LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - FEBRUARY 23, 2020 by Lynne Belluscio Recently someone posted on “LeRoy Then and Now” that they had discovered a copy of the “LeRoy Recipe Book 1889.” It’s a neat little book. We have several in the collection and I have promised to transfer one to the library, so they can have a copy. The recipe book was published by the Library Association (Not the Woodward Library) and printed by the LeRoy Times. At the bottom of each page is an ad for Ball’s Grocery store. Along the side of each page are ads for Gillett and McKenzie Hardware store and a full- page ad shows the Monroe kitchen stove and cooking school. The book that I have was owned by Jennie Modisett Mathews, who had attended Ingham University. Her portrait hangs above the mantle in the front parlor of LeRoy House. The recipes were submitted by ladies from LeRoy and arranged in various chapters: soups; fish; fish sauces; meats; cake; pies; small cakes and cookies; pudding; sauces; creams and custards; jellies; candies; drinks; extracts, pickles; yeast and breads. There is a miscellaneous chapter which includes how to remove stains from clothes, how to make soap and cure a cold. It’s important to remember that these recipes come from a time when there was no standard of measure. So, a recipe will read “a coffee cup full” or a “scant” cup or a “handful.” Many of the ingredients are measured in pounds. American recipes usually are in volume and English recipes are often in weight. (It would not be until 1896, that Fanny Farmer organized the Boston Cooking School and established the “level cup” and a standard of measure.) Other interesting historical quirks in the recipe book, is the evidence of old recipes that date back before there was baking powder. Leavening is a good way to trace these recipes. Early recipes will not have traditional leavening such as soda or baking powder. Instead the recipe might call for pearl ash or saleratus, which would react with sour milk, vinegar or lemon juice. Some women considered these powders “chemicals” and preferred to use beaten eggs or yeast - - even in cakes. When you read the recipes you will notice that there are no directions about how to mix the ingredients together. It was assumed that the cook knew that the butter and sugar would be creamed together and the baking powder would be mixed with the flour before being added to the liquid i ngr ed i en t s . And there is no mention of t empe r a t ur e and that is because the coal and wood fired stove did not have thermometers. S o m e t i m e s a recipe will call for a slack oven, or a quick oven. Some of the i n g r e d i e n t s might be hard to find today such as loaf sugar or New Orleans molasses. There are several pages of “puddings.” These are not the puddings that we know today. These puddings were made with raisins, currants, molasses, butter or lard, sometimes nuts, and then poured into a mold and then steamed for several hours. These are the notorious plumb puddings or Christmas puddings that were served with “hard sauce.” The 1889 cookbook has over a dozen pudding sauces. It is these heavy desserts that were mentioned in the early advertising for Jell-O. A light delicious dessert like Jell-O was much better for you than these heavy puddings. But in 1889 Jell-O hadn’t been introduced yet. That would come in 1897. The cookbook does include recipes for “jellies” – orwhat would become known as Jell-O. The recipes use Cox’s gelatin, an unflavored gelatin with no sugar or coloring. Ball’s Grocery ad at the bottom of the page mentions that they sold Cox’s Gelatin, Swainbourn’s Gelatin and French Sheet Gelatin. Today, those recipes can be made with Knox gelatin. But even with a box of prepared gelatin, it took a lot of preparation to make a jelly. The recipe for lemon jelly: “Soak a box of gelatin in water one half hour; then over this pour one and one- half pints hot water; add juice of four lemons, stick of cinnamon one inch long, two cups sugar, one egg shell. Boil well, then strain three or four times. The more it is strained the clearer the jelly.” The egg shell helped clarify the jelly. But if you were going to recreate this recipe, the first question would be, how big was the box of gelatin and how strong was the gelatin. It’s easy to see how Jell-O became so popular. All you had to do was add two cups of hot water to the box of Jell-O. No boiling or straining and you had a beautiful, clear jelly. And just in case you need a recipe for an “excellent liniment,” Mary Blodgett sent in her recipe: One gill turpentine, one gill hartshorn, one pint alcohol, two ounces of salt petre, three ounces oil of spike, one ounce camphor, two ounces origanum. (Good luck finding the ingredients.) LeRoy Recipe Book 1889