Algona Cook Book, Circa 1910: Part Two

Welcome back to Algona Cook Book, Circa 1910: Part Two. If you missed part one you can catch that here. Today we get to delve into some interesting recipes. I should warn you ahead of time, as will antique recipes they are short, they assume you should know what to do and many times the recipe is vague on temperature and time.

The previous owner of this cookbook liked three things:

• salad dressing recipes
• Minnehaha cake
• writing her other recipes on the blank sheets within the book

Let’s begin with some soups from the start of the cookbook and we will work our way through. I hope you enjoy these deliciously fun and sometimes crazy recipes; it was 1910.

Soups

Corn Soup

Score kernels of six ears of corn and scrape pulp, simmer 20 minutes in a pint of water. Remove and rub the pulp through a sieve. Scald a pint of milk with a slice of onion and parsley. Remove the seasoning and add milk to the pulp. Add two tablespoons each of butter and flour rubbed smooth. Serve with whipped cream. – Mrs. M Stephens.

Amber Soup

Brown three pounds of beef from the hind shin, cut in small pieces, put in part of the marrow from the bone, add the fourth pound of ham and shinbone with three quarts of cold water, and heat to the boiling point, skim and let simmer two hours; add a fowl, an onion and half a carrot, cut in slices, like a stalk of celery, a sprig of parsley, three cloves and a piece of red pepper pod, and let simmer until the fowl is tender; then remove the fowl and strain off the broth. When cold remove the fat and pour off the upper part of the stock, avoiding the settlings. Stir into the stock the slightly beaten whites and crushed shells of three eggs, stir until the soup boils, then let boil five minutes, let stand ten minutes, then skin and strain through a cheesecloth, re-heat and add between one and two teaspoonfuls of Kitchen Bouqute® (still around and cooking since 1873!) and serve.- Nobody wanted to claim authorship of this one.

Fish

Planked White Fish

Have a hard maple plank about 18×12 inches. S[read the board lightly with fresh lard, cut the fish down the back, and lay flat on the board with the skin-side down. Prepare mashed potatoes same as for the table and bank them all around the edge of the fish on the board. After baking dress with salt and paper and baste often with melted butter. Bake one hour in moderate over (Ooh, another typo… it’s supposed to be “oven”, so glad mistakes were happening back then too). Serve on the plank. (Return to oven until potatoes are slightly brown.)- Mrs. Frank Nicoulin.

-I was pleasantly surprised to see plank cooking way back then!-M

Oyster Turnovers

Make a rich biscuit dough, cut in thin rounds, lay oysters on half and turn the other half over. Bake and serve warm with a cream sauce using the juice of oysters. Chopped ham may be used in place of oysters. -Mrs. E. B. Tuttle

Meat

Veal Loaf

Twenty-five cents’ worth (wouldn’t get much nowadays) of veal and beef chopped fine, three well-beaten eggs, two cups rolled crackers, three tablespoons milk, one teaspoon pepper, two eggs. Chop the meat finely, mix it all together, make it into a roll, and bake for two hours.- Mrs. Lester Willson.

Collups

One cupful (minced chicken or veal, previously boiled until tender, the unbeaten whites of two eggs, salt, and pepper to taste. Make into small balls and boil in salted boiling water for just four minutes. PPalce on platter and cover with a sauce made as follows: Two tablespoonfuls flour, two of butter, three-fourths of a cupful of stock, three-fourths of a cupful cream, and half cupful of sliced almonds blanched. Cook until it thickens.-Mrs. L. D. Bovee

Alright friends. We will have to stop here for this week, but tune in next week for more recipes from the Algona Cookbook, Circa 1910. Till then, here is to good food, good friends and a good life.