadmakers.)

Put two quarts of wheat or rye bran into five gallons of water, add three pints of hops and boil it for one hour; then strain it into a tub, mix in two quarts of molasses, and when it gets to be lukewarm, stir in three jills of good yeast, and cover it with a folded cloth till it is done fermenting and quite clear: then bottle it and secure the corks with leather or rosin.

From The Kentucky Housewife by Mrs. Lettice Bryant, 1839

          

Comment: We have enough trouble making poached eggs in a lightweight pan on top of a household stove.  Imagine doing it with a large cast-iron utensil which had to be pulled back and forth from atop a wood fire in a hearth, while filled with water no less. A “slice” was a wide slotted spoon similar in design to the scoop used in small deep-fat-fryer devices today. The advice to break each egg onto a saucer before adding it to the cooking water dates to a time when eggs were not inspected at a factory before sale. A “bad egg” added directly to a pan would ruin all the ones already cooking, so was to be avoided at all costs.

Eggs
Salt
Pepper
Butter

Place a broad stew-pan of clean water over the fire till it boils, and set it level before the fire. Break the eggs separately into a plate or saucer, to ascertain if they are good, dropping them as you examine them into the boiling water. They must not be too much crowded, and there must be plenty of water to cover them well. Having put them all into the pan in this manner, let them remain till the whites become set; then place the pan again on the fire, and cook them as hard as you desire; they probably will be sufficiently hard by the time the water begins to boil. Raise them carefully from the water with an egg-slice, trimming the edges smoothly, and lay them separately upon small buttered toasts or broiled ham, arranging them neatly in the dish; sprinkle on a very little salt and black pepper; put on each a spoonful of melted butter, and send them up warm. They are eaten at breakfast. When prepared for the dinner table, omit the toasts or ham; serve them in a small deep dish, sprinkle on some salt and pepper, and pour over the same melted butter. They are sent as a side dish to accompany poultry and game.

From The Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan, 1839.