Every year at the beginning of September, the Art Deco Society of California hosts the Gatsby Summer Afternoon, a 1920s and 1930s themed garden party and picnic. I went for the second time this year with my mother, and once again planned out an entire spread for us using recipes from 1920s cookbooks.
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Every year at the beginning of September, the Art Deco Society of California hosts the Gatsby Summer Afternoon, a 1920s and 1930s themed garden party and picnic. I went for the first time last year and of course made a whole picnic spread of recipes from 1920s and 1930s cookbooks. I had a blast, but was very tired afterwards and completely forgot to finish writing my post about it…until I started preparing for the picnic this year. So here it is, nearly a year late, but just in time if you happen to be planning your own picnic.
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This recipe comes from Martin Luther Holbrook’s 1888 book Eating for Strength, a book designed to promote what the author considered healthy eating and drinking habits. A physician and health reformer, Holbrook believed that avoiding meat and stimulants such as alcohol and tobacco was essential to good health. His book provides a variety of vegetarian and alcohol-free recipes such as this one, alongside the latest “scientific” nutrition advice of the day.
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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.
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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.
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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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Fruit vinegars, also known as shrubs, were a popular way to conserve fruit in the 19th century. This version comes from Catharine Beecher, an educator, writer, and social activist, and older sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
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“ ‘He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure,’ said Fred, ‘and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. Here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment; and I say, “Uncle Scrooge!”…a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is!’ ” -Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843.
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This punch recipe comes from Henrietta Nesbitt’s The Presidential Cookbook: Feeding the Roosevelts and Their Guests. Mrs. Nesbitt served as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s housekeeper in the White House for 13 years. She writes in her chapter on teas and punches that two hundred guests would be considered a small tea party for Eleanor Roosevelt – many White House teas would include over a thousand guests. “When the guest list reaches the thousand mark…the only solution is fruit punch, and plenty of it.”
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“‘This wonderful invention, sir,’ said Mark, tenderly patting the empty glass, ‘is called a cobbler. Sherry cobbler when you name it long; cobbler, when you name it short.'” – from Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens, 1844
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History in the Making 