A blog dedicated to Early American History Lovers, Civil War Reenactors, Living Historians, and people that love the past. Lots of Historical Recipes and Patterns!
I came across this webinar by Clarissa Dillon on researching beyond using recipes. Recipes do not give the full picture of prevalence, who ate it, who cooked it, or if these recipes were altered due to need or desire.
Many cookbooks include a recipe for Election Cake. What is it? The hallmark of an election cake recipe is the enormous batch size. Some of the finished cakes weighed over 10 pounds. In the 1700s, Election Cake was a yeast leavened cake with prunes or other dried fruits, intended to feed dozens of people. Sometimes they were made of soft gingerbread. Regardless of the ingredients, Election Cake was frequently served with cider.
Election Cake seems to be derived from "Muster Cake." In the late 1600s and throughout the 1700s, some men were expected to attend military musters for training and were supplied with cake and cider as a reward. In the late 1700s, Election Day was new and a day of celebration. Eligible men who made the trek out to vote were given cake, cider, and alcohol outside of the polls and at parties.
This recipe is fromAmerican Cookery by Amelia Simmons, the second edition published in 1796. This book is known for being the first known American cookbook. The full recipe makes a lot of cake. It contains 30 cups of flour and 36 eggs! I cut the recipe by about 1/7! The recipe also assumes you're cooking in the 1700s and that it will take 24 hours for your sponge to rise. It took me about 45 minutes in my 21st century oven. Likewise, if your house is heated in November, you won't have to cream the butter for 30 minutes. When I make this again (even the family liked it) I'll probably add a cup of crushed walnuts.
Colonial Election Cake
Ingredients:
- 4 Cups Flour - 1 1/2 Sticks Butter
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 1/4 Cup Raisins, Prunes, or other dried fruit, chopped
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Tablespoon Wine
- 2 Tablespoons Brandy
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon Coriander seed
- 2 Tablespoons Yeast (1 Packet)
- 1 1/2 Cups Warm Milk
Instructions:
Combine your flour, milk, and yeast, cover with a warm, wet cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. In a separate bowl, cream the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the eggs, spices, brandy, and wine and mix until combined. Pour the butter mixture into the dough and mix (with your hands, if necessary). Mix in the fruit. Pour into greased pans and bake 45-60 minutes in an oven preheated to 375 F. Let cool then cover and let sit for a day.
Sources:
Humble, Nicola. Cake: a Global History. London: Reaktion Books, 2010.
Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery; or, The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables and the Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake, Adapted to This Country and All Grades of Life. . 2nd ed. Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1796.
Stradley, Linda. “Election Day Cake History and Recipe,” November 3, 2020. https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/ElectionCake.htm.
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It's the middle of September in 1774, your mother is sick and has sent you out to collect elderberries to make syrup. You know just where to find them as you have a favorite spot. You fill your basket and turn to leave but eye up a particularly nice stalk that you can hollow out later.
By the 1700s, Elderberry (Sambucus) was a well known plant. Herbal manuals from the 1600s include it, and it was a favorite plant among young boys for making, of all things, popguns. The berries were also used for making wine. Elderberry wine was a main ingredient in a remedy printed in The Family Physitian (1696) to help treat scurvy in the winter when "herbs are scarce." Elderberry wine and honey make a very simple cough suppressant if you didn't feel like making elderberry syrup.
You could use sugar instead of honey in this but I prefered to have the extra antibacterial properties of honey. Elderberry is still being studied but there have been a lot of promising studies that support the healing properties of elderberry in shortening the duration of cold and flu symptoms.
- 2/3 of a cup of berries (fresh or frozen and defrosted)
- 3/4 Cup of Honey
- 3 Cups of Water Optional Ingredients:
Ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the mixture is reduced by half. Pour into a bottle and let cool. If you used whole berries, crush them with a spoon, and strain into a bottle, let cool before use. Take a Tablespoonful by mouth 3 times a day or mix the syrup into tea. You can refrigerate the syrup for up to 3 months or freeze them into cubes and use as needed.
For those of you asking if you can just buy it ( I get it, you're sick) I have used and recommend this brand: Gaia Black Elderberry
If you are planning on buying I would greatly appreciate if you would use the affiliate links above. It doesn't cost you any more but helps me keep the website running.
DISCLAIMER: All information contained in this site is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as medical advice or take the place of a doctor. Use at your own risk. For further research please check: Web MD.
If you've found your way to this page I'm assuming you're sick and since you're sick anyway I thought you might have fun passing the time reading about popguns. I have always been curious about what they would look like in the 18th century and how they would work. Making popguns has been a children's pastime for hundreds of years, only to be lost recently. The popguns in the 18th century likely looked and functioned something like this:
I was excited to try this recipe. I have yet to see anyone else attempt it and it is from a handwritten recipe book in Westminster City Archives in London known as the Cookbook of Unknown Ladies. Little is known about the recipe book or the women who contributed to it only that it was written by "various unknown women about the year 1761," as is printed on a title page. Be sure to check out all of the recipes from The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies.
This was a mystery recipe. I can generally read and approximate what the finished product of a recipe will be. For this recipe I didn't have a clue. I thought it sounded most like a cream cheese but it was whipped before being hung to separate the whey out. Would that make a difference? My grandma and I kept testing it throughout the process to try and get an idea of what it would turn into.
I was very afraid that the minute I added lemon to the cream that it would separate the way it does when making cheese but it didn't. I waited until the cream was whipped then quickly stirred in the juice and the rind.
It turned out that this makes a spread that tastes like a delicious lemon cheesecake. It was delicious on the 1796 pound cake I happened to make the same night. It would also be good on scones or toast.
A qurt of good thick sweet creame. Put to it the juce of four lemons as as mutch peel as well give it an agreeable flavour. Sweeten it to your taste & add a littile peach or orange flower water if you like it. Whip it up as you would for sellabubs but very solid. If you have a tin vat, put a thin cloath in it & pour in your cream. If not, put it in a napkin and tye it pritty close. Hang it up to let the whey run from it. Make it the night be fore you use it. Garnish it with currant jelliy or candied oranges.
Ingredients:
- 16 ounces Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 Lemons (Juice and Peel)
- 1 Tablespoon Orange Flower Water
- 2+/- Tablespoons sweetener (Sugar, Honey, Molasses, ) Instructions:
Zest and juice your lemons. Put cream in large bowl, add sugar and orange flower water and whisk until you have whipped cream. Stir in lemon juice and peel gently to avoid over whipping. Pour into doubled cheese cloth and tie it up. Hang it overnight. In the morning press all the remaining juice out with your hands, make into a ball or press into a mold and serve with jelly or candied oranges.
I had this hanging over a bowl in my living room and my puppy was terrified of it.
If you haven't used cheesecloth before, I recommend paying a little extra to get the kind that you can wash and reuse: Cheesecloth.
My site uses affiliate links. If you are planning on making a purchase, I would greatly appreciate if you would use the affiliate links above. It doesn't cost you any more but it does help me keep the website running. Thanks!
This is a great recipe to break your mom's ancient syringe cookie maker from the cabinet! The taste, and recipe is almost identical to modern Italian Almond Cookies or marzipan and would be a fun, historical recipe to add to the list of Christmas cookies this year.
This recipe is essentially marzipan and is very similar to one used today in Denmark for Marzipan ring cakes or kransekage. Kransekage are a traditional Danish New Year's and wedding treat. They make each ring slightly bigger than the one before and after they are baked, stack them to form a tree and drizzle icing on top. It's a wedding tradition to let the couple remove the top layer of the ring cake together. While no one knows the origin of marzipan almost every European country has a form of it and in many countries it has a romantic implication. In Italian, the word for marzipan itself has romantic connotations. It was even featured in Romeo and Juliet.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Pound your blanched almonds until they are smooth, add the powdered sugar and the lemon peel. Mix in egg whites little by little until it forms a smooth, easily malleable paste. Put your paste into your syringe and squeeze one long line on a floured surface and cut it into 3 inch sections. Connect the ends of each section to form loops. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper place biscuits on the baking sheet and bake for 10-11 minutes. Watch closely as these don't brown like most baked goods. Let cool and enjoy!
*For this recipe you need a homemade syringe like the one pictured, a churro maker, or an old-fashioned cookie syringe that lets you choose the amount of dough on release. If none of these are available you can roll the dough "snake" style on a floured surface.
**To speed things up you can use store bought almond flour and powdered sugar. You can make period powdered sugar by pulverizing granulated sugar in a food processor. Period powdered sugar did not have cornstarch it in as most commercial powdered sugars have today.
Mr. Fribble: I’ll endeavour to muster up what little spirits I have, and tell you the whole affair. Hem ! But; first, you must give me leave to make you a present of a small pot of my lip-salve. My servant made it this morning: the ingredients are innocent, I assure you; nothing but the best virgin-wax, conserve of roses, and lily-of-the-valley water.
Biddy: I thank you, Sir, but my lips are generally red; and when they an’t, I bite ’em.
Mr. Fribble: I bite my own sometimes, to pout ’em a little; but this will give them a softness, colour, and an agreeable moister. Thus let me make an humble offering at that shrine, where I have already sacrificed my heart.
Miss in Her Teens; or The Medley of Lovers 1747
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was a best seller 100 years after it was first published and was a huge success in the American Colonies before and after the American Revolution. It's the go-to book on English cooking in the 1700s but Hannah Glasse also included this lovely gem of a recipe for how to make lip salve. It's great protection for lips in the chilly months.
The book went through numerous editions, and while most recipes stayed the same, the lip salve recipe changed between printings. The salve recipe given in the1774 edition is much more resource intensive and intricate, by the 1778 printing the recipe was pared down to a few ingredients. Whether this change was caused by the rising prices in Britain due to the high cost of war in the colonies which raised taxes in England is speculative but not implausible. The 1774 recipe called for pricey ingredients such as sugar, spermaceti, and Balsam of Peru but only 4 years later a simple mixture of beeswax and lard.
I am excited to share this recipe because it is so quick and easy. Also the base recipe is so basic, it can be used for almost any time period by varying the pigments and scents. It's important to note that men and women alike used lip salve, with tint or without tint despite the changing makeup trends for men throughout the century.
Hannah Glasse's 18th Revolutionary War Era Lip Salve
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces Hog's Lard
- 4 Tablespoons Beeswax, shaved to tiny pieces
- Alkanet Root, soaked to release the pigment (or food coloring)
- Lemon Oil
Equipment: For home use (not over a fire, in period basins) I found the following equipment helpful.
- Glass measuring cup
- Empty tin cans with a spout made by using pliers.
- Tins/containers to hold your salve. I find it helps to have an Altoids tin or something similar in case there is any extra salve. 1/2 the recipe makes 125 grams.
Instructions:
Open your tins. Heat the lard and wax in a dish with a spout or measuring cup. If using a microwave, just heat the mixture in 30 second increments until it is fully melted. If using the stove top, you may want to create a double boiler by half submerging your measuring cup in water. Once combined, let cool for a minute or two until the measuring cup is safe to handle. Add scent, and coloring if desired and stir in with a skewer. Pour into your tins, being careful not to spill the hot liquid on yourself. Let cool until the liquid solidifies. Put the lids on the tins and use.
**If you are making more than one variety, divide the mixture into your cans. Add the scents and coloring as you please and pour a small amount into your tins. Let sit until cool enough to handle but still liquid. Scents of the time period include: Rose, jasmine, violet, nutmeg, orange flower water.1
*** You can also substitute ethically sourced palm oil as a vegetarian alternative to the lard as it has the same density.
1 Buc'hoz, Pierre-Joseph. The Toilet of Flora. London: Printed for W. Nicoll, 1772.
"Yarrow...The Leaves are esteemed cooling, drying, binding, serviceable in all kinds of Haemorrhages..."
-Elizabeth Blackwell
These etchings and the information are from John Hill's Virtues of British Herbs, first published in 1771. Sir John Hill was a prolific writer, doctor and botanist in the second half of the 1700s. He started apprenticing at an apothecary in his early years and went on to earn a medical degree at Edinburgh. He later opened his own apothecary shop. He was known for his multiple books on vegetables and herbs. His writings were so prolific, he was even wrongly attributed as the author of Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.
The herbs and flowers listed below would have been very familiar with 18th century women. Many of these grew naturally in Britain and the United States and these plants were commonly used as infusions to treat remedies or as compresses to be held against the skin. The book specifies that most of these useful herbs are found in fields, just as they are today. If you weren't paying attention, you probably would skip over them.
The book reviewer in The Critical Review in 1771 commented that Hill's book was likely intended for private families as the remedies were not in professional use at the time. It was nevertheless a popular book that went through multiple printings and found itself on both sides of the Atlantic by the 1850s. ***The information below is purely for educational purposes and is not medical advice.*** Although, many modern day herbalists and individuals will attest to their effectiveness, there have been few clinical trials on their uses as remedies. Never use a plant that you cannot identify 100 % and always be aware of the side effects of any plant you might want to use.
Coltsfoot
Leaves (Tussilago farfara)
Uses: Kidney Inflammation, Asthma, Consumption.
***Can cause liver damage.
Great Daisy / Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum
Leucanthemum)
Use:
Diuretic, to clean the kidneys.
Infusion
of leaves.
Daisy (Bellis perennis)
Uses: Fevers, Internal Inflammations Infusion with Honey and Milk
Receipt:
Clip small a quantity of the Leaves fresh gathered; put them into an earthen pipkin, and pour upon them as much boiling water as will cover them. Let this stand all night. In the morning boil it a few minutes; and put in as much honey as will fweeten it. A half-pint bafin of this mould be drank warm three times a day.
English Chamomile (Anthemis Nobilis)
Uses: Improving Appetite, Assisting
Digestion: Strong tea made from the flowers.
Colic and Indigestion : Strong Tea made of
the leaves.
Feverfew (Matricaria parthenium)
Use: Relieves Headaches
Leaves as an
infusion or compress.
Goldenrod (Solidago)
Uses: Internal Bruising,
Diuretic.
Infusion of leaves, young leaves are best.
Senico (Senecio sarracenicus) or Broadleaf
Ragwort
Use: Heals bruises.
Used
as an infusion.
Tanzy (Tanacetum vulgare)
Uses: Relief of putrid Fevers and Epileptic Fits.
Flowers, powdered.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Use: Pain Relief
Drank as an infusion or made into a compress mixed with equal parts Toadflax.
Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to attend another workshop with Clarissa F. Dillon at the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation. It is part of a series, one being hosted in each of the seasons to get an around the year taste of Colonial cooking. There was a great group of people there, we made a pork and apple pie, stewed pears , a boiled cabbage pudding, cauliflower, and a "Regalia of Cucumbers" with a side of pickled
gherkins. Everything was delicious, especially Clarissa's pickled gherkins.
Clarissa Dillon
One of the fun things about these workshops is that they have a more experimental archaeology focus and not so much of a 1st person cooking experience focus as many people who attend these workshops are already established hearth cooks and are more interested in trying archaic or little known cooking and preserving techniques.
Clarissa is currently working on one such experiment and I am very interested in seeing the results. She has eggs in slacked lime and plans to remove and try one egg every month for 2 years to see if the staying capacity of eggs in 18th century preservation receipts was an exaggeration. We also got to try picked gherkins and claret which are typically hard to come by.
The busy kitchen.
Making the pie crust.
The pie filled with layers of pork and apples.
Sue chopping quite a bit of suet.
Cabbage for the pudding.
Before the boiling cloth.
Draining the pudding.
All tied up.
Into the pot.
The completed Cheshire Pork Pie.
The Stewed Pears.
Some of the recipes:
The food was delicious and everyone had a great time swapping hearth cooking and colonial stories. Can't wait for the next one.
"[She had] a short gown, with some red and white stripes and sprigs through it, a
good deal worn, and pieced under the arms with check linen, the colour
much faded;"
I finally finished a new shortgown/bedgown. It's about time. It's an easy pattern but finishing the edges by hand took forever. I find it really hard to get excited about "work clothes." Most notably
because they get ripped up and dirty so quickly, especially while
cooking. I'm sure only one trip to the hearth will have the kids asking "Why are you so dirty!?"
Shortgowns are unfitted or loosely fitted, work garments. Extant garments show that most were pinned shut but some have a few ties or even drawstrings at the neck and waist.
There had been a lot of debate among reenactors and historians about what a shortgown is versus a bedgown and whether or not these were considered appropriate public wear. Evidence points to these being casual or work wear. A 1793 version of the Shakespeare play Henry IV is annotated that "A half kirtle was perhaps the same kind of thing as we call at present a short gown or a bed gown," indicating that they were similar garments if not the same thing. Below are some great 18th century images of people wearing shortgowns outside or with visitors.
The Abusive Fruitwoman, 1773, Courtesy of the LOC.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1761
John Collet, 1764
Shortgown back
18th Century Shortgown Sewing Pattern:
Right click and choose "open in new window" to see larger view.
I folded the fabric horizontally and then again vertically so that I
only had to cut the pattern out once. Good seamstresses will cringe. If
you wish you can fold the fabric horizontally and trace the pattern a
second time mirrored vertically.
Cut out the back neck
hole first. Open up the fabric, then cut a vertical line down the
center of the front. Adjust the neckline as you like, being sure to
leave room for hemming. With right sides of the fabric together, sew
under the arm and down the sides. Hem all loose ends. If you wish to
have cuffs, fold the cuffs in half horizontally with right sides
together. Fold 1/2 in up on the front and back of the cuff and sew the
sides. Turn the cuff right side out and attach to sleeve. Fold the cuff up on the sleeve and secure it with a few stitches.
I
ended up sewing a pleat under each arm as well as three in the back,
all ending at the waist to make the garment a little more fitted. It's
not necessary if you use an apron to give the fitted look or if you are a beginner and just want something easy to work on.
In the 18th century, families relied on
almanacs to help them make many weather and seasonal decisions, such as when
they should plant their crops or travel. However, almanacs only gave a
long-term idea of what the weather might be based on weather in the past. If
someone wanted an immediate weather forecast, weather accounts and “indicator journals,” which used observations of nature, were prolific.
Are these weather indicators old wives tales or were
18th century weather enthusiasts on to something?
Some 18th century weather predictors:
Rain
-"You May expect some Rain, or Snow, according
to Season of the Year, either on the third or fourth Day before, or on the
third or fourth Day after every Change or Full of the Moon, in the whole Year;
as also, at or near the Time when the Moon enters every first or last
Quarter."
-"If there appear a Circle about the Moon, you
may expect stormy Weather to follow shortly after."
-"If the Moon change on a Sunday, it is almost a
certain Sign of a Flood before the next new Moon."
-"If the Sun set under a thick black Cloud, it
is almost a sure Sign of some Rain the next Day."
-"If a Rainbow appear in the Morning, it is a
Sign, for the most Part, of several Showers of Rain before Night."
-"When the Wind keeps varying much, from one
Quarter to another, you may expect Rain in twenty-four Hours."
-"If there be no Dew in a still Summer's Morning
you may expect Rain before Night, sometimes before Noon."
-"If the Smoke from the Chimnies, instead of
ascending, fall to the Ground; you may expect Rain within twenty-four Hours,
frequently sooner.[1]
-"The Crows flocking together in large Flights,
holding their Heads upward as they fly, and crying louder than usual, is a Sign
of Rain, as is also their stalking by Rivers and Ponds, and sprinkling
themselves."
-"When Sheep leap mightily, and push at one
another with their heads [it indicates rain.]"
-"When Cats rub their Heads with their Forepaws
(especially that Part of their Heads above their Ears) and lick their Bodies
with their Tongues[it indicates rain.]"[2]
-"It has been the Observation of those that have
had many Years Experience of the Weather, That when the Wind in the Summer Time
has been South 2 or 3 Days, and it grows very Hot, and when you see Clouds
arise with great white Tops like Towers, as if one cloud were on the Top of
another, and join'd together with Black on the nether Side, that then it is
like to be Thunder and Rain suddenly in many Places." [3]
Sunny or Hot Weather
-"If the Clouds appear of a scarlet Red at or
near the Setting of the Sun, it is a sure Sign of fair Weather..."
-"In a hazy Summer's Morning, when you see many
Spider-webs upon the Grass, Trees, &c. you may expect it will clear up, and
be hot, in general, before twelve o'Clock."
-"I have observ'd that many, if not most of 'em
do expand their Flowers and Down in Warm Sun-shiny Weather, and again close
them towards Evening, or in Rain, especially at the Beginning of Flowering,
when the Seed is young and tender, It is manifest in the Down of the
Dandelion..." [4]
Snow
-"If the Mist [in the mornings] continues many
Days, as it frequently does in November and December, I think it is a sure Sign
of much Rain or Snow falling in the Winter."
-"Clouds like
Woolly Fleeces appearing high and moving heavily; the Middle a Darkish Pale,
and the Edges White, carry Snow in them..." [5]
I think I'll go outside and check the "down" of my dandelions. I knew I was growing them for some reason. :)
[1]Allen Hall, Observations on the Weather (Lincoln:
Drury's Office, 1788), 10-21.
[2] John Pointer, A Rational Account of the Weather: Shewing
the Signs of its several Changes and Alterations, together with the Philosophical
Reasons of them (Oxford:S. Wilmot, 1723), 3-5.
