Grace's Café

Archived Recipes

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Buddy's Meatloaf
*30 cents worth round steak, ground **10 cents worth pork, ground 1 rounding teaspoon salt 1 egg	2 cups bread crumbs 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon powdered sage ***½ teaspoon nutmeg pepper
Substitutions *1 pound ground beef **1/2 pound ground pork ***ground nutmeg

Mix well, form into a loaf, and place in a baking dish, covering with a sliced onion and a bunch of parsley.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Serves six.

Macaroni & Cheese
dried macaroni milk water	1 tsp. salt cheese butter

Boil as much macaroni as will fill your dish, in milk and water till quite tender, drain it on a sieve, sprinkle a little salt over it, put a layer in your dish, then cheese and butter as in the polenta (below), and bake it in the same manner.

Polenta
corn meal 1 qt. water cheese	1 tsp. salt lg. spoonful butter

Put a large spoonful of butter in a quart of water, wet your corn meal with cold water in a bowl, add some salt, and make it quite smooth, then put it in the buttered water when it is hot, let it boil, stirring it continually till done; as soon as you can handle it, make it into a ball and let it stand till quite cold, then cut it in thin slices, lay them in the bottom of a deep dish so as to cover it, put slices of cheese on it, and on that a few bits of butter, then mush, cheese, and butter, until the dish is full, put on the top thin slices of cheese, put the dish in a quick oven; twenty or thirty minutes will bake it.

from The Virginia Housewife - Mary Randolph (1824)

Mock Oysters
6 ears fresh corn 1 egg 1 tbsp. flour 1 tbsp. cream	lard or butter 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper

Take six ears of new corn, and grate and scrape them well. Beat one egg very light, and add to it, beating all well together, one tablespoonful of flour, on tablespoonful of cream and a little pepper and salt. Then mix all together, and fry them in lard or butter.

Note: Make them for breakfast, and put maple syrup on them. You could also use them for a side dish. You can also use canned corn if you can't get fresh.

French Rolls
1 qt. lukewarm milk 1 qt. flour 2 oz. butter 1/2 cup yeast	1/2 cup flour 2 eggs 1 tsp. salt 2 flat buttered tins

Turn a quart of lukewarm milk on to a quart of flour. Melt a couple of ounces of butter, and put to the milk and flour, together with a couple of eggs, and a tea-spoonful of salt. When cool, stir in half a tea-cup of yeast, and flour to make it stiff enough to mould up. Put it in a warm place. When light, do it up into small rolls--lay the rolls on flat buttered tins--let them remain twenty minutes before baking.

Meat Pie
1 onion, diced 2 tablespoons butter 2 cups cooked meat, cubed 1 1/4 cups milk or gravy 1 1/2 tablespoons flour	1 cup cooked peas 1 cup cooked carrots, sliced 1 cup boiled potatoes, diced Salt and pepper 1 pie shell

Brown the onion in the butter and add the meat cut in 1 inch cubes. Sear well. Remove the meat and onions from the frying pan and add the flour and milk or gravy. Blend well. Grease a baking dish, fill with the meat, vegetables, and sauce. Cover with pie pastry. Make several gashes with sharp knife in pastry to permit steam to escape. Seal around edges. Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.

Ham Cakes

1-1/2 pounds of ham, fat & lean together 1 slice of bread 1/2 pt. of milk 1 egg beaten

A capital way of disposing of the remains of a ham, and making an excellent dish for breakfast, is: Take a pound and a half of ham, fat and lean together; put it into a mortar and pound it, or pass it through a sausage-machine. Soak a large slice of bread in a half-pint of milk, and beat it and the ham well together. Add an egg, beaten up. Put the whole into a mold, and bake a rich brown.

Petersons Magazine, January, 1876

Popcorn Balls

6 quarts popped corn, no salt or anything else added 2 cups molasses 3-4 tablespoons butter

Spread the popcorn in a 6-quart pan. Butter two baking sheets.

In a 3-quart saucepan, bring molasses to a boil and cook it over medium heat, stirring frequently with a spoon. The molasses candy is ready when test drops of syrup harden quickly in cold water (250 to 266 degrees).

Spread the bubbling candy over the corn and toss quickly with a spoon to distribute it. With buttered hands—four at least, six preferably—shape handfuls into balls the size of medium oranges. Place on baking sheets until cool.

Store in airtight tins or bags so that the candy does not draw moisture and make the corn soggy.

Pound Cake
1 lb. (2 cups) butter 1 lb. (2 cups) sugar 1 lb. (8 medium size) Eggs pinch of salt	½ tsp. ground nutmeg ½ tsp. ground mace 1 lb. ( 4 cups) white flour

An hour before starting, set out all refrigerated ingredients to come to room temperature.

In large bowl, cream butter with wooden spoon until fluffy. Work in sugar by pressing with spoon against bowl side, and blend until mixture is no longer grainy. This is hard work; it will help to work standing up with the bowl at arm’s length on a low table, or sitting with the bowl in his lap.

Break an egg into a saucer. Unless it is bad, put it in a smaller bowl (this method keeps a bad egg from polluting the others. Repeat for remaining eggs. Add salt. Beat eggs with a fork until light-colored and foamy, about five minutes. Add nutmeg and mace to eggs.

Stir eggs gradually into sugar-butter mixture. Sift flour and beat in gradually, stirring only long enough to blend all ingredients. The finished batter will be quite stiff.

Smooth the batter into an ungreased tube pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 and bake another 30 minutes. When a new broomstraw poked into the center comes out dry and the cake edges pull away from the pan, remove pan from oven and cool. Turn cake out and serve unfrosted.

Grace might have made this pound cake for Christmas or New Year’s, serving it with ice cream that the children would help crank.

Vinegar Pie
One pie crust ¼ cup butter 2 eggs ½ cup granulated sugar	½ cup brown sugar ¼ cup white flour A few grindings of nutmeg Vinegar, 3 tablespoons

Line a 9" pie pan with rolled-out pie crust. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter; beat eggs in small bowl. In large bowl blend both sugars, flour, and nutmeg with fingers until no lumps remain. Stir in vinegar, eggs, butter, and 1 cup of water until well mixed. Pour into pie shell and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove and cool until the filling is firm enough for cutting.

Note: Vinegar pie was standard fare at home, at fairs, or at social functions.

Bran Muffins
1 cup flour 1 cup bran ½ cup sugar 1 tsp. baking powder	3/4 cup milk ¼ cup cooking oil 1 egg

Combine dry ingredients. Add milk, cooking oil and beaten egg to dry ingredients. Mix only until dry ingredients are moistened. Fill greased or lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Cook in 400°F oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Makes 12 medium muffins.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins
1 cup flour ½ cup oats 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking soda	3/4 cup sugar ¼ cup melted shortening 1-½ cups mashed bananas (3-4 bananas) 1 egg

Combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. Beat egg, sugar, shortening and mashed bananas together thoroughly. Add banana mixture to dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 20-25 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched. Makes 12 medium muffins.

Raised Doughnuts
3 medium sized potatoes 2 tablespoons homemade yeast or 1 cake yeast 2 cups sifted flour	1 tsp. salt extra flour Lard or other fat for frying

Boil the potatoes and mash them, saving the water. While still hot, add the two cups of sifted flour. Then add enough of the water in which the potatoes were boiled to make a batter. Stir in the salt. When the batter is lukewarm, add the yeast and flour enough to knead. Let the dough rise overnight. In the morning cut it down, turn on a floured molding board, and roll out half an inch thick. Cut the dough in pieces about three inches long and two inches wide. Let them rise on the board for ten minutes. Fry in deep fat. These doughnuts should be full of large holes when broken open. Serve with maple syrup. Makes four dozen. (If yeast cake is used,
dissolve it in one quarter cup lukewarm water.)

WEDDING CAKE (circa 1870's)
4 lbs. flour 3 lbs. butter 3 lbs. sugar 4 lbs. currants 2 lbs. raisins	24 eggs 1/2 lb. brandy 1 oz. mace 3 nutmegs molasses

A little molasses makes it dark colored, which is desirable. Half a pound of citron improves it; but it is not necessary. To be baked for two and a half or three hours. After the oven is cleared, it is well to shut the door for eight or ten minutes, to let the violence of the heat subside, before cake or bread is put in.

To make icing for your wedding cake, beat the whites of eggs to an entire froth, and to each egg add five teaspoonfuls of sifted loaf sugar, gradually; beat it a great while. Put it on when your cake is hot, or cold, as it is most convenient. It will dry in a warm room, a short distance from a gentle fire, or in a warm oven.

This is a very good and healthy flavor for meats, sauces, etc.

Take two quarts of skinned tomatoes, two table-spoonsful of salt, two of black pepper, and two of ground mustanrd; also one spoonful of allspice, and four pods of red pepper. Mix and rub these well together, and stew them slowly in a pint of vinegar for three hours. Then strain the liquor through a sieve, and simmer down to one quart of catsup. Put this in bottles and cork tightly.

Thoroughly bruise one hundred and twenty young walnuts; put to them three quarters of a pound of fine salt and a quart of vinegar; stir them every day for a fortnight; then strain; squeeze the liquor from them through a cloth; all to this one ounce of whole black pepper, forty cloves, half an ounce of nutmeg bruised, half an ounce of ginger, and a few blades of mace. Boil the whole for half an hour; strain and bottle for use.

Company would have warranted hashed brown potatoes instead of the more ordinary fried.

The night before serving, scrub potatoes and put them in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of salt. Cover with water. Simmer until potatoes can be stabbed with a fork but "still have a bone." Remove from heat and drain.

Peel immediately by holding hot potato on fork with one hand and stripping off the brown skin with paring knife in the other. Return potatoes to saucepan, cover, and store in cool place overnight.

The next morning, slice the potatoes ¼" thick. Place slices a handful at a time in the chopping bowl and chop to cubes. Put cubes in hot skillet with drippings, season with salt and pepper. Cook through, about 8 minutes, turning halfway through. When nicely browned, serve up on plates.

Warm, filling, cheap, and quick to prepare, fried potatoes were long a staple among working people for breakfast or dinner.

The night before serving, scrub potatoes and put them in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of salt. Cover with water. Simmer until potatoes can be stabbed with a fork but "still have a bone." Remove from heat and drain.

Peel immediately by holding hot potato on fork with one hand and stripping off the brown skin with paring knife in the other. Return potatoes to saucepan, cover, and store in cool place overnight.

In the morning heat the drippings in a 2-quart pan. Cut the potatoes crosswise in 1/8" slices. Put slices in skillet, season with salt and pepper, and stir. Cover and cook through, about 8 minutes. Remove the lid, stir again and finish browning, and serve up on plates.

BARBECUE CORN
corn inside the husk charcoal or wood fire	cold water string

Remove husks and then replace the husks and tie together at the end with kitchen string. Soak the sweetcorn in cold water for about an hour or more. Place on medium-hot charcoal fire and cook, turning frequently, for about 15-20 minutes. If you prefer rustic, smoky taste, you can pull back husks and brown the kernels for a few minutes at the end.

* * Following from the Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker

FRIED SALT PORK WITH GRAVY
Salt pork, 1/2 to 1 lb. 1/2 cup white flour	1 to 1-1/2 cups whole milk salt and pepper

Cut slices of salt pork thin, then parboil them in a skillet. Drain the skillet before using it for frying. To produce crisp slices fry them well, at least 8 minutes to a side. Remove them to a platter and pour all but a tablespoon of fat into a container to use in other recipes.

For gravy thickening use 2 tablespoons of the flour used for dredging. Blend the flour and fat very well before adding milk. Remove skillet from heat as soon as gravy bubbles and thickens. Taste before seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve gravy in a bowl and salt pork slies on a platter. Serves 6.

HASTY PUDDING

1 tsp. salt 1 cup cornmeal, stoneground yellow maple syrup

Despite the name, the meal must be added slowly to prevent lumping, and the mixture must be cooked slowly to prevent scorching.

Bring4 cups of water to a boil in the kettle, and stir in the salt. Put the meal in a bowl so you can gather it up easily in your hand. Proceed stirring the water with a spoon in one hand and sprinkling in the meal with the other hand. When all the meal has been stirred in, reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes to prevent burning and to test thickness. The pudding is done when it looks like cooked oatmeal.

Serve in bowls with maple syrup or pour into a deep dish to chill for Fried Cornmeal Mush.

Cup cake is about as good as pound cake, and is cheaper. Beat ingredients well together and bake in pans or cups. Bake twenty minutes and no more.

- The American Frugal Housewife, Mrs. Child, 1833

Cut one-quarter peck of young string beans in one-inch pieces. Cook until tender, fifteen to twenty minutes. Cut the grains from twelve ears of corn, add to the beans with one teaspoon salt. Cook until the corn is tender, about ten minutes longer. Add butter and pepper. Boiled bacon, cut in small slices may be cooked with the beans, and salted or smoked meat is served with the succotash. Serves eight.

- Eliza Leslie's hundred-year-old "Indian Meal Book"

ROAST BEEF
fresh or minced beef hot fire	pepper and salt (to taste) onions and mushrooms (optional)

To roast: The general rules are, to have a brisk hot fire, to hang down rather than to spit, to baste with salt and water, and one quarter of an hour to every pound of beef, tho' tender beef will require less, while old tough beef will require more roasting; pricking with a fork will deterine you whether done or not; rare done is the healthiest and the taste of this age.

CORNBREAD
1 cup cornmeal 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour	4 cups water 1 tsp. salt

Place the cornmeal and water in a pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until very thick (1/2 hour). Blend the whole wheat flour and salt into the cooked cornmeal until well mixed. Place 1/2 cup size mounds, shaped like biscuits, on ungreased aluminum sheet and press down slightly. Bake for about 15 minutes, turn cornbreads over (brown side up) and bake another 10 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

CHEATE BREAD
Soured Dough Starter 1/2 cup warm water 2 cup unbleached white flour 1/2 Tbl. dry yeast or 1/2 cake fresh yeast pinch of salt	Bread 2 cups warm water 1 Tbl. salt 4 cups unbleached white flour 2 Tbl. dry yeast or 2 cakes fresh yeast 2 cups whole wheat flour soured dough starter

Starter

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Stir in the salt and flour. Cover and set in a warm place 2 to 3 days. The better will bubble up, settle down and separate.

Bread

Dissove the yeast in warm water. Add the salt and soured starter. Stirring continuously, add whole wheat flour. Add enough white flour to make a soft but not wet dough. Turn onto a floured board and knead, adding as much white flour as needed to make a stiff dough. Knead for at least 5-10 minutes. Return the bread to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise. When doubled in bulk (1-1/2 to 2 hours), press down and turn onto work surface.

Form into 2 round loaves or rolls, cover andp lace on cookie sheets thatr have been sprinkled wiht cornmeal. Cover and allow to almost double in bluk. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven, scoring the loaves or rolls with a sharp knife or razor blade just before they are placed in the oven. Bake for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the loaf. (They are cooked when tapping on the bottom produces a hollow sound.) Wrap the loaves in a dishtowel to cool.

MEAT LOAF
1 lb beef 1 lightly beaten egg 1 heaped tsp. sage and onion mix	1/2lb boiled bacon or ham 1 onion, chopped finely salt and pepper 1 heaped tablespoon porridge oats

Mince or finely chop the beef, then add the sausage meat. Mix thoroughly with all other ingredients. Roll into a large sausage shape. Bake for about 1-1/2 hours. This meat loaf can be served hot or cold.

GRANDMOTHER'S TOMATO JUICE
5 quarts tomatoes 1 stalk celery 1 green pepper	1 onion 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp. salt per quart

Cook tomatoes, celery, green pepper and onion well. Remove and strain. Add sugar and salt. Bring to a boil. Can and seal.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
1-1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter 2 eggs 1/2 cup shortening	1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 2-1/2 cups flour 2 cups chocolate pieces

Mix together sugar, butter and eggs until mixture is smooth. Add shortening, vanilla and salt and mix again until smooth. Add flour and beat until the mixture is well combined. Stir in chocolate pieces.

Drop mixture from a teaspoon 2 inches apart onto an ungreased aluminum sheet. Bake at 375°F (190°C) oven for 8-10 minutes or until done. Remove and cool. Makes about 72 cookies.

PUMPKIN PIE
Crust:
2 cups flour 3/4 cup shortening or lard	1/2 tsp. salt 6 tbsp. water

Combine flour and salt. Cut the shortening or lard into flour and salt mixture. Add water 1 tbsp. at a time and mix with fork until dry ingredients will form a ball. Divide in half and roll each half into a circle. Place one half into pie plate being careful not to stretch dough. Use other half as the top crust.

For lattice-work top crust, cut circle of dough into 1-inch strips. Take every other one and lay them across the pie, evenly spacing them apart. Take the remaining strips and weave them into the strips already laid, rotating over and under until you have used all strips.

Filling:
2 eggs, slightly beaten 1-3/4 cups pumpkin (cooked & mashed) 3/4 cup sugar 2/3 cup milk	1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ginger 1/4 tsp. cloves

Mix ingredients in order given. Pour into unbaked crust. Bake in 425°F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F for 45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool.

Crumble Pie Topping (for apple pie):
1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 tsp. ginger	1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 cup butter

Combine flour, sugar and spices. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle mixture on top of pie. Cover edge of pie with foil and bake according to instructions for specific pie recipe.