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!
This recipe is from the Settlement Cook Book (1921). Written by progressive reformer, Elizabeth Black Kander, the book was so popular, it went through 35 editions from 1901 to 1940.
Kander, was the daughter of Jewish, English and Bavarian immigrants. She was a member of many charity organizations, such as the Ladies Relief Sewing Society, the National Council of Jewish Women, and founded the Settlement House in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Settlement House was part of the Settlement Movement which was a philanthropic response to Nativism, racism, and calls for restrictive immigration policies in the early 20th century. Followers of the movement lived and worked among the poor with an aim to reform society by working for better labor standards, education, living conditions, and healthcare. The Settlement House provided Eastern European immigrants, classes on English, sewing, and cooking. The Settlement Cook book was used in their cooking classes and also raised money to fund their mission.
The earlier editions of the cook book were focused on helping immigrants assimilate and contained many Eastern European recipes, but specifically Jewish and Kosher recipes were added in later editions including holiday recipes.
I was interested in trying this recipe because "bagel pretzel rolls" intrigued me. I always thought making bagels was too hard but it ended up being easy and it cost less that a $1 for 12 bagels. Seeing the process done in the home and not in a bagel shop really demystifies the process.
Vintage Jewish Bagel Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup warm Milk - 1 Yeast Cake or 1 Tablespoon of Yeast - 1/4 Cup Butter, melted but cool - 1 Egg, seperated - 1 1/2 Tablespoons Sugar - 3 3/4 Cups Flour - 1/2 teaspoon Salt
Instructions:
Stir the sugar into the warm milk . Pour yeast on top of the warm milk, let sit a minute and stir in. Pour Flour, yeast, egg white, butter, and salt into a mixing bowl. Mix until it is too hard to mix with a spoon then use hands. Knead for about 6 minutes. Place in a greased bowl and let rise, covered for 1 hour. Punch the dough down, cut it in two. Set aside half covered. Cut the other half into 6 pieces and roll into bagel shapes. Seal with water and place on a greased baking pan.
For the cinnamon version, roll out the other half of the dough, coat the dough with water and sprinkle with a mixture of 2 Tablespoons of sugar and 1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon. Cut into 6 pieces an roll into bagel shapes and put on a greased cookie sheet.
Preheat your oven to 375 F.
Bring a large, shallow pot of water to just below simmering. Put your bagels in a few at a time and cook for 20 seconds. Flip them over and cook another 20 seconds. Remove to a greased cookie pan. Lightly brush the bagels with a mixture of egg yolk and water. Add your toppings ( I used poppy seeds and almonds on top of the cinnamon ones as the recipes called for). Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
For those asking where I got my tray, it's this one painted.
This is an early version of The Settlement Cook Book:
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I'm babysitting and puppysitting this week. It's been a lot especially with the pandemic and tornadoes we've been having in Pennsylvania. I'm not saying that this is a good recipe but it's probably the recipe you ate as a kid and the picky eater ate the whole plate.
This is something fun for the kids to do if they're bored. Spritz cookies are not only for the holidays!
Vintage Depression Era Spritz Cooky Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 Cups Flour, sifted
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Shortening (Crisco or similar)
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Lemon Extract
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 F . In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar, lemon extract, and salt with the shortening. Add your egg. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix with your hands until well combined and fill your cookie press. Bake for 10- 12 minutes on an un-greased cookie sheet.
Why won't my spritz cookies stick?
Cookie Sheets must be cold and the dough must be slightly sticky. If your dough is too dry, add a little water, remix it in your hands and put it back into the press. You may have to experiment how many squeezes or turns you have to use per cookie. It changes based on the shape you pick. Also, never grease the pan. They won't stick, I promise.
Things are going to look a little weird on my site for the foreseeable future. Due to the Covid-19 Quarantine, I am stuck in New York without my camera gear, and kitchen implements.
For those of you who don't know, I volunteer with the Chester Historical Preservation Committee and was very excited to find this book that was printed in Chester, Pennsylvania while I was on vacation in Massachusetts last year. Drive 4 and a half hours for some local history? Yes, Please.
What the heck is Chester, PA? It's the first European City in Pennsylvania. It's where William Penn actually landed. It's where the wounded were sent by rail after the Battle of Gettysburg. It was home of the Eddystone Rifle Plant, during WWI. It was a major shipbuilding site during WWI and II. It's where Martin Luther King Jr. went to school. It's really historic, you'll just have to trust me.
I was very excited to get to try some local recipes from this time period. This book, The Kitchen Guide, was originally published in 1913 in Philadelphia and had only 3 recipes with Chester in the Title. Sometime during the 1913 printing and the 1927 Chester printing, "Chester Jumbles" were added to the text. Jumbles are one of the earliest forms of cookies.
Chester Jumbles
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 1 Cup Butter (2 Sticks)
- 1/2 Cup Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 4 Eggs, beaten
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
- 1/2 Cups Shredded Coconut
- Almonds, sliced
- About 4-5 Cups of Flour
Instructions:
Cream the sugar and the room temperature, butter together until smooth. Add the vanilla, 1/2 cup of the flour, the salt and the 4 eggs and coconut. Add flour until the dough does not stick to your hands. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/4 of an inch. Cut out with round or donut shaped cookie cutters and top with sliced almonds. Bake on a cookie sheet in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.
For whatever reason I did not think I was going to like these but they turned out very good. They're soft with a light coconut flavor and nice crunch from the almonds. I only made a half batched and it made about 14, 3 inch cookies.
