Candied Fruit

"Candied Fruit - Any fruit or peel which has been first preserved in syrup may be candied.
Take the fruit out of the syrup and let it drain on sieves; then dip the sieve with the fruit into lukewarm water, to wash off the syrup from the surface; take it out, let it drain, and dry it in the stove. Boil some fresh syrup to the blow; put in the fruit and give it a boil in it. The fruit when it is put in will reduce the sugar, it must therefore be boiled to the same degree again. With a spoon or spatula rub the sugar against the side of the pan, to grain it; when it begins to whiten put the fruit in the white part separately: with two forks take it out and lay it on sieves or wire frames, for the sugar to drain from it."    From The Complete Confectioner, Pastry-cook, and Baker: Plain and Practical  1864

Pies

"Sweet Potato Pie - Take two pounds and a half of sweet potatoes, mashed fine, half a pound of sugar, two oz of butter, six eggs, two tumblers of sweet milk, a little cinnamon. Make a nice crust in a deep dish and pour it in. Bake moderately."

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"Pumpkin Pies - One quart stewed and sifted pumpkin, two quarts milk and a pint of cream, half a teaspoonful of ginger, two teaspoonsful of cinnamon, one nutmeg, a tea spoonful of essence of lemon, four eggs and sugar till sweet."

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 I used the crust or paste recipe from this post for Apple or Junk Pie

 

Luncheon

"Fried Turn Overs - Have ready a kettle of boiling lard. having made a pie crust not very rich, cut it in squares, roll them out even and put in a table spoonful of dried apple sauce, make it very fine and sweet, add a little nutmeg or allspice if you prefer it. Eat them when just cold, with a little sweet cream. They must have the edges pinched very tight so as not to let a particle of apple escape in the lard. They are delicious if rightly made."    From The Practical Housekeeper 1855

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"Sausages Cold - Take fried sausages, cut them into picea three inches long, roll them up in nice pastry and bake them. They are nice for supper or luncheon."  From The Practical Housekeeper 1855

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"no 3 Mince Pie (temperance) - Boil until very tender, three pounds of beef's heart; then chop it as fine as possible and add half a pound of beef suet, cleansed from its skin and filaments, and finely minced; mix all these well together, and add one pound of brown sugar, two pounds of Zante currants, two pounds of raisins, stoned and cut in halves, the grated rind of one orange, the grated rind and the juice of three lemons, one fable spoonful of powdered cinnamon, one of ginger, one of cloves, one of mace, two of salt, and one quart of the best West India molasses; stir all well together; the mixture should be very moist, but not thin.

If you wish to use this mince immediately, add two pounds of finely minced apple, and half a pound of citron cut in slices, to every pound and a half of meat; the apples should be very acid."   From Practical Cook Book 1850

Boiled Custard

From Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-day Cookery
"CUSTARDS, Boiled Ingredients - 1 pint of milk, 5 eggs, 3 oz of loaf sugar, 3 laurel leaves or the rind of fresh lemon, or a few drops of essence of vanilla, 1 tablespoonful of brandy.
Mode - Put the milk into a lined saucepan with the sugar and whichever of the above flavourings may be preferred, the lemon rind flavours custards most deliciously, and let the milk steep by the side of the fire until it is well flavoured. Bring it to the point of boiling then strain it into a basin, whisk the eggs well and when the milk has cooled a little, stir in the eggs and strain this mixture into a jug. Place this jug in a saucepan of boiling water over the fire keep stirring the custard one way until it thickens, but on no account allow it to reach the boiling point, as it will instantly curdle and be full of lumps. Take it off the fire, stir in the brandy and when this is well mixed with the custard, pour it into glasses which should be rather more than three parts full, grate a little nutmeg over the top and the dish is ready for table To make custards look and eat better, ducks eggs should be used when obtainable, they add very much to the flavour and richness and so many are not required as of the ordinary eggs, 4 ducks eggs to the pint of milk making a delicious custard. When desired extremely rich and good cream should be substituted for the milk and double the quantity of eggs used to those mentioned, omitting the whites.
Time - A hour to infuse the lemon rind about l8 minutes to stir the custard. Average cost fid Sufficient to fill 8 custard glasses Seasonable at any time."

I used a double boiler instead of a jug. I used vanilla and omitted the brandy. The image from the book reminded me of my punch glasses, so I used them.

I put the (2 cups) milk in a saucepan with the sugar and vanilla and brought it to a boil. Once the sugar dissolved, I let it cool while I mixed the eggs. I used 8 egg yolks and 3 strained whites instead of 5 eggs because I'm not very good at keeping the whites from cooking, and making the custard chunky. I mixed a little of the milk in with the beaten eggs and then added it to the pot. I heated and stirred it in a double boiler until it became firm. It filled 7 small glasses, topped with nutmeg. Ours were served chilled since I made them ahead of time.

We liked these very much!

My custards served in punch cups

Apple or Junk Pie

Since it's apple season, I figured that we could all use a simple recipe calling for them. This is a recipe very similar to the modern one that I use.

Paste or Crust Translation: Cut 2 sticks of softened butter into 4 cups of flour. Add a teaspoon of salt and about 1 cup of water, a little at a time. Mix well and allow to rest for a few minutes, then roll out on floured surface. This makes 2 pie crusts with tops.

Apple Filling Translation: Cut, core, peel and slice 5-7 apples. Line a pie tin with your crust and heap it full of prepared apples. Sprinkle on a bit of salt, drizzle with 2 teaspoons of molasses and shake over with cinnamon. I used a good bit of cinnamon.

To Finish: Wet the edges of the bottom crust and add the top crust. Pinch and trim the edges. Make a slit in the top to allow the steam to escape. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Peaches

PEACH SALAD.

Peel four or five ripe, juicy peaches, and slice them neatly, and have each slice as much alike as possible in shape and thickness; lay them in a glass dish, and cover them with loaf-sugar, pour over them a spoonful of brandy or wine; turn them off the top to the bottom, so they may all be seasoned alike.
The most of fruits may be prepared in the same way; but never mix fruits.

TO PRESERVE PEACHES WHOLE.

Take the cling-stone peaches before entirely ripe, wash them and put them in a jar; put a tablespoonful of pearlash to some soft water, and pour it over them boiling hot; cover them, and let them stand all night, then put them into cold water, wash and wipe them well; and to every pound of peaches, have a pound of loaf-sugar. Make a syrup of the sugar, and put the peaches in it while hot; simmer them slowly till they are done, take the peaches out, and boil the syrup down till it is quite thick. Put the peaches in jars, pour the syrup over them, and when cold cover them with paper dipped in brandy.

TO PRESERVE PEACHES.

Select good plum-peaches, pare, and cut them from the stone. Take equal weights of fruit and crushed sugar, lay them in an earthen vessel, and let them remain all night. In the morning, drain the fruit from the syrup, place it in dishes, and set it in the sun. Put the syrup into a preserving pan, and boil it three hours, skimming it well; then put the fruit into jars, and pour syrup over every two or three layers of fruit until the jar is filled; observe that the fruit must be entirely covered with syrup. Cover them tightly with brandied paper, and set them in a dry place.

BRANDY PEACHES.

Take the best cling-stone peaches, wash and wipe them, to get the furze off, prick them with a needle, and scald till you can pierce the skin with a straw. Make a syrup with loaf-sugar, taking three-quarters of a pound of sugar to every pound of peaches. Let the syrup boil till it is quite thick, then let it cool, and when it is milk-warm, put an equal quantity of good brandy with it, and pour it over the fruit.

PEACH PIE.

Slice some nice, ripe peaches, very thinly, put them in a dish, and sprinkle them with sugar; let them stand an hour; have ready some rich puff-paste, line your plates neatly, and fill them full; add some more sugar, and bake them in half an hour.

PUFF-PASTE.

To a pound and a quarter of sifted flour, rub gently in with the hand, half a pound of fresh butter; mix it up with half a pound of fresh butter; mix it up with half a pint of spring-water. Knead it well, and set it by for a quarter of an hour; then roll it out thin, lay on it, in small pieces, three-quarters of a pound more of butter, throw on it a little flour, double it up in folds, and roll it out thin three times, and set it by an hour in a cold place.

PEACH-WATER ICE.

Take one pound of the pulp of ripe peaches, half a pint of syrup, half a pint of water, the juice of two lemons, and mix them well. If the fruit is not ripe enough to pulp, open them and take out the stones, put them in a stewpan with the syrup and water, boil until tender, and pass them through a sieve; mix in the pounded kernels; when cold, freeze.

From The Great Western Cookbook 1857

CHOCOLATE MILK

"CHOCOLATE MILK. Prep. Dissolve 1 oz. of chocolate in 1 pint of new milk"

"CHOCOLATE POWDER. Cake chocolate scraped or ground. Usually sold in tin canisters."

From A Cyclopaedia of Six Thousand Practical Receipts 1851


"French Chocolate comes mixed with sugar and highly flavored, in tin canisters. This can be prepared on the table. Put a tea-spoon and a half of the chocolate powder into a cup, which fill up by degrees with boiling milk, stirring until dissolved."

 From The American Matron 1851

Rice Custard

This was listed as a desert in Peterson's Magazine, January 1863

Rice Custard - Sweeten a pint of milk with loaf sugar, boil it with a stick of cinnamon, stir in sifted ground rice till quite thick. Take it off the fire; add the whites of 3 eggs well beaten; stir it again over the fire for 2 or 3 minutes, then put it into cups that have lain in cold water; do not wipe them. When cold, turn them out, and put them into the dish in which they are to be served; pour round them a custard made of the yolks of the eggs and a little more than a half-pint of milk. Put on the top a little red currant jelly or raspberry jam. A pretty supper dish.

Research/questions for this project:

1) What is "loaf-sugar"?
According to Lessons on Common Thing, published in 1857, the qualities of loaf-sugar are: "it is soluble, or dissolvable in water. fusible, or may be melted by heat. brittle. hard. sweet. white. solid. opaque." and is used "To sweeten our food".
Here is a wonderful resource on sugar Essay On Sugar and Treatise on Sugar Refining, 1864

2) Was there white rice or rice flour?
Searching on Google Books from 1860-1865 there are many references to white rice as well as red rice and rice flour.

3) Needed recipe for Raspberry Jam - From The Royal English and Foreign Confectioner, 1862
Raspberry Jam without seeds
Ingredients: 12lbs of raspberries, 12lbs of sugar, 2 lbs of red currants.
Time: twenty minutes
Bruise the currants in the preserving pan, with a pint of water, then add the picked raspberries; stir the whole on the fire for a few minutes, and then rub the pulp through a cane sieve into a large pan. Boil the sugar with just water enough to dissolve it, to the pear, add the pulp, boil sharply for twenty minutes, stirring the jam the whole time, and as soon as it drapes on the edge of the spoon, pour it into the pots.

Raspberry Jam with seeds.
Ingredients: 12lbs raspberries, 12lbs of sugar.
Time: twenty minutes
Boil the sugar to the ball degree, add the fruit, stir over a brisk fire for twenty minutes, when the jam will be ready to pour into the pots; finish in the usual manner.

4) Need recipe for "a custard made of the yolks of the (3) eggs and a little more than a half-pint of milk" -  Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-Day Cooking 1865
Custard Sauce, for Sweet Puddings or Tarts
Ingredients - 1/2 pint of milk, 2 eggs, 3 oz. of pounded sugar, I tablespoonful of brandy.
Mode - Put the milk in a very clean saucepan, and let it boil. Beat the eggs, stir to them the milk and pounded sugar, and put the mixture into a jug. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water; keep stirring well until it thickens, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle. Serve the sauce in a tureen, stir in the brandy, and grate a little nutmeg over the top. This sauce may be made very much nicer by using cream instead of milk; but the above recipe will be found quite good enough for ordinary purposes.

Conclusion: The custard is quite good and creamy. Most people will probably want to add more sugar but it was sweet enough for my household. It was relatively quick to make, with the exception of beating the eggs by hand. According to the last statement in the recipe, "A pretty supper dish", this would be served at the evening meal.

Modern translation: Chill custard cups in the refrigerator. Beat the whites of 3 eggs until stiff peaks form. In a double boiler, heat 2 cups of milk with 1/4 cup sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add a cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Remove the cinnamon and stir in sifted rice flour until it becomes thick. Take this off your heat and fold in the egg whites. Return to the stove and heat, stirring for 2 or 3 minutes. Spoon the custard into the chilled cups and set aside to cool. When completely cool, turn out onto serving dishes and top with currant jelly or raspberry jam.