valscookbook
Assistant Cook
When I shared that recipe to some friends - one told me, their father use to take it when he had a hangover - said that was the only thing he eat during that time.
1800s Vintage Cooking
- Thread starter valscookbook
- Start date
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valscookbook
Assistant Cook
Did you know, they use to check whether or not they could eat eggs by putting a candle light behind it.
What were they looking for?
What were they looking for?
deelady
Executive Chef
They were looking to see if the embryo was developed yet or if it was still a yolk.....
valscookbook
Assistant Cook
Isn't that something. Today, I was told they place the eggs in refrigeration to stop the development of embryos.
It's called "candling" and they still do it today although in a little more modern way - they use electric lights, and in large scale operations they have computers to do the looking, accepting and rejecting (although they are still spot checked by humans).
Like deelady said - they were looking for signs of embryo development. Sometimes this was just a "blood spot" in the yolk - didn't mean they were not safe to eat, just not aesthetically pleasing to most people. It was also a way to identity fertile eggs that could be incubated to hatch new chicks. FWIW: unless the egg has been fertalized it will not grow an embryo - even at room temp.
I'm not sure when people started putting fresh eggs in the "ice box" to prolong their "shelf" life - but refrigeration (starting with the egg farm and in the grocery store) has been common for some years now.
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Constance
Master Chef
I've known several older people who used a teacup and the palm of their hand to measure. That's what they learned growing up, watching their mothers cook.
My first ex's Aunt Gert was one of them. She made what they call "cat's head" biscuits, because they were that big. They made great ham sandwiches. Her husband, who grew up on the bayou around Gonzales, La, found her picking cotton in southern Miss'ippi. She was 13, and he was in his early 20's. He bought her her first baby doll and her first pair of shoes.
She was a wonderful person, and a big woman. When my then husband, big tough football player that he thought he was, started getting mean with me in front of her one day, she grabbed him in a bear hug, picked him up off the floor and squeezed the devil out of him, all the while saying, "You quit bein' mean to that girl!"
And she wouldn't let him down till he promised!
The other was my second ex's Aunt Lily. She was was a tiny little woman who looked like a dried apple doll, and made an old fashioned cornbread with no flour and no eggs...did require buttermilk, which was why I learned to make my own.
She also made some fine chicken and dumplings, and always swore you needed a good, fat country hen to make them good.
Her cornbread tasted gritty to me, but I learned to make it for my ex and his family, and I also learned how to make the dumplings (rolled, like noodles, but not).
She also used a teacup, but I eyeballed the one she used, and made a pretty good stab at it. After watching her, I knew what it was supposed to look like, and I now think mine are actually better than hers.
My first ex's Aunt Gert was one of them. She made what they call "cat's head" biscuits, because they were that big. They made great ham sandwiches. Her husband, who grew up on the bayou around Gonzales, La, found her picking cotton in southern Miss'ippi. She was 13, and he was in his early 20's. He bought her her first baby doll and her first pair of shoes.
She was a wonderful person, and a big woman. When my then husband, big tough football player that he thought he was, started getting mean with me in front of her one day, she grabbed him in a bear hug, picked him up off the floor and squeezed the devil out of him, all the while saying, "You quit bein' mean to that girl!"
And she wouldn't let him down till he promised!
The other was my second ex's Aunt Lily. She was was a tiny little woman who looked like a dried apple doll, and made an old fashioned cornbread with no flour and no eggs...did require buttermilk, which was why I learned to make my own.
She also made some fine chicken and dumplings, and always swore you needed a good, fat country hen to make them good.
Her cornbread tasted gritty to me, but I learned to make it for my ex and his family, and I also learned how to make the dumplings (rolled, like noodles, but not).
She also used a teacup, but I eyeballed the one she used, and made a pretty good stab at it. After watching her, I knew what it was supposed to look like, and I now think mine are actually better than hers.
valscookbook
Assistant Cook
Wow, that's great. I love Chicken and Dumplings. My grandmother use to make that. It was always good.
BrazenAmateur
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2007
- Messages
- 193
I think period cooking is totally neat.
I'm particularly fascinated by Tudor-style cooking, i.e. right when they were first getting sugar and other things brought in by explorers that had previously not been available to the English.
Their roasting methods in particular fascinate me but are unbelievably time-intensive. Constant rotating, basting, heat management, et cetera.
I'd like to try my hand at some 19th and 18th century American recipes too. I've done the stone-ground slow grits from Anson Mills, which is very "period", and I've done things like hoecakes, but I know there are cookbooks out there with a lot more recipes of this vintage. It seems neat to me.
I'm particularly fascinated by Tudor-style cooking, i.e. right when they were first getting sugar and other things brought in by explorers that had previously not been available to the English.
Their roasting methods in particular fascinate me but are unbelievably time-intensive. Constant rotating, basting, heat management, et cetera.
I'd like to try my hand at some 19th and 18th century American recipes too. I've done the stone-ground slow grits from Anson Mills, which is very "period", and I've done things like hoecakes, but I know there are cookbooks out there with a lot more recipes of this vintage. It seems neat to me.
AuntieV
Cook
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2008
- Messages
- 96
When I am home I still use my Grandma's Jewel Tea Coffee cup in my flour. I learned to cook with that cup. When we were cleaning out her house I retrieved it, her cook book and my apron she made for me when I was 6. The cup has a hairline crack and no handle so I know it is the same one. 
quicksilver
Washing Up
I love the article titled How to Cook A Husband , at
that site. Thanks jpmc.
