Old Recipes

Baba, or Wine Cake

The recipe makes two loaves. Weigh out one pound of flour and ten ounces of butter. Soften a yeast cake in one-fourth a cup of scalded-and-cooled milk. Then mix in flour from the pound taken to make a little ball of dough that may be kneaded. Knead this until very smooth and elastic. Then drop it into a small saucepan of lukewarm water. At once put the rest of the flour into a mixing-bowl. Add the butter, softened by the heat of the room (but not melted), half a teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of sugar, and three eggs (unbeaten). Work the whole together with the hand, beating towards the eggs, beating the mixture very smooth between the addition of each of the eggs. By this time the little ball of yeast and flour will be very light. Lift it with a skimmer (take not water with it) to the butter and egg mixture, and beat the two together, thoroughly, in the same manner as before. Beat in also a cup of fruit, sultana raisins, citron, cherries, or a mixture of these. Turn into two buttered, Turk’s head moulds, half filling the moulds. When light, bake about half an hour. Have ready for one loaf a hot sauce. Pour this over a loaf of the cake as soon as it comes from the oven. Baste the cake with the syrup until the whole has been absorbed. Set onto a serving-dish. Spread the top of the cake with currant jelly or apricot marmalade. Sprinkle this with chopped pistachio nuts, and finish with whipped cream (unsweetened), and, if desired, preserved peaches or pine-apple. 

Rum Sauce for One Loaf of Baba

Boil two cups of granulated sugar and one cup of water about six minutes, or to make a syrup of good consistency. Add half a cup of rum, and use at once. This is the sauce used on the continent of Europe with this celebrated cake, but a rich (sweet) fruit syrup of any description may replace the rum sauce. 

Beat the whites of eight eggs until dry. Add a scant half-teaspoonful of cream of tartar, and very gradually beat in one pound of fine granulated sugar, then gently fold in one pound of blanched almonds, shredded very fine. Have ready boards an inch thick, covered with waxed paper, as formerly shown in these pages for meringues. Place the preparation on the paper in balls about an inch in diameter, and bake in a very slack oven. Then color a delicate straw shade. They should remain in the oven at least three-fourths of an hour before they take on any color. 

(Adelaide Keen)

Gather the petals of fresh red roses, being sure that they are free from insects. add an equal quantity of sugar and water, enough to dissolve the sugar, and set the whole in the sun under glass until the sugar is well melted. Then cook for twenty minutes, stirring well. Pour into jars, and cork tight. The Grecian custom is to serve this jam with coffee to guests who call in the afternoon.

Query 1184. --Mrs. D. A. G., Jamesville, N. Y.: “Recipes for preserve called golden chips, apple ginger, and mint jelly that will keep indefinitely.”

Golden Chips (Orange)

Cut the oranges in quarters, and carefully press the quarters on a sieve or grater, to remove all the juice and edible pulp. Put the peel to soak in salted water (a tablespoonful to a quart) over night. The next day drain and boil in fresh water until tender. Again drain the peel, then cut into slices, and add to the juice. Take sugar equal in weight to that of the juice and peel. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until the syrup candies on the peel. Then set the peel aside in a cool place to dry. 

Golden Chips (Pumpkin)

Cut a small, sweet pumpkin in halves, and the halves into narrow strips. Remove peel and seeds, then cut the strips into thin slices, not more than half an inch thick. Weigh the prepared pumpkin, and take an equal weight of sugar, also half a cup of lemon juice, to each two pounds of sugar. Put the pumpkin and sugar into a preserving kettle in alternate layers. Pour the lemon juice over the whole, cover, and let stand twenty-four hours. Have ready the lemon peel, neatly shredded, and an ounce of ginger root for each pound of fruit. Add these to the kettle with a cup of water for each three pounds of sugar. Cook until the pumpkin is tender, then pour into an earthen jar. In a few days pour the syrup from the pumpkin. Boil to reduce and thicken it, and pour, hot, over the pumpkin. 

Gingered Apples

For five pounds of prepared apple allow five pounds of granulated sugar, five ounces of ginger root, three lemons, and a pint of water. Bruise the ginger root, and put it over the fire with the water. Let it simmer some hours, adding water, when needed, to get a strong decoction of ginger. Wipe the lemons carefully, then grate off the thin yellow rind, and extract the juice. Add these to the pint of ginger water. Remove the pieces of ginger from the water, or tie them in a muslin cloth, and let them remain till the confection is finished. Add the sugar and the apple. Select tart apples, pare and core, then chop them rather coarse. Boil the whole until the bits of apple look clear. The store in jar. 

Mint Jelly (Mint-Apple)

Greenings are a good variety of apple for this purpose. Wipe the apples, and remove defective places, but do not core them. Cut in halves or quarters. Put over the fire with water barely to the top of the apple. Let cook until the fruit is tender throughout. About twenty minutes before the cooking is completed, have ready, for two pounds of apple, the leaves from two bunches of mint, washed, dried, and chopped fine. Stir these into the apple. Finish cooking at a gentle simmer, then drain through a jelly bag. Allow three-fourth a cup of sugar to each cup of juice. Put the juice over the fire to boil and the sugar in the oven to heat. When the juice has boiled ten minutes, add the juice of one lemon and green color (liquid) to get the required shade, also the sugar. Let the whole boil till a little jellies on a cold plate (probably less than five minutes), then strain into hot glasses. For a stronger flavor of mint, use more of the green mint. Two pounds of apples should yield a pint of juice by draining and another pint by pressure. 

Crystallised Orange Peel.

Put the peel in cold water and set it away for at least nine days. Then scald it up in the water in which it has been soaking. It must be kept while it is soaking in a cold place, but not where it will freeze. When it has been thoroughly soaked, boil it till it is tender, drain it out of this water, dry it with cloths and cut it into long strips of uniform size. Make a thick sirup, in the proportion of a pint of sugar to a pint of water. When this sirup has boiled ten minutes put the peel in it and let it boil down slowly until it begins to shrivel and the sirup is reduced to a rather soft candy. This can be ascertained by testing the sirup. When it forms a soft, creamy ball between the fingers it has cooked enough. Drain the peel out, spread it on greased papers, taking care that the strips do not touch each other. When they are thoroughly dried make them into little sheaves, tying them around the center with a narrow ribbon of white satin or pale orange color. They look very petty piled on a low bonbon dish.

Stewed Kidneys.

Take a half dozen calf kidneys and cut up in pieces about half an inch square, being careful to cut out all the hard and tough bits inside the kidney. Put them in a closely covered saucepan with plenty of cold water and let them just boil up. Throw off that water and put in fresh and boil again. Change the water once more and then let them simmer on the back of the range for five or six hours. About an hour before serving add one onion chopped very finely, some parsley, a few little mushrooms, also chopped finely, and a liberal seasoning of salt and pepper; a dash of cayenne is an improvement to the taste of people who like highly-seasoned food. Just before they are served thicken with one teaspoonful of flour dissolved in cold water; let them boil up to cook the flour, and send to the table at once. If wanted for breakfast they can be cooked the day before, but the seasoning must not be added until an hour before they are eaten. 

Salted Almonds. 

To salt a cupful of shelled almonds, pour boiling water over them, and when they have rested a moment drain it off and rub the skin off each almond with the thumb and finger. Spread the almonds on a pan for about five minutes in the oven to dry. Put a tablespoonful of pure olive oil over them, toss them so that they are thoroughly coated, sprinkle a heading tablespoonful of salt over them and toss the almonds again in this. Let them then rest in a cup for an hour. At the end of this time spread them on a pan in a rather quick oven and let them remain for five or ten minutes, or until they are turned an even golden brown. Stir them occasionally while browning. They must be crisp and very delicately colored. Put them on the table at the beginning of the dinner, with the olives and pickles, and in any low ornamental dish.

Amber Rice Pudding.

Boil one-fourth of a pound of rice until tender in plenty of salted boiling water. Drain and press into a well-greased border mold while hot. Let it stand until perfectly cold. Drain a can of peaches from their liquor and press through a sieve, add one teaspoonful of lemon juice and one cupful of cream whipped to a stiff froth. Turn the rice out on a flat dish and pour over it a sirup made from one-fourth of a pound of sugar and one-half of a cupful of water, flavored with lemon juice. Put the peach mixture in the center of the rice border and serve with or without the garnish of candied fruits or nuts. --Table Talk.

Scup of Green Corn. 

Into a saucepan put half a pint of finely-cut cabbage, a gill of chopped celery, two sliced potatoes, a small chopped onion, and two small carrots sliced, and add two quarts of water. Let simmer for an hour, and then add a pint of sliced and peeled tomatoes, and boil all for a half hour longer, when put in a half pint of green corn pulp and let all boil up at once, season to taste, and serve either thick or strained. --Harriette A. Keyser.

Soft Corn Bread. 

One cupful of cornmeal, whites of two eggs, one tablespoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one cupful of boiled hominy or rice, and about two cupfuls of milk. Scald the meal with about one cupful of boiling water, then add the hominy, milk, etc., and take one tablespoonful of melted butter. Bake in a pudding dish. --Woman’s Edition of Albany Argus. 

One More Lemon Pie Recipe.

Editor of Good Housekeeping:

In your issue of April, “S. A. T.” inquires for a recipe for “Old-fashioned Lemon Pie”, sweetened with molasses. My mother’s (and grandmother’s) is as follows: One lemon, squeezed and chopped very fine, one egg, one-half cupful of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of molasses, one-half cupful of water, one-half cracker rolled a little soft. 

I trust that this may prove as satisfactory to “S. A. T.” as to myself.

--E. J. K., Worcester, Mass.

Another Lemon Pie Recipe.

Editor of Good Housekeeping:

In response to the request for a recipe for lemon pie I send this one, which I know to be extra nice. One lemon, one coffeecupful of sugar, yolks of two eggs, two tablespoonsful of flour, half a teacupful of milk. Grate the rind of the lemon, squeeze out the juice and chop the remainder fine, heat the yolks and sugar together, mix with the other ingredients and bake in a medium-sized pie plate. Beat the whites to a stiff froth with a tablespoonful of sugar, spread over the pie when done and brown slightly.

--Mrs. L. C. H., Red Cedar, Wis. 

“‘Tis hot July -- what do I see? Ripe cherries on my cherry tree.”

What to do with the cherries is hardly a problem, it is true; especially if one have a houseful of boys and girls only too eager to vie with the robins in seizing each coveted prize the moments one plump cheek turns read. Certainly no fruit is more attractive served au naturel, accompanied only by its glossy, deeply serrate leaves. It seems almost a pity to lose the natural beauty and delicate flavour of the cherry by cooking. At the same time, a little variety is often desirable; or perhaps one’s fruit is not quite ripe, or is otherwise best suited for use in made desserts. If this be the case, the following recipes will be found reliable, and only an ungrateful palate could fail to do them justice. 

Cherry Sponge. 

Beat four eggs very light; to the yolks add half a cupful of flour, wet with cold milk, a pinch of salt, one-half teaspoonful of baking powder and a pint of hot milk; lastly add the beaten whites. Have ready in a buttered pudding dish a half-pint of stoned cherries, sprinkled with sugar.  Pour the batter over them and bake in a hot oven about forty minutes .Serve as soon as done, or it will fall. 

Cherry Sauce. 

Cream one-third of a cupful of butter with one cupful of sugar; add one-half teacupful of cherry juice, and beat well. The juice can be strained from cherries which have been stoned and sugared an hour beforehand. Serve very cold. An excellent addition to almost any plain pudding. 

Cherry Meringue. 

Line a plate with puff paste, prick and bake in a quick oven. While still warm, spread thickly with fresh-stoned cherries. Make a meringue of the whites of four eggs, one-half cupful of sugar and one small cupful of cherries, stirred through last. Heap this on the plate, brown lightly and serve as soon as cool. 

Cherry Saracen.

Make some slices of very thin, crisp toast, and butter generously. Line the bottom and sides of a baking dish with these, and fill the dish with stoned cherries, packed closely, each layer well strewn with sugar. Bake half an hour and serve very cold, with a pitcher of thick, sweet cream. Rather tart fruit is best for this dessert, which, though so simple, will be found most refreshing on a warm day. 

Cherry Charlotte.

Cut in narrow strips a few slices of stale sponge cake, and arrange these around the sides of a deep glass dish. Stone a quart of fine, juicy cherries, and sprinkle lightly with sugar, unless very sweet. Pour these, juice and all, over the sponge cake. Now whip a pint of sweet cream very stiff; sweeten to taste, color about half of it with red cherry juice, and pile it upon the cherries. Let it remain in the icebox until the moment of serving. 

In these and many other ways this delicious native fruit may be made a welcome addition to our summer bills of fare. 

Tomato Tuna Stack-Ups

How to serve a salad and a sandwich all-in-one:

For the salad: combine 6 1/2 oz. (1 can) chunk-style tuna, well drained and chilled, with 1/3 c. chopped celery and 1/4 c. Miracle Sandwich Spread mixed with 1 tbsp. lemon juice. Only a moment is needed, because Kraft has combined the dressing and relishes for you in this handy spread. Season to taste.

For each sandwich: stack up: a round of whole wheat bread (3″ in diameter), spread with Miracle Sandwich Spread; a peeled tomato slice (seasoned); a round of white bread; a generous serving of tuna salad; a round of whole wheat bread. Top it off with a spring of watercress. Serve with pimiento garnished pickle fan and green onions.