Historic American Recipes
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All of the recipes on this page are from classic American cookbooks available in facsimile editions from the Food Heritage Press. The Food Heritage Press has the largest selection of authentic American cookbooks, in facsimile edition, than any bookstore in the country. This page was last updated on January 23, 2000.
[Apple-Fritters] [Dough-Nuts] [Cocoa-nut Drops] [Molasses Gingerbread] [Common Gengerbread] [Election Cake] [Indian Meal Pudding] [Fried Sweet Potatoes] [Sweet Potato Pie] [Beef-Stake] [German Chicken Stew] [Jack Rabbit Stew] [To Roast a Pig] [Broiled Scrod] [To boil a Cod's Head]
HISTORIC RECIPE LINKS
From Oysters Rockefeller to Grandma's Apple Pies to fusion cooking, 100 years of American food. Dining Through the Decades at Leite's Culinaria. David Leite writes feature food articles for the Chicago Sun-Times. Check out this site
Period Recipes from Historic Kitchens of Heritage Toronto
To make Apple-Fritters
Beat the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of four well together and strain them into a pan; then take a quart of cream, make it as hot as you can bear your finger in it; then put to it a quartter of a pint of sack, three quarters of a pint of ale, and make a posset of it. When it is cool, put in nutmeg, ginger, salt, and flour, to your liking. Your batter should be pretty thick, then put in pippins sliced or scraped, and fry them in a deal of butter quick.
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Hannah Glasse, Alexandria 1805 Edition
For dough-nuts, take one pint of flour, half a pint of sugar, three eggs, a piece of butter as big as an egg, and a tea-spoonful of dissolved pearlash. When you have no eggs, a gill of lively emptings will do; but in that case, they must be made over night. Cinnamon, rose-water, or lemon-brandy, if you have it. If you use part lard instead of butter, add a little salt. Not put in till the fat is very hot. The more fat they are fried in, the less they will soak fat.
Lydia Maria Child. The American Frugal Housewife. Twelfth Edition. Boston: Carter, Hendee, and Co. 1833. [To Facsimile Page] [To Menu]
One pound of grated Cocoa-nut, only the white part. One pound sifted white Sugar. The whites of six Eggs, cut to a stiff Froth. You must have enough Whjites of eggs to wet the whole Stiff. Drop on buttered plates the size of a Penny and bake immediately.
Boston Cooking School Cook Book. Mrs. D.A. Lincoln. (A reprint of the 1884 Classic)[To Facsimile Page] [To Menu]
One table spoon of cinnamon, some coriander or allspice, put to four tea spoons pearl ash {baking soda}, dissolved in half pint water, four pounds flour, one quart molasses, four ounces butter, (in in summer rub in the butter, if in winter, warm the butter and molasses and pour to the spiced flour,) knead well 'till stiff, the more the better, the lighter and whiter it will be; bake brisk fifteen minutes; don't scorch; before it is put in, wash it with whites and sugar beat together.
Amelia Simmons, American Cookery, 1796. [To Facsimile Page] [To Menu]
COMMON GINGERBREAD
Take a pound and a half of flour, and rub into it half a pound of butter; add half a pound of brown sugar and half a pint of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of cream, a tea-spoonful of pearlash, and ginger to the taste. Make in into a stiff paste, and roll it out thin. Put it on buttered tins, and bake in a moderate oven.
Sarah Josepha Hale. The Good Housekeeper, 1841.
Thirty quarts flour, 10 pound butter, 14 pound sugar, 12 pound raisins, 3 doz eggs, one pint wine, one quart brandy, 4 ournces cinnamon, 4 ounces fine colander seed, 3 ounces ground alspice; wet the flour with milk to the consistence of bread oover night, adding one quart yeast; the next morning work the butter and sugar together for half an hour, which will rended the cake much lighter and whiter; when it has rise light work in every other ingredient except the plumbs, which work in when going into the oven. p. 44
Amelia Simmons. American Cookery. Second Edition, Albany 1796.
Rub a tablespoonful of butter round the bottom and sides of a smooth iron kettle, –granite or porcelain will do; when melted, add half a cup of boiling water. This will prevent the milk from burning. Add one quart of milk. Let it boil up, and almost over the kettle; then sift in one pint of fine yellow granulated corn meal, sifting with the left hand, and holding the meal high, that every grain may be thoroughly scalded. Stir constantly; add half a teaspoonful of salt, and set away till cold. Then add half a pint of New Orleans molasses and one quart of cold milk. Put into a well-buttered deep pudding-dish, cover with a plate, and bake very slowly ten or twelve hours. Put it in a "Saturday afternoon oven," where the fire will keep low nearly all night. Let it remain over night, and serve for a Sunday breakfast. (Mrs. Barnabas Churchill)
Boston Cooking School Cook Book. Mrs. D.A. Lincoln. (A reprint of the 1884 Classic)[To Facsimile Page] [To Menu]
Two pounds of potatoes will make two pies. Boil the potatoes soft; peel and mash fine through a cullender while hot; one tablespoonful of butter to be mashed in with the potato. Take five eggs and beat the yelks and whites separate and add one gill of milk; sweeten to taste; squeeze the juice of one orange, and grate one-half of the peel into the liquid. One half teaspoonful of salt in the potatoes. Have only one crust and that at the bottom of the plate. Bake quickly.
Abby Fisher. What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. Women's Co-operative Printing Office:San Francisco, 1881.[To Facsimile Page] [To Menu]
For this purpose may be used potatoes that are too large for baking well. Cut in slices one-fourth of an inch thick, and sprinkle with salt. have a well greased frying pan hot, put in the potatoes and fry a light brown. Be careful not to cook too rapidly, lest the potatoes blister and do not cook thoroughly. Some persons prefer to boil the potatoes half done before slicing for frying.
The First Texas Cook Book. 1883. [To Facsimile Page] [ To Menu]
To broil a Beef-Stake
Take slices of tender beef one inch thick, put on hot coals 15 minutes; turn the stake if possible without introducing a fork; peper and salt as may be agreeable: butter when done will render it palatable.To dress a Beef-Stake, sufficient for two Gentlemen, with a fire made of two newspapers.
Let the beef be cut in slices, and laid in a pewter platter, pour on water just sufficient to cover them, salt and pepper well cover with another platter inverted; then place your dish upon a stool bottom upwards, the legs of such length as to raise the platter three inches from the board; cut your newspapers into samll strips, light with a candle and apply them gradually, so as to keep a live fire under the whole dish, till the whole are expended when the stake will be done; butter may then be applied, so as to render it grateful. p.11 Amelia Simmons. American Cookery. Second Edition, Albany 1796.
Cut up a good sized chicken in small pieces, and put them in a saucepan, with a quart of water. Let it stew till tender; season with pepper, ginger, salt, chopped parsley, sweet herbs, and a little garlic; thicken with a tablespoonful of flour. Dish up, and garnish with lemon, parsley, and boiled carrots.
Ester Levy. Jewish Cookery Book, or Principles of Economy, Adapted for Jewish Housekeepers. Philadelphia. 1871.[To Facsimile Page] [To Menu]
Cut into pieces, including neck, head (eyes being bored out), lungs, liver and heart; place these pieces in an earthen or lined dish, add one onion (sliced), lemon (sliced), one teaspoonful of whole pepper, two bayberry leaves, twelve cloves, a little parsley and salt, and good wine vinegar, sufficient to cover pieces, and allow it to stand in a cool place for twenty-four hours. When ready for use place in a lined pot, a small piece of butter, one sliced onion, two bayberry leaves, dessert-spoonful of whole pepp0er, eight cloves, wineglassful of wine vinegar, a pint of beef broth (stock), cover, put on the fire and allow it to simmer till soft. Meanwhile put in a saucepan a piece of butter the size of a walnut, sprinkle in two tablespoonsful of flour, and roast golden brown; then add, under steady stirring of the rabbit, sauce till thin, and pour all into the pot; allow it to cook well done. Serve hot in deep dish together.
The Web-Foot Cookbook. A project of the San Grael Society of the First Presbyterian Church of Portland, Oregon.. Published by W.B. Ayer and Co. 1885.[Back to Facsimile Page] [To Recipe Menu]
The pig must be very fat, nicely cleaned, and not too large to lie in the dish; chop the liver fine and mix it with crumbs of bread, chopped onion and parsley, with pepper and salt, make it into a paste with butter and an egg, stuff the body well with it, and sew it up, spit it, and have a clear fire to roast it; baste with salt and water at first, then rub it frequently with a lump of lard wrapped in a piece of clean linen; this will make it much more crisp than basting it from the dripping pan. When the pig is done, take off the head, separate the face from the chop, cut both in two and take off the ears, take out the stuffing, split the pig in two parts lengthways, lay it in the dish with the head, ears, and feet, which have been cut off, placed on each side, put the stuffing in a bowl with a glass of wine, and as much dripping as will make it sufficiently liquid, put some of it under the pig, and serve the rest in a boat.
The Virginia Housewife: or Methodical Cook. Mary Randolph. Facsimile of the 1860 Edition.[To Facsimile Page] [To Menu]
A young cod, split down the back, and backbone removed, except a small portion near the tail, is called a scrod. Scrod are always broiled, spread with butter, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Haddock is also so dressed. Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, by Fannie Farmer.. Boston. 1896.
To boil a Cod's Head
Set a fish-kettle on the fire, with water enough to boil it, a good handful of salt, a pint of vinegar, a bundle of sweet herbs, and a piece of horse-radish: let it boil a quarter of an hour, then put in the head, and when you are sure it is enough, lift up the fish-plate with the fish on it, set it across the kettle to drain, then lay it in your dish, and lay the liver on one side. Garnish with lemon and horse-radish scraped; melt some butter, with a little of the fish-liquor, an anchovy, oysters, or shrimps, or just what you fancy. p.43 The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hanna Glasse. Alexandria, Virginia edition 1805.
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Last updated: December 12, 1997