Household

A Collection of Period Recipes

Documentation Orphans

(Sadly, I can’t remember where I found these two.)

Ginger Snaps.—Two cups of molasses, one of lard, a tablespoon of ginger, a tablespoon of saleratus, dissolved in as little hot water as possible; flour; roll very thin.

Hard Tea Biscuit.—Two pounds of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, a salt-spoonful of salt, three gills of milk.  Cut up the butter, and rub it into the flour; then add the salt and milk.  Knead the dough for half an hour; make it into cakes about as large round as half a teacup, and half an inch thick.  Prick them with a fork; bake them in a moderate oven until they are light brown.

TEXAS BAPTIST [Anderson, TX], February 16, 1860, p. 1, c. 7

Fruit Cake Without Eggs.—One cup of molasses, one cup of brown sugar, one cup of butter—heat together sufficiently to melt the butter; two teaspoonsful of cloves, two of cinnamon, one of nutmeg, one coffee-cupful of raisins (with or without currants) citron; then add one tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in hot water; one cup of sour milk or buttermilk and one quart of flour; bake one hour.

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