Civil War Era Pickled Limes Recipe like in Little Women

'In debt, Amy; what do you mean?' and Meg looked sober.

'Why, I owe at least a dozen pickled limes, and I can't pay them, you know, till I have money, for Marmee forbid my having anything charged at the shop.'

'Tell me all about it. Are limes the fashion now? It used to be pricking bits of rubber to make balls;' and Meg tried to keep her countenance, Amy looked so grave and important.

'Why, you see, the girls are always buying them, and unless you want to be thought mean, you must do it too. It's nothing but limes now, for everyone is sucking them in their desks in school-time, and trading them off for pencils, bead-rings, paper dolls, or something else, at recess. If one girl likes another, she gives her a lime; if she's mad with her, she eats one before her face, and don't offer even a suck. They treat by turns; and I've had ever so many, but haven't returned them, and I ought, for they are debts of honour, you know.' -Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

I have been wanting to make these since I first read Little Women so I am very excited to share this recipe. It made no sense to me. The kids I knew hated limes. Why would anyone want to eat these? Was it a dare? Were they showing how tough they were by consuming them? I really didn't know then and still didn't know until now.

They're actually not bad! They're salty and sour and a bit tangy. I read of children in the 1860s eating them in conjunction with sweet candy. Other taste testers said they would go good with nuts and beer.

I cooked the vinegar to save time and added a bit of water to reduce the bite. I also was stuck using prepared ingredients as some of the fresh or whole spices were nowhere to be found. Feel free to use the fresh and whole kind if you can find them right now. The recipe is left open so you can pickle as many or few limes as you want. The spices should make up about 1/16 of the mixture.

 

Civil War Era Pickled Limes Recipe

  Ingredients:

- Limes
- Salt
-50% Vinegar to 50% Water Mixture
- Garlic, chopped
- Mustard Seed
- Cayenne Pepper
- Horseradish (shredded)

Instructions:

Quarter limes, leaving a bit so the 4 pieces stay connected. Place in a sanitized jar.

Sprinkle the limes with the salt, cover, and sit in a sunny spot until the rinds change colors (can be as little as 3 hours or take up to a week depending on sunlight.) Shake every day to coat the limes in juice.

Boil enough vinegar and water mixture to cover the limes.

Mix the Garlic, Mustard Seed, Cayenne Pepper and Horseradish together.

In a sanitized jar, add the limes and seasonings in alternating layers.

Carefully pour the vinegar over the limes. Let cool then cover and store in the fridge until the juice thickens.

 

World War I Era Pickled Eggs Recipe from Chester, PA

The Kitchen Guide (Chester, PA) 1913

When all of this started, everyone looked at their pantries and came to me and said “Now we need some of those ration recipes!” I struggled to recommend anything. This is unprecedented. Some people couldn’t find bread, others yeast. Some people had plenty of fresh fruit and others nothing.
While I did find ration recipes that helped me, it was impossible to help everyone.

This isn’t like WWII, when you knew a lot of the variables. Hindsight is 20/20 and we know most people would appreciate recipes that contained less of rationed ingredients and more of substitutes. I haven’t been posting much. It seems silly and dangerous to make special food and grocery trips right now.

This is a recipe that you can make with stuff already likely in your house. The beets are not necessary and you can stretch this a lot further if you use the picked eggs to make egg salad sandwiches. Historically, pickling eggs was a way to preserve them for future use before refrigeration. Kept in a cold place, pickled eggs can last up to 4 months! I added a little bit of water to the vinegar to remove the sharpness. They had no way of knowing the acidity of their homemade vinegars and they were likely not as acidic as ours is today.

Pickled Eggs

Ingredients:

- 6 Eggs, Hard boiled and peeled
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
- 24 Cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon Mustard
- 2 Cups Vinegar (2/3 Cups Water, 1 1/3 Cups Vinegar)
- Boiled Beet Slices, if wanted

Instructions:


Press 4 cloves into each egg, place in sterilized jar. In a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat, bring vinegar (and beets) to a boil and add the salt, pepper and boil for one minute. Carefully pour the vinegar mixture over the eggs and let cool. Cover and store in the fridge for at least two days before eating. 

Sandusky Sand Tarts: 100+ Year Old Recipe

Did you know that the Sandusky Sand Tart is the official dish of the Maritime Museum of Sandusky in Ohio? Neither do they. I'm at that point in the Covid-19 quarantine where I am creating signature dishes for historical sites and museums. This post was made possible by the Sandusky Library and Jeremy Angstadt who created and forwarded me the book scan. If you're local or out that way, be sure to give them a visit.

I chose this recipe because it was marked it the book, and I love getting recipe input from previous cooks. Sand Tarts were a popular turn of the century dish and are included in many Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish cookbooks.

The Sandusky House-Keeper (Sandusky, Ohio) 1888

Sandusky Sand Tarts

Ingredients:

- 2 Cups Sugar
- 1 Cup Butter (2 Sticks)
- 3 Cups Flour
- 2 Eggs, reserving 1 egg white for brushing on top
- Cinnamon
- Sugar
- Blanched Almonds

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl, cream together room temperature butter and sugar. Add the eggs, reserving one egg white. Mix in the Flour. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut into squares. Place sand tarts on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or grease. Brush the egg white and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on the tops. Press an almond into the center.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 300 degrees F for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

I made half the recipe and it produced about 20 3.5 inch cookies. The tarts spread a little while cooking so be sure to give them space on the pan. It tastes like a crunchy snicker doodle and would be very good with tea. I'm generally not a fan of crunchy cookies but these have a good flavor and texture. Thanks for coming to visit! I'm getting so stir crazy stuck in the house.

Chester Jumbles a WWI - Depression Era Cookie Recipe

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. 

World War 2 Baked Cheese Dreams Recipe

***This post is for the WW2 Ration Cook-in (#wwiirationcookin on Instagram). We're stuck at home but that doesn't mean we aren't working! For the next 7 days we will be attempting a new ration recipe from World War 2.  Be sure to check out @victorykitchenpodcast, @history.in.the.kitchen, and @missfashionistageek on Instagram to see what they cook up this week.***

This is for day #3: Dinner. I've seen this exact recipe in a Pyrex cookbook from 1925 and in the Maritime Cookbook (1939.) It sounded pretty good.

My companion liked it and said they would eat it again. I was not at all into the texture of this. Baked Dreams or Vomit Sandwich?   It tasted like cheese flavored bread pudding with toast on top. There are two possibilities. 1. I wasn't supposed to use all 2 cups of the milk and just "coat the tops" of the sandwiches or 2. I didn't bake it long enough. It's also possible it's just supposed to taste like this. The world may never know.

I have seen other recipes for "cheese dreams" that are similar and just coat the bread and fry in a frying pan. I think that's more my preference.

The Maritime Cookbook (Montreal) 1939

World War 2 Baked Cheese Dreams Recipe 

Ingredients:

- 8 slices of Bread
- 4 slices of Cheese
- 2 Cups Milk
- 2 Eggs, slightly beaten
- Butter (Margarine, lard, butter substitutes)
- 1/4 teaspoon Paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- Pinch Cayenne Pepper
- Pinch of Paprika

Directions:

Butter the bread. Place 4 pieces in a buttered casserole dish. Place cheese on the slices of bread, sprinkle with paprika then top with the remaining bread slices. Scramble the eggs and mix with the paprika, salt and cayenne pepper and pour over the "sandwiches."Bake at 425 °F for around 45 minutes or until browned.