Civil War Era Orange Nuts Recipe

The holidays are coming and that means acres of oranges will enter our homes to grace tables, bob in punches and add tang to cider.  Orange Nuts, hard biscuits with a strong citrus flavor are the perfect, Civil War Era thing to compliment gingerbread, cider or tea. They are also a great way to use up all of those otherwise wasted peels.

Orange Nuts are a variety of Ginger Nuts, a recipe still popular today. Click the link to see the ginger nuts recipe I made last Christmas!  This recipe was also printed in Godey's Lady's Book and Peterson's Magazine in 1865 and was still being published verbatim in 1883.

Civil War Era Orange Nuts Recipe

Ingredients

- 1 1/2 Cups Flour
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 2-4 Orange Peels, zested
- 2-4 Lemons Peels, zested

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat for 15 minutes. Add flour and zest and mix until fully combined. Add flour until your dough is stiff enough that it can be rolled in your hands without sticking. Roll into one inch balls. Place on baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes.

I hope everyone has a safe holiday season! I'm going to try and blog all of the different things I bake this year and would love to hear and see pictures of what you are baking!
  

WWI / WWII Cucumber Stuffed Tomato Salad

Today's post is brought to you by me being incredibly bored of everything I've been cooking lately, the recent tomato harvest, and me attempting on getting more veggies in my diet. Plus I'm crazy about tomato and mayo sandwiches with pepper on them so this seems fun and in the same taste palate. It was very hot out when I started cooking this but thanks to the hurricane it's now a bit too cold to want to eat salad. Sorry!

The fun thing about this recipe is that even though the name changed throughout the years, the recipe itself changed very little from WWI to WWII. The earlier versions of this recipe call for Cream Dressing instead of mayo, although mayo did exist at that time, and for the tomatoes to be served on a bed of lettuce instead of cups of lettuce. I included the Cream Dressing recipe below if you wanted to try it. 

WWI / WWII Stuffed Tomato Salad

- 6 Tomatoes
- 2 Cucumbers
- Mayonaise
- 1 tsp Parsley
- Lettuce
-Salt and Pepper

Peel and cube cucumbers, place in bowl and mix in mayonnaise and chill in refrigerator. Scald and peel the tomatoes. Cut a bit off the top and remove the seeds with a spoon. Place tomatoes in lettuce cups, fill with the cucumber cubes top with a dollop of mayonnaise, then garnish with parsley. 

This ultimately gives you a way to plate a cute salad. If I was to make this again, I would probably leave the skins on the tomato for the texture and because it would make it easier to scrape out the insides. The lettuce cups would be easier to make with some toothpicks or if each wrapped tomato is served in individual salad bowls. If made in advanced it would be best to serve the dressing on the side as well.  

USS Ling Vandalized

Last weekend, vandals opened the hatches of The USS Ling, a WWII Balao class submarine in Hackensack, NJ with power tools and stole the memorial plaques honoring the men who died in the 52 submarines and lost during the war. I can't speak much to the battle that was going on with the sub, the attached museum and impending construction of luxury residential area but it hardly seems unrelated. Construction is set to start in September. As of now, she's sunk in the mud with 10 ft of water in her which can't be emptied until environmentalists give the okay. 

There's a lot I can say about this. The fact that national treasures can be destroyed in the night with no repercussions or mass public outrage is so disheartening. I know it's difficult for communities to spend money on historical sites when the communities need so many other things in the short term, but in the long term these sites are so important. WWII is becoming a vague memory as veterans die off and more current conflicts are in the spotlight. The Ling was used as a training vessel until the 1960s so you can still find people with memories of training on her. When we visited this weekend there were 5 or 6 people saying their goodbyes. 

USS Ling during sea trials, in 1945 

It would be amazing if you could donate at Restore the USS Ling. 

If you can't donate, it would be great if you could post about this on your Facebook or Twitter. 

WWII Blueberry Muffin Recipe

Back from the WWII, Berwick, PA event hosted by the Stuart Tank Memorial Association! Despite the rain, everyone had a great time. I brought these muffins to share and while they were a little dry when I made them, they ended up moist after a day of being under saran wrap. Saran wrap didn't hit the shelves until after the war but the plastic used for saran wrap was developed during the war to make ventilated insoles for combat boots. I think a tupperware container would have the same effect. The boys ate them up at the event.

This recipe is from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook (1942.) In accordance with the wartime shortages, this recipe has less butter and eggs than we're used to in modern times.

WWII Blueberry Muffin Recipe

- 2 Cups all-purpose Flour
- 3 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 Tbs Sugar
- 1 Egg, beaten
- 1 Cup Milk (or 1/2 Cup of Evaporated Milk + 1/2 Cup Water)
- 4 Tbs Vegetable Oil or Melted Shortening
- Canned or Frozen Blueberries, well rinsed and drained


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sift together dry ingredients. Slowly stir in the oil, milk, and eggs and mix until it has a lumpy appearance but no longer. Grease cupcake pan (I found it better to grease and flour it.)  Place 2 tablespoons of batter in each cup, cover with 1 tsp of blueberries and then top with 1 tablespoon of batter. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the tops are golden. Makes about 14 muffins.

WWI Era Graham Cracker Cake Recipe

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been so busy! Lots of events coming up. Who will I be seeing at the Reading Airshow?

This was made as a birthday cake for WWI reenactor, Pavel[ @paveljay on Instagram,] who was more excited that the cake was a rectangle than that it was a WWI recipe.

The recipe is from American Cookery, the magazine of the Boston Cooking School, printed this recipe twice in differing formats. The defining characteristic of the cake is the graham cracker flour. Graham crackers were originally intended to be part of a vegetarian diet that minimized pleasure and stimulation in an attempt to live a more natural life. There's no trace of their early roots in this cake. It's tasty.   

 Although the version I started with suggested mocha icing, the other version suggested whipped cream icing and I thought that would taste amazing with the graham cracker and cherry.  I used an 8 x 4 inch bread pan an only think the 12 x 7 inch pan suggested would work if you wanted a very flat cake. I also added a layer of cherry filling on the inside.

The result was surprisingly delicious. The cake was very dense but moist and had a nice, light, honey, cinnamon flavor. The whipped cream topping was fluffy and complimented the graham cracker, cinnamon and cherry very well. This is one of the few recipes I've made that had multiple requests to make again. The magazine suggested to serve this with tea but punch would also compliment it well.