“As to Dolly, there she was again, the very pink and pattern of good looks, in a smart little cherry-coloured mantle, with a hood of the same drawn over her head, and upon the top of that hood, a little straw hat trimmed with cherry-coloured ribbons, and worn the merest trifle on one side—just enough in short to make it the wickedest and most provoking head-dress that ever malicious milliner devised.” -Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, 1841.
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“‘But punch, my dear Copperfield,’ said Mr. Micawber, tasting it, ‘like time and tide, waits for no man.'” -Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850.
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Zimmetsterne (usually spelled Zimtsterne today) are a traditional German Christmas cookie. The name means “cinnamon stars;” although of course you can make them any shape, they are traditionally made with a star cutter.
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Springerle are a type of traditional German cookie dating back at least to the 15th century. This particular recipe is from the 1861 American cookbook The Housekeeper’s Encyclopedia. Although the recipe is simply titled “German New Year’s Cookies,” several details such as the use of hartshorn, anise seed, wooden molds, and drying the cookies for 24 hours before baking clearly identify these as classic Springerle.
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I love gingerbread in pretty much any form, and I am beginning to develop a love of steamed puddings – so naturally I had to try this 1875 recipe for a steamed gingerbread pudding.
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Historic cookbooks usually include many recipes for preserving fruits and other seasonal produce. This recipe, with pears, apple cider, and spices, is perfect for Fall.
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Buttermilk and baking soda biscuits are a classic, and with good reason. The acid in buttermilk reacts with baking soda, producing carbon dioxide gas and giving the biscuits their characteristic puffiness.
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This recipe comes from Sarah Tyson Rorer’s first cookbook, the Philadelphia Cook Book, published a few years after she opened the Philadelphia Cooking School in 1883.
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This recipe, which can be used for either peach or apple pies, comes from Lettice Bryan’s The Kentucky Housewife, published in 1839. Along with Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife (1824) and Sarah Rutledge’s The Carolina Housewife (1847), The Kentucky Housewife is known as one of the three “southern housewife” cookbooks. These three books are often considered the earliest American regional cookbooks; although they include a variety of recipes, there is a strong focus on “classical” southern cooking.
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This recipe comes from The Woman Suffrage Cook Book, a fundraising cookbook first sold at the 1886 Woman Suffrage Festival and Bazaar in Boston to raise money for the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association.
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History in the Making 