Carrot Pie

Pies are found all over 19th century cook books and menus. This past Saturday we found ourselves making Carrot Pie from The Frugal Housewife, 1841. Lydia Child instructs that carrot pies are made the same as pumpkin or squash pie. 

Child's Receipt

 As the receipt reads, first peel your carrots. Put them on to boil until tender enough to mash smooth. Add eggs and milk together and stir into smooth mashed carrot. Spice as suggested. 

Peeling Carrots

Ovens heating. 

The pie crust was made very easily using flour, butter, and water. Rolled out and placed in the dish to be baked, I was quite happy with how well it turned out.  Pie crusts & I do not always get along well, as they have a tendency to tear.  Add your carrot mixture to the pie crust- it does not require a top. Then place in a quite warm oven. The pie baked for around a hour. 

Pie crust rolled & place in pan. 

Finished Pie! 

Proud of her pie! 

The pie turned out wonderful! It is always a task to get a nice crust to crisp enough and not burn, and we did a great job at getting it the perfect time!

A nice wedge of Carrot Pie. 

Fall Festival or The many ways to cook orange vegetables.

This past weekend we were gifted with great friendship, wonderful food, and perfect weather. The event that we host at Bentonville each fall is the one event that I get to have the most fun at while working. This year the menu was full of fall vegetables, just as it may have been in the 1860s. This years menu included: Corn Soup, carrot pie, sweet potato pone, carrots stewed in cream, roast chicken, and corn bread (most of these come from The Carolina Housewife). I do not think I have laughed so much while preparing a period meal in quite some time. The weather was perfect, a little cold in the morning but warming up to a nice fall day. 

The kitchen

What a full hearth! 

The fire master! 

The chicken was roasted on a string, due to the lack of reflector oven or spit. It was probably the most photographed item of the weekend. It turned out to be a beautiful chicken! The best way to string roast a chicken is to truss it nice & tight, rub with butter & salt ( I add some onion inside as well)- then extend the chicken beside the fire- then turn the chicken through the cooking process so that is spins to cook evenly. The technique acts as a modern rotisserie. Don't forget to baste! This chicken was about 5 pounds, and took around 4 hours to cook.

Turning chicken

Taking Carrot Pie out of the oven. 

After many hours in the kitchen, we were able to enjoy our feast! Here we are with the table full of all of our food!

Oatmeal

Oatmeal. Yes, that pantry staple the lurks in the back of cabinet with it's happy hat-wearing logo smiling back at you. I have been eating oatmeal for breakfast almost everyday lately- which has me thinking- what else can you do with oatmeal? There are cookies, muffins, & breads- but what about our 19th Century counterparts. There always seems to be a reference to oatmeal when a discussion is started about breakfast options while at events. So let's look at some of the items they would have made with the grain.

First we have a nice Pudding of oats- "serve with a good deal of butter poured over it"- yes, I think I could try that!

The Frugal Housewife, 1803

Next, a great soup option. Soups seem to be a the top of most lists when feeding a crowd- and this is a great cheap soup and would work great for a working class impression.

The Complete Confectioner...., 1864

There are countless recipes for Oatmeal Gruel in period cook books. Most of the time you will find such recipes in the sections for "Feeding the Sick".

Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches, 1844

So, there you have it. Oatmeal. Only a sampling of things to do with it, but it does answer the question as to what our ancestors did with the grain.

To Stew Beef

I always get excited when I get to cook on an open fire! It's something about the cool air, the crackle of the fire, the smell of cider! The fact that fall is my favorite season probably has a lot to do with it as well.  

This year for Bentonville's Fall Festival (yes, I have the best job) I will be cooking once again in our lovely kitchen. I have decided that a meal of "Stewed Beef" with some veggies is perhaps one of the most wholesome meals I could make & all of those veggies are so pretty sitting in baskets waiting to be cut up!

I have pulled a few different receipts from the books. I am sure that I will be following one of them this weekend! Stay tuned to see the finished meal! 

"Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches" Eliza Leslie, 1844

"The Frugal Housewife: or, Complete Woman Cook" Susannah Carter, 1796

"The Kentucky Housewife" Lettice Bryan, 1839

Cider Cake

The holiday season brings with it a slew of sweet cakes, cookies, and other goodies. In that festive way I decided to try a new cake. This recipe comes from The Frugal Housewife, 1833.  I have seen many other recipes for Cider Cake, but this was the book I had in my kitchen and didn't have to look up another recipe!

Modern measurements for this recipe are 6 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of apple cider and 1 tsp of baking soda.

Mixing all the ingredients in a bowl the batter seemed very stiff, almost like a bread, and less like a cake. I did add more cider as I went to moisten the batter and make it more manageable.  "Spice to your taste," well that can mean anything right? Well, almost. Looking at other recipes from the period, most of the Cider Cakes call for raisins, and of coarse some nutmeg. I added about a handful of raisins, and maybe less than a teaspoon of nutmeg ( I did not want to over-power the Cider).
Since I do not have any small loaf pans I decided to bake this cake in a small bunt cake pan that i have that has space for 6 cakes.  I did have enough batter to fill a small 8" round pan as well.  The batter was very thick, think cookie dough almost. In the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes, depending on your cake pan and oven. Start checking your cake about 20 minutes in to see if it is done.   Mine took about 30 minutes to cook, so Mrs. Child was right on with my oven!

The cake had a very good taste, but again, very dense and heavy.  I think next time I will try the Kentucky Housewife version which call for eggs, that may change the consistency a bit and make more of a "cake" that we are used to.