What Did People Cook in 1889?

Published on Monday, April 18, 2011, by Chris Rochelle / Edit Post

Chris Rochelle, our staff photographer, hot sauce lover, and vintage cookbook aficionado, bought this handwritten book at a local flea market. It is marked as written by Lydia Cassady in 1889.

It brings up more questions than it answers. For example: What is saleratus? Why does Etta's fruit cake get marked as "good" while other recipes don't? How is one supposed to cook the jumblee? But the thing is pretty cool to page through, so Chris took some photos of the pages.

Some of the recipes as written:

Ginger Snaps
One cup sugar, one cup molasses, one cup butter, one-half cup warm water, two tablespoonfuls ginger, one tablespoonful (even) saleratus; roll thin, bake quick

Etta’s Fruit Cake (Good)
1 cup butter, 1 cup of coffee, milk, or brandy, 1 cup black sugar, 1 cup molasses, 3 eggs, 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon soda, spices, nutmeg. 1 ½ lb. raisins, ½ lb. currants, ¼ lb citron, pinch of salt.

Jumblee
One cup sugar, a scant cup of butter, two eggs, one tablespoonful (even) soda, dissolved in a good tablespoonful of milk, nearly 3 cups flour. Spice or flavor to taste.

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POST A COMMENT |9 Comments

COMMENT

  • Saleratus = "Sodium or potassium bicarbonate" ...so, baking soda, basically.

  • Hey Graydoncarter,
    There is a laundry reciept inside the cookbook from 1897 belonging to a Simpson. the business is Goshen Hand Laundry, Goshen NY

    hope this helps.
    Chris of Chow

  • It would help to know where this book was found. Dishes vary by region and nationality. Lydia Cassady sounds Irish but that might be her married name. Was her grandmother a Schulz, Aandersen, van Valkenburg, Washington, or Cohen?

  • Jeri's hit it. The OED suggests that the word is derived from an older form, "jumball". "A kind of fine sweet cake or biscuit, formerly often made up in the form of rings or rolls: now in U.S. 'a thin crisp cake, composed of flour, sugar, butter and eggs, flavored with lemon peel or sweet almonds.'

    The ring shape, BTW, may be a little bit naughty. The OED's exemplar quotes suggest that these...+READ

    Jeri's hit it. The OED suggests that the word is derived from an older form, "jumball". "A kind of fine sweet cake or biscuit, formerly often made up in the form of rings or rolls: now in U.S. 'a thin crisp cake, composed of flour, sugar, butter and eggs, flavored with lemon peel or sweet almonds.'

    The ring shape, BTW, may be a little bit naughty. The OED's exemplar quotes suggest that these cookies were sometimes actually worn like rings. They may have been a "fairing", the kind of thing a guy would buy for his sweetheart at a market or country fair; and the ring shape may have been symbolic of, well, something or other.-COLLAPSE

  • Salaratus or more properly, Sal Aeratus is potassium bicarbonate. You could substitute baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).

  • salaratus is baking soda, FYI

  • I expect that Jumblee is a variant of Jumbles. Either dropped or rolled and baked, though apparently early versions were rolled and boiled. A cookie/pastry.

  • I'd love to have that handwriting.

  • Saleratus is just baking soda, FYI.