Recipes From The Prairie

The Bad Lands Cow Boy (spaces intentional) was one of the earliest newspapers in Dakota Territory -- positioned out in the far west edge of the region, with very little else was in the area.   Those that lived in the badlands were homesteading pioneers, trying to eke out a living with miles upon miles between their home and civilization.

So, you can imagine the newspaper's recipe section is designed to be simple, difficult to mess up, and requiring a minimum of basic ingredients.   Here's a selection from February, 1884:

Recipes for "Home."

• Cookies.--One cup butter, one cup sugar, two eggs, well beaten, one teaspoonful soda, and one tablespoonful ginger; flour to make a soft dough; roll thin and bake quickly.
• Roll Jelly Cake.--Three eggs, well beaten; one cup butter; one cup sugar; one cup flour; one teaspoonful soda, and nutmeg to suit your taste; bake ten minutes in long pan; spread with jelly and roll; wrap in a cloth around it till cool.
• Lazy Woman's Pie.--Two eggs, two tablespoons sugar, two heaping tablespoons flour, two-thirds of a pint of sweet milk; flavor same as custard pie, and bake without a crust in a buttered pie-tin.
• Currant Pudding.--Two eggs, one-fourth cup sugar, two tablespoons butter, two-thirds pint sour milk, and one-half teaspoonful soda; flour enough to make a thick batter; then flour one teacupful of English currants, stir them in, and steam one and one-half hours; to be eaten with cream and sugar, or pudding sauce.
• Lemon Jelly.--Juice of one lemon, one cup sugar, one egg, one tablespoonful butter; boil till thick.

If you're unfamiliar with your nineteenth-century cooking terminology, here's some help:

• Sweet Milk is whole milk, named such to distinguish it from buttermilk.
• Sour milk is either milk with a mild acid added, or since it's often a substitute for buttermilk, you could use buttermilk as well.
• Steaming a pudding is a specific skill, but the BBC is here to help.
• Pudding sauce is essentially sugar gravy, a sweet syrup that can be made in a variety of ways.

You'll note that all these ingredients are the kind of pantry materials that don't require special storage or (like milk and eggs) can be gotten directly from the source on short notice.  The exact sort of things you'd have bought in bulk in town, a couple month's-worth at a time, because you might be stuck on your claim for a while before you can get back into town again.  

The February (And Final) Monthly Vintage Macaroon Cookie Recipe

This February brings us to the completion of the monthly macaroon recipes... *sigh* At least it is a clever Lollipop idea for Valentine's Day! (Remember, you start with this basic recipe!)

January's Vintage Macaroon Of The Month Recipe

Because we did not begin posting in January, it may seem that I forgot the recipe -- but it is the basic Lever House Macaroon Recipe.

Holiday Delights: The "Macaroon Of The Month" Recipe For December

As always, we begin each Macaroon Of The Month recipe with the basic recipe for Lever House Macaroons from Aunt Jenny's Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies & Other All-Time Favorites. Bonus: It includes a gift idea!

Cinnamon Sugar Plums: The "Macaroon Of The Month" Recipe

November's Macaroon Of The Month begins with this vintage recipe.

The Vintage Macaroon Of The Month Recipe For October (& Halloween!)

Orange 'N' Date Macaroons are the Macaroon Of The Month. (Remember, the basic recipe is here!)

The Vintage Macaroon Of The Month Recipe For September

Spicy Apple "Macs" for school lunches!  The basic recipe begins here, with the Lever House Macaroons recipe from 1952's Aunt Jenny's Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies & Other All-Time Favorites.

Vintage "Macroon Of The Month" Recipe For August

Peanut Macaroons are suggested to be served with minted fruit juices. ...I'm not sure I'm down with trying that. Again, the basic recipe you begin with is here.

Vintage Praline Macaroon Recipe

The Macaroon Of The Month recipe for July is Praline Macaroons. In keeping with the Mid-Century Modern lifestyle, these cookies are said to be perfect for picnics -- and, served with sugared berries or chilled melon balls, a hit at garden suppers.

Sugar-Crisp Tea Macaroons

The Macaroon Of The Month recipe (which starts with this basic Lever House Macaroon recipe) is Sugar-Crisp Tea Macaroons. It's supposed to be fabulous for bridal showers and weddings.

Have you been trying the Macaroon Of The Month cookie recipes? If so, please do tell us how it is going!

Vintage Crunchy Coco-Roon Recipe

Crunchy Coco-Roons is May's Macaroon Of The Month  -- that's a lot of "M"s!

This recipe, and the basic recipe you start with, are from Aunt Jenny's Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies & Other All-Time Favorites.

April's "Macaroon Of The Month" Recipe: Scottish Cookie-Roons

From Aunt Jenny's Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies & Other All-Time Favorites, here's the recipe for Scottish Cookie-Roons. Don't forget to start with the basic recipe here!

Where Are My Vintage Cookbook Fans?

I found this nifty quote on a Facebook Page called Cookbook Love. If you love -- or even hate lol -- vintage cookbooks, you should follow the Page. And the blog too.

From that Page, I found another cool Page, Vintage Recipe Cards, which also has a website. Worthy of following and reading as well.

Anyway,  back to the quote...

I wrote about this a bit at my personal blog before and it's why I've amassed quite a collection! I do share some of the practical things, including recipes, here at Things Your Grandmother Knew; but my main interest is in the cultural stuff. Anyone else collect cookbooks? If so, for the recipes or the culture? Comment here or on my Facebook Page. I really do want to hear from you! Thanks!

Molded Sugar Cubes

From a 1956 Wilton's molds booklet, details on using candy molds to make fancy sugars for hot and cold beverages. This would be great for teas, wedding & bridal showers, and other fancy events. "Remember," it says, "you can make them in advance and keep them for weeks, ready to use whenever you have guests."

The recipe (from page 3):

Sugar Mix

Sugar Mix is easily prepared by mixing 3 teaspoons of slightly beaten egg white to two cups of sugar and adding color to suit.

Details of how to use the mix in the molds, including swift drying, are below.

Monthly Vintage Macaroon Recipes

In 1952's Aunt Jenny's Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies & Other All-Time Favorites (a promotional cook booklet featuring Spry shortening) there was a "Macaroon Of The Month Calendar" -- naturally, I had to share it. *wink*

Each recipe begins with this basic recipe for Lever House Macaroons...

And then there's a variation for each month. March's Macaroon Recipe is for Banana Nutties. (There are, of course, options for making them green for Saint Patrick's Day -- sorry I didn't find it earlier!)

Let me know if you make them!

Unusual Vintage Pudding Dessert Recipe

We've all heard the expression, "a face for radio," right? Well, what does that say about Radio Pudding?

I'd never heard of such a thing until I paged through a cookbook from the 1930s called Butter-Made Is Better Made. After reading the recipe, I'm pretty sure this is a dessert made for a radio stomach. But you tell me... Does it sound yummy? And if you make it, pretty please tell me!

UPDATE: 1/29/2014 The amazing S.S. tried it and posted a complete review at A Book Of Cookrye. She's got a contest there too, so if you love recipes be sure to enter!

This Week's Thrifty Contest Links

My friend, Suburban Diva ®, has a contest: Disney and Kohl’s are giving one of you a $50 gift card.

Marzetti has a recipe sharing contest; a chance to win a $250 gift card and coupons.

Have you seen the Clorox Periodic Table of Stains? It's on Pinterest. It's really all about using Clorox, but the images and descriptions are kind of cute. (And how many times can you say talking about stains is "cute"?) If you are member of Social Moms, you can earn points for sharing the pins -- not only the Period Table of Stains pins, but Social Moms' Cleaning & Household Tips pins too.

Winter Brings Cream Soups

From the October 1932 issue of The Royal Neighbor, on Milady’s Own Page, a reminder that “oysters are not the only food which comes into its own with the ‘R’ months,” cream soups made with milk, butter, and often a cooked and stewed vegetable are welcome when wintry arrives.

Along with recipes for six different cream soups (Cream of Cauliflower Soup, Duchess Soup, Cream of Spinach Soup, Chicken Cream Soup with Noodles, Cream of Crab Soup, and Bean Consomme; click the image to get a large legible scan with all the recipes), the vintage magazine has additional tips on cream soups.

The vegetables most suitable for cream soup bases are spinach, celery, mushrooms, cauliflower, peas, carrots, potatoes and navy beans.

There are two methods for proportioning cream soups:

One method calls for three cups of thin white sauce to each cup of cooked, mashed or stewed vegetables, plus seasoning to own liking.
Thin cream soups require one cup of thin white to each cup or meat or vegetable stock and one-half cup of mashed or sieved vegetable.

Just in case you aren’t familiar with how to make a thin white sauce, here’s the recipe suggested for you, Milady: melt one tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan, blend in one tablespoon of flour, gradually stir in one cup cold milk. Stir constantly until smooth and slightly thickened.
On garnishing:

If the vegetable or meat which forms the basis of the soup fails to add color, chopped parsley adds interest to the dish as does a sparse sprinkling of paprika on top of each serving. Grated cheese or a bit of melted butter added to each bowl of soup contributes flavor, attractiveness and food value.

Now go forth and warm and nourish your family and friends with delicious cream soup!

Hot Pineapple Eggnog

In Favorite Recipes From America's Dairlyand, by the Wisconsin State Department of Agriculture, comes this recipe... The photo looks lovely, but, as I do not love eggnog, I will not be trying this, err, interesting recipe. But I would love to hear from those of you who do! (There are other vitnage beverage recipes here too: Banana Milk Fluff, Buttermilk Fruit Shake, Chocolate Mint Flip, and Eggnog Supreme.)

Tips On Baking With Fats, Liquids, and Clabbering Sweet Milk

Some tips on baking from Successful Baking For Flavor & Texture by Martha Lee Anderson, copyright 1937, Church & Dwight Company. I find these tips worthy of transcribing from the image text:

Fats. Solid fats can be used interchangeably. Melted fats or oils should not be used in recipes specifying creaming of the shortening.

Liquid. The use of citrus fruit juices, lemon and orange, is the most recent accompaniment with sweet milk and baking soda for leavening. With the health-giving qualities, this new use for fruit juices in baking is widely accepted.

Sweet milk may be used in place of sour milk if clabbered artificially. To sour or clabber sweet milk quickly, place 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice or 1 1/3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar (white vinegar makes a whiter product) in a standard measuring cup, then fill to the one-cup mark with sweet milk. Mix well. The resulting liquid will contain as much acid as natural sour milk or buttermilk when it is at its best for baking and may be used exactly as natural sour milk or buttermilk in any baking soda recipe.