by Shannon Butler
Do you enjoy cooking and baking? Are you getting ready to make some old favorites for Thanksgiving? Or are you looking to try something new this year? Many of us are rethinking the way we celebrate this old holiday in a new way because, well… 2020 (need we say more?). Here in the Local History room, we decided to dig into some of our collections of cookbooks and menus to see if we could find some inspiration. The cookbooks that we have stretch back to the early 19th century and some of the recipes sound quite familiar, while others have fallen out of fashion.
Typical items on a Thanksgiving menu included turkey or ham, potatoes, green beans, rolls, and pies. The first menu on the right from the book Recipes of Yesteryear, compiled by the Antique Study Club of Poughkeepsie, shows a pretty standard Thanksgiving in the early 20th century. Flipping through a cookbook from 1913 published by the Ladies Aid Society of the First Baptist Church of Poughkeepsie, we find how to properly roast a turkey and a recipe for Oyster Dressing (see right).
Interested in trying something new (but actually old?). In our collection is the old recipe book of Estelle Livingston dating back to the 1840s. In it, she includes several puddings, which was a desirable dish when the weather got cold and choices of meats were limited. Foods like bread pudding and this recipe for Snowdon Pudding were very filling and excellent when served warm. Calling for bread crumbs, suet, sugar, orange marmalade, eggs, lemons, and raisins, the instructions say to:
“Mixed well together. Have your mould buttered and garnished with raisins, put the mixture carefully in so as not to disturb the garnishing. Tic a cloth over it, and boil for one hour and a half. Serve up very hot with a marmalade sauce. Chester Eng.”
The next image shows us a page from a cookbook from 1897 produced by the W.T.B. Club. This page is supposed to focus on recipes for dressings, but one of the clever companies that purchased an advertisement within the cookbook designed their advert to blend in with the recipes (can you see it?). What are you planning for dessert? You could go for a pie, or you could try Nellie Johannessen’s Chocolate Cake, which was served frequently at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-Kill (see image with recipe on right).
Did reading this make you hungry? Because reading through these old cookbooks certainly makes one hungry! But here is my favorite recipe from the Women’s Guild of Christ Church in 1913:
“Recipe for Good Humor – Take twenty four hours; mix thoroughly with the milk of human kindness; add spice of life to suit taste; a little discretion, some common sense; knead with the hand of friendship and bake in the open hearth of love; do not allow it to cool too quickly by trouble or become sour by affliction; serve with generous sauce and a bright smile.”
Have a lovely and safe Thanksgiving!
Images and Sources:
01 – Menu from Antique Study Club – no date
02 – Recipe from Queen Progress Cookbook – 1913
03 – Cover Page for Estelle Livingston (Depeyster) cookbook – 1841
04 – Inside Estelle Livingston’s cookbook – 1841
05 – The WTB Cookbook – Aug 1897
06 – The Val-Kill Cookbook – 1984
