Freeper Kitchen: Old Fashioned Recipes

[HungarianGypsy]

It's fun to repeat things. I posted a food memories thread last year. Let's revise it and talk about old-fashioned recipes.

[HungarianGypsy]

I have a Settlement Cookbook. How fun to see the menus and and instructions on Invalid cooking and how to set the table. How about how to pluck a chicken. Some instructions say to salt raw chicken and let sit a few hours before preparing.

[Lil'freeper]

(bookmark for when I get home later...)

[Daffynition]

There's a wonderful web site Heritage Recipes...

"A recipe card, recipes on scraps of paper in a kitchen drawer, an old cookbook with notes in the margin.

These are more than just recipes. These heritage recipes are our links with our past – memories of special people and special events are tied to those scraps of paper. At Heritage Recipes we are dedicated to the preservation of those memories and recipes."

I like it because it connects us with our heritage ... in the days when a house was a home...moms were "stay-at-home" moms..families stayed together and actually ate around a table.

[texas booster]

I had a reproduction cookbook from the White House that was originally published around the 1900’s.

A lot of ingredients have changed.

In particular, I once followed a recipe for hot chocolate that included evaporated milk, only to discover that modern evaporated milk has half the water content of the original product.

It came out like chocolate cream, very sweet. Everyone loved the thickness of the drink, but we could not handle the sweetness.

[texas booster]

Wow, that’s a great site!

Here is a link:

http://www.heritagerecipes.com/

Here is also a link to a blog that tracks down old recipes:

http://old-recipe-detective.blogspot.com/

[Daffynition]

Another great source that I love are the The Yankee Magazine Books of "Forgotten Arts." I'm not sure if YM still publishes them, but they are available on used book web sites.

They are full of useful info on many things that have become "lost arts."

Such as: The Forgotten Art Of Building And Using A Brick Bake Oven; The Forgotten Art of Building A Good Fireplace, The Forgotten Art of Building A Stone Wall etc.

Good stuff!

[Daffynition]

Thanks for providing the link ... I forgot! Duh! All this reminds me of my "To-Do" list ...and organizing the family recipes that have been handed down...I should really do that some day! [-P /guilt trip

[metmom]

bump

[Miss Didi]

If you order hot chocolate in Italy today, you will get that same wonderful chocolate cream.

[texas booster]

No longer having the cookbook, I have tried to duplicate the recipe (less any additional sweeteners) but it never comes out right.

This does sound like a wonderful excuse to visit Italy. Maybe a Mediterranean cruise is in order.

[HungarianGypsy]

**Freeper Kitchen Ping**

Let's talk about things that aren't mad with processed foods. ;-)

[alwaysconservative]

Thanks for the ping!

[Miss Didi]

Here's the recipe:


CIOCCOLATA CALDA

(for 1 person)

Ingredients: 250 ml milk, 50 g 70% (or 80%) dark chocolate, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp potato (or corn) starch, pinch of cinnamon.

In a pot melt chocolate with a bit of milk at low heat. Add starch and sugar, mix well. Add rest of milk and cook on low-medium heat until the chocolate thickens (it should take about 20-30 minutes). Keep stirring constantly to avoid the chocolate sticking to the bottom of the pot. When the chocolate is ready, serve it in a cup sprinkled with a pinch of cinnamon or whipped cream.

[Grammy]

This sounds more like a warm chocolate pudding than a drink.

[alwaysconservative]

Eggs seem smaller also. I’ve learned that for old recipes, if I want them to turn out the way I’d planned, I have to substitute jumbo eggs for large or extra-large, and large for medium or small. JMO.

And don’t even get me started on CREAM, LOL!

[Miss Didi]

It is...that’s how they drink hot chocolate in Europe. No marshmallows, either.

[Species8472]

If you can find a copy of "Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices" by George Leonard Herter and Berthe Herter. Get It!

It's collection of historical recipes, remedies, survival tips, philosophical musings, diatribes, out-and-out historical flights of fancy make it the most amusing and interesting cookbook in my collection!

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping..........

[alwaysconservative]

Meringue Mushrooms

3 extra-large egg whites, room temp
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp almond extract
6 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Powdered cocoa

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. With a mixer on medium speed, mix egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and mix thoroughly. Sloooowly add sugar a little bit at a time until well-mixed, then increase mixer speed to high and mix for about 2 minutes, until stiff peak stage. Add almond extract and mix again. Place mixture into a gallon zip-lock bag, zip, and cut off one corner (about one-half or three-quarters of an inch).

Dust UN-greased cookie sheets with small amount of cocoa, and pipe smooth mounds (for caps) and cones (for stems) separately. You may have to smooth the caps with a damp finger to get rid of points. Make sure to make more stems than caps, and don’t make the stems too tall or they will wilt during baking. Lightly dust caps and stems with small amount of cocoa (for “dirt”) and bake until crisp, but not browned (approximately 1 hour). Allow to cool briefly before removing from cookie sheets.

Melt chocolate and allow to cool slightly, but not harden. Cut a small hole in the bottom of each mushroom “cap”, dip point of “stem” in chocolate, insert into “cap”, and allow the chocolate to “glue” the parts together. Allow chocolate to harden, and serve. Makes anywhere from 3 to 5 dozen, depending on size of the ‘shrooms. Can be kept for several weeks in an air-tight container and away from humidity.

[LonePalm]

Here is a wonderful book that deals with the food of English sailors during the Napoleonic era. It is a companion piece to the Aubrey/ Maturin Series. Click on the images to go to Amazon.Com.

Here is an excellent movie made from the series.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)