Historical Winter Recipes

I love to bake…I even enjoy cooking dinners most nights of the week! 😉

However, when it comes to reenacting, I have had very limited experience, as I tend to focus and highlight sewing and fashion. Over the summer, however, I was able to connect with the Foodways Historian at my local museum and just watch her in action. While there is most definitely a method and way to cook over fire, it is also surprisingly simple. Precaution must be taken when cooking near an open flame and when touching and handling the tools, but anyone who has a little knowledge of baking and cooking will see the similarities of modern and historical food preparation.

Today I have collected a few recipes perfect for cold, chilly days and the holiday season. While these are unlike recipes we see today, I;m sure those of your who like a challenge and figuring out puzzles, will enjoy these 19th century recipes!

Scotch Short Cake Recipe: Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie’s Lady’s New Receipt book 3rd ed.

Philadelphia: A Hart. Late Carey &Hart. 1850

Apple Snowballs Recipe:

Isabella Breton. The Book of Household Management. London: S.O. Benton, 1861

Gingerbread Cakes Recipe: The London and Country Cook: or, Accomplished Housewife by Charles Carter (1749)

Simple Bread

Simple Bread Recipe: Sarah Josepha Hale, Mrs. Hale’s New Cook Book. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson

The one good thing about the internet is the vast amount of FREE resources there are – especially for historians! Here are a few cookbooks from the 19th century that have been scanned an uploaded by Google Books.

Six Hundred Receipts By John Marquart

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Mrs. Glasse

The Frugal Housewife by Susanna Carter

The Good Housekeeper by Mrs. S.J. Hale

MODERN BOOKS ON HISTORICAL COOKING

There are also several wonderful books on historical cooking for those wanting a more detailed and modern explanation on cooking with fire. These two are wonderful and I have found them not only helpful, but an enjoyable read!