VINTAGE RECIPES

[Welland Telegraph 1900]

Spanish Chocolate Cake

Grate half a cake of Baker’s chocolate, mix with 1/2 cup of sweet milk and yolk of one egg. Put on the back of the stove, when thoroughly warmed and dissolved set off to cool. Take 1 egg and the white of one, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup butter, teaspoonful soda dissolved in 1/2 cup water. Add the chocolate and flour to make a thin batter that will pour smooth. Bake carefully.

Put three quarts of ripe raspberries in an earthen bowl; pour over them a quart of vinegar; at the end of 24 hours press and strain out the liquor and turn it over another three quarts of fresh ripe berries. Let it stand another 24 hours; again extract and strain the juice, and to each pint add a pound of sugar, and boil for 20 minutes. Turn it into bottles, and cork when cold. When used as a beverage dilute the raspberry vinegar with three parts of water.

Make a strong decoction of red clover blossoms by first drying them in the shade, then steeping in water to cover. Strain and reduce by boiling. To every quart add a pound of sugar and a pint of New Orleans molasses. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and reduced to the consistency of not very thick molasses. Cool and bottle. Some add half a pint of alcohol as a preservative, but if stored in a cool dark cellar, it will keep in warm weather without this.

Allow equal weight of sugar and fruit. Pick over the fruit carefully and lay inside the largest and firmest berries. Mash the remainder, and put on to boil for ten minutes., then squeeze them through a cheese-cloth put this liquid on to boil with the sugar, remove the scum, then put in the whole berries; let them boil up once, skim them out into jars, filling nearly full. Boil the syrup down until there is about enough to fill the jars then put the berries back and boil up once more, fill the jars, and seal quickly.

Peel the cucumbers and cut in thin slices let stand in salted water five minutes. Take the same amount of ripe tomatoes, peel and slice thin. In a glass dish place a layer of the cucumbers and then a layer of the tomatoes, alternating until the dish is full. Make a dressing of vinegar, olive oil or melted butter, 1 teaspoon to 1 cup vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and turn over the cucumber and tomato, enough to nearly cover. Let stand five minutes and serve.

Allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Place the fruit with the sugar in the preserving kettle, let stand a few minutes to extract some of the juice from the fruit; then place it on the fire and cook until it becomes thick, consistent mass. Stir it frequently to break the fruit. When it becomes tender, use a potato masher to crush it. When it looks clear put a little on a plate and if it thickens it is done. Put it in tumblers and cover.

Pour one cup of hot water over four tablespoonfuls of fine stale breadcrumbs, add a pinch of salt, one half cupful of sugar, rind and juice of one lemon and two egg yolks well beaten. Line pie plates with a good pie crust; pour the lemon filling in the plate and bake in a quick oven twenty-five minutes; cool a little; make a meringue with the whites of the eggs and two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Spread this over the pie and sprinkle with powdered sugar, put in a slow oven to brown slightly.

Was a fresh beef tongue, cover with boiling water, and one-half of a teaspoonful of salt and simmer slowly for three hours. Skin it, trim off the fire with one pint of the pot liquor, salt nd pepper to taste, one-eighth of a teaspoonful of cloves, a dash of nutmeg, a teaspoonful of onion juice and one quarter of a teaspoonful of made mustard. Simmer slowly until the liquid is almost evaporated, then cool and pound to a paste with one-quarter of a pound of butter. Pack into small jars, pour over sufficient melted butter to cover and set in a cold place. This will keep for a week in summer and a fortnight in winter.