Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs [Survival Today, an on going thread]

http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/2008-February/030500.html

Cattails are probably the best wetland plant for water purification,
used as such in John Todd’s Living Machines
(http://www.toddecological.com/ecomachines.html and
http://www.oceanarks.org) and some progressive sewage treatment
facilities in the US.
They are also an excellent and tasty edible (roots, young shoots,
and green seed head) and probably the best feedstock for ethanol
production there is, yielding 1500 gallons of ethanol per acre with no
fertilizer, pesticides, or herbicides, and over 2500 gallons an acre
with the added nutrients from a sewage plant. See David Blume’s
fantastic book “Alcohol Can Be A Gas” (http://www.permaculture.com).

Welcome to Far Far Away Farm

Far Far Away Farm is nestled in a lovely little valley in the southwest corner of Oregon. We breed and sell fine quality Dexter cattle, Shetland and Jacob sheep.

http://farfarawayfarm.blogspot.com/

Worth a visit to this blog, to see the photos of their animals..
and below a post that I found from the owner of this blog, that reminds me of what I hear listening to the police scanner in several western cities, we are in great danger from gangs, even in small towns, you do not know, if you do not listen day and night to the battle the Police are waging.

go to google and search for:

listen to police scanners on internet

[you can add your city]

I prefer the San Diego scanner, as I lived there 30 years.

Scan San Diego.net

granny

Just my $.02
I just came home from a month in Los Angeles, parts of S. California and SE
Arizona. I just got a good dose of reality. I had forgotten how bad it
really is. I am a former peace officer (CA State Humane Officer) and my son
is a city cop in California. You need to educate yourself about gangs. I
am, personally, very well-armed and believe me I do not have the firepower
of the gangs in the cities. The biggest reality is that gangs do not exist
only in the cities. They are fueled and funded by Meth and it is
everywhere. It is cheap and easy to make. It is the scourge of rural
America.
I live in the “whitest” area that I have ever lived in. Our local news had
a series on the growing gang problem here. There was not a person of color
shown in the entire program. They were all white/Caucasian. It is a very
complex issue and I have no easy answers. I grow enough food to share with
my neighbors as well as for my loved ones that live in the cities. I also
have a “pack” of big dogs that gives me security from the local druggies
that steal to support their addictions.

Margaret
http://farfarawayfarm.blogspot.com/

http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/2008-February/030631.html

Changed the name to protect the innocent:
Was: seedsavers@
Now: Seed Keepers (seedkeepers@)
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/seedkeepers
This list will help those interested in developing and using a non-gmo seed saving and seed exchange network.
Seeds Create.
The Seed Keepers list is a forum for individuals interested in and practicing techniques of keeping non-gmo seeds. All
are welcome to join and exchange ideas, skills and harvested seeds. There are no limitations besides civility and
constructive participation. This list is not affiliated with any organization and does not tolerate inflammatory
behavior. Welcome and please introduce yourself!
-Seed Keepers Exchange Network
The message archives for the old seedkeepers (called seedsavers) mailing list are at the following location:
Go Here: http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/seedkeepers/seedkeepers-archives/maillist.html
To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the seedkeepers Archives at the following location:
Go Here: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/seedkeepers/
Feel free to subscribe, browse and download. There’s quite a lot of good seed source info here with much more
anticipated in the future.

http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/seedkeepers/seedkeepers-archives/maillist.html

A quick look and there could be interesting info in this new group...

granny

http://chla.library.cornell.edu/

The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA) is a core electronic collection of agricultural texts published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. Full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science,forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science. Scholars have selected the titles in this collection for their historical importance. Their evaluations and 4,500 core titles are detailed in the seven volume series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor.

Current online holdings: Pages: 850,264 Books: 1,849 (1,910 Volumes) Journals: 6 (288 Volumes)

For a related collection of core texts in the disciplines of home economics, see Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History (HEARTH) at http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/
Click here to visit the Cornell University Home Page

Albert R. Mann Library. 2008 . Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA). Ithaca, NY: Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. http://chla.library.cornell.edu (Version January 2005).

http://chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/browse.html

Browse CHLA

Also try Simple Search

This is a complete bibliography of books and journals in CHLA, organized by both author and title or by publication year:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Non-alphabetic

1800-1819 | 1840-1859 | 1860-1879 | 1880-1899 | 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979

Journal Title List | Articles by Author : A-C | D-H | I-M | N-S | T-Z

You may also browse a list of recent additions.
Click here to visit the Cornell University Home Page

Albert R. Mann Library. 2008 . Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA). Ithaca, NY: Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. http://chla.library.cornell.edu (Version January 2005).

http://chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/browse/recent.html

Recent Additions

* The apples of New York Beach, S. A. J.B. Lyon Company, Albany : 1905.
* The cherries of New York Hedrick, U. P. J.B. Lyon Company, Albany : 1915.
* Experiments and observations on the gastric juice and the physiology of digestion Beaumont, William. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge : 1929.
* Farm appliances; a practical manual Martin, George A.. Orange Judd Company, New York : 1892 [1887].
* The grapes of New York Hedrick, U. P. J.B. Lyon Company, Albany : 1908.
* History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; 1829-1878... Printed for the Society, Boston : 1880.
* Life-histories of northern animals; an account of the mammals of Manitoba Seton, Ernest Thompson. C. Scribner’s Sons, New York : 1909.
* The Myxomycetes; a descriptive list of the known species with ... Macbride, Thomas H. Macmillan, New York : 1934.
* The peaches of New York : Hedrick, U. P. J.B. Lyon Company, Albany : 1917.
* The pears of New York Hedrick, U. P. J. B. Lyon company, Albany : 1921.
* The plums of New York Hedrick, U. P. J.B. Lyon Company, Albany : 1911.
* Proceedings Department of State Washington : [1949].
* The response of crops and soils to fertilizers and manures Andrews, William Baker. W. B. Andrews, State College, Miss. : 1947.
* The small fruits of New York Hedrick, U. P. J. B. Lyon company, Albany, N.Y. : 1925.
* Soil culture; containing a comprehensive view of agriculture, ... Walden, J. H. R. Sears, New York : 1858, c1857.
* A stake in the land Speek, Peter Alexander. Harper & Brothers, New York ; 1921.

http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/

HEARTH is a core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines. Titles published between 1850 and 1950 were selected and ranked by teams of scholars for their great historical importance. The first phase of this project focused on books published between 1850 and 1925 and a small number of journals. Future phases of the project will include books published between 1926 and 1950, as well as additional journals. The full text of these materials, as well as bibliographies and essays on the wide array of subjects relating to Home Economics, are all freely accessible on this site. This is the first time a collection of this scale and scope has been made available.

“Home Economists in early 20th century America had a major role in the Progressive Era, the development of the welfare state, the triumph of modern hygiene and scientific medicine, the application of scientific research in a number of industries, and the popularization of important research on child development, family health, and family economics. What other group of American women did so much, all over the country, and got so little credit? ... We must do everything we can to preserve and organize records and materials from this important female ghetto.”

- Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and Professor, Cornell University College of Human Ecology and author of The Body Project: an Intimate History of American Girls.

Additional information, images and readings on the history of Home Economics are also available at the Cornell University Library’s Rare and Manuscript Collections site, “From Domesticity to Modernity: What Was Home Economics?”as well as the Human Ecology Historical Photographs collection.

Current online holdings: Pages: 399,732 Books: 950 (1003 Volumes) Journals: 9 (222 Volumes)

http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/browse.html

This is a complete bibliography of books and journals in HEARTH, organized by both author and title or by publication year:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Non-alphabetic

1820-1839 | 1840-1859 | 1860-1879 | 1880-1899 | 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979

Journal Title List | Articles by Author : A-C | D-H | I-M | N-S | T-Z

You may also browse a list of recent additions.

http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/browse/recent.html

Recent Additions

* Catering management; a comprehensive guide to the successful management... Waverly Book Co. , London : [1919?]
* Color and its applications Luckiesh, Matthew. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York : 1915.
* [Cornell bulletin for homemakers] [Ithaca, N.Y, (1901 - 1950)
* Costume silhouettes Evans, Mary. J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia : [c1923]
* Handbook of furniture styles Dyer, Walter A. Century, New York : 1918.
* A history of design in painted glass; by N.H.J. Westlake... Westlake, Nat Hubert John. J. Parker and Co., London : 1881-94.
* How to build, furnish and decorate Co-operative Building Plan Ass’n, New York, N.Y. : c1897.
* How to furnish a home Church, Ella Rodman. D. Appleton and Co., New York : 1882.
* Meals that cook themselves and cut the costs Frederick, Christine. Sentinel Maufacturing Co., New Haven, Conn. : [c1915]
* Mental development in the child Preyer, William T.. D. Appleton and Co., New York : 1893.
* The next-to-nothing house Carrick, Alice van Leer. The Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston : [c1922]
* Period furnishings; an encyclopedia of historic furniture, decorations... Clifford, C. R. Clifford & Lawton, inc., New York : [c1922]
* Silk manufacturing and its problems Chittick, James. J. Chittick, New York : 1913.
* Woman’s Institute library of dressmaking. The Institute, Scranton, Pa. : 1923.
* Youth in conflict Van Waters, Miriam. Republic Pub. Co., New York : 1925.

Click here to go to the Cornell University Home Page

Albert R. Mann Library. 2008. Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History (HEARTH). Ithaca, NY: Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. http://hearth.library.cornell.edu (Version January 2005).

http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/subjects.html

Here you can browse a list of subjects in HEARTH. Each subject features an essay, images and a bibliography of core titles for the discipline. Listed after each are some of the main sub-topics. Some of the accompanying bibliographies are quite large, hence the file size for each is listed. All bibliographies are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The free Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF’s is freely available for download from Adobe Corporation.

Applied Arts and Design (essay | bibliography - 89kb PDF file)

Applied Or Decorative Art
Crafts
Furniture (Design, Upholstery, Refinishing, Repair)

Child Care, Human Development and Family Studies
(essay | bibliography - 322kb PDF file)

Child Care
Parenting
Child/Human Development
Family Relations/Studies
Human Sexuality
Public Policy Related To The Above Topics

Clothing and Textiles (essay | bibliography - 247kb PDF file)

Clothing Production And Upkeep (Including Sewing And Laundry Work)
Fashion And Clothing Choice
Textile/Fiber Science
Fashion Design

Food and Nutrition (essay | bibliography - 165kb PDF file)

Cookery / Home Cooking (Including Home Processing And Experimental Foods, But Excluding Cookbooks)
Nutrition And Dietetics
Food Science
Marketing And Food Purchasing

Home Management (essay | bibliography - 71kb PDF file)

Family Economics (Including Budgets)
Home Management
Efficiency (Ergonomics, Motion Studies)
Management Of Domestic Employees
Economics Of Household Production/Rural Enterprise
Economics As An Academic Discipline
Standard Of Living

Housekeeping and Etiquette (essay | bibliography - 255kb PDF file)

Housekeeping Manuals (Not Including Laundry)
Etiquette

Housing, Furnishing and Home Equipment
(essay | bibliography - 101kb PDF file)

Housing (Architecture, Siting, Construction, But Only Publications Aimed At A Lay Audience)
Interior Design (As Related To Efficiency And Health)
Home Equipment
Housing Policy

Hygiene (essay | bibliography - 134kb PDF file)

Household Sanitation
Care Of The Sick
Personal Hygiene And Grooming
Public Health

Institutional Management (essay | bibliography - 33kb PDF file)

Hospitality Industry
Institutional Nutrition
Service Agency Administration

Retail and Consumer Studies (essay | bibliography - 18kb PDF file)

Marketing/Merchandising (Including Communicating With Consumers, Home Service Merchandising)
Other Retail Activities
Consumer Education, Protection, And Advocacy
Consumer Co-Operatives

Teaching and Communication (essay | bibliography - 72kb PDF file)

Home Economics Education
Home Economics Textbooks
Home Extension (As A Topic In Itself-Extension Publications Are Excluded)

Photo of dress on mannequin

Measuring an apartment baby.
Photo © Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

http://www.bigmedicine.ca/americas.htm#New_Mexico:_Investigation_into_salmo

USA: FDA warns consumers against using Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream [May 23 Rockville MD]—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use or purchase Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream, marketed by MOM Enterprises, Inc., because the product contains potentially harmful ingredients that may cause respiratory distress or vomiting and diarrhea in infants.

The product is promoted to nursing mothers to help soothe and heal dry or cracked nipples. Product labeling specifically states that there is no need for mothers to remove the cream prior to nursing. However, the ingredients contained in the product may be harmful to nursing infants.

Potentially harmful ingredients in Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream are chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol. Chlorphenesin relaxes skeletal muscle and can depress the central nervous system and cause respiratory depression (slow or shallow breathing) in infants. Phenoxyethanol is a preservative that is primarily used in cosmetics and medications. It also can depress the central nervous system and may cause vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration in infants.

Mothers and caregivers should watch for a decrease in an infant’s appetite. More serious signs would be difficulty in awakening the child, limpness of extremities or a decrease in an infant’s strength of grip and a change in skin color. Please seek immediate medical attention if your child is showing these signs and symptoms.

“The FDA is particularly concerned that nursing infants are being unwittingly exposed by their mothers to this product with dangerous side effects,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Additionally, these two ingredients may interact with one another to further compound and increase the risk of respiratory depression in nursing infants.”

Though the FDA has not received any reports of injury to infants, the agency is alerting the public because of the potential harm this product can have on a child.

Chlorphenesin can also harm the mother by causing dermatitis, a skin condition that can worsen the drying and cracking of nipple skin.

MOM Enterprises, Inc. is based in San Rafael, Calif. The company has stated that it has discontinued marketing the nipple cream with the potentially harmful ingredients. The FDA is advising consumers to discontinue use of Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream and to consult a health care professional if they experience problems or believe that their infant may have experienced problems due to this product. Nursing mothers with cracked, painful nipples, which is often a side effect of nursing, should speak with their health care professional or a certified lactation consultant if the problem is severe or for other treatment options.

Consumers are strongly encouraged to report adverse events related to this product or any FDA approved product to MedWatch, the agency’s voluntary reporting program, by e-mail at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm, or by phone at 800-332-1088, or by fax to 800-332-0178. Consumers may also mail reports of adverse events to MedWatch, Food and Drug Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD, 20852-9787.

http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Riot

How to Survive a Riot
What do college tuition increases, soccer games, institutionalized oppression, editorial cartoons, and a movie star’s death have in common? They’ve all ignited riots in the past few years.

It’s no secret that angry mobs can be as dangerous and unpredictable as just about any natural disaster. As many as a million people in India and Pakistan died in the civil unrest that followed India’s independence, for example, and thousands are killed in riots around the world each year. What may be surprising, however, is that riots can break out anywhere. What’s more, as the above examples suggest, while the underlying causes of civil unrest are often the “usual suspects” of racial, religious, economic,or political divisions, seemingly inconsequential events can suddenly trigger mass violence. Fortunately, while you may not always be able to avoid riots, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from harm.
[edit] Steps

1. Be prepared. If you know an area is ripe for a riot but you can’t avoid traveling there, take some simple precautions to help protect yourself. Wear clothes that minimize the amount of exposed skin—long pants and long-sleeve shirts, for instance—when going out, and think about your possible escape routes and safe havens before anything actually happens. Carry some cash with you in case you need to quickly arrange transportation, pay off looters, or bribe police at a checkpoint. If you’re traveling abroad, register with your country’s consulate and carry your passport and/or visa with you at all times.
2. Remain calm. Riots bring intense emotions boiling to the surface, but if you want to survive one you’d be better off keeping yours in check. Your adrenaline and survival instincts will kick in, but try to think rationally and pursue safety methodically.
3. Get inside and stay inside. Typically riots occur in the streets or elsewhere outside. Being inside, especially in a large, sturdy structure, can be your best protection to weather the storm. Keep doors and windows locked, avoid watching the riot from windows or balconies, and try to move to inside rooms, where the danger of being hit by stones or bullets is minimized. Try to find at least two possible exits in case you need to evacuate the building in a hurry. Try to contact police or your country’s consulate to let them know where you are, and be on the lookout for signs of fire. If the building is set on fire get out quickly. If rioters are targeting the building and gain entry, try to sneak out or hide.
4. Stay on the sidelines. If you’re caught up in a riot, don’t take sides. Try to look as inconspicuous as possible, and slowly and carefully move to the outside of the mob. Stay close to walls or other protective barriers if possible.
5. Avoid being hit by riot control chemicals. Police may deploy riot control agents (tear gas, for example) to disperse a crowd. These chemicals can cause severe pain, respiratory distress, and blindness. Try to stay away from the front lines of a riot, and learn to recognize the signs that a riot control agent has been used and how to handle exposure.
6. Move away from the riot. The more time you spend in the midst of a riot, the greater your chance of being injured or killed. That said, in most circumstances it’s better to move out of a riot slowly. If you run, you will draw attention to yourself, so it’s usually best to walk. It can also be dangerous to move against a crowd, so go with the flow until you are able to escape into a doorway or up a side street or alley. It may also be advantageous to stay with the crowd until you are certain you can safely escape because it will help you remain inconspicuous and improve your odds of survival if shots are fired.

* Think of crowd movement like currents in the ocean. In a large riot, the crowd in the middle will be moving faster than the people on the perimeters. As such, if you find yourself in the middle, you should not try to move in a different direction, but follow the flow and slowly make your way to the outside. This requires patience in order to work properly.
* Avoid major roads. Major roads, squares, and other high traffic areas are likely to be crowded with rioters. If possible, stick to less-traveled side streets to avoid the mobs.
* Avoid public transportation. Buses, subways, and trains will likely be out of service, and stations and depots will probably be packed with people. Even if you succeed in getting on a train or bus, rioters may stop it. Subway stations are particularly bad places to be, both because they are generally difficult to escape and because riot control agents are generally heavier than air and may drift down into subway stations and accumulate there.
* Don’t stop your car. If you’re lucky enough to have a car that you can drive away from the riot, drive quickly and try not to stop for anything until you’ve reached someplace you know is safe. If people seem to block your escape route; honk your horn, and carefully drive through or around them at a moderate speed, and they should get out of the way.
o Driving towards Police lines can be interpreted by the Police as a preparation to use the car as a weapon against them. Police are trained and prepared to protect themselves against deadly threats meaning that you may be shot at if they think you are going to run them down with a car.
o Activist fear of cars can be a reality as there have been numerous cases of irate non-participants running down protesters. Any pushing though the crowd should be done with the demeanor of patience, aggression may lead to an attempt to disable your car before it is used as a weapon.
7. Get to a safe place, and stay put. Choose a safe haven carefully. Sometimes it can be as close as your hotel room, but other times you’ll need to get out of the country entirely. If you’re abroad, you will generally want to head to your country’s embassy or the airport. Try to contact the embassy before going there, however, to let them know you’re coming and to find out if it is safe to go there. If a mob is gathered outside, embassy staff may be able to direct you to a safer place. In any case, just try to put as much distance as possible between yourself and the riot.

[edit] Tips

* If you find yourself caught and being led in a stampeding crowd, to avoid being crushed, try to climb up by digging your elbows into the shoulders of those around you. The crowd will carry you, possibly saving you from tripping and being crushed or trampled.
* Try to figure out why the riot is occurring. Knowing the cause of a riot can help you determine an appropriate response. That said, don’t waste too much time trying to investigate the cause, and don’t venture into a riot just to find out why the rioters are mad.
* Dress appropriately. If the anger of the rioters is directed toward foreigners, try to look like a local. Choose clothing that will help you blend in. If the rioters are divided into factions, however, try to appear neutral. Don’t wear clothing or carry accessories that might mark you as belonging to one faction or another. In either case, try to avoid looking conspicuously wealthy, as you are likely to draw the unwanted attention of opportunistic thieves.
* If a riot breaks out in a stadium, your response should be different depending on where you are in relation to the rioters. If you are in the midst of a riot, you should try to quickly move to an exit. Don’t run, however, and try not to jostle others. If you are at some distance from the action, stay where you are unless instructed to move by police or security personnel. Don’t rush for the exits unless you’re in imminent danger. People are frequently trampled by stampeding crowds near exits.
* When in the middle of a tear gas attack, stay out of the fire line of Police. Gas canisters fired from launchers will cause significant injury upon impact.
* Sometimes however, there can be lot of gas that you can not find a place to go before finding yourself within the cloud. Run across the wind, try to breathe as little as possible, do quick eye shots to figure out where to go and try to keep low. After coming into contact with tear gas, keep your eyes open to let the gas dissipate, and flush your eyes with clean water.
* Gas is not very heavy so you can find clearer air nearer the floor. Never touch your eyes or try to clean your tears; you will only smear them in your face causing yourself more pain.

[edit] Warnings

* Do not try to confront rioters or looters to prevent property damage. No material thing is worth your life.
* Do not approach police lines to attempt to cross to safety. Police are in place to confine the unrest and prevent its spread. Their orders are not to allow anyone to pass, and there are no exceptions except for injured officers to be evacuated. The use of riot control measures, including rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons originate from the police line, and the likelyhood of injury is greatest there.
* Watch your footing in a mob situation. If you stumble and fall to the ground you’re likely to be trampled. This is especially dangerous in stadiums and other enclosed areas, where many unfortunate victims have been crushed to death.
* If you fall down, pull yourself up into a ball. Protect your face, ears and internal organs. In this position you are a smaller object that can be avoided. You will receive less damage if you are stepped on. If others trip on you they will help create a larger “pile” that rioters will avoid.
* Try not to negotiate with a crowd. It is impossible. If a crowd suddenly turns their violence against you for some reasons, don’t try to convince them that you are innocent. Run!

http://www.seabeecook.com/cookery/recipes/creamb1969.htm

Creamed Ground Beef

1969 Armed Forces Recipe Service
Card no. L-30

Yield: 100 portions
Portion: 1 cup
INGREDIENTS WEIGHTS MEASURES
Beef, boneless, ground 24 lb -—
Flour, wheat, hard
Pepper, black
Salt
Soup and Gravy base, beef 2 lb

4 oz
4 oz 1-3/4 qt
1 tbsp
6 tbsp
10 tbsp
Milk, nonfat, dry
Water, warm
Worcestershire sauce 3 lb 4 oz

-— 3 qt
3-1/2 gal
2 tbsp

Method:

1.

Brown beef in its own fat in steam-jacketed kettle or roasting pan. Drain excess fat.
2.

Add flour, pepper, salt, and soup and gravy base to beef; mix thoroughly and cook about 5 minutes until flour is absorbed.
3.

Reconstitute milk; add to beef mixture.
4.

Add Worcestershire sauce; heat to a simmer, stirring frequently. Cook until thickened.

Notes:

1.

35 lb beef, carcass, chilled A.P. will yield 24 lb beef, boneless.
2.

Other types of milk may be used in Step 3. See Recipe Card A-9.
3.

Alternate method of preparation. In Step 2, combine flour with 1 qt (2 lb) drained fat or butter and cook 5 minutes. Add to hot milk and cook until thickened. Combine browned beef and sauce. Heat to serving temperature.

http://www.diggers.org/diggers/digbread.html

Digger Bread
(Made With Love)

Digger Bread was immediately recognizable for the shape of the one- and two-pound coffee cans that the Diggers used to bake it. I interviewed Walt Reynolds who introduced baking to the Diggers. (Some day, I hope to transcribe that interview and put it here.) Walt told me the story of Grey, the Mad Baker, a metaphor of the sixties. The guy flipped out with his day job in a suburban mall bakery, and one morning the police found him naked, throwing dollar bills and flour into the air by his mixing bowls. He only wanted to make bread, but the business angle was too much to handle. He called Walt and told him to take away the equipment. Walt had come to the Haight and hooked up with the All Saints Church group of Diggers. He used the church kitchen to teach the Diggers how to bake whole wheat bread. Fifteen years later, when I was doing non-violence trainings, we got a hold of the church for one of our sessions in preparation for occupying the Livermore Labs. I went into the kitchen and there were those beautiful ovens that the Diggers had used.

Walt told me that the Diggers were responsible for the advent of whole wheat into the hippie/counterculture. This is a remarkable assertion. I would like to know more about this hypothesis. If anyone has done any research along these lines, “sign in please.” The book Appetite for Change: how the counterculture took on the food industry, by Warren J. Belasco, certainly attributes an important role to the Diggers. However, I don’t know if anyone has specifically shown that digger bread was the first instance of using whole wheat bread (and actually proselytizing for it as demonstrated in the following leaflet).

This leaflet was two-sided, 8-1/2” by 11”. I found it in my collection after Ramon Sender sent me an email message requesting any information about recipes for digger bread. I had remembered seeing at least this leaflet (and perhaps others) so went searching. This leaflet was in one of my un-cataloged folders, with a date that indicated when I acquired it but not where. One of these days, I must ask IR to see that collection I put together and left behind so precipitously when I moved out of the commune. Until then, I have to use the xerox copies that are fading after twenty years.

Enjoy this leaflet, which is just as current today as 25 years ago. If someone was interested in setting up a Free Bakery, here are the instructions. The only things you’d need to change would be the wholesalers who aren’t around anymore (Oh’s only closed in the past few years, I live two blocks from Mission Street.)

Most inspiring quote from this leaflet:

Please take this recipe home and start making bread. The only stipulation is that you always give it away.

Free Bread

This is the recipe for the bread that is made in coffee cans at the Free Bakery. The Bakery is at All Saints Episcopal Church, 1350 Waller, on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. on. For information or to make donations, call Mary McClain, 362-6374, or Father Harris at the Church, 621-1862. Contributions can be mailed to Father Harris at 1350 Waller.

We get our flour in 100-lb sacks from several sources. The first we try is Whitman’s Salvage, 1350 Egbert, Hunter’s Point. They sell flour from damaged sacks, very cheaply. Then, if they don’t have the whole-wheat flour we use, we go to two wholesale places: Fisher’s Flouring Mills, 1566 Carroll, and Coast-Dakota, 1588 Carroll (two blocks from Whitman’s). Another place that sells flour in 100-lb sacks, but retail, and open on Saturday’s, is Oh’s (California Direct Importing Co.), 2651 Mission at 23rd. Finally, many whole grains and special mixes are available at the Food Mill, 3033 MacArthur, Oakland (near Fruitvale). Some grains can be found at health food stores such as Far Fetched Foods (1915 Page, SF) and Sunset Health Foods (9th Avenue, SF). We also use quantities of dry milk, brown sugar, honey, molasses, margarine, jam, and tea. These things can be bought cheaply at Whitman’s, Big Bonus (Howard St. near 7th or Potrero Hill)), or Co-op on Third St. near Paul Ave.

We bake in 2-lb coffee cans and sometimes 1-lb cans. This recipe makes one loaf in the 2-lb can and two in the 1-lb cans.

WET MIXTURE:

2-1/2 cups warm water (not over 85 degrees - it it’s too hot it will kill the yeast, which can survive at freezing but not at high temperatures)
1 cake or package of yeast (this is still enough if recipe is doubled, tripled)
1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon sugar, honey, molasses (more may be added, or some of each - we like to use molasses because it’s so rich in minerals and vitamins)
This can be mixed in your 1-lb coffee can - 2 cups water fills it to the middle line.

Let the wet mix stand while preparing the dry ingredients.

DRY MIXTURE:

1 level 1-lb coffee can whole-wheat flour, or 4 cups
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup dry milk

MIXING THE TWO: In a large bowl mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Let the dough stand in the bowl until it rises by half, about two hours. The bowl should be put in a warm place, such as over the pilot light on top of your stove, and it should be covered. Again, too much heat will kill the yeast, but at about 80 degrees it is at peak activity.

THEN KNEAD (see below), drop into a greased coffee can - the 2-lb can takes 2-1/2 lbs dough, the 1-lb can about 1-1/4 lbs - after shaping the dough into a ball making sure no flour is on the surface. Let rise again until it’s just getting to the top of the can, about 45 min.

BAKE at 390 degrees for the 1-lb can, 55 minutes; or 400 degrees for the 2-lb can for 60 minutes. Oven should be preheated.

KNEADING AND GLUTEN: This is what bread is all about. Yeast is not necessary for bread (macrobiotic and many other kinds of bread, especially Middle Eastern and Indian, do not contain yeast) but kneading, which causes gluten to develop, is. Gluten is a protein substance contained in the grain and released by milling and increased by kneading. It is elastic (same root as glue) and makes the fibers of dough able to stretch without breaking; these stretched fibers make little pockets to hold in bubbles of gas formed by the action of the yeast, and thus the bread rises. If yeast is not used, you still notice that kneading changes the character of the dough, makes it “breadlike” and not crumbly.

HOW TO KNEAD: Turn out the dough after it has risen two hours in the bowl onto a floured surface. Work it with the heels of your hands, pushing and stretching it. Keep just enough flour on the board and your hands to prevent sticking. Push at it until it begins to push back - in other words until it has developed gluten and gets elastic. Keep on until it doesn’t stick any more, looks shiny, stretches without breaking when you pull it apart, holds the indentation made when you poke your finger in, instead of closing up on it. Caution: several of these tests can be passed by dough that has had too much flour added. Keep the dough soft, adding only enough flour to prevent sticking. But it may take another 3/4 cup of flour in the kneading, depending on the kind of flour you used, etc. The whole thing should take 10 to 15 minutes.

NOTE ON FLOUR: The freshest flour makes the best bread. Besides tasting best, it has more gluten. You can mill the grain yourself if you have an electric coffee grinder. It comes out slightly coarse, with all the wheat germ in it (commercial flour has the oily wheat germ removed because it can go rancid if it is stored for a long time) and needs very little kneading because of the high gluten content.

Whole wheat flour will make a loaf of bread without any additions. Coarsely-ground flours, such as stone ground, can be used for all the flour in a loaf but unless they are very fresh they don’t develop quite as much gluten and so are often mixed with a fine-ground wheat flour. Rye flour hardly has any gluten at all, so must be mixed in order to rise. White flour, or bleached whole-wheat, is not allowed for Free Bread.

We generally put in one or two of several additions: wheat germ, soy flour (high in protein), various kinds of meals. You can experiment, starting out with perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 by weight of germ, other flours, meals. And then there are raisins, other kinds of fruit, honey, and so on.

Milk: If you use regular milk, scald it first (bring it to a boil) to kill bacteria, then cool to lukewarm (so it won’t kill the yeast). Be sure to change it to a wet ingredient and adjust proportions accordingly.

Please take this recipe home and start making bread. The only stipulation is that you always give it away.

If you wish to start your own bakery, here is the recipe for twelve loaves. At the Bakery we mix up about ten or twelve of these batches during the day, keeping two ovens going with loads of twelve loaves coming out every half hour.

WET MIX:

6 quarts water (80 degrees)
1/5 pound yeast
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar

Molasses, if you have it, is added to wet mix.

Alternative for at least 5 batches: Mix 1 pound yeast with 10 quarts water, 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar. Take 2 quarts of this yeast water for every batch, adding 4 quarts lukewarm water.

DRY MIX:

15 lbs flour (5 2-lb coffee cans or 3 Co-op 5-lb sacks)
1 lb sugar (3-1/2 cups)
1 lb dry milk (3 cups)
6 heaping T salt

Substitute other flours, meals here. Brown sugar works fine. Wheat germ too. 2 cans of substitutions for the flour is about right.

Let rise in the mixing container (we use plastic garbage pails) for two hours (same as for small recipe), then get in 5 or 6 friends to help knead. We use a scale to weigh the finished balls of dough (2-1/2 or 1-1/4 lbs) to be dropped in the cans. Rising and baking times the same as for small recipe.
[Document uploaded May 18, 1996]

Last updated May 25, 2007
Home page located at: http://www.diggers.org

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html#lemonbars

Chocolate chip cookies

Ruth Wakefield [June 17, 1903-January 10, 1977], Whitman Mass., is credited for inventing chocolate chip cookies at her Toll House Restaurant in the early 1930s. According to the story, Ruth used a Nestle candy bar for her chips. We will probably never know if Ruth was the very first person to put chocolate pieces in cookies, but she is certainly the one who made them famous. Nestle began marketing Ruth’s chocolate chip cookies to the general public in 1941. The caption under the photograph printed by the New York Times (January 2, 1985 I 12:5) describing the fire that destroyed Ruth Wakefield’s kitchen the reads “Wreckage of Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, Mass. It was where the chocolate chip cookie was invented.” In the July, 1997 Governor Weld signed legislation that declared chocolate chip cookies to be the *official cookie of the Commonwealth* in honor or Ruth Wakefield (much to the dismay of the Fig Newton faction).

Mrs. Wakefield’s original recipe

“Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies
Cream 1 cup butter, add 3/4 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup granulated sugar and 2 eggs beaten whole. Dissolve 1 tsp. Soda in 1 tsp. Hot water, and mix alternately with 2 1/4 cups flour sifted with 1 tsp. Salt. Lastly add 1 cup chopped nuts and 2 bars (7-oz.) Nestles yellow label chocolate, semi-sweet, which has been cut in pieces the size of a pea. Flavor with 1 tsp vanilla and drip half teaspoons on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes in 375 degrees F. Oven. Makes 100 cookies.”
-—Toll House Tried and True Recipes, Ruth Wakefield [M. Barrows:New York] 1947 (p. 216)

The Hershey’s 1934 Cookbook contains a recipe for “Chocolatetown chip cookies” (p. 75) that includes a 12 ounce package of Hershey’s Baking Chips.

Ms. Wakefield’s cookbook collection is currently located at the Henry Whittemore Library of Framingham State College (MA).

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html#lemonbars

MEXICAN WEDDING CAKES

The cookie is old, the name is new. Food historians place the first recipes named “Mexican wedding cakes” in the 1950s. Why the name? Our books and databases offer no explanations. Perhaps timing is everything? Culinary evidence confirms Mexican wedding cakes are almost identical to Russian Tea Cakes. During the 1950s and 1960s relations between Russia and the United States were strained. It is possible the Cold War provided the impetus for renaming this popular cookie. Coincidentally? This period saw the mainstreaming of TexMex cuisine into American culture.

“Mexican wedding cake. A buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookie that’s usually ball-shaped and generally contains finely chopped almonds, pecans or hazelnuts. It’s usually rolled in confectioners’ sugar while still hot, then again after the cookie has cooled. Many countries have their own rendition of this rich cookie. Two versions are Russian tea cakes and Spain’s polvornes.”
-—Food Lover’s Companion, Sharon Tyler Herbst, 3rd edition [Barron:New York] 2001 (p. 385)

“Mexican wedding cakes. These cookies masquerade under several names—Butterballs, Russian Tea Cakes, Swedish Tea Cakes, Moldy Mice. “Butterballs” is easy enough to explain—these little balls are buttery—but I have no idea how they came by their other pseudonyms. The are also known sometimes as Pecan Sandies, although true sandies are nearer shortbread. Mexican Wedding Cakes were a community cookbook staple throughout the 50s and 60s...”
-—American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Foods of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 481)
[NOTE: Ms. Anderson provides a recipe in her book.]

The oldest recipe we have for Mexican wedding cookies was published in 1951.

[1951]
“Mexican Wedding Cakes
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream butter with sugar. Add flour gradually, beating well after each addition. Add nuts and vanilla and blend. Shape into crescents, place on an ungreased cooky sheet. Bake in slow oven (325 degrees F.) for 15 to 18 minutes. Approximate yield: 4 dozen crescents. Crisp little things, ready to break in the mouth, melting richly on the tongue.”
-—”Quick-as-a-Wink Dishes,” Clementine Paddleford, Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1951 (p. G27)

[1955]
“Mexican Wedding Cakes (a variation of Nut Butter Balls)

Nut Butter Balls
1 cup soft butter or margarine
1/4 to 1/2 cup granulated or confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract; or 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 to 2 cups finely chopped or ground walnuts, pecans, almonds, black walnuts, Brazil nuts, or filberts.
Mix butter with sugar until very light and fluffy. Add salt, extract, flour, nuts; mix well. Refrigerate until easy to handle. Start heating oven to 350 degrees F. Shape dough into 1” balls or 1” to 2” X 1/2” rolls, triangles, or crescents. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. (Or drop by level tablesoonfuls onto cookie sheet.) Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until light brown. While cookies are warm, roll in granulated or confectoners’ sugar, fine cookie crumbs, or cinnamon and sugar. Makes 4 to 5 dozen.

Mexican Wedding Cakes: With bottom of tumber dipped into flour, flatten each 1” ball. Bake at 325 degrees F. 12 minutes. While cookies are warm, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.”
-—Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Dorothy B. Marsh editor [Good Housekeeping Book Division:New York] 1955 (p. 479)
[NOTE: this book does not contain a recipe for Russian Tea Cakes.]

[1956]
“Russian Teacakes, Crunchy, sugared, nut-filled snowballs
This favorite with men came to us from a man. Carl Burkland, an eastern radio executive, often makes them himself at Christmastime.
Mix thoroughly...1 cup soft butter, 1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla
Sift together and stir in....2 1/4 cups sifted Gold Medal Flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix in...3/4 cup finely chopped nuts
Chill dough. Roll into 1” balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet (cookies to not spread). Bake until set, but not brown. While still warm, roll in confectioners’ sugar. Cool. Roll in sugar again.
Temperature: 400 degrees F. (Mod. Hot oven).
Time: Bake 10 to 12 minutes
-—Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, Revised and Enlarged, Second Edition (Third Printing) [McGraw-Hill Book Company:New York] 1956 (p. 220)

[1963]
“Russian Teacakes
Sometimes called Mexican Wedding Cakes
1 cup butter or sifted margarine
1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 1/4 cups Gold Medal Flour
1/4 tsp. Salt
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts
Mix butter, sugar, and vanilla thoroughly. Measure flour by dipping method...or by sifting. Stir flour and salt together; blend in. Mix in nuts. Chill dough. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. (Mod.hot). Roll dough in 1” balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet. (Cookies do not spread.) Bake 10 to 12 min., or until set but not brown. While still warm, roll in confectioners’ sugar. Cool. Roll in sugar again. Makes about 4 doz. 1” cookies. Note: Do not used Gold Medal Self-Rising Flour in this recipe.”
-—Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book, General Mills, facsimile 1963 edition [Hungry Minds:New York] 2002 (p. 25)

A survey of historic American recipes indicates sand tarts, as we know them today, may have descended from simple sugar cookies. Food historians do not offer definative information regarding the genesis of the recipe’s name. Perhaps it was inspired by the color of the finished product?

[1886]
“Sand Tarts
1 pound of granulated sugar
Yolks of three eggs
1/2 pound of butter
Whites of two eggs
Flour enough to make a stiff paste
Beat the butter and sugar together; add the yolks beaten to a cream, then the whites well beaten; mix all well together, and add the flour. Roll out on a baking-board, cut with a round cutter, and bake in a moderate oven until a light brown.”
-—Mrs. Rorer’s Philadelphia Cook Book, Mrs. S.T. Rorer [Arnold and Company:Philadelphia] 1886 (p. 498)

[1896]
“Sand tarts, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer

[1931]
“Sand tarts
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar.
1 egg.
2 cups sifted flour.
2 teaspoons baking powder.
1/4 teaspoon salt.
1 teaspoon cinnamon.
3 tablespoons granulated sugar.
Halved almonds or pecans.
Cream together the butter and brown sugar, and add the well-beated egg. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to the first mixture. On a lightly floured board make a roll of the dough about 3 inches in diameter. Wrap in waxed paper and let stand for several hours or overnight in a cold place. In the morning slice wafer thin with a sharp knife, and sprinkle with a mixture of the cinnamon and granulated sugar. Press a nut in the center of each cookie. Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) For about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Store in air-tight containers.”
-—Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes Revised, Bureau of Gome Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture [United States Government Printing Office:Washington DC] 1931 (p. 119)

Russian tea cakes

The typical Russian Tea Cake recipe calls for butter, eggs, flour, salt, vanilla, nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts) and confectioner’s sugar. This particular combination of ingredients essentially dates back to the Jumbles baked in Medieval Europe (minus the vanilla).

Noble Russian cuisine (along with every other facet of noble life) was influenced by prevailing French customs during the 18th century. Tea was first introduced to Russia in 1618, but the Russian tea ceremony of samovars and sweet cakes was a legacy of Francophile Catherine the Great in the 18th century. It is interesting to note that A Gift to Young Housewives, Elena Molokhovet [1870s popular Russian cookbook] contains plenty of recipes for a variety of small baked goods, none specifically entitled Russian tea cakes. There are, however, several recipes which use similar ingredients. If you want to examine these recipes you are in luck. Gift fo a Young Housewife has recently been reprinted [in English with extensive notes provided by Joyce Toomre] by Indiana University Press (1992). Your librarian can borrow a copy for you.

If you want to contribute sweet treats for a traditional Russian tea ask your librarian to help you find The Art of Russian Cuisine, Anne Volokh. If you need something right now check out these recipes.

About Russian tea

http://www.rispubs.com/article.cfm?Number=193

Author: Linda DeLaine
Publication: Website
Date: Thursday, March 15, 2007

Summary: Tea was brought to Russia in the 1600s from China. Since then, the brew and its implements have become an enduring tradition of Russian society. The tea ceremony itself bonds families and communities

continued.

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html#lemonbars

No-bake cookies

Food historians tell us unbaked confections composed of nuts, dried fruit, seeds and sweeteners were made by ancient Middle eastern cooks. “No bake” candies, as we Americans know them today, surfaced in cookbooks published during the Great Depression. Like their ancient counterparts, contemporary “No Bakes” contain dried/desiccated fruit, nuts, and/or seeds glued together with a sugar (honey, Karo) or fat (peanut butter, butter, margarine). No bake cookies (generally pressed into a pan and cut in squares/bars) descend from the same tradition. These recipes appear in the 1950s. The primary difference between bake and no bake’ recipes (besides the obvious oven time, of course!) is the “no bakes” do not contain eggs or flour. They are not intended to rise.

A brief survey of American “no bake” recipes through time

[1936]
“Date Balls.
Stone: 1 pound dates, or use 1/2 pound seeded dates Put them through a food chopper with: 1 cup chopped pecan meats Add: 1/4 teaspoon salt Shape the candy into tiny balls. Roll them in: Powdered sugar.”

“Persian Balls.
Remove the seeds from: 1 pound dates, or use 1/2 pound seeded dates Cut the stems from 1 pound dried figs Put these ingredients thorugh the coarsest cutter of a meat grinder with: 1 pound seeded raisins, 1 pound pecan meats, 1/3 pound crystallized ginger Shape these ingredients into balls. Roll them in: Powdered sugar.
-—The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [Bobbs-Merrill:Indianapolis IN] 1936 (p. 543)

[1942]
“Fruit Cookies (Unbaked)
1 lb. raisins
1 lb. figs
1 lb. dates
1 lb. cooked prunes
1 c. nuts
1 lb. graham crackers
2 tb. lemon juice
2 tb. honey
Grind fruit and nuts; add lemon juice and honey. Mix thoroughly and make into roll. Keep in refrigerator. Serve thin slices.”
-—Granddaugher’s Inglenook Cookbook [Bretheren Publishing House:Elgin IL] 1942 (p. 51)

[1952]
“Honey Bars
2 Cups Raisins
1 Cup Mixed Nuts
1/4 Cup Honey
Grind raisins and nuts. Mix with honey and press into sheet 1/2 inch thick. Cover, and place weight on top for 24 hours. Cut in bars. Roll in white or colored coconut.”

“Raisin Peanut Balls
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Raisins
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Shredded Coconut
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Plumb raisins by steaming. Drain and chop. Roll coconut into fine pieces. Toast to a light brown in moderate oven (370 degrees F.). Mix peanut butter, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, and raisins. Blend thoroughly. Shape into small balls. Roll in toasted coconut.”
-—Searchlight Recipe Book, Ida Migliaria, et al [Household:Topeka KA] 1952 (p. 81)

[1962]
“No-Bake Cookie Balls
1 pkg. Semisweet chocolate pieces (1 cup)
3 tablesp. White corn syrup
3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 teasp. instant coffee
1/3 cup hot water
1 3/4 cups finely crushed packaged vanilla wafers (about 3 doz.)
1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar.
In double boiler over hot, not boiling, water, melt chocolate; remove from heat. Mix in syrup, 3 cups sugar, nuts, coffee dissolved in hot water, wafer crumbs. Form into 1” balls. Roll in 1/2 cup sugar. Store in covered container a day or so to ripen. Makes about 5 doz.”
-—Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Dorothy B. Marsh [Good Housekeeping:New York] 1962 (p. 480)
[NOTE: It is interesting to note mid-1950s “no bake” recipes typically employ popular packaged/processed items. Perhaps the idea was a timely treat promoted by food companies? The earliest mention we find for “no bake” cookies was printed in the Good Housekeeping Cook Book, 1962 (copyright 1955).]

[1963]
Holiday Apricot Balls
1 pkg. (8 oz.) dried apricots, ground or finely cut
2 1/2 cups flaked coconut
3/4 sweetened condensed milk
1 cup finely chopped nuts
Blend apricots, coconut, and milk well. Shape in small balls. Roll in chopped nuts. Let stand about 2 hr. to firm. Makes about 5 doz. balls.”
-—Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book, facsimile 1963 edition [Hungry Minds:New York] 2002 (p. 135)

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html#lemonbars

Biscuits

The answer to where biscuits originated depends on the kind of biscuit you are thinking about. In some countries the word biscuit historically refers to a hard cookie or cracker. In the United States biscuits are generally small soft, yeast-based products served with breakfast or dinner. They perform a variety of functions including filling (hungry bellies), topping (eg. pies) and sopping (eg. biscuits & gravy). Cowboy-style biscuits were rustled up by pioneers and overland travelers in makeshift ovens. Cathead biscuits and beaten biscuits are two popular American regional favorites. Refrigerator biscuits (packed in a tube, ready to bake) debuted in 1931.

“Biscuit...The word derives from the Latin words “bis” (twice) plus “coctus” (cooked). In England a biscuit is what Americans usually call a cracker or cookie. The American meaning for biscuit was first noted by John Palmer in his Journal of Travels in the United States of North America, and in Lower Canada, (1818), and by 1828 Webster defined the confection as “a composition of flour and butter, made and baked in private families.” In general usage such puffy leavened little breads were called “soda biscuits” or “baking-soda biscuits,” in contrast to the unleavened cracker type....Recipes for soda biscuits are found in every ninetheenth-century cookbook, especially with reference to the cookery of the South...The South is also the home of the beaten biscuit, which was first mentioned in 1853...In 1930 General Mills began selling a packaged quick biscuit mix called Bisquick that was a great success and spawned many imitators.”
-—The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (page 29) Cathead biscuits
Huge as a cat’s head, served up hot with with Sawmill Gravy. An Appalchian down-home favorite!

“There, in the Blackstone kitchen, Berry’s grand chefs, Vernie and Floyd Nabors, turned out Sunday morning biscuits that melted in one’s mouth. Particularly if you opened one up and added fresh butter along with the generous portion of the Berry-made apple butter...One of my classmates put it for me in hushed tones: “What you see there, Joe, is what we call the Cathead Bsicuit, the gift of an all-knowing and benevolent God.” Mountain people, he explained, were particularly partial to the giant-size biscuits, which were destined by the Almighty to go with milk-enhanced sawmill gravy, another mountain favorite...Indeed the “cathead”—an Applachian phenomenon—was the precursor to the even larger size biscuits offered today by chains such as Hardee’s and Mrs. Winner’s. The big difference between regular-size buttermilk biscuits and the catheads was that with most “cats,” the cook pinched off handfuls of dough rather than rolling it out and using a biscuit cutter...

Bryson City Cathead Biscuits
2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons lard
1 cup buttermilk.
Sift and mix dry ingredients then blend with lard. Add buttermilk. For each biscuit, pinch off a portion of dough about the shape of a large egg and pat out with your hands. Bake in 350 degree F. oven in wood stove about 10 minutes. In a modern electric or gas oven, bake at 475 to 500 degrees.”
-—Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville TN] 1999 (p. 114-5)

“Sawmill gravy (or Logging gravy). In the years following the turn of the century, logging camps sprang up all over the Smoky Mountains where timber companies had bought up tracts of virgin timber. Lumberjacks and sawmillers by the hundreds came in to snake out the logs to nearby streams, sawmills, and newly built railheads. Entire families moved in with the men to the camps. To feed the multitude was a big challenge. Breakfasts usually consisted of coffee and meat plus flour-based gravies and large “cathead” biscuits. On e day, the story goes, the Tremont camp ran out of flour and had to substitute cornmeal in the gravy. Inquisitive loggers arriving before breakfast asked what kind of gravy was on the menu that day. “This gravy’s made out of sawdust!” the cooks replied. The name stuck. The cheap, easy-to-fix cornmeal gravy caught on. While “sawmill gravy” was the popular nickname, some called itn “Logging Gravy.” Others named it Poor Do or Life Everlasting, a reference to what many felt was its role in keeping them alive. This recipe adapation comes from Janice Miracle of Middlesboro, Kentucky...

“Life Everlasting” Sawmill Gravy
3 heaping tablespoons white cornmeal
1 tablespoon bacon drippings
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups milk
A dash of pepper
In a frying pan, combine cornmeal, bacon drippings, and salt. Stir until brown. Add milk and let boil until gravy thickens. Stir forcefully to keep gravy from pumping. Add pepper to taste.”
-—ibid (p. 207-8)

Cowboy biscuits
The two main types of biscuits made by chuckwagon cooks were soda and sourdough. Their only method for baking was the Dutch oven. This portable iron pot sat up from the fire on three small feet. This allowed air to flow through the bottom. The lid was lipped, making it easy to pile heated rocks on top for more even baking. It was reliable but had no scientific temperature controls.

“Baking powder biscuits
3 cups flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoon fat (lard or bacon drippings)
Approx. 1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Sift together dry ingredients, then rub in lard with fingertips, until flaky. Pour about a cupful milk to moisten. Turn out on well floured board and pat about 1/2 inch tricknesss. Cut with biscuit cutter and place in greased dutch oven that has been slightly preheated. Biscuits should be touching but not crowded. Place preheated lid on oven and cover with hot coals. Place on bed of good red coals and let bake about twenty minutes or until brown on top and bottom.”
—Clair Haight, Hashknife Outfit, Winslow AZ, 1922 (reprinted in: Chuck Wagon Cookin’, by Stella Hughes [University of Arizona Press:Tuscon AZ] 1974 (p. 123))

“Mrs. E.’s soda biscuits
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons lard or margarine
3/4 to 1 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together. Add and cut into flour mixture. Add milk, a little at a time, stirring with a fork. Add as much of the milk as necessary to make a very soft dough. Roll out 1/2 inch and cut with a small biscuit cutter. Bake at 425 degree for 15-20 minute. Makes 15 biscuits.”

The above recipe is adapted from this original text (notice the lack of oven temp!): “1 quart flour, 2 heaping tablespoonfuls lard, 2 cups sweet milk, or you can take can milk, 1 teaspoonful soda, 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, 1 teaspoonful salt. Rub soda and cream of tartar into flour dry. Next the lard. Lastly the milk. Work with as little handling as possible. The dough should be very soft. Cut more than half inch thick and bake in a quick oven.”
-—An Army Wife’s Cookbook, Alice Kirk Grierson (recipes collected 1850s-1870s).

ABOUT BISCUITS & GRAVY
Biscuits and gravy is traditionally connected to the American South. Althought it can be served at any meal, the most popular meal appears to be breakfast. Historic cookbooks contain many recipes for biscuits but no information with regards to smothering them with gravy. Perhaps it was “understood.” Most cookbooks stress serving biscuits HOT from the oven, with butter. We find notes referencing the combination of biscuits and gravy in current southern-American cookbooks. Sadly, they do not impart much in the way of history. This book sums it up best:

“Eggs fried in bacon drippings, escorted by country ham, hot biscuits, grits with butter and red-eye gravy, and a cup of coffee so hot that the less acquainted might term it “scalding”—these aren’t merely the makings of a Southern breakfast, they’re the substance of a Southern lifeblood...Southerners can probably thank the English for their skepticism toward “fancy” food in general and for the notion that breakfast isn’t really breakfast unless it contains meat and grains—in quantity. The English colonists brought with them their preference for puddings, porridge, meat pies, beef, mutton, and pork. In fact , the appearance of ham on the breakfast plates of Southeners can probably be traced to the first pigs that were carried from England to Jamestown, Virginia in 1608...Even after the Civil War, when many Southerners were attempting to modify their image and also their food, pork and pone continued to be inextricably bound together on many breakfast tables...The Southern breakfast saw its heyday during the plantation era of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—when breakfast was the first and most substantial meal of the day. As Southern lore has it, planation owners generally would begin the day wiht a julep or brandy, then inspect the crops, and sit down to a large breakfast at ten AM...”
-—Around the Southern Table, Sarah Belk [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1991 (p. 335-6)
[NOTE: This is an excellent book full of history snippets and traditional recipes. Your librarian can help you find a copy.]

“Red-eye gravy served with ham and grits is arguably the most “Southern” of any Southern breakfast combination. The origin of the name of this gravy, however, is somewhat mythical. According to one theory, Andrew Jackson once asked a cook for gravy as red as the cook’s eyes. Another source purports that the appearance of a “red eye” in the middle of a pan of a correctly made ham gravy reduction is what gives this sauce its name. The propular way to make it is perhaps equally contentious...Served on hot toasted cornbread, this makes a delightful breakfast.”
-—ibid (p. 347)

About milk gravies
Sauce/gravy recipes were introduced to the New World by European settlers. These ranged from very simple fat & flour combinations to complicated French reductions. Milk/cream based gravy [aka white gravy] was among the simpler concoctions. This vesatile gravy adapted easily to “ingredients at hand” which made them popular with folks facing hard times. They were quick to make, easy to store, added flavor to otherwise basic foods, and filled the belly. Milk gravy recipes appear in American cookbooks from colonial days to present. This evidence suggests they were not “invented” during the Civil War. They were, however, likely adapted to incorporate whatever ingredients were available at the time. In modern times, milk gravy was sometimes made with manufactured products, such as dried/canned milk or cream. As with most gravy/sauce recipes, there are dozens of variations.

About milk gravy in Kentucky

“Even the name [sawmill gravy] suggests poverty. By some accountis, it derives from the fact that sawmill crews often subsisted on little more than coffee, biscuits, and gravy. In some parts of Kentucky, this dish was called poor-do—a little something on which the poor made do. Native Kentuckian Jane Brock Woodall recalls that her grandmother in Casey County made the gravy from sausage or chicken dregs, and when there was not enough food to go around, the men ate first and got whatever meat there was and the women and children got by on poor-do. Elsewhere, people would have shunned anything called poor-do or even sawmill gravy ate essentially the same thing and called it white gravy or cream gravy. By whatever name, it was and is a flavorful and familiar dish on many Southern tables.” -—John Eggerton, Southern Food ...In the years following the turn of the century, logging camps sprang up all over the Smoky Mountains...To feed the multitude was a big challenge. Breakfasts usually consisted of coffee and meat plus flour-based gravies and large “cathead” biscuits.”
-—Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread and Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville TN] 1998 (p. 207)

[1839]
“White or Drawn Gravy.
This kind of gravy, to avoid expense and trouble, should be made of the liquor in which fresh meat, poultry or game has been boiled. Put it away in a covered vessel, and in cold weather it will keep good for several days: then, by adding the different catchups, &c., with a little butter, flour and cream to thicken it, you can have nice gravy in a few minutes’ warning; and besides that, it is saving what otherwise might be thrown away.”
-—The Kentucky Housewife, Mrs. Lettice Bryan (facimile 1839 reprint) [Image Graphics:Paducah KY] (p. 164)

General observations on biscuits & gravy. Interested in biscuits & chocolate gravy?

About beaten biscuits
These unusual biscuits are generally connected with the mid-Atlantic and southern Appalachian regions. Marlyand Beaten Biscuit recipes are good examples. Food historians trace the practice of “beating” bread to England, possibly as far back as the 16th century.

“Recipe for soda biscuits are found in every nineteeth-century cookbook, especially with reference to the cookery of the South, where biscuits with ham remain a specialty. The South is also home of the “beaten biscuit,” which was first mentioned in 1853. This curious confection, known in Maryland as a “Maryland biscuit,” is rarely made today, but was once common in the South,where the sound of a mallet beating the biscuit dough was a nostalgic morning sound.”
-—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 29) Mr. Mariani lists the sources he uses in The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink at the end of his book. The 1853 reference for [Maryland Beaten Biscuits is this:

“1853 (1982) Lea, Domestic Cookery 69: MD, Maryland Biscuit. Rub half a pound of lard into three pounds of flour; put in a spoonful of salt, a tea-cup of cream, and water sufficient to make it into a stiff dough; divide it into two parts, and work each well till it will break off short, and is smooth; (some pound it with an iron hammer, or axe;) cut it up into small pieces, and work them into little round cakes.”
-—Dictionary of American Regional English, Frederic G. Cassidy chief editor, Volume III I-O [Cambridge MA:Belknap Press of Harvard University Press] 1996 (p. 528)

“Beaten biscuits are, like grits, very much of a mystery to the uninitiated. They may be the forerunner of the modern raised biscuit, but these chewy, unleavened morsels resmeble more the hard tack produced by early European bakers for armies and navies than anything else served up in the modern South. Pilot bread and sea biscuit are terms for similar breads that reflect their practical use. Country ham was for some time wedded the beaten biscuit in Southern cuisine. At the most traditional fancy parties and weddings, biscuits no bigger than a quarter are invariably served up with baked, cured ham sliced as thin as imaginable sandwiched inside and spiked with mustard. Otherwise, beaten biscuits are rarely seen anymore. They sound harder to make than they are...those who enjoy a physical relationship with their doughs should be in heaven here. There is no getting around the activity. Fifteen minutes of heavy, consistent abuse is the minimum. You can use a rolling pin, a hammer, the side of an axe; whatever, it must be heavy...In the old days, the dough was beaten on a tree stump in the yard. When properly beaten, the dough will blister at each blow. it will develop a strange plastic quality and be smoother than any other bread dough you have ever seen...The biscuits, when done, will be dry throughout, yet soft in the middle.”
-—Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, Bill Neal [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 39)

Culinary evidence confirms beaten biscuits (aka Maryland Beaten Biscuits, Maryland Biscuits, Apoquiniminc Cakes, Hard Biscuits) predate 1853. Early recipes required butter and likely produced specimens similar to plain biscuits (sugarless sugar cookies). Mid-19th century recipes employed lard, an economical alternative. This would have produced a cruder product, a little lighter than hard tack. What an interesting declination of food preparation!

Compare these recipes:

[1596]
“To Make Fine Biscuit Bread
Take a pound of fine flour, and a pound of sugar, and mingle it together [with] a quarter of a pound of aniseeds, four eggs, [and] two or three spoonfuls of rose water. Put all thse into an earthen pan and with a slice of wood beat it the space of two hours. Then fill your moulds half full. Your moulds must be made of tin. Then let it into your oven, being so hot as it were for cheat bread. Let it stand one hour and an half. You must anoint your moulds with butter before you put in your stuff. And when you will occupte [make use] of it, slice it thin and dry it in your oven, your oven being no hotter than you may abide your hand in the bottom.”
-—The Good Housewife’s Jewel, Thomas Dawson, with an introduction by Maggie Black [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1996 (p. 79)

[1817]
“Hard biscuits
“Warm two ounces of butter in as much skimmed milk as will make a pound of flour into a very stiff paste, beat it with a rolling pin, and work it very smooth. Roll it thin, and cut it into round biscuits; prick them full of holes with a fork. About six minutes will bake them.”
-—The Female Instructor: or Young Woman’s Guide to Domestic Happiness, [Thomas Kelly:London] 1817 (p. 473)

[1824]
“Apoquiniminc Cakes.
Put a little salt, one egg beaten, and four ounces of butter, in a quart of flour; make it into a paste with new milk, beat it for half an hour with a pestel, roll the paste think, and cut it into round cakes; bake them on a gridiron and be careful not to burn them.”
-—The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition with Historical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [Columbia:University of South Carolina Press] 1984 (p. 170)

[1853]
“Maryland Biscuit.
Take any quantity of flour you think the size of the family may require; put in salt, and a lump or table-spoonful of good lard; rub it well in the flour; then moisten it with new milk, work it well, and beat it with a rolling-pin until perferctly light. On the lightness depends the goodness of the biscuit. Bake rather slowly, a light brown.”
-—Cookery as it Should Be: A New Manual of the Dining Room and Kitchen, A Practical Housekeeper and Pupil of Mrs. Goodfellow [Willis P. Hazard:Philadelphia] 1853 (p. 184)

[1857]
“Maryland Biscuit
Take two quarts of sifted wheat flour, and add a small tea-spoonful of salt. Rub into the pan of flour a large quarter of a pound of lard, and add, gradually, warm milk enough to make a very stiff dough. Knead the lump of doung long and hard, and pound it on all sides with a rolling pin. Divide the dough into several pieces, and knead and pound each piece separately. This must go on for two or three hours, continually kneading and pounding, otherwise it will be hard, tough, and indigestible. Then make it into small round thick biscuits, prick them with a fork, and bake them a pale brown. This is the most labourious of cakes, and also the most unwholesome, even when made in the best manner. We do not recommend it; but there is not accounting for tastes. Children should not eat these biscuits-nor grown persons either, if they can get any other sort of bread. When living in a town where there are bakers, there is no excuse for making Maryland biscuit. Believe nobody that says they are not unwholesome. Yet we have heard of families, in country places, where neither the mistress nor the cook knew anyother preparation of wheat bread. Better to live on Indian cakes.”
-—Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book, Eliza Leslie [T.B. Peterson:Philadelphia PA] 1857 (p. 432)
[NOTE: “Indian cakes” refers to bread products made with maize meal. They were generally regarded as inferior to wheat products.]

[1881]
“Maryland Beat Biscuit
Take one quart of flour, add one teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of lard, half tablespoonful of butter. Dry rub the lard and butter into the four unitl well creamed; add your water gradually in mixing so as to make dough stiff, then put the dough on pastry board and beat until perfectly moist and light. Roll out the dough to thickness of third of an inch. Have your stove hot and bake quickly. To make more add twice the quantity.”
-—What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Mrs. Fisher, facsimile 1881 reprint with historical notes by Karen Hess [Applewood Books:Boston] 1995 (p. 9)

[1904]
“Beaten Biscuits
1 pint of flour
1 rounded tablespoon of lard
1 good pinch of salt
Mix with very cold sweet milk to a stiff dough. Work 150 times through a kneader. Roll into sheet one-half inch thick. Cut out or make out with the hands. Stick with a fork and bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes till a rich brown.”
-—The Blue Grass Cook Book, Minne C. Fox, fascimile 1904 reprint with an introduction by John Fox Jr. [University of Kentucky Press:Lexington KY] 2005 (p. 1)

[1932]
Maryland Beaten Biscuit
3 pints winter wheat flour, 1/4 lb. Lard, one-half ice water and milk to make a stiff dough, 1 heaping teaspoon salt. Work in the lard, add the liquid and beat with a club for twenty-five minutes. Make in small biscuits and bake in a hot oven.”
-—Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland, Frederick Philip Steiff [G.P. Putnam:New York] 1932 (p. 186)

[1992]
“Beaten Biscuits
Beaten biscuits originated in Maryland more than 200 years ago, when a mixture of soda and cream of tartar was used as leavening. The dough was beaten to make it light and airy. These biscuits became such a necessity that a machine similar to a wringer was invented to manipulate the dough. Even in modern times, this type of biscuit dough is still beaten. By tradition the dough is beaten with a hammer, mallet, or an ax for about 30 minutes. Lard was originally used in the biscuit dough, but today either solid vegetable shortening, margarine, or butter is often substituted.

Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen biscuits
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup lard, solid vegetable shortening, margarine, or butter
1/3 cup milk combined with 1/3 cup water
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Cut in the shortening until it resembles coarse meal. Add just enough of the liquid, a little at a time, to make a stiff dough. Knead the dough several times in the bowl and then turn it out on a lightly floured board. Beat the dough for about 30 minutes, turning it several times until it pops and is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into smooth balls by hand. Place on a cookie sheet and prick each biscuit with a fork, making 3 rows of holes. Make in a preheated 400 degree F. Oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until light brown.”
-— Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Hong Kong] 1992 (p. 45)

* 1793—Ships biscuit, Admiral Nelson’s Royal Navy
* 1801—G.H. Bent, still selling hardtack and common crackers
* 1865—Hardtack in the U.S. Civil War
* 1931—Bisquick

See also crackers

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake

“Devil’s food. A cake, muffin, or cookie made with dark chocolate, so called because it is supposedly so rich and delicious that it must be somewhat sinful, although the association is clearly made with humor. Its dark color contrasted with the snowy white of angel-food cake, an earlier confection. The first devil’s food recipe appeared in 1900, after which recipes and references became frequent in cookbooks. The “red devil’s food cake,” given a reddish-brown color by the mixture of cocoa and baking soda, is post-World War II version of the standard devil’s food cake.”
-—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 111)

Angel food belongs to the nineteenth century but devil’s food to the twentieth. How this chocolate cake came to be called devil’s food no one knows alothough it may have been a play on opposites: it was as dark and rich as angel food was light an airy...In the early 1900s there were a number of bizarre variations on Devils Food Cake. Once called for mashed potatoes and a number for ground cinnamon and cloves in addition to chocolate...”
-—American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 452-3)

Some food historians believe this might be the first mention of Devil’s food. It appears in a memoir written by Caroline King’s of her childhood in 1880s Chicago. Ms. King was a popular food writer in the 1920s-1930s.

“Devil’s Food, though a new cake in our household, had made its dashing appearance in Chicago in the middle eighties, and by the time it reached our quiet little community, was quite the rage. Maud’s receipt was the original one, and made a large, dark, rich cake. Here it is:

Devil’s Food
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 1/2 cups flour
1 scant teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Anna melted the chocolate over hot water while Maude creamed the butter and added the sugar gradually; then she whipped in the slightly beaten yolks of the eggs and the melted chocolate and vanilla. I was permitted to sift and measure the flour and then sift it again with the baking powder and soda. When this was done, Maude alternately added the flour mixture and the sour cream to the egg-sugar-butter-chocolate combination. Last of all, she folded in the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs and turned the delicious-smelling brown batter into three layer-cake pans which Anna had buttered and floured. The baking, in a very moderate oven, was carefully watched. According to a time-honored custom in our family, the cakes were tested with a clean broomstraw and when finished were turned, beautifully brown and entrancingly fragrant, from the pans onto a clean towel.

Now came the next important part, the icing and filling. The Watermans’ receipt called for a thick boiled icing made pleasantly piquant with a few drops of citric acid. But citric acid sounded dangerous to Maud, and besides, as Anna explained, we had no such article in our supply closet. Even Emily’s stock of special flavorings refused to yield it, so Maud used lemon juice, sparingly and judiciously, and the result was perfect.

Altogether it was a noble cake, nobly made.”
-—Victorian Cakes: A Reminiscence With Recipes, Caroline B. King, with an introduction by Jill Gardner [Aris/Berkeley:1986] (p. 35-6)

There is no recipe for Devil’s food in Favorite Dishes: A Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book, a collection of recipes contributed by prominent Chicago women in 1893. This book, originally compiled by Carrie V. Shuman, was recently reissued by the University Press, Chicago [2001].

What is the difference between chocolate cake and devil’s food?
This simple question has many answers, depending upon the period and cookbook. As noted above, the first 19th century American chocolate cake recipes were white/yellow cakes with chocolate icing. The addition of chocolate to the batter increased as the price of this ingredient declined, thus creating “chocolate cake” as we know it today. 20th century cookbooks often list chocolate cake and devils food on the same page. The most predominant difference between the two? Devil’s food usually contains a greater proportion of chocolate. Fannie Farmer [1923] doubles the amount of chocolate required for her devil’s food (4 ounces compared to 2 ounces for “regular” chocolate cake.). Irma S. Rombauer confirms: “When the larger amount of chocolate is used, it is a black, rich Devil’s Food.” (Joy of Cooking, 1931 p. 236)

Compare this chocolate cake recipe [1894] with Mrs. Rorer’s [1902] & Good Housekeeping’s [1903] devil’s food recipes (below):

Chocolate Cake, No. 3
One and a half cups of sugar, half cup of butter, three-quarters cup of milk, three eggs and yolk of another, two cups of flour, two teaspoons baking powder, one full cup of Baker’s chocolate. Break up the chocolate and put in a cup over the tea kettle until it melts. This will make four layers, and use the following recipe for boiled icing between the layers.

Boiled icing
One cup of sugar (granulated), quarter cup of water (cold), one egg (only white, beaten stiff). Put water on sugar in a saucepan and let it boil until it threads. Then remove from fire and pour over the stiff white, beaten until it thickens. Put on the cake at once.”
-—The Oracle: Receipts Rare, Rich and Reliable, The Woman’s Parish Aid Society of Christ Church, [Tarrytown:New York] 1894 (p. 88)

The earliest recipe we have for Devil’s Food printed in an American cookbook is dated 1902:

“Devil’s Food
1/2 cup of milk
4 ounces of chocolate
1/2 cup butter
3 cups pastry flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder

Put in a double boiler four ounces of chocolate and a half pint of milk; cook until smooth and thick, and stand aside to cool. Beat a half cup of butter to a cream; add gradually one and a half cups of sugar and the yolks of four eggs; beat until light and smooth. Then add the cool chocolate mixture and three cups of pastry flour, with which you have sifted two teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Beat thoroughly for at least five minutes; then stir in the well beaten whites of the eggs. Bake in three or four layers. Put the layers together with soft icing, to which you have added a cup of chopped nuts. The success of this cake depends upon the flour used.”
-—Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer [Philadelphia: 1902] (p. 619)
[NOTE: Mrs. Rorer’s chocolate loaf cake recipe (p. 615) calls for 2 ounces of chocolate]

Devil’s Food Cake
Two and a half cups of sifted flour, two cups of sugar, one-half cup of butter, one-half cup of sour milk, one-half cup of hot water, two eggs, one-half or one -fourth cake of chocolate, one teaspoon of vanilla, one teaspoon of soda. Grate chocolate and dissolved with the soda in hot water. Use white icing.”
-—Good Housekeeping Everyday Cook Book, Isabel Gordon Curtis, [Phelps Publishing:New York] 1903 (p. 50); recipe attributed to Mrs. Nelson Ruggles.
[NOTE: This book’s recipe for chocolate cake (p. 50) is white cake with chocolate filling]

By 1913, devils food and devils cake were all the rage. How do we know? Anna Clair Vangalder’s Modern Women of America Cookbook [Modern Woodman Press:Rock Island] lists no less than 23 recipes! Some are simple, others are complicated. Sour milk and brown sugar seem to be the standard ingredients, though some recipes specified white sugar and sweet milk cut with boiling water. Melted/grated unsweetened chocolate (cake, bakers) was the norm, though some recipes used cocoa. Some cakes were layered, others were baked in simple loaf pans. About half of the early devils cakes were iced.

Recipes for devil’s food cake have changed over the years. Duncan Hines Dessert Book [New York:1955] lists three recipes for Devil’s Food Cake, and one each for Cocoa Devil’s Food Cake, Party Devil’s Food Cake, and Sour Cream Devil’s Food Cake (p. 37-41). Jean Anderson’s American Century Cookbook (p. 452-3) does a good job outlining the evolution of this particular recipe.

Red Devil’s Food

These recipes generally include both baking soda, baking powder and boiling water. Proportions vary. They begin to show up in North American cookbooks during the 1930s. Some are specifically called “red devil,” others are simply called devil and are undistinguishable unless the cook examined the ingredients.

[1946]
Red Devil’s Food
Generally popular—but not with me, which is not to be taken as a criterion.
Measure:
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
Resift with:
1 1/2 teaspoon tartrate phosphate baking powder or 1 teaspoon combination type
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
Cream until light and fluffy:
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
Add one at a time and beat well:
2 eggs
Melt: 2 ounces chocoloate in 1/2 cup boiling water
Cool slightly, then stir these ingredients into the egg mixture. Add the dry ingredients in about three parts alternately with:
1/2 cup sour milk
Add: 1 teaspoon vanilla
Stir the batter after each addition until it is well blended. Bake it in two greased 9 inch layer pans in a moderate oven 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Spread the cake with Seven Minute Morocco Icing.”
-—Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [Bobbs-Merrill:Indianapolis] 1946 (p. 542)

[1956]
“Real Red Devils Food Cake
A rich, moist cake...made with cocoa. Developed by Lorraine Kilgren of our staff...

Grease and flour: 2 8 or 9” layer pans or 13 X 9” oblong pan
Sift together into bowl: 1 3/4 cups Softasilk flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/4 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup cocoa
Add: 1/2 cup soft shortening, 2/3 cup milk
Beat 2 min.
Add: another 1/3 cup milk, 2 eggs (1/3 to 1/2 cup), 1 tsp. vanilla
Beat 2 more min.
Pour into prepared pans. Bake until cake tests done. Cool. Finish with White Mountain or Satiny Beige Frosting or with Chocolate Butter Icing. Temperature: 350 degrees F (mod. oven).
Time: Bake 8” layers 35 to 40 mon., 9” layers 30 to 35 min., oblong 45 to 50 min.”
-—Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, Revised and Enlarged, second edition [McGraw-Hill:New York] 1956 (p. 151)
[NOTE: We can supply the icing recipe of your choice.]

Of course? There’s always chocolate angel food! (Joy of Cooking [1931] p. 234)

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake

Pound cake

Food historians generally agree that pound cake is a Northern European recipe named for the equal weight of its ingredients. Recipes printed in contemporary American cookbooks follow the same general proportions. The “pound” connection is not obvious today because we now measure with cups, not weight. American cookbooks printed in the early decades of the 20th century helped cooks bridge the gap by including both sets of measurements.

Historic evidence confirms recipes for pound cake first surface in 18th century English and American cookbooks. Then, as now, there were variations on the recipe. Early recipes sometimes included alcohol and currants. Many are flavored with a hint lemon. Then, as now, proportions varied. Many recipes for pound cake call for more or less than a pound! Cup cakes & 1234 cake are related.

“Pound-cake. A rich cake so called as originally containing a pound (or equal weight) of each of the principal ingredients, flour, butter, sugar, fruit, etc.”
-—Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Volume XII (p. 247)

“Pound cake. A Plain white-cake loaf whose name derives from the traditional weight of the ingredients—one pound of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, and one pound of eggs—although these measurements are generally not followed in most modern recipes. Its first printed mention was in 1740 according to Webster’s Ninth, and it has remained a popular and simple cake to make to this day.”
-—Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 254)

“Pound cake a cake of creamed type, is so named because the recipe calls for an equal weight of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs; in old recipes, a pound of each, making a large, rich cake...Pound cake has been favoured in both Britain and the USA for over two centuries. Recipes for it were already current early in the 19th century...The German Sandtorte is similar to pound cake; and a French cake, quatre quarts (four quarters), uses the same principles...”
-—Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 631)

A survey of pound cake recipes through time:

[1747]
“To make a Pound Cake
Take a Pound of Butter, beat it in an earthen Pan, with your Hand one Way, till it is like a fine thick Cream; then have ready twelve Eggs, but hald the Whites, beat them well, and beat them up with the Butter, a Pound of Flour beat in it, and a Pound of Sugar, and a few Carraways; beat it all well together for an Hour with your Hand, or a great wooden Spoon. Butter a Pan, and put it in and bake it an Hour in a quick Oven. For Change, you may put in a Pound of Currants cleaned wash’d and pick’d.”
-—The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 London reprint [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 ( p. 139)
[NOTE: this book has been reprinted in recent years. If you want to study other cake recipes from this time period ask your librarian to help you find a copy of this and colonial American cook books. You might also want to compare this recipe with modern ones]

[1803]
Pound Cake, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter

[1817]
“A Pound cake, plain.
Beat a pound of butter in an earthen pan till it is like a thick cream, then beat in nine whole eggs till it is quite light. Put in a glass of brandy, a little lemon-peel shred fine; then pork in a pound and a quarter of flour. Put it into your hoop or pan, and bake it for one hour.”
-—The Female Instructor or Young Woman’s Guide to Domestic Happiness, [Thomas Kelly:London] 1817 (p. 462)

[1824]
“Pound cake.
Wash the salt from a pound of butter and rub it till it is soft as cream, have ready a pound of flour sifted, one pound of powdered sugar, and twelve eggs well beaten; put alternately into the butter, sugar, flour, and the froth from the eggs; continuing to beat them together till all the ingredients are in, and the cake quite light; add some grated lemon peel, a nutmeg, and a gill of brandy; butter the pans and bake them. This cake makes an excellent pudding if baked in a large mould, and eaten with sugar and wine. It is also excellent when boiled, and served up with melted butter, sugar, and wine.”
-—The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 161)

[1845]
“Plain Pound or Currant Cake.
Or rich Brawn Brack, or Borrow Brack.
Mix, as directed in the foregoing receipt, ten eggs (some cooks take a pound in weight of these), one pound of sugar, one of flour, and as much of butter. For a plum-cake, let the butter be worked to a cream; add the sugar to it first, then the yolks of the eggs, next stir lightly in the whites, after which, add one pound of currants and the candied peel, and, last of all, the flour by degrees, and a glass of brandy when it is liked. Nearly or quite two hours’baking will be required for this, and one hour for half the quantity. To convert the above inot the popular speckled bread,’ or Brawn Brack of the richer kind, add to it three ounces of carraway-seeds: these are sometimes used in combination with the currants, but more commonly without. To ice a cake see the reciept for Sugar Glazings at the commencement of this Chapter, page 449. A roase-tint may be given to the icing with a little prepared cochineal, as we have said there.”
-—Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton [1845], with an Introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 451)

[1857]
Pound cake, Great Western Cook Book, Anna Maria Collins

[1861]
Pound cake, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Isabella Beeton (recipe 1770)

[1884]
Pound cake, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

[1896]
Pound cake, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Farmer

[1908]
“Pound Cake.
The old rule—and there is none better—calls for one pound each of butter, sugar and flour, ten eggs and a half wine glass of wine and brandy. Beat the butter to a cream and add gradually a pound of sugar, stirring all the while. Beat ten eggs without separating until they become light and foamy. Add gradually to the butter and sugar and beat hard. Sift in one pound sifted flour and add the wine and brandy. Line the cake pans with buttered paper and pour in the well beaten mixture. Bake in a moderate oven. This recipe may be varied by the addition of raisins, seeded and cut in halves, small pieces of citron or almonds blanched and pounded in rose water. Some old fashioned housekeepers always add a fourth of a teaspoon of mace. The mixture may be baked in patty tins or small round loaves, if preferred, putting currants into some, almonds or raisins in the rest. Pound acake is apt to be lighter baked in this way. The cakes may be plain or frosted, and they will grow richer with the keeping in placed in stone jars.”
-—The New York Evening Telegram Cook Book, Emma Paddock Telford [Cupples & Leon:New York] 1908 (p. 126)

[1926]
“Pound Cake
3/4 lb butter
3/4 lb sugar (sifted three times)
3/4 lb flour (sifted three times
1 tablespoon whisky
9 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt
Cream together butter and sugar very light and creamy. Stir in whisky. Add well-beaten egg yolks. Add salt and vanilla. Add alternately flour and stiffly-beaten egg whites. Add baking powder to last flour. Begin the baking in slow oven, increase heat as baking progresses, one to one and a quarter hours.”
-—Every Woman’s Cook Book, Mrs. Chas. F. Moritz [Cupples & Leon:New York] 1926 (p. 415-6)

[1936]
“Old-Fashioned Pound Cake
1 pound cake flour (4 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 pound butter (2 cups), scant
1 pound sugar (2 1/4 cups)
1/4 cup lemon juice of 2 tablespoons brandy
1 pound eggs (10), separated
Mix flour, baking powder and nutmeg, and sift three times. Cream butter until soft and smooth; add sugar gradually, creaming until very fluffy; add lemon juice and well-beaten egg yolks, beating very thoroughly. Fold in thoroughly the stiffly beaten egg whites, then flour. Turn into greased, paper-lined, loaf pans and bake in slow oven (300-325 F.) For 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Yield: 2 loaves.”
-—America’s Cook Book, The Home Institute of the New York Herald Tribune [Charles Scribner’s Sons:New York] 1937 (p. 547)

[1944]
“Pound Cake (8 eggs)
3 3/4 c. sifted cake flour
1 1/2 teasp. baking powder
1 teasp. grated lemon rind
1 teasp. nutmeg
1 3/4 c. butter
2 1/4 c. granulated sugar
8 eggs, separated
Sift together flour and baking powder 3 times. Add lemon rind and nutmeg to butter, and work with a spoon until fluffy and creamy. Gradually add 1 3/4 c. of the sugar while continuing to beat with a spoon until light. Beat egg yolks very thoroughly with a hand or electric beater until light-colored and thick enough to fall from beater in a heavy continuous stream. Add to butter mixture and beat thoroughly with a spoon. Beat egg whites with a hand or electric beater until stiff enough to stand up in peaks, but not dry. Add remaining 1/2 c. Sugar, 2 tablesp. at a time, beating after each addition until sugar is just blended. Stir 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture, then 1/2 of the egg whites, repeating until all are used, beating very thorouhgly with a spoon after each addition. Turn into 2 9” X 5” X 3” loaf pans which have been greased, lined with heavy paper, and greased again. Bake in a moderate oven of 325 F. For 1 hr. 20 min., or until done. Needs no frosting.”
-—The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Completely revised edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 702-3)

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake

1234 Cake

Culinary evidence confirms the practice of naming cakes for their measurements dates (at least) to the 18th century. In the days when many people couldn’t read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes. Pound cake and cupcakes are foods of this genre. In fact? They were composed of the same basic ingredients of your 1234 cake.

There are several variations on the recipe for 1234 cake but “yr basic list” goes like this:

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
4 eggs
This combination, it its purest form, produces a chewey dense cookie-type treat reminiscent of medieval jumbals, or sugar cookies. The Internet confirms many cooks “fudge” (pardon the pun) this classic 1234 recipe by adding other ingredients in various proportions. Most common? Baking powder, milk, fruit juice, spices and nuts. These additions affect the taste and texture of the finished product.

Canadian recipe, circa 1877

1,2,3,4,CAKE.
Augusta Simmers.
One cup of butter, two of sugar, three cups of flour, four eggs; add a little more flour, roll out very thin on sugar, cut any shape, and bake quickly.”
-—The Canadian Home Cook Book, Compied by the Ladies of Toronto and Chief Cities and Towns in Canada [Hunter, Rose and Company:Toronto] 1877 (p. 307)

American recipe, circa 1955

1-2-3-4-Cake
Ingredients:
3 cups sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg whites
Directions: (Makes two 9-inch layers)
Sift together opposite ingredients three times. Set aside. Cream butter; add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour, alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Fold in vanilla. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold in carefully. Pour batter into two round 9-inch layer pans which have been lined on bottoms with paper. Bake in moderate overn 375 degrees F. About 25 minutes. This cake may also be baked in three 8-inch layer pans. Cool and frost with Orange Butter Cream Frosting and sprinkle with coconut.”
-—Duncan Hines Dessert Book, Duncan Hines Institute [Pocket Books:New York] 1955 (p. 23)

We do not find any one person/place/company/cookbook claiming to have “invented” 1234 cake. There is no trademark on the name. In the world of food? This is pretty common.

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake

Cola cakes

Our survey of historic culinary sources confirms American cooks began using soft drinks in recipes in dawning decades of the 20th century. It is difficult to determine whether these recipes originated in corporate test kitchens or customer’s homes. We do know, however, food manufacturers have a reputation for being ingenious marketers. What better way to promote one’s product than to capitalize on a popular recipe? Food historians trace gelatin salads made with soft drink in print to 1912. Cake recipes were a later invention, probably sometime after World War II.

Mewspaper articles confirms this genre of cake making belongs to the South. No wonder! Both Coca Cola (Atlanta) and Dr. Pepper/7UP (Dallas) are southern-based companies. Our sources do not confirm the exact person/place/date for the genesis of these cakes. Most generically refer to the cake as “traditional” or “grandma’s.” How did they start? If one goes with the “community cookbook” theory, then our hunch is that the recipe was invented (by accident or on purpose) by an employee of said company. Many soft drink companies give their employees free samples to take home. If the product’s always on hand, it’s bound to be used in some creative ways.

The earliest print reference we have for cola cakes dates to the mid-1950s (see survey below). A media-blitz in the 1990s reintroduced these confections as “old fashioned:”

“According to Phil Mooney, archivist for the Coca Cola Company in Atlanta, it is impossible to document just when cooks first took Coca-Cola in hand. It appears to have started around the turn of the century, he said, wand to have been a spontaneous event that evolved from the fact that Coke was on hand in many American kitchens, not unlike the way wine was in the kitchens of France...Of all the recipes, the most widespread, according to the Coca Cola Company, is one for a gooey chocolate cake with miniature marshmallows, pecans and probably more calories per square inch than anyone can count.”
-—”Yes it’s true, Cooking with Coke,” Dena Kleiman, New York Times, June 6, 1990(p. C6)

“Something almost mystical and negligibly naughty washes over otherwise calm, collected cooks when they pour a can of soda into a recipe. It doesn’t belong there, and the mere inclusion seems illicit and risque. But when culinary art turns into pop art, these masters of the kitchen exhibit an effervescent pride and a willingness to boast of their secret ingredient: the humble soft drink. That giddiness-along with plain good taste-has fueled the popularity of a cookbook produced this past year by the Dr Pepper/7Up Cos. Inc. in Dallas. The 88-page, spiral-bound collection of Dr Pepper and 7Up recipes, created last summer for new shareholders, has been offered free to the public since fall. “We’ve mailed out more than 10,000 cookbooks since August,” says Tom Bayer, a spokesman. “It was such a hit with our stockholders that we wanted to offer it to the public.” Although Coca-Cola Cake and Classic 7Up Pound Cake have been recipe box staples for years, and Dr Pepper had files of published recipes going back to the ‘40s, Bayer says the company wanted to update and expand the offerings, lightening the ingredients for the calorie-conscious. The addition of Dr Pepper, the soft drink created in Waco in 1885, or 7Up “needed to make a contribution to the recipe,” Bayer says. “It had to bring its own flavor-texture component to the dish.” The company asked Marilyn Ingram, a home economist, to test, update and expand some of the cookbooks’ recipes. “We were fairly picky with the recipes we put in,” Ingram says. “We made sure they were good recipes and not just a recipe somebody had tossed 7Up in to be creative.” For example, she says, “the Classic 7Up Pound Cake was just as outstanding as everybody had said it was.” Ingram found that just about every time she used 7Up in a batter, she had good results, especially for fried fish and onion rings. “It seems to really make the batter light and fluffy and crunchy,” she says. She developed recipes for certain categories that were shy on offerings, such as vegetables, to go with an abundance of recipes for desserts and beverages.”
-—”Redesigned Soda Cookbook Just What the Dr. Ordered,” Ron Rugghless, Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1994 (P. D4)

“I’m not one to resort to cake mixes and instant fillings, but this recipe convinced me that they are no more of a compromise than frozen chopped spinach. Ottoson’s version of the 7UP cake, a standard from the 1950s, is moist, nicely textured, slightly lemony and tastes delectable with the pineapple topping. Unlike many cakes, it tastes better the next day.”The Chicago Tribune, September 11, 1994 (p. 12)

A selected dessert table of American cola cake recipes

[1955]
“Cola Layer Cake.
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, separated
3 cups sifted cake flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cola beverage
METHOD: Cream shortening and sugar together until ligth and fluffy. Add beaten egg yolks and blend. Sift dry ingredients together; add, alternately with the cola, to the first mixture. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake at 375 deg. 30 minutes in two greased 9-inch layer pans. Cola Fluff Icing
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
12 cuip cola beverage
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
2 egg whites
METHOD: Combine sugar, cola, cream of tartar and salt in saucepan. Boil at 238 deg. until syrup forms a soft ball in cold water. Whip egg whites stiff, add syrup slowly, beating constantly between each addition. Continue beating until icing is fluffy and holds its shape.”
-—”Baked Potato Topped With Nippy Cheese Enlivens Summer Meal,” Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, July 8, 1955 (p. B4)

[1959]
“In the following recipe, dried apricots are cooked in the nationally known beverage, 7-Up, for the brown sugar sauce. The natural lemon-lime flavor of 7-Up is used as the liquid ingredient.

Apricot Up-Side Down Cake
Sauce
1 7-oz bottle 7-Up
1 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
Simmer 7-Up with apricots 20 minutes. Stir in butter and brown sugar and continue cooking to melt butter. Spread sauce over the bottom of a 9 by 12 by 2 inch baking pan.

Cake batter
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 12 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 7-ounce bottle 7-Up
3 egg whites
Cream buter and sugar until fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder and alt together and stir in alternately with 7-Up. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour batter over sauce in baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 45 minutes. Invert and serve up-side down.”
-—”Please Your Family This Week With An Apricot Up-Side Down Cake,” Daily Defender (Chicago), February 17, 1959 (p. 40)

[1971]
“While nothing quenches thirst like an ice-cold cola—nothing pleases the palate like a warm cola cake. Here’s how to use this delightful and unique “baking soda”:

Royal Crown Cake
2 cups unsifted flour
2 cups sugar
2 tbsps. cocoa
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup Royal Crown Cola
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt. Bring the butter and cola to a boil and add to dry mixture. Add the butermilk, eggs, and marshmallows. This will be a very thin batter with the marshmallows floating on top. Bake in a large oblong pan at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.

Frosting
1/2 cup margarine or butter
2 tbsps. cocoa
6 tbsps. Royal Crown Cola
1 box confectioners sugar
1 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine butter, cocoa and cola and bring to a boil. Pour over confectioners sugar and mix well. Add nuts and vanilla. Spread over cake while hot.”
-—”Crown cake with Crown cola,” Chicago Daily Defender, October 21, 1971 (p. 35)

[1982]
“Now here’s a request that really fizzed. Sally Garber of Deerfield Beach asked our readers to come up with a recipe for 7-Up cake with pineapple frosting. We received 72 replies. Apparently, there are 3 versions of 7-Up cake: A pound cake, baked in a Bundt pan, that is made from scratch; a sheet cake made from a mix; and a 3-layer torte, also made from a mix. The pineapple frosting also comes in many versions. Most readers who sent the pound cake recipe said they usually settled for a simple sprinkling of powdered sugar on this rich cake, or perhaps a light glaze. Those who sent the sheet cake or the 3-layer recipe tended to use a pineapple frosting, but some recipes called for a cooked frosting while others were for a buttercream type. Some recipes add chopped pecans along with the pineapple; most also added coconut. And while most recipes called for the frosting to be spread on a cooled cake, others specified that the frosting be spread while the cake was warm — and one said you should poke holes into the warm sheet cake before pouring on a warm frosting. It wasn’t easy deciding which recipes to publish, so we decided to use the first three that we received. It is interesting to note that the recipes came from an amazing number of sources. Dev Steffen of Miami Springs sent a recipe that builds upon a cake mix, which she got from her husband’s Aunt Eleanor. Marge Pruessman of Miami sent a recipe she found in a cookbook called What’s Cooking Senora?, published in Venezuela. Fran Rives of Jupiter sent a similar recipe, courtesy of her sister in Oklahoma who assisted in the compiling of a cookbook by doctors’ wives entitled Doctor’s Orders. An anonymous reader sent a recipe for 7-Up pound cake, from a cookbook compiled by members of the Grand Court of Florida Order of the Amaranth. Connie McGee of Pembroke Pines found her recipe in What’s Cooking in our National Parks. Mrs. William Randolph got hers from a cookbook published by a group from Brown’s Methodist Church in Jackson, Tenn. Why would a recipe call for 7-Up? Is it for the flavor? It would seem that the delicate flavor would be masked by all the other ingredients. Connie Bedell of Fort Lauderdale may have the answer. She sent us this quote, from a cookbook published by The Seven-Up Co. in 1957: “Make a cake with the contents of a packaged mix, using 7-Up instead of the liquid in the recipe. You’ll be amazed at how light and airy your cake is.” At any rate, here are the recipes. The first is from Mary Jane Altman of West Palm Beach. “It’s a little extra effort, but it’s worth it,” she says. Other cooks who sent similar recipes emphasized that it is important to beat the butter for a full 20 minutes. They also said the cake improves if baked a day before you plan to serve it, and keeps well frozen.

7-UP POUND CAKE
3 sticks of butter (margarine will not do)
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons lemon extract
3/4 cup 7-Up
Cream butter and sugar for 20 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time. Gradually add the flour and beat well, then add lemon extract and 7-Up. Bake 1 1/4 hours at 325 degrees in a well oiled Bundt pan. Cool 8 to 10 minutes, then dust with powdered sugar. While most of the pound cake recipes didn’t call for a frosting, Louise Gotti of Port St. Lucie frosts hers with this:

PINEAPPLE BUTTER FROSTING
1/2 cup butter
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup crushed pineapple with juice
Cream butter. Add remaining ingredients and continue creaming until mixture is well blended and fluffy.
This is Steffan’s recipe for 7-Up cake that begins with a packaged mix. Other similar recipes called for a yellow or a lemon cake mix in place of the pineapple, and lemon or vanilla pudding in place of the pineapple pudding. Pat Krenick of Goulds uses an orange cake mix and lemon pudding. Some cooks bake this in a 9-by-13-inch pan; others in three round pans.

AUNT ELEANOR’S TROPICAL CAKE
1 package Pineapple Supreme cake mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 small package instant pineapple pudding
10 ounces 7-Up
Mix all ingredients together and beat at medium speed of electric mixer for two minutes. Pour into greased and floured 8- inch cake pans or 13-by-9-inch pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Note: the baking time varies greatly from recipe to recipe; some call for 40 to 45 minutes of baking.>

PINEAPPLE FROSTING
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 small can flaked coconut
1 small can crushed pineapple
Beat together sugar, eggs and butter until smooth, then stir in coconut and pineapple. Frost on cooled cake.
This recipe for a cooked frosting comes from Krenick, who says the 7-Up cake with this frosting always is requested for family birthdays and special occasions. She got her recipe from friends in Arkansas:

PINEAPPLE FROSTING
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 stick butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 eggs
1 small can crushed pineapple in heavy syrup
Note: some recipes call for the exact same ingredients, except a large can of pineapple.
Mix ingredients together and cook until thick and transparent. Remove from stove and add 1 cup coconut. When cool, fill and frost cake. Finally, just to be sure we’ve had the last word on 7-Up cake, here’s a recipe from Bedell that will really top it all:

7-UP ICING
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons 7-Up
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tablespoon cream of tartar
Put all ingredients in the top of a double boiler over boiling water. Upper pan should not touch surface of water. Beat with rotary beater until stiff enough to stand inpeaks, (about 5 minutes).”
-—”AMERICA IS TURNING 7-UP CAKE,” Linda Cicero, Miami Herald, August 5, 1982

[1986]
“Seven-Up Pound Cake.
3 sticks butter
3 c. sugar
5 eggs
3 c. sifted cake flour
3/4 c. 7-Up
1 tsp. lemon flavor,br> Grease a tube pan; dust with flour. Cream butter until smooth and shiny. Add sugar and continue to beat until smooth and fluffy. Add flavor, then eggs, one at a time. Beat thoroughly after each. Add flour; mix well. Add 7-Up and mix well. Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 degrees F.”
-—Food For My Household: Recipes by Members of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta GA [Cookbook Publishers:Lenexa KS] 1986 (p. 46)

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake

Dirt cake & Mud pie

Food historians generally agree these two rich chocolate desserts are late twentieth century stars supported by a cast of thousands of historic recipes. Pudding and cake combinations are nothing new. Consider the history of the English trifle.

ABOUT PUDDING/CAKE DESSERTS
Puddings and custards trace their roots to ancient cooks. Blancmanges, syllabubs, whips, and creams were popular in Medieval times. Mousses and other creamy sweet desserts were invented in the 18th century. In the mid-late the 19th century, chocolate pudding recipes were quite popular in the United States. These were sometimes suggested for children because of their *healthful* qualities: they included milk and were easy to digest. Arrowroot (another healthy ingredient) was sometimes used as the thickening agent. Packaged pudding mixes were introduced to the American public in the beginning of the 20th century. Jell-O, Knox, and Royal (the gelatin companies!) were the first to put them on the market. Instant pudding mixes were introduced in the early 1950s.

Thoughout history, pudding-type desserts have been served in many ways: moulded in plain or elegant shapes (bombes), used for cake or pie filling (chocolate pudding pie), layered with pastry/cookies/cake (trifles), presented in fancy glassware with decorative garnishes (parfaits), and mixed with other mixes to create a creamier product (pudding cake). German/Austrian chocolate tortes inspired many thicker pudding and cake creations (mud pie).

The earliest recipe we find for modern chocolate pudding pie (an ancestor of Misssissipi Mud and Dirt Cake) was printed in 1932:

“Summertime Chocolate Pie
1 package Royal Chocolate Pudding
2 cups milk
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
whipped cream, sweetened.

Mix Royal Chocolate Pudding with milk; bring to boil. Roll graham crackers to make fine crumbs; add melted butter and sugar; mix well. Spread on bottom and sides of 8” pie pan to make a crust. Pour in hot chocolate pudding mixture; cool, then chill in refrigerator. Before service garnish with whipped cream. Serves 6.”
-—Royal Desserts, Standard Brands Inc. (The manufacturer of Royal puddings) [1932] (p. 24).

It was/is a common practice of many American food companies to print booklets with recipes using their ingredients. They also placed recipes in popular women’s magazines, sponsored radio shows and ran television ads for the same purpose. Sweet Moment Desserts, published by General Foods in 1963 lists several recipes combining Jell-O brand pudding, Dream Whip, and crumb crusts made from various Nabisco brand cookies. It does not include a recipe for “mud pie” or “dirt cake.”

ABOUT MUD CAKE/PIE
There seems to be some controversy regarding the history of this particular dessert. Also sometimes known as “Missisippi Mud Cake/pie, Louisiana Mud Pie,” many food historians trace this dessert to the 1970s and when it hit mainstream restaurants. The name may belong to the 1970s, and the popularity to the 1980s, but the recipe is certainly older. One of our readers sent us pages from a cookbook published in 1963 containing recipes for “Glorified Brownies” and “Marshmallow Fudge Brownies.” These would have approximated Mud cake (with the addition of marshmallows). Our reader also sent us a mud pie recipe from Vickburg, MI circa 1985. Recipes here.

So, who really invented this delicious dessert? We don’t know. We do know from primary culinary sources that double-fudge recipes of all kinds and textures proliferated in the early decades of the 20th century. Some were promoted by food companies, many were concocted by creative home cooks, and the balance were crafted by innovative chefs. The standard ingredients of Mississippi mud cake/pie indicate this recipe was “invented” (for lack of a better term) by post WWII home cooks. Why? They are simple items found in most supermarkets assembled without the aid of special equipment. Print evidence places this recipe in the heart of the deep American south.

In the big scheme of things, this is not the first example of top chefs “borrowing recipes” from home cooks in order to create trendy menu items. Happens all the time. Think Waldorf Salad.

This is what the food historians have to say about mud cake & pie

“Where did all this mud stuff start? Not many people are willing as John (Chappy) Chapman...to venture an explanation. Chapman, who grew up in New Orleans has spent all of his life in Gulf Coast towns, said mud pie was invented years ago in the Vicksburg-Natchez area...It was [mud pie]...a pre-baked pie crust filled with “a layer of [baked ] chocolate cake, a layer of chocolate pudding, another of cake, another of pudding, another of cake, topped with chocolate icing.” Sometimes people added hot-fudge sauce and/or chocolate ice cream, he said.”
-—Mississippi Mud Pie (or Cake), Bernadette Wheeler, Newsday [New York], July 13, 1988 Food (p. 7)

“I remember distinctly when and where I first tasted this pie...It was in the mid- 70s at the newly rebuilt Mills House Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina...I naively believed [Mud Pie] to be a creation of the chef. Also sometimes called “Mississippi Mud Pie,” this is a Nabisco recipe, which begins with a pie shell made of finely crushed Oreo cookies...”
-—American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 381)

“Mississippi mud pie.
A very dense chocolate pie that takes its name from the thick mud along the banks of the Mississippi River. According to Nathalie Dupree in New Southern Cooking (1986), the top is what she calls “Mississippi Mud Cake” should be “cracked and dry-looking like Mississippi mud in the hot, dry summer.” It does, however, seem to be of fairly recent origin; according to Mississippi-born food authority Craig Claiborne, writing in 1987, “I never heard of a Mississippi mud pie or Mississippi mud cake until I moved North.”
-—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 207)

RECIPES

[1963] Glorified Brownies
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Butter
3 T. Cocoa (or 2 sq. Chocolate)
3/4 c. Flour
Pinch of salt
1 c. Nuts
12-15 marshmallows
Mix in order given. Spread in pan and bake 20 minutes at 400F. When done, cut marshmallows fine over top of brownies while still hot and cover with the confectioners’ sugar or other favorite fudge icing. Decorate with nuts.—Letha A. Chastain, Pamplico H.S. Pamplico, South Carolina

Marshmallow Fudge Brownies and Icing
Number of servings—8 to 12
1/2 c. Shortening
3/4 c. Sugar
2 eggs beaten
3/4 c. Sifted flour
1/4 t. Baking powder
2 T. Cocoa
1/4 t. Vanilla
1/2 c. Chopped nuts
18 marshmallows, halved
Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs. Beat well. Sift dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture. Mix well. Add vanilla and nuts. Bake in 12X8 pan 20 minutes at 350F. Take from oven and put marshmallow halves on top. Return to oven for 3 minutes. Spread until top is covered with marshmallows. Let cool. Frost with following: Icing
1/2 c. Brown sugar
1/4 c. Water
1 sq. Unsweetened chocolate
3 T. Butter
1 t. Vanilla
1 1/2 c. Powdered sugar
Combine and boil for 3 minutes brown sugar, water, and chocolate. Add butter and vanilla and let cool. Then stir in powdered sugar. Spread on brownies. Cut in squares.”—Mrs. Maxine King, Unity H.S. Mendon, Illinois”
-—Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: Desserts edition including Party Beverages [Favorite Recipes Press:Montgomery AL] 1963 (p. 146-7)

[1976] Mississippi Mud Cake
1 c. Butter
2 c. Sugar
1/3 c. Cocoa
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder 1/3 c. Coconut
1 c. Chopped pecans
1 pt. Marshmallow cream
Cream butter, sugar and cocoa. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Sift flour and baking powder together; add to mixture. Fold in coconut and pecans. Bake in (12X9X2-inch) greased and floured pan at 350F. Until done. While still hot, cover with 1 pint of marshmallow cream. Let cake cool in pan, then spread frosting over the marshmallow cream.

frosting
1/2 c. Butter (room temperature)
1/3 c. Cocoa
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 lb Powdered sugar
4 tbsp. Evaporated milk
Put all ingredients in bowl and beat with electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.” -—She Cooks by Ear: Old Southern Cookery, Frances S. James [S.C. Toof & Co.:Memphis TN] 1976 (p. 60)

[1985] Mississippi Mud Pie
1/2 (8 1/2-ounce) package chocolate wafers
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 quart coffee ice cream, softened
1 1/2 cups fudge sauce or chocolate fudge sauce ice cream toppings
Whipped cream, sliced almonds, or chocolate curls for garnish (optional)
Crush chocolate wafers and set aside. Melt butter in large frying pan over low heat. Add crushed wafers and toss in butter to coat well. Press crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie plate and allow to cool. Soften ice cream and spoon onto wafer crust. Freeze until firm. Top with cold fudge sauce. Store in freezer about 8 to 10 hours. To serve, top with whipped cream and sliced almonds or chocolate curls. Remove form freezer and allow to stand 5 to 10 minutes before service. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.—Mrs. Kenneth Kussmann, New Orleans, Louisiana.”
-—Vintage Vicksburg, Vicksburg [Mississippi] Jr. Auxiliary [Wimmer Companies:Memphis] 1985.

ABOUT DIRT CAKE
According to newspaper and magazine articles, a recipe called “dirt cake” seems to have originated in the Midwest sometime in the 1980s. None of the articles we checked attribute this recipe to a particular person or food company. Nor do they reveal the story behind the name. It is plausable that “dirt cake” borrowed its moniker from another trendy rich chocolate dessert: “mud pie.” Whatever the case, it was an immediate hit. Dirt cake was served at class parties, Brownie meetings, birthday parties and the like. It didn’t take long for food companies to cash in on the deal. Dirt cake mixes were first marketed as packaged items in the early 1990’s.

The earliest mention we find of a recipe specifically called “Dirt Cake” was printed in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette [newspaper], June 15, 1988 in a recipe exchange column. This article references a local reader who sent in a recipe for “Kansas Dirt Cake.” The St. Louis Dispatch wrote an article on the topic July 24, 1989, Food section (p. 2): “Tickle Fancy With Dirt Cake.” This article states “This recipe is apparently making the rounds of the area...” attesting to its popularity at that time.

[1988]
Kansas Dirt Cake
1 small package of Oreo cookies
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
8-ounce carton Cool Whip
2 boxes (3 1/2 ounces each) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups milk
Crush cookies and spread half over bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan. Mix cream cheese and margarine with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in confectioners’ sugar. Then fold in Cool Whip. In separate bowl, combine pudding mix, vanilla and milk until smooth and mixture begins to thicken. Fold pudding mixture into cream cheese mixture. Spread over cookie crumbs and sprinkle remaining crumbs over top. Freeze overnight. Let sit at room temperature 5 to 10 minutes before servings.
-—Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR), June 15, 1988

Articles from 1990 reference a “new” packaged product called “I Can Bake Dirt Cake With Mud Frosting Mix.” This kit was manufactured by Pelican Bay Ltd.. According to the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Pelican is the only company to have trademarked this name. Registration#74059580 was first used in commerce January 7, 1990. Pelican is still making this product. Information here.

Eccles cakes

“Eccles cakes, small English cakes similar to Banbury cakes, except that they are normally round in shape and they filling has fewer ingredients; currants, wheat flour, brown sugar, butter and vegetable fat, milk, and salt are standard. The cakes take their name from the small town on the outskirts of Manchester where they were first made and named. Mrs. Raffald (1769), herself from Manchester and the author of one of the best cookery books of the 18th century, had given a recipe for ‘sweet patties’ which may well have been the confections from which Eccles cakes evolved...The first mention of eccles cakes by name seems to have occurred at the end of th 18th century when a certain James Birch was making them. An apprenctice of his, William Bradburn, had set up a rival operation by about 1813. Evelyn Vigeon...in her brilliant and comprehensive history of these cakes describes the confrontation:

James Birch advertised that he was the original Eccles cake maker removed from across the way, while William Bradburn retaliated with an advertisement claimimg that his shop was the only old original Eccles Cake Shop. Never removed. This rivalry was to the advantage of both manufacturers over the following century since visitors would often buy cakes from both shops to be sure they had indeed tasted the original one.’

The same author traces the later history of these and other Eccles cake establishments...She believes that early Eccles cakes may well have differed from those known now, both in shape (some at least were sold cut in squares) and the nature of the pastry (puff or flaky pastry is now used), and ingredients for the filling. She points out that the fact that Eccles cakes were being exported abroad by 1818 suggests very good keeping qualities, so they may well have included spirits such as brandy and rum in the same way as the nineteenth century Banbury cake’. Chorley cakes are a variation of Eccles cakes, usually somewhat plainer.”
-—Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 267)
[NOTE: the article noted by Mr. Davidson as the “authority” on Eccles cakes is: The Celebrated Cookie Shop’, Evelyn Vigeon, Manchester Genealogist, 29/1 (January) 1993. Your librarian can help you obtain a copy.]

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake

Wacky cake & Dump cake

Wacky cake is an interesting study in culinary chemistry. What sets Wacky Cake apart from other chocolate cakes? Vinegar and method.

It is interesting to note that two popular 20th century American food history books (Jean Anderson’s American Century Cookbook and Sylvia Lovegren’s Fashionable Food) place this recipe in the 1970s. Culinary evidence confirms this recipe existed in the 1940s. Wacky cake is but one example of the tradition of “make do” cakes that were popular during times of short supply. Contrary to popular opinion, eggless, butterless cakes were not invented at that time, they were revived from WWI days (which were revived from pioneer days). Dump Cake is another descendant of Wacky Cake in method.

“Dump cake. A cake made by “dumping” the ingredients directly into the baking pan, mixing them, and baking the batter.”
-—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 117)

The earliest reference we find to Dump cake is from a Duncan Hines company cooking brochure published in 1980 (sorry, we don’t own a copy).

“Wacky Cake or Crazy Cake. In a way, this is a variation on Chocolate Pudding Cake...But it takes the “quick-and-easy” one step further: The cake is mixed in the baking pan. That’s part of the wackiness. Another is that the batter contains vinegar and water, but no eggs. Like Chocolate Pudding Cake, this one is shortened with oil instead of butter or margarine.”
-—The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 467)

RECIPES

[1943]
“Hole-In-The-Middle Cake 1 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
2 T cocoa
1 t soda
1/2 c melted butter
1 c sour milk or cream
1 egg
1 t vanilla
Sift dry ingredients and make a deep hole in the middle. Add sour milk, egg, butter, and vanilla, and mix well. Bake in 350 dgtree oven 40 min.

Icing
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
lump of butter
milk to moisten
Boil until it reaches the soft ball stage. Remove from fire and beat throroughly. Helen Olheim.”
-—The Connecticut Cookbook, Woman’s Club of Westport [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1944 (p. 210)

[1949]
“Wacky cake. A favorite recipe of Mrs. Donald Adam, Detroit, Michigan.
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons shortening
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water.
Sift flour, Measure. Add sugar, cocoa, soda and salt. Sift into greased and waxed paper lined 9X9X2 inch pan. Make 3 grooves in dry ingredients. Put shortening in 1 groove, vinegar in the second, and vanilla in the third. Pour over cold water. Beat until almost smooth. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 30 minutes. Makes 12 servings.”
-—New York Times, November 17, 1949 (p. 23)
[NOTE: This recipe was included in a display ad for The Time Reader’s Book of Recipes, Time magazine, (E.P. Dutton:New York)]

[1978]
Wacky Cake or Crazy Cake
Cake
1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cold water

Frosting
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup sifted confectioners’ (10X) sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teasoon vanilla extract.
1. Cake: preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift four, sugar, cocoa, soda, and salt together into ungreased 8X8X2-inch baking pan.
3. Make three wells in mixture with spoon: one large, one medium, and one small. Into large well pour oil; into medium well, vinegar; into small well, vanilla. Pour water over all and stir with fork until smooth; do not beat.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until springy to touch
5. Frosting: Melt butter in saucepan, add 10X sugar, cocoa, salt and vanilla and beat until smooth. If too stiff to spread, thin with few drops hot water.
6. As soon as cake tests done, transfer to wire rack and spread at once with frosting. Cool cake before cutting.
-—Woman’s Day Old-Fashioned Desserts [1978], as reprinted in The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 467)

Cake icing and frosting

In their most basic form, confections of all kinds can be traced to ancient cooks. Sweetmeats were popular in Medieval times. The history of modern confectionery is generally traced to Renaissance Europe, where white sugar (although available) was very expensive and highly prized. At that time, sugarpaste and marchepane (marzipan: a paste of almonds and sugar shaped into elaborate forms) were sometimes used to decorate elaborate cakes. Food historians generally trace modern icing, named such because the finished product, a glaze (aka glace), was supposed to look like ice, to 18th century England. What is the difference between icing and frosting?

“In medieval times, icing—a sprinkling of sugar—was put on top of savoury as well as sweet foods: fish pies, for instance. But the iced cakes we are familiar with today started to emerge in recognizable form in the seventeeth century; in those days, once the sugar had been applied (either directly, or to a layer of beaten egg white), the cake was returned to the oven for a while for the icing to harden. That was still the case in the eighteenth century, when the term icing is first actually recorded in Elizabeth Raffald’s Experienced English Housekeeper (1769)...The term icing has also in the past been applied to marzipan, as used for topping cakes: Mrs. Beeton give a recipe for this almond icing’. Of roughly equal antiquity with the term icing is frosting, which is the preferred word in American English. The term icing sugar is first recorded in 1889; American English also uses confectioners’ sugar.”
-— An A to Z on Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 168)

Mrs. Raffald’s icing recipes [1769]

“To make Almond Icing for the Bride Cake
Beat the whites of three eggs to a strong froth; beat a pound of Jordan almonds very fine with rosewater. Mix your almonds with the eggs lightly together [with] a pound of common loaf sugar beat fine, and put in by degrees. When your cake is enough, take it out an lay your icing on and put it in to brown.”

“To make Sugar Icing for the Bride Cake
Beat two [pounds of double-refined sugar with two ounces of fine starch, sift it through a gauze sieve. Then beat the whites of five eggs with a knife upon a pewter dish half and hour. Beat in your sugar a little at a time, or it will make the eggs fall and will not be so very good a colour. When you have put in all your sugar beat it half an hour longer, then lay it on your almond icing and spread it even with a knife. If it be put on a s soon as the cake comes out of the oven, it will be hard by that time the cake is cold.”
-—The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald [c. 1769], with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 135)

[NOTE: Mrs. Raffald’s icing recipes are the precursors to Royal icing.]

“Davidson...surveys the evolution of icing in England in the 18th century and 19th centuries and identifies Mrs. Raffald (1769) as the first author to provide for the combination of cake, marzipan, and royal icing. Her cake was a bride cake’, which had also been known as a ‘great cake’ and only acquired the name wedding cake’ in the 19th century. However, until the late 19th century, icing was reserved for special cakes. An 18th century icing was usually made by beating the ingredients together in a mortar, spreading the mixture over the cake, and drying it in a low heat. Mrs. Glasse (1747) writes : with a Brush or Bundle of Feathers, spread it all over the cake, and put it in the oven to dry; but take Care the Oven does not discolour it.’ In North America the term frosting’ has a slightly longer history than icing’, but the two terms became interchangeable and icing’ has now become the perfect usage.’”
-—Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 394-5)
[NOTE: this book has information on they differenty types of icing/frosting. If you need more information please ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

“Though cake icing had begun, perhaps only in the highest circles, in the seventeenth century, until the early nineteenth century if anything were to be iced it was most likely to be marchpanes in the early period, tarts rather later. Only a simple glazing was involved when the term ‘ice’ first began to be used. The earlier decorated marchpanes already referred to were, as has been seen, to be washed over with a rosewater syrup before being put into the oven for that will make the ‘Ice’. The same should, however, also be done with a cake as soon as it came out of the oven...The addition of white of egg was the beginning of new things an there was always more than one possibility...The spicing of icings was...already on its way out in the eighteenth century. A simple version, merely a pound of sugar to the whites of seven eggs, was offered by the first Scottish cookery book (McLintock 1736)...Starch began occasionally to feature at the same period. It was often taken up subsequently and came to be added to commercial icing powder when this began to be manufactured in the mid-nineteenth century. Also in the nineteenth, lemon juice was substituted for the earlier flower-waters and the passion for whiteness projected some into including the powder blue. The concern with whiteness had been explicit, despite the somewhat different initial connotations of the term ice, since icings in the modern sense developed out of glazes. Icing was, until much more recent times, an item of lavish display in itself, its whiteness and direct indicator of the quality and expense of the sugar from which it was produced...By then, colouring was a possibility, as it had not been at the earlier period, and for that an inferior sugar could be used. By then too, perhaps with a change in the ovens used, ...’Cakes should never be put into an an oven after being iced,’... Modification was made over time therefore, and there was some more radical experimentation continuing too. Hannah Glasse tried adding starch and some gum tragacanth as another way to Ice a great Cake in a confused entry of her first edition. In her third, To Ice a Great Cake she proposed something altogether different, twenty-four whites to one pound of sugar, put onto a cold cake: If does not do well hot....The effect would have been what in modern terms woud have been a soft meringue rather than icing...Even in the eighteenth century there had therefore been a good deal of experimentation. Fondant icing was available but mixtures normally termed royal icing remained the standard in Britain.”
-—Wedding Cakes and Cultural History, Simon R. Charsley [Routledge:London] 1992 (p. 67-69)
[NOTE: this is one of the best book on the topic of icing/frosting. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy. Chapter 6: Confectionery and Icing, pages 64-81)

Icing vs. frosting
Why two names for the same basic item? The general concensus of the food historians is that icing is the traditional European term. Frosting is a broader American appellation which includes cooked, fluffy coatings. Notes here:

“Icing. A preparation of icing (confectioner’s sugar used to coat sweet goods). Glace and royal icing are the traditional types., but the term covers a variety of cake coverings, including American frosting—a whisked mixture of egg whites and sugar syrup, prepared over hot water to give a foamy, soft and sweet surface when cooled. Frosting sets slightly on the surface when cooled.”
-—Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and upadated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (P. 617)

“Frosting. The American term for icing, used as a noun to describe the mixture applied as a cake covering and filling, and a s a verb to describe the process fo applying it. Frosting covers soft icings and cake fillings, such as buttercream, chocolate icing, or glace icing, but not royal icing, which is known by the came name. Outside America, the soft cake covering and filling made by whisking sugar syrup into egg whites is usually called American frosting.”
-—ibid (p. 529)

” Frosting is an alternative term to icing often used in the United States. It seems first to have been applied to pulverised sugar, perhaps with starch added to reduce caking, when this began to be manufactured commercially in the mid-nineteenth century. American interest in icings/frostings has typically been greater than British; a far wider range is generally offered by American cookery books than by British.”
-—Wedding Cakes and Cultural History (p. 144)

“Icing. A term often interchangeably with “frosting” and preferred in America to describe the sugar-and-water mixture used to decorate and cover cakes...”Frosting” actually precedes “icing” in print, the former appearing around 1610, the latter in 1760, with icing considered a somewhat lighter, decorative glaze than frosting. But in America it became normal to used “icing” (and the verb “to ice”) to describe either form of the confection.”
-—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 166)

Icing types
A survey of late 19th and early 20th century American cookbooks reveals a variety of different frosting recipes. It is an interesting study of flavoring, texture, ingredients, and imagination. If you are interested in researching this, check the full-text cookbooks linked from the Food Timeline (They are indicated by italics).

* [1869] Icing, Complete Confectioner, Pastry Cook and Baker, Eleanor Parkinson
* [1884] Frosting, Boston Cook Book, Mrs. Lincoln

Buttercream

An extensive survey of late 19th-early 20th century American cookbooks confirms buttercream icing (as we know it today) is a modern recipe. Why this time period? Food historians suggest it might have been the result of product availability and corporate promotion. The two main factors that set buttercream apart from traditional icings of the day (besides the butter, course!) are that it does not require cooking or eggs. During World War I eggs were very scarce and eggless recipes proliferated. Perhaps there is a connection?

“Butter cream frostings. Strangely, thse easy icings don’t seem to have been in the repertoire of nineteenth-century American cooks, who chose to bind powdered sugar with raw egg white or yolk. Or to cook their frostings. In searching through several dozen cookbooks dating back to 1880, I found a butter frosting only in the 1915 Larkin Housewives’ Cook Book...The Larkin Company, “Pure Food Specialists,” sold chocolate, sugar, salt, assorted flavorings, and just about everything else the cook needed...Mrs. Fred W. Gurney of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, ...submitted her Mocha Frosting—the first butter cream I’ve been able to locate...A similar mocha frosting appears in the 1918 edition of “Fannie Farmer,”...By its 1923 edition, “Fannie” had added four more butter creams. And by the 1930s, these were the frostings cooks had come to rely on. For good reason. They were quick, versatile, and foolproof.”
-—American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 486)

Precursors to modern buttercream are late 19th century cake fillings/frostings employing rich cream. These recipes would have produce a more liquidy type of frosting than we know today, but the finished product was probably pretty close:

“Cream frosting.
From Mrs. Mary Payton, of Oregon, Lady Manager.
One cup of sweet thick cream, sweetened and flavored with vanilla. Cut a loaf cake in two and spread the frosting between and on top. This tastes like Charlotte Russe.”
-—Favorite Dishes: A Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book, Compiled by Carrie V. Shuman, facsimile of 1893 edition [University of Illinois Press:Urbana] 2001 (p. 172-3)

Icing without eggs, Inglenook Cook Book, Elgin Illinois, 1906

The earliest recipe we find for a buttercream-type was printed in a company cookbook in 1908. Note: it is not called buttercream!

“Mocha Filling and Frosting
6 tablespoons butter
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
4 tablespoons dry cocoa
3 tablespoons liquid coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Beat the butter to a cream, adding one cup of the sugar; then sift and add the cocoa. Beat well, put in the coffee and remaining sugar, and then the vanilla. Spread between and on top of layers of cake.”
-—Rumford Complete Cook Book, Lilly Haxworth Wallace [Rumford Chemical Works:Providence RI] 1908 (p. 155)
[NOTES: The Rumford company made baking powder. This recipe appears to be very similar to the one referenced by Ms. Anderson. Interesingly enough? It also comes from New England.]

Fannie Merritt Farmer’sBoston Cooking School Cook Book [1918] lists several frostings, some with butter; most without.

Fondant

Royal icing
Royal icing descends from 18th century glace and sugar paste. Recipes for these confections present themselves under several names and and various permutations. Royal sugar sculpture elevates this substance to veritable works of art.

While recipes creating “royal icing” type coatings exist in 18th/19th century British & American cookbooks, the oldest print reference for a recipe with that title was published in 1896. Prior to this, our sources reveal this item was titled “Ornamental Icing.”

Why the name?
None of our sources divulge this information. Our survey of historic American newspapers (Historic Newspapers/ProQuest, Americas Historic Newspapers/Readex) and cookbooks confirm the popularity of Royal Icing surged in the dawning decades of the 20th century. Curiously? We find no references to Royal Icing in the Times [London] historic database. Possibly this is an American appellation?

What is Royal icing?
“Royal Icing. The harding type of icing used for coating wedding, birthday and celebration cakes; it being almost an airtight casing, cakes coated with this type of icing will usually keep for a very long time. It consists of icing sugar and whites of eggs beaten together until they become almost as light and pliable as stiffly whipped cream. A little blue is sometimes added to give that expert whiteness, and acetic acid to haste its drying or hardening proces..”The Master Dictionary of Food & Cookery, Henry Smith [Philosophical Library:New York] 1951 (p. 204)

“Royal icing. An icing made from confectioners’ sugar, egg whites or dried meringue powder, and a few drops of lemon juice, which dries to a rock-hard finish. Royal icing is used for long-lasting delicate cake decorations such as fine line piping and flowers. The icing can be tinted with food coloring. United States.”
-—The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections, Carole Bloom [Hearst Books:New York] 1995 (p. 264-5)

“Royal icing, made with egg whites and icing sugar, is a completely different preparation to glace icing, used for coating marzipan-covered fruit cake and for adding piped decoration. Royal icing dries to a fairly hard consistency and it keeps for several months.”
-—Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 618)

Compare these recipes:

[1845]
“Ornamental Frosting,” Housekeeper’s Assistant/Ann Allen

[1884]
“Ornamental Frosting,” Boston Cooking School Cook Book/Mrs. D.A. Lincoln

[1896]
“Royal Icing
Take the whites of 2 or 3 eggs, being very particular to remove every particle of yolk; place in a clean bowl; now stir in sufficient of the very finest pulverized sugar, to make a medium thick paste: now add 10 or 15 crips of citric acid (procure come dry citric acid at any drug store, and dissolve it in water); lemon juice may also b used, but the acid is best; this is to produce a gloss, also to whiten the icing; now with a fork or spoon beat this paste until it is very light and stiff, so stiff that when you take out the spoon the icing will stand up in drops: then it is done; do not add any more sugar after beginning to beat it, as it would make it very heavy. The object is to produce as stiff an aicing as possible, and at the same time to have it light and spongy. Fancy Cook.”
-—”Housekeeper’s Department,” Boston Daily, April 12, 1896 (p. 27)

What are the differences/similarities between Royal icing and Buttercream frosting?
Royal Icing is traditionally made with egg whites, sugar, lemon juice. It produces a hard product well suited for decoration. Butter Cream recipes are all over the map. Original Butter Cream recipes featured sweet butter; subsequent recipes sometimes subsitituted synthetic shortenings. A few also included dairy cream. Butter Cream frostings produce a softer, moister covering condusive to conveying flavor rather than artistic decoration.

The egg white factor:
We’re not finding any titled “true butter cream” but we do find several examples with and without egg whites. We even found one with egg yolks! Early 20th century professional texts generally include egg white. Home cookbooks often omit this ingredient, esp. as the century progressed. It may help to compare Royal and Butter Cream icings published in professional texts:

“Royal Icing
Beat up well in an earthen bowl with wooden spatulas, 3 lbs. of icing sugar and 8 eggwhites. Add a few drops of aecetic acid, lemon juice or cream of tartar. When partly beaten the icing can be used for covering wedding cakes using a rather stiff icing for first coat and a softer icing for second coat so it can be spread nice and smooth. It will aquire a nice gloss if dried before the open oven door mouth. For decorating icing continue beating till icing stands up well and can be drawn to points. When icing is to be used for decorating with fine tubes the sugar best be sifted or some of the icing can be presssed thru a fine clean sieve. This icing dries quickly and must therefore be covered up with a damp cloth or a plaster of paris cover which is soaked in water. Add a little blueing to icing to make it look whiter.”
-—Practical Cake-Art, Fred Bauer [Fred Bauer:Chicago IL] 1923 (recipe no. 64)

“Butter Cream.
2 1/2 pounds of icing sugar, 1 pound of good sweet butter, 2 ozs. corn starch, 5 eggwhites. Rub sugar and butter till light and creamy add starch and then the whites of eggs gradually, flavor with vanilla.”
-—ibid (recipe no. 49)

“Royal Icing
Take from 3 to 4 egg whites of eggs to 1 lb. XXXX sugar and a pinch cream of tartar. Put in a cake mixer and beat until it stands up well. This icing is used for decorating fancy wedding and birthday cakes. Also all kinds of flowers. In making flowers with this icing it is best to run them on wax paper until dry, then remove them and place on the cakes.”
-—Master Cake Baker, Cleve Carney [Calumet Baking Powder Company:Chicago IL] 1927 (p. 83)

“Butter Cream Icing
4 lbs. Confectioner’s Sugar
1 pt. Cream (about)
1 lb. Sweet Butter
These ingredients are creamed up in a cake mixer until light. More butter may be added and less cream if desired, or a good lemon or vanilla custard may be added in the place of the cream or milk.”
-—ibid (p. 85)

“Royal Icing ingredients: egg white, icing sugar, juice of lemons or Fleischmann’s Cream, vanilla (p. 444)
Several recipes for Butter Cream are offered:
1. Raw Butter Cream: sweet butter, icing sugar, egg white, vanilla
2. French Butter Cream: icing sugar, sugar-yolk, sweet butter, icing sugar, vanilla
3. French Butter Cream (2): icing sugar, egg white, sweet butter, icing sugar, vanilla
4. Boiled French Butter Cream (1): sugar, glucose, water, sugar-Yolk, sweet butter or part shortening, flavor to suit.
5. Boiled French Butter Cream (2): sugar, glucose, water, whole egg, butter, flavor to suit.
6. Boiled Butter Cream: granlated sugar, water, Fleischmann’s Cream, egg white, sweet butter, vanilla.
7. Butter Cream (stock): granulated sugar, water, corn starch, water.
-—A Treatise on Cake Making [Fleischmann Division, Standard Brands Inc.:New York] 1935

(p. 445-448)

About marshmallow creme as cake filling/frosting.

Metro Newspaper Service, “Your 1945 Victory Garden Ads,” Alabama State Council of Defense (1941-1946), Program Administrative Files, SG 19856, Folder 23, Alabama Department of Archives & History, Montgomery, Alabama.

http://www.archives.state.al.us/teacher/ww2/lesson6/doc03p1.html

Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, 99 Ways to Share the Meat ([Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943), Alabama State Council of Defense (1941-1946), Program Administrative Files, SG 19854, Folder 36, Alabama Department of Archives & History, Montgomery, Alabama.

http://www.archives.state.al.us/teacher/ww2/lesson6/doc04p1.html

[Both pages have photos of the ads]