Vintage Recipes and Cookery

I never ate any kind of squash when I was a child, but I’ve eaten summer squashes like green zucchini and yellow squash as an adult. It’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve tried any of the winter squashes: Butternut Squash, Spaghetti Squash, and Delicata Squash. When people in the 1800s cooked foods in their wood burning stoves, there were no thermometers. So re...

In the 1800s, cheese was made from unpasteurized raw milk. The first commercial pasteurized milk was produced in 1882, but the first law to require milk to be pasteurized wasn’t passed until 1908. (source). Cream cheese was a popular cheese to make in the 1800s since it doesn’t have to be aged. For more information on making cheese in modern times, you may want to visit the N...

Forcemeat is made by mixing finely chopped lean meat with fat and adding other flavorings. Forcemeat can be used as a stuffing, made into balls or patties, or formed into flat square or oval pieces. The term “forcemeat” is often interchanged with dressing or stuffing, but stuffing and dressing rarely contain meat. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: FORCEMEAT This article...

Years ago, I received a cheese-making kit for Christmas. It called for a gallon of milk and I couldn’t believe the small amount of cheese it made. I thought I did something wrong. Now, as I’m going through 1800s cookbooks, I find it actually takes about five quarts of milk to make a pound of cheese. If you want to try making your own cheese, look at modern recipes. Milk in th...

Pumpkins were a popular crop in the 1800s. They were easy to grow and if stored properly in a warm, dry place, could be kept all winter. Recipes from old cookbooks used fresh pumpkins, but if one called for stewed pumpkin, it’s like the plain canned pumpkin we buy today. Recipes often did not include baking times or how hot to make your oven because oven thermometers hadn’t b...