when the most exotic spice was paprika…

This weekend my mom brought me some cookbooks from the late 1800s and early 1900s that she doesn’t want to take with her when she moves next summer. Old cookbooks fascinate me, I guess because it gives you a real sense of what everyday life was like. It’s interesting to learn what types of ingredients were available (or not available or not yet invented or I have no freakin’ clue what something is) and especially what was common knowledge at the time, which you can deduce by noticing what techniques are and aren’t explained. And the vocabulary was so different! Words like quickset, mercurochrome, black-draught, whiting, table sauce, farina-kettle seemed to be common usage.

Women by and large knew how to cook because they had to. (Ruffled feather disclaimer: I’m sure that men were certainly capable and some were happy to cook as well). Not only was cooking generally thought of as “woman’s work” and most women were homemakers, but almost all meals were either eaten at home or packed and carried. Today, by contrast, even for someone like me who loves to cook and probably does so more than the average person, I eat my meals out probably 25% of the time.

Anyway, my point is that because it was expected that the audience for a cookbook would already know all the basics and many of the advanced methods, nobody wasted the paper or ink on detailed instructions for each recipe. So you get things like a list of ingredients (some with precise weights or volumes, and some with “an egg-sized piece of” or “fifteen cents’ worth” or “enough” as the amount) with the lone instruction: “Bake.”

We’re spoiled today by the variety and quality of ingredients. American women of 100 years ago didn’t have as much to work with. And boy, was Jello a favorite.

Crust Coffee
(from “For the Invalid’s Tray” section of Aunt Jane’s New and Revised Cook Book and Suggestions for Farm Home and Stock, circa 1929)
Toast bread on both sides until a deep brown. Place in a bowl, pour over 1 cup boiling hot water. As soon as it is cool enough to drink add cream and sugar if desired. This has been known to quench thirst.

What could be better than toast tea, suspected of quenching thirst? Hmm… how about fish jello?

Jellied Tuna
(also in Aunt Jane’s, but surprisingly not under an “Emetics” heading)
1 package McConnon’s Lemon Quickset
1 cup boiling water
1 cup cold water, less 2 tablespoons
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup tuna fish, flaked
1 cup peas, fresh cooked or canned
2 tablespoons pimiento, finely chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Dissolve Quickset in the boiling water. Stir in and dissolve 3 heaping tablespoons sugar. In a measuring cup put 2 tablespoons of vinegar and fill the cup with cold water. Add to Quickset mixture. Add salt, also chill. When slightly thickened, fold in remaining ingredients. Turn into individual molds. Chill until firm. Garnish with additional mayonnaise.

Also in Aunt Jane’s, a handy-dandy first aid guide. Did you know that in case of cinders in the eye, you should rub soft paper up like a lamp-lighter and wet the tip to remove, or use a medicine dropper to draw it out? (The word “cinders” always reminds me of the book series “The Great Brain” by John D. Fitzgerald, that I absolutely loved when I was a kid.) Or, if the cinders prove to be too much, “tests of death” include: Hold mirror to mouth. If living, moisture will gather. Push pin into flesh – if dead the hole will remain, if alive it will close up.

The Rumford Common Sense Cook Book, circa 1930 and published by Rumford Chemical Works, makers of Rumford Baking Powder, insists that for school lunches, “boys like plain folding lunch boxes, girls prefer daintiness of equipment.” Apparently kids in the 1930s liked to eat sandwiches made from sardines with plenty of lemon juice. I’m sure that smelled fantastic by the time noon rolled around!

Tamales, acccording to The Good Eats Cook Book by the Housekeepers of Kent, Wash., circa 1900, consisted of green pepper halves stuffed with a mixture of tomatoes, bread crumbs, ketchup, and “table sauce,” tied with a string, and boiled for a half hour. Or just stuff them with meat and bake. The inside front cover of this little recipe pamphlet had an ad for Look’s Bazaar, with a recipe for a “Modern Up-To-The-Minute ‘Woman'”. What does this ‘Woman’ consist of, you may ask?

Take dainty undermuslins, add to this the best hosiery made (THE TOPSY HOSE) add two parts corset (The ROYAL WORCESTER of course) one for Sunday and one for common, and mix thoroughly. Then take a generous measure of shirt waists (you never can have too many), add to this a couple of nice silk petticoats (The Morris Brand) and a mixture of outside skirts (or if desired, the materials for them can be supplied by us). For a frosting or finishing touch add a few collars and belt pins, hair ornaments, fancy collars, head scarfs (ribbons may be used if not over 30). Mix all these parts thoroughly and you have the MODERN UP-TO-THE-MINUTE “WOMAN”

Sixteen layers of clothing, some whalebone rib compression (hey, who needs to breathe, really?), two hours later, and I’m ready to start my Washing Monday!

Good times.