Eve’s Pudding

May 19, 2023 Little Dorrit1 Comment

This recipe comes from Catherine Dickens, the wife of Charles Dickens. While her husband is better known for his writing career, Catherine Dickens made her own foray into authorship with the cookbook What Shall We Have for Dinner?. The book was first published sometime before 1851 (the date of the first edition is unknown), and was reissued in several revised editions over the next few years. Catherine published her book under what is probably the best pseudonym ever – Lady Maria Clutterbuck – the name of the character she had portrayed in an amateur theatrical production of the play Used Up.

A Cheap Seed Cake

February 7, 2023February 6, 2023 Little Dorrit1 Comment

“It was the pleasantest tea-table in the world. Miss Clarissa presided. I cut and handed the sweet seed-cake — the little sisters had a bird-like fondness for picking up seeds and pecking up sugar; Miss Lavinia looked on with benignant patronage, as if our happy love were all her work; and we were perfectly contented with ourselves and one another.”

-Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850.

Braune Lebkuchen (Brown Gingerbread)

December 11, 2022December 10, 2022 Little Dorrit3 Comments

Lebkuchen is a type of gingerbread traditionally made in Germany. There are many different varieties of Lebkuchen, with different specialties in different regions, but they are typically made with honey and spices. This version is one of several Lebkuchen recipes in the 1803 cookbook Augsburgisches Kochbuch.

Pumpkin Cakes

November 13, 2022 Little Dorrit1 Comment

One of my favorite things about fall is cooking with pumpkin – whether it’s pumpkin pies, pumpkin cakes, or pumpkin sauces, I will pretty much try anything with pumpkin in it. As a result, I almost always have small amounts of leftover pumpkin purée sitting around. This recipe for pumpkin cakes, from Lettice Bryan’s 1839 book The Kentucky Housewife, is just the ticket to use up any pumpkin remnants. Although they are baked in an oven instead of on a griddle, these are very similar to hoe-cakes or pancakes; Lettice Bryan includes them in the chapter “Warm Cakes &c. for Breakfast and Tea.”

Brown Betty

October 5, 2022October 2, 2022 Little Dorrit1 Comment

Betties are part of the group of baked-fruit-with-topping dishes (along with cobblers, crisps, crumbles, slumps, etc.), which I can never seem to tell apart from one another. After comparing Apple Betty recipes in multiple 19th and 20th century cookbooks, it seems like the distinguishing feature of a Betty is multiple layers of breadcrumbs alternating with the fruit – although there were a few exceptions that used cubes or slices of bread instead. This recipe from 1866 makes a pretty standard Apple Betty. No measurements are given in the original; I have provided the amounts I used for a 1.5 quart baking dish, but since precise measurements don’t matter it can be easily adapted for other sizes.

Mint Cordial

September 11, 2022September 10, 2022 Little DorritLeave a comment

Homemade cordials, usually a mixture of distilled liquor and fruit or other flavors, were popular in America from the 17th through the 19th centuries. They were used both for medicinal purposes and to drink simply for pleasure. While in the later 19th century commercially-made cordials became popular for use in cocktails, earlier cordials like this 1828 recipe would have been served on their own as after-dinner digestives.

Peach Ice Cream

July 31, 2022 Little Dorrit2 Comments

Before the invention of the hand-cranked ice cream freezer in 1843, making ice cream was a time-consuming and laborious task.

Cherry Batter Pudding

July 10, 2022 Little Dorrit1 Comment

“When we had done, he brought me a pudding, and having set it before me, seemed to ruminate, and to become absent in his mind for some moments.
‘How’s the pie?’ he said, rousing himself.
‘It’s a pudding,’ I made answer.
‘Pudding!’ he exclaimed. ‘Why, bless me, so it is! What?’ looking at it nearer. ‘You don’t mean to say it’s a batter-pudding!’
‘Yes, it is indeed.’
‘Why, a batter-pudding,’ he said, taking up a table-spoon, ‘is my favourite pudding! Ain’t that lucky? Come on, little ‘un, and let’s see who’ll get most.’”
-Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850.

Victoria Punch

May 24, 2022May 20, 2022 Little DorritLeave a comment

Last year, I started a tradition of making something named after Queen Victoria on her birthday, May 24. So far I have made Victoria Sandwiches and Victoria Buns, both recipes from Isabella Beeton. This year, I’m breaking the Mrs. Beeton-baked-goods trend and trying out a frozen punch recipe from American author Fannie Merritt Farmer instead.

Boiled Rhubarb Pudding

May 15, 2022May 14, 2022 Little Dorrit1 Comment

One of my favorite things about Isabella Beeton’s 1861 cookbook, The Book of Household Management, is that she lists practical information about the cost, time to make, serving size, and season for each recipe. Knowing the season was especially important; although some fruits and vegetables could be grown in greenhouses all year, others were only available for short windows of time. Even today, that’s still the case with rhubarb, which in my area at least only appears for a few brief weeks in late spring. To make this recipe, I started haunting my grocery stores and local farmers’ markets at the start of April, checking constantly for the first sign of rhubarb’s bright red stalks. Somehow, the excitement of finally finding it after weeks of waiting feels much more gratifying than if I had been able to get it all year round.

History in the Making

recreating historic foods and crafts

Category: 19th Century