Coffee 2 ways

Here are two recipes for coffee from Meals for Small Families. The second one is both fascinating and revolting.

Coffee

For 1 person:

2 tablespoonfuls ground coffee

1 cup cold water

Mix the coffee and water together, cover closely and let stand all night. In the morning bring this to a boil and serve. When poured carefully it will be as clear as amber.

For a small pot:

1 cup ground coffee

1 egg and shell

This amount will make 3 pots for 3 successive mornings, by using one third and keeping the remainder closely covered. Take one-third of the mixture (the egg and coffee mixed together) and add 1/3 cup of water, mixing well; pour into coffee pot and add 1 pint boiling water. Let the coffee boil 3 minutes. Remove from fire and keep hot on stove for 5 minutes (not boiling) and serve.

New Haul!

Check out my finds from this afternoon!

It includes:

• Two Better Homes and Gardens magazines from the 1940s
• A trippily illustrated "fast food" book from the 1970s
• A hardcover book of "Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus" from the late 1920s
• A 1955 community cookbook published by members of the Women's National Press Club
• 2 pamphlet's from the 1930s published for Calumet Baking Powder.
• A campy 1950s cookbook
• A gold covered, index tabbed general cook book from the 1960s

Can't wait to start going through them!

Meals for Small Families

My bestest friend Diane picked up this little gem for me yesterday.

It was published in 1929 by Laidlaw Brothers Publishers, Chicago. I love the black and white illustrations, and the insight into kitchens of the era it provides. Check out the inside front cover:

Here's the table of contents, complete with a magazine ad pasted in over the copyright page. The Pillsbury ad contains a recipe for "Eatmor Cranberry-Apple Pie" (sic), complete with a politically incorrect picture of a musket-toting cherry-tomato pilgrim chasing a turkey:

Here's the title page:

I'm not sure what sort of dancing thing this is. Perhaps a tomato?

This recipe for Canadian Christmas Cake contains 6 cups of flour, 12 eggs, and more than 18 cups of fruit and nuts. Wonder what the quantities would be if the cookbook was aimed at large families?

One of the reasons I love old cookbooks is that they let you peek into the kitchens of their era. For example, in this book, many recipes call for washing the butter. A quick Googling disclosed the process. Click here if you'd like to learn how to wash your own butter, Fannie Farmer style circa 1918.

The introduction to the Cereals chapter reads as follows:

"Cooked cereals occupy an important food position on the average daily menu. These may be cold or hot. They make a good breakfast dish, easily prepared.

To be tasty and digestible, long cooking is required, averaging from 45 minutes to 3 hours in a double boiler, a fireless- or pressure-cooker. The cereal is easily prepared during the process of getting dinner. In cold weather the boiler can be set on the radiator and allowed to remain all night. This offers a very excellent form of long-time, slow cooking. In the morning, a few minutes will be sufficient to reheat the food."

The first recipe in this section is for Cream of Wheat, which specifies that you allow at least 45 minutes for cooking! Cornmeal mush and oatmeal should be cooked for 3 hours, and rice for 1 hour!

The Introduction to the Desserts chapter is also interesting. Looks like refrigerators were just becoming mainstream:

"With the modern iceless ice box maintaining an even temperature at all hours the dessert problem has been practically solved. Many concoctions are easily made in the freezing trays with a minimum amount of trouble and it is economy to make a desert sufficient for two meals when it can be kept in perfect condition. This saves both time and fuel.

Today, it is possible for a hostess to prepare most of a meal hours in advance of its actual serving. When preparing the dinner tonight she also can do much towards the actual preparation of dinner for tomorrow through the medium of the ice box."

I'm still going through this little treasure of a book, and will post a few special recipes from it over the next few days. Come back for more!