Boston Brown Bread

I've only ever had Boston Brown Bread once, but it has always fascinated me. I can't rightly say why, probably because it is old-fashioned sounding and I love old-fashioned things. However, when I had it, I didn't like it. Maybe I'd like it better if I had it fresh instead of from a can. (Did you know that it came in a can? I guess you can get anything in a can-- even socks!). This recipe comes from "Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised", which was published in 1931 but came from the radio show which aired in the 1920s. Good luck and if any of you try it, let me know how it turns out!

Boston Brown Bread-

Ingredients:
1 cup corn meal and 1 cup rye meal OR 2 cups corn meal.
1 cup Graham flour. (I'm sure that any all-purpose flour would work here)
1 teaspoon salt.
3/4 cup molasses
2 cups sour milk, and 1 1/2 teaspoons soda, OR 2 cups sweet milk, 1/4 teaspoon soda, and 4 teaspoons baking powder

Mix the dry ingredients and add the molasses along with the milk. Beat the mixture thoroughly, then pour into greased molds until they are about three quarters filled. Cover loosely to keep out the moisture and steam for 3 1/2 hours. Remove the covers and bake the bread in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes to dry off. If the bread is crumbly, use a string to cut slices rather than a knife.

Notes: A moderate oven, according to the same book, would be somewhere between 325 to 375 degrees F.

Oven Temperatures

Since some of the recipes that I have given out and will give out use terms like hot, very hot, etc and not always degrees, I thought that it would be good to give a reference guide to these terms. This guide comes from "Aunt Sammy's Radio's Recipes Revised" and was published in 1931. Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes, as the name denotes, was a popular radio recipe show in the 1920s.

Oven Temperature Guide:
Very Hot- 450 to 500 degrees F
Hot- 400 to 450 degrees F
Moderately hot-375 to 400 degrees F
Moderate-325 to 375 degrees F
Very moderate- 300 to 325 degrees F
Slow- 250 to 300 degrees F
Very Slow- 225 to 250 degrees F

I hope that this helps!

Horseradish Sauce

I've never been a big fan of horseradish, for the most part I find it a bit too spicy for my personal preference but I do know a lot of people who do like it. I've never had homemade horseradish though! Here is a recipe courtesy of Aunt Sammy.

Horseradish Sauce:

Ingredients-
1/2 cup thick sweet or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3 or 4 tablespoons fresh grated horseradish

Directions-
Whip up the cream with the salt and sugar. Gradually add in the horseradish. Best with fish or other meat.

Burnt Almond Ice Cream

This recipe comes from the "Grunow Refrigeration Recipe Book" by Dorothy Ayers Loudon, which I believe to have been published sometime in the 1930's. It is a very simple recipe. In fact, you don't need anything special besides the ingredients for this one other than a freezer! Which you would have if you had purchased a Grunow Electric Refrigerator.

Burnt Almond Ice Cream:
Ingredients-
1 quart thin cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 pound browned and sugared almonds
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions- Mix well and freeze.

Now, when you have two steps of directions like that, I am not sure that it can get easier. Anyway, I wasn't quite sure what 'thin cream' was, so I looked it up and from what I found out at the World Wide Words website, it is another term for 'light cream' or 'single cream'.

Good luck and let me know how it turns out!

Grunow Refrigeration Recipe Book

Another of the more recent cookbooks that my grandmother sent me is the "Grunow Refrigeration Recipe Book" by Dorothy Ayers Loudon. Now, I had never heard of Grunow before this, but as far as I can tell, Grunow started out as the Grigsby-Grunow Co. and they first manufactured radios. However, due to the economic trouble in the late twenties, they switched to refrigerator production. If you would like to read about them, please look at this Time magazine article that I found that was written in 1930, it really is interesting.

Dating the cookbook is proving to be an interesting matter, since the cookbook has no date that I can find (although it is rapidly falling apart. The front cover is completely off, but luckily I have it, and the back cover is gone where only back covers go, so I have no idea if there was a date on it). My grandmother seems to think that she got the book in 1944, which she very well might have, however, since I don't believe the Grisgby-Grunow company lasted much longer than the mid-1930s, I am doubtful that they would have continued to produce a recipe book for a defunct refrigerator. However, I did find another refrigerator cookbook for the Grunow refrigerator by the same authoress dated 1931, you can view it here, I wonder if this was an updated version. The book does have some very interesting recipes which I will be sharing with you, but if any of you know anymore than what I was able to find about Grunow please comment!

Baked Prune Whip

One of the more recent old cookbooks that my grandmother sent me really isn't a cookbook at all. It is a December 1942 edition of "Better Cooking and Homemaking". According the inside front cover, it was published by monthly by The Institute of Better Cooking in New York, New York. Unfortunately, a google search for "Better Cooking and Homemaking" didn't turn up much, so I really don't know much about the publication at all. I can say though, that it is quite an interesting read and one of the recipes in it that caught my eye was for "Baked Prune Whip". Now, I really don't think that prunes are all that popular, but here it is for anyone who enjoys prunes!

Baked Prune Whip-
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
1 cup of coarsely chopped cooked prunes
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
3 egg whites
few grains of salt
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts

Add lemon juice and cinnamon to prunes. Add salt to egg whites and beat stiff; gradually add sugar; beat very stiff. Fold in prunes and walnuts, pour into buttered casserole dish, and bake in a slow oven (325 degrees) for about half hour or until firm. Serve cold or warm with soft custard sauce.

Tutti-Frutti Sauce

When I think of Tutti-Frutti, I think of the bumble gum and some sort of pink flavor. Don't ask me how a flavor can be a color, but that is truly what the words tutti and frutti make me think of, so imagine my surprise when I found a recipe for Tutti-Frutti sauce! This recipe also comes from Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised. Apparently, according to the book, it would be great over vanilla ice-cream, frozen custard or blanc mange.

Tutti-Frutti Sauce-
Ingredients:
4 slices canned pineapple
1 pint pineapple juice and water
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1 cup candied cherries cut in quarters
1/2 cup finely cut citron

Directions:
Strain the juice from the pineapples, add enough water to make a pint, combine with sugar and salt, and cook for about 10 minutes or until the syrup is pretty thick. Break the almonds in half, cut the sliced pineapple into thin pieces add along with cherries and citron to the syrup. Boil mixture for a few minutes and chill before serving.

Corn Bread

One of the first old recipe books that my grandmother gave me was "Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised". It was printed by Bureau of Home Economics under the US Department of Agriculture in 1931. The inside leaflet notes that the price was 15 cents. (My grandmother didn't buy it, it was given to families in her neighborhood from the congressman who I believe was up for re-election) Now of course you couldn't get a cookbook for that! It has lots of old time recipes in it that were once shared on Aunt Sammy's Radio show, which I think aired weekly.

Here is the recipe for Cornbread from the book on page 81-

Corn Bread
Ingredients-
2 cups corn meal
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups sour milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons melted fat

Sift the dry ingredients together and add milk. Add the well-beaten eggs and the fat. Pour into a very hot well-buttered pan. Bake from 40 to 50 minutes in a hot oven. (400 to 425 degrees Fahrenheit)

Of course, people don't tend to use actual fat or sour milk in their cooking. If you are looking for substitutes then I suggest that you use butter, margarine, oil, or shortening in lieu of the fat and something like milk, buttermilk, or water for the sour milk.

Welcome!

Welcome to Vintage Cookery! This is our official first post, and as such, we’d like to explain a little bit about what we want this blog to be all about. Firstly, we are different from other cooking and recipe blogs because we are focusing solely on vintage cooking—mainly the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. As well, as the history of cooking from those times and food facts that may change the manner in which you do your cooking! Hope you enjoy the read and have fun cooking!