Sometimes I like to look at cookbooks from the World War I era just to envision a period in modern American history that could compare to the past year for collective misery. About 675,000 Americans died from the influenza pandemic of 1918. Because the crowded conditions of military life fostered the spread of influenza, more …
Special to The Ellsworth American Every November I try at least one new type of pie. This year I attempted mock cherry pie — a dessert that was popular at the end of the 1800s but disappeared in the early 1900s. I believe the pie lost favor when canned sour cherries became available year-round. Because …
I have been thinking about all the parents who are providing some kind of home schooling for their children. Making oatmeal breadsticks is a project that young children can do and a change of pace for breakfast or lunch. It also can be a lesson in chemistry and physics. The baking powder in this …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American Homemade noodles are quick and easy. They have a fresh, eggy taste that cannot be matched by dry pasta. They will elevate beef, chicken or turkey broth into a satisfying soup that looks more complicated than it is. I found a good recipe for noodles in a …
My recipe for farmer’s fruitcake comes from an 1889 cookbook put out by the women of the Ashland Grange No. 124 in Massachusetts. Oliver H. Kelley founded the National Grange of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry after the Civil War in 1867. He had been sent by the Department of Agriculture to assess …
Potatoes have a long tradition in baking. In the 1833 edition of her popular cookbook “The American Frugal Housewife,” Lydia Maria Child suggested using mashed potatoes to stretch the more expensive wheat flour in making desserts: ”Potatoes boiled and mashed while hot are good to use in making short cakes and puddings; they save flour, …
In coastal New England, shell heaps show where native people found estuaries rich in oysters. The bivalve mollusks were popular with the early colonists as well. Thanks to expansion of the railroads in the 1840s, pickled oysters could easily be shipped inland and by mid-century had become a widespread food fad. New Englanders ate oysters …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American Reformers in 19th-century New England tried to improve the lives of women through legislation: to obtain voting rights for women, to liberalize divorce and custody laws, to guarantee women control of their own property, and to improve the conditions of factory work. Early feminist Melusina Fay Peirce …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American The anonymous woman from Salem, Mass., who wrote “The American Matron, or Practical and Scientific Cookery,” addressed young housekeepers in her preface. Writing in 1851, she sought not just to ennoble the mission of housekeepers and cooks but also to caution the reader about the seriousness of …
One of the essential survival skills that the Pilgrims learned from Native Americans was how to fish by hand for the cod that abounded in New England waters. Cod was admirably suited for preserving by drying or salting. Preserved cod had been an important part of the European diet for hundreds of years. I learned …
If we were rational in our food preferences, we would all be subsisting on beans, seaweed and preparations of cricket flour. But we are not entirely rational creatures. Habit, associations and cultural context are as important as flavor and aroma in determining our food choices. New England settlers brought their English food prejudices with them. …
Nineteenth-century New England women managed their kitchens frugally, which meant that they had to be clever in the use of leftovers. Lacking refrigeration, they had to recycle cooked foods promptly. Sometimes that meant cooking more than they knew they needed in order to have enough ingredients for tomorrow’s dinner. Leftover baked beans became bean soup, …
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