• Welcome to the Receipts of the Blue & Gray. - The receipts you will find here are original Antebellum, and Civil War period receipts, as originally published between the years 1796 and 1880. One exception, is: Newspaper Clippings & Periodical Receipts are limited to a publishing period from 1858 to 1866.

    Some receipts from this era attempted to give medicinal advice. Many dangerous, and in some cases, deadly, "cures" were given, reflecting the primitive knowledge of that time period. Don't assume everything you read here is safe to try! Recipes and Receipts posted here are for Historic Research Purposes, enjoy them, learn from them, discuss them!

    ★ If you attempt to try one of these recipes / receipts, you do so at your own risk! ★

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Receipts of the Blue & Gray

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(from the Georgia Journal and Messenger of Macon, Georgia, October 16, 1861) Ingredients: tan bark 3 old cigar stumps a quart of water Instructions: (One of three "Recipes for the Times.") Take tan bark, three parts; three old cigar stumps and a quart of water, mix well, and boil fifteen minutes in a dirty coffee-pot, and the best judges cannot tell it from the finest Mocha. (* - Tan bark is the bark of certain species of trees, high in tannins, like an Oak Tree. It is traditionally used for tanning hides into leather.)
(from The Practical Housekeeper: A Cyclopaedia of Domestic Economy, edited by Elizabeth Fries Ellet, 1857) (Prepared by a Dublin Lady.) Ingredients: 40 or 50 clams, in the shells 1 onion 1 bunch of minced celery mace pepper 2 tbsp. butter flour optionally... milk 5 egg yolks toasted bread Instructions: Put forty or fifty clams, in the shells, with as little water as possible. When the liquor has run out from the opened shells, take the clams out and chop them fine, with an onion, a bunch of minced celery, and some mace and pepper. Put all in the soup, and thicken it with two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in flour, and if you choose, add a little milk. Simmer twenty minutes; stir in the beaten yolks of five eggs; put bits of...
(from The Housekeeper's Encyclopedia of Useful Information for the Housekeeper, by E. F. Haskell, 1861) Ingredients: clams, as many as are needed pepper salt butter flour toasted bread onion juice (optional) celery chopped fine (optional) egg yolk or cream (optional) Instructions: Wash clean as many clams as are needed for the family. Put them in just boiling water enough to prevent their burning. The water must be boiling hard when the clams are put in the kettle. In a short time the shells will open and the liquor in them run out. Take the clams from their shells and chop them very find. Strain the liquor in which they were boiled, through a thin cloth, and stir into it the chopped clams. Season with pepper, add salt if needed...
(from The American Frugal Housewife, by Lydia Maria Child, 1832) Ingredients: clams, in their own water flour 6 slices of toasted bread or cracker pepper vinegar butter Instructions: Clams should boil about fifteen minutes in their own water; no other need be added, except a spoonful to keep the bottom shells from burning. It is easy to tell when they are done, by the shells starting wide open. After they are done, they should be taken from the shells, washed thoroughly in their own water, and put in a stewing pan. The water should then be strained through a cloth, so as to get out all the grit; the clams should be simmered in it ten or fifteen minutes; a little thickening of flour and water added; half a dozen slices of toasted...
(from The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-table Directory, by Charlotte Campbell Bury, 1844) Ingredients: 6 lemons 1/2 lb. sugar 1/2 pint white wine 1 quart boiling water 1/2 pint boiling milk Instructions: Pare the rind of three lemons as thin as you can; put them into a jug, with the juice of six lemons, the sugar, white wine, and boiling water. Let it stand all night. In the morning, add the boiling milk: then run it through a jelly-bag till quite clear. Photo by Adryan R. Villanueva, CC-4.0
(from The Cook's Oracle: And Housekeeper's Manual, by William Kitchiner, 1822) Ingredients: 2 lbs. double refined lump sugar 1 pint cold spring-water 1/2 of an egg white Instructions: Break into bits two pounds (avoirdupois) of double refined lump sugar, and put it into a clean stew-pan (that is well tinned), with a pint of cold spring-water; when the sugar is dissolved, set it over a moderate fire: beat about half the white of an egg, put it to the sugar before it gets warm, and stir it well together. Watch it; and when it boils take off the scum; keep it boiling till no scum rises, and it is perfectly clear; then run it through a clean napkin: put it into a close stopped bottle; it will keep for months, and is an elegant article...
(from the Civilian & Telegraph, of Cumberland, Maryland , September 12, 1861) - WARNING - HIGHLY DANGEROUS, DO NOT ATTEMPT Ingredients: quicksilver (mercury) Instructions: We see in the Scientific American and other papers recipe for cleaning gun barrels. They are all open to the objection that they involve the use of water, thus requiring time to dry the barrels and incurring the danger of rust. We give the method used by scientific sportsmen in England with success; get a quantity of quicksilver, which can be kept in a strong pill-box, and when the barrel is foul, place the thumb on the nipple, pour the quicksilver in at the mouth, and then run it up and down for a few moments. Turn it back in to the box, and the barrel will be...
(from The Cook's Oracle: And Housekeeper's Manual, by William Kitchiner, 1822) Ingredients: a scrag (neck) of mutton, or shank of veal 3 quarts of water, or liquor in which meat has been boiled a good-sized fowl about 6 leeks pepper and salt Instructions: Take a scrag of mutton, or shank of veal, three quarts of water (or liquor in which meat has been boiled), and add a good-sized fowl, with two or three leeks cut in pieces about an inch long, pepper and salt; boil slowly about an hour; then put in as many leeks, and give it three-quarters of an hour longer: this is very good, made of good beef-stock, and leeks put in at twice. A quote from Dr. Kitchner on onions: "If Leekes you like, but do their smell dis like, Eat Onyons, and...
(from The Aegis & Intelligencer newspaper, Bel Air, Maryland, October 20, 1865) Ingredients: 1 cod fish potatoes, equal in bulk to the fish new milk pepper fat for pan frying Instructions: For these the preliminary preparation of the fish is the same as for boiling. Then, after the material has been thoroughly drained, and freed from bone and skin, take it by parcels between the palms of the hands, and rubbing briskly. If it be really a codfish we are manipulating, we shall find the fibers separate readily, and the material will roll up as lightly as a lock of wool. While this is being done, have boiling good sound potatoes, enough to make a bulk equal to the fish, and as soon as these are cooked done, whip off their jacket, and...
(from The Virginia House-wife, by Mary Randolph, 1825) Ingredients: 1 c. whole coffee beans, roasted light brown 1 qt. sweet milk yolks of 8 eggs Sugar Instructions: Toast two gills of raw coffee till it is a light brown, and not a grain burnt; put it hot from the toaster without grinding it, into a quart of rich, and perfectly sweet milk; boil it, and add the yelks of eight eggs; when done, strain it through a sieve and sweeten it; if properly done, it will not be discolored. The coffee may be dried, and will answer for making in the usual way to drink, allowing more for the quantity of water than if it had not gone through this process. This recipe is listed under "Ice Cream" in Mary's cookbook, and I'm sure the mixture would...
(from Hand-book for active service; containing practical instructions in campaign duties, by Egbert L. Viele, 1861, Chapter VIII.) Ingredients: 12 + 1 quarts water 20 oz. coffee sugar, 4 tsp. to the quart if milk is available, leave out 5 quarts of water, and replace with milk Instructions: Take 12 quarts of water, when it boils add 20 ounces of coffee, mix it well and leave it on the fire till it commences to boil; then take it off, and pour into it a little more than a quart of cold water; let it stand in a warm place full ten minutes ; the dregs will settle at the bottom and the coffee be perfectly clear. Pour it then into another vessel, leaving the dregs in the first ; add sugar, 4 teaspoonsful to the quart. If you can get...
(from The Kentucky Housewife, by Lettice Bryan, 1839) Ingredients: cabbage vinegar salt pepper whole white mustard seeds pickled eggs Instructions: Select firm, fragile heads of cabbage (no other sort being fit for slaugh); having stripped off the outer leaves, cleave the top part of the head into four equal parts, leaving the lower part whole, so that they may not be separated till shaved or cut fine from the stalk. Take a very sharp knife, shave off the cabbage round-wise, cutting it very smoothly and evenly, and at no rate more than a quarter of an inch in width. Put the shavings or slaugh in a deep china dish, pile it high, and make it smooth; mix with enough good vinegar to nearly fill the dish, a sufficient quantity of salt...
(from The United States Cook Book: A Complete Manual for Ladies, Housekeepers and Cooks, by William Vollmer, 1856) Ingredients: small raisins & currants 2 bottles good white wine 1/2 lb. pulverized loaf sugar whole cinnamon juice and peel of a lemon raisins ice black rye bread Instructions: Wash and pick carefully some small raisins and currants; then put into a tureen, two bottles of good white wine, half a pound of pulverized loaf sugar, some whole cinnamon, the juice and peel of a lemon, also the raisins; put it, when all has been well mixed, in ice, and before serving it up, strew over it grated black rye bread. (from The United States Cook Book: A Complete Manual for Ladies, Housekeepers and Cooks, by William Vollmer, 1856)...
(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by L.A. Godey, Sarah J. Hale, 1862) Ingredients: a few ounces of melted butter 2 tbsp. lump sugar a glass of sherry a 1/2 glass of brandy grated lemon peel and / or nutmeg Instructions: Make thin a few ounces of melted butter, then add from a tablespoon to two of coarsely pounded lump sugar, and a glass of sherry with half a glass of brandy; a little grated lemon peel or nutmeg, or both together, are improvements.
(from The American Home Cook Book: With Several Hundred Excellent Recipes, published by Dick & Fitzgerald, 1854) Ingredients: 1 lb. flour 1 lb. sugar 1/2 lb. butter 7 eggs 1/2 pint cream 1 gill of brandy Instructions: One pound of flour, one of sugar, half a pound of butter, seven eggs, half a pint of cream, and a gill of brandy. A slightly richer pound cake style cake. This is one of those "figure out the directions on your own" recipes!
(from Southern Recorder, Milledgeville, Georgia, March 29, 1864) Ingredients: 1 pint flour 3 eggs 1/2 tsp. salaeratus 1 cup molasses 1/2 dried peaches Sauce: lump of butter size of a walnut half a graited nutmeg sweetener brandy Instructions: To one pint of flour add three eggs, half a teaspoon of salaeratus. one cup of molasses and a half a pound of dried peaches; cut fine. Sauce - a lump of butter about the size of a walnut; half a graited nutmeg; sweeten to taste, and as much brandy as you like, but don't get drunk; boil one hour. salaeratus - Sodium or potassium bicarbonate used as a leavening agent
(from the Field and Fireside of Augusta, Georgia, August 15, 1863) Ingredients: 1 quart milk 1 pint flour 8 eggs salt 1 quart dried apples Instructions: One quart of milk, a pint of flour, eight eggs, a little salt, and one quart of dried apples cut up very small and well washed. Beat the eggs. Roll fruit in the flour and mix with milk and eggs. Flour a cloth well, pour in the pudding, tie up and boil five or six hours. Eaten with butter and sugar sauce. This recipe is found in John Hammond Moore's The Confederate Housewife (Columbia, SC: Summerhouse Press, 1997). The "Southern Field and Fireside" was founded in 1859 by Colonel James Gardner of Augusta, Georgia. He was helped by John L. Stockton and W.W. Mann and was able to...
(from Sunny South, of Atlanta, Georgia, November 16, 1878) Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 3 cups flour 1/2 cup cold water 3 eggs 1 tsp. yeast powder Instructions: One cupful of white sugar, three cupfuls sifted flour, one-half cupful cold water, three eggs, one teaspoonful yeast powder in the flour; flavor to taste. Mix yolks and sugar, then add water after the whites ( beaten to a stiff froth first) then the flour.
(from the Chattanooga Daily Rebel, Chattanooga, Tennessee, October 31, 1862) Ingredients: dried blackberry leaves Instructions: We have seen a paragraph going the rounds of the papers in reference to this tea, and have, though the attention of Judge Massengale, at last been able to test it. The Judge favored us with a package which was prepared for use by his lady, and we find it an excellent substitute. It is nothing less more than dried blackberry leaves and within the reach of all. Don't know if this has been posted before, but just thought I'd add it.
(from Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers, by Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, 1845) Ingredients: 3 pints milk corn meal 2 handfuls wheat flour 2 tsp. salt 3 eggs 1 teacup yeast Instructions: Warm three pints of milk, and stir into it as much corn meal as will make it as thick as pudding batter, add two handsful of wheat flour, two tea-spoonsful of salt, three eggs, and a tea cup of yeast. Beat the whole well together, and let it rise about six hours, when bake as other muffins. Elizabeth Ellicott Lea was born in Ellicott City, Maryland in 1793. Elizabeth was from a prominent Quaker family who was instrumental in establishing Ellicott City. In 1812, she married Thomas Lea who was from a prominent Quaker...
(from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, 1878) Ingredients: 1 pint milk 3 eggs 3 tbsp. melted butter 1 dessertspoonful white sugar 1 heaping tsp. cornstarch, or flour 1 tsp. salt 6 ears of corn cracker, or bread crumbs Instructions: 1 pint milk. 3 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately. 3 tablespoonfuls melted butter. 1 dessertspoonful white sugar. 1 heaping teaspoonful cornstarch or flour. 1 teaspoonful salt. 6 ears of corn. With a sharp knife, slit each row of corn in the center. Then shave in thinnest slices. Add the corn to the yolks of the eggs, next the butter, cornstarch, sugar, and salt, then the milk, gradually, and last of all the whites. Bake in a hot oven. As soon as a light brown on top, cover with...
(from The Kentucky Housewife, by Lettice Bryan, 1839) Ingredients: several ears of fresh corn veal, or chicken broth butter pepper salt 1 cup sweet cream Instructions: Take green corn that is very soft and full of milk; pick off the silk carefully, cut the grains about half from the cobs, and scrape off the remaining part with a knife. Have ready as much veal or poultry broth as you wish for your soup, and put in as much corn as will make it as thick as you desire; add enough butter, pepper and salt to season it well, and boil it gently till thoroughly done, stirring it all the time. Then stir in a cup of sweet cream and pour it into a tureen. This is an excellent soup, cheap, and easily prepared. (from The Kentucky Housewife, by...
(from The Confederate Union, of Milledgeville, Georgia, September 22, 1863) Ingredients: corn stalks Instructions: Rev . Mr. Sweat presented us yesterday with a specemen of syrup, made at his place near the city from the juice of the corn stalks. It is a very excellent article of syrup, and for table use is not inferior to the best article of cane syrup. Mr. Sweat informs us that it was made by the ordinary process, and that the yield of syrup in proportion to the quantity of juice is about the same as that of the Sorgho or Chinees sugar cane. The stalks from which it was made were cut before maturity, when the corn was fit for roasting ears. —Sav. News.
(from the Albany Patriot on Page 4, by J.R.S. of Rome, Georgia, October 22, 1861, and also from the Southern Federal Union, of Milledgeville, Georgia, November 5, 1861) Ingredients: 100 lbs. of beef for pickling 6 gallons of water 9 lbs. of salt 3 lbs. brown sugar 1 qt. brown molassas 3 oz. salt petre 1 oz. red pepper 1 oz. potash Instructions: For pickling 100 pounds of beef. Take six gallons of water, nine pounds of salt, three pounds of brown sugar one quart of molasses, 3 oz. of salt petre, 1 oz. red pepper, and one ounce potash. Boil and skim it well and let it stand until entirely cold; then having rubbed your meat with fine salt and packed and closely filed in a water tight cask, pour brine over it - after standing six...
(from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, 1878) Ingredients: fresh black eye peas (if dried, pre-soak overnight) salt butter, or slice of fat meat Instructions: Shell early in the morning, throw into water till an hour before dinner, when put into boiling water, covering close while cooking. Add a little salt, just before taking from the fire. Drain and serve with a large spoonful fresh butter, or put in a pan with a slice of fat meat, and simmer a few minutes. Dried peas must be soaked overnight, and cooked twice as long as fresh. - Mrs. S. T. Photo by Bubba73, CC-4.0 It is a commonly held belief that the Southern tradition of eating Blackeyed Peas to celebrate New Year’s stemmed from Yankee General William T...
(from Emigrants Guide to Oregon & California by Lansford Hastings, 1845) Ingredients: 1 cup cornmeal 4 cups boiling water 1 tablespoon lard or butter 1 teaspoon salt dried currents (raisins) Instructions: Put currents into water and bring to a boil. Sprinkle cornmeal into the boiling water, stirring constantly. Add the butter and salt. Cook for about 3 minutes, then portion into bowls. Can be topped with milk, butter, sugar, or molasses. Even though this were used by pioneers, it would be good for Civil War soldiers.
(from Confederate Receipt Book. A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the Times, published by West & Johnson, 1863) Ingredients: milk, if turning sour... cream 1 oz. or more, butter Instructions: This is a good way of using up a pan of milk that is found to be turning sour. Having covered it, set it in a warm place till it becomes a curd, then pour off the liquid, and tie up the curd in a clean linen bag with pointed end, and set a bowl under it to catch the droppings, but do not squeeze it. After it has drained ten or twelve hours transfer the curd to a deep dish, enrich it with some cream, and press and chop it with large spoon till it is a soft mass, adding as you proceed an ounce or more of nice fresh butter...
(from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, 1878) Ingredients: crabs 1 gallon of water for every dozen crabs butter 1 old ham hock 1 pint strained tomato juice pepper spice if liked 1/2 pint wine Instructions: One dozen crabs to one gallon water. Take off top shell; clear body of crabs. Cut through the middle, put them into a kettle, mix with some butter, and brown them. Then add one gallon water, and simmer for half an hour. Skim slightly, and add the hock of an old ham, and strained tomato juice one pint. Boil two hours. Season with pepper, spice if liked, and half-pint wine. The claws are to be cracked and divested of the jaws. A Hampton recipe. - Miss E. W.
(from The Practical Housekeeper: A Cyclopaedia of Domestic Economy, edited by Elizabeth Fries Ellet, 1857) Ingredients: 1 quart cranberries water to cover 1 lb. brown sugar Instructions: This sauce is very simply made. A quart of cranberries is washed and stewed with sufficient water to cover them; when they burst mix with them a pound of brown sugar, and stir them well. Before you remove them from the fire, all the berries should have burst. When cold they will be jellied, and if thrown into a form while warm, will turn out whole. Last Friday, I posted the Cranberry Sauce recipe from "The Practical Housekeeper". Today I made it and I must say how delicious it is! Just for fun, I made it in the shape of a Crawfish!
(from the Albany Patriot, of Albany, Georgia, September 20, 1860) Ingredients: 2 oz. tartaric acid 2 lbs. white sugar juice of 1/2 a lemon 3 pints water Instructions: An exchange gives the following recipe from a correspondent, who states that it makes an effervescing drink, but far pleasanter than soda water, inasmuch as you do not have to drink for your life in order to get your money's worth. - The effervescing is much more slow: Two ounces tartaric acid: two pounds of white sugar; the juice of half a lemon; three pints of water. Boil together five minutes. When nearly cold add the whites of three eggs well beaten with a cup of flour, and a half ounce of essence of Wintergreen. Bottle, and keep in a cold place. Take two...
(from the Civilian & Telegraph, of Cumberland, Maryland , September 12, 1861) Ingredients: Inside. (cream filling) 1/2 cup flour 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 pint new milk lemon or vanilla for flavor Outside. (cake) 1 cup water 1 cup butter 2 cups sifted flour 5 eggs 1/4 tsp. soda Instructions: Inside. — Half a cup of flour; one cup of sugar; two eggs. Boil one pint of new milk; beat the flour, eggs and sugar together, and stir into the milk while boiling until sufficiently thickened. Boil the milk in a kettle of water. Flavor with lemon or vanilla. Outside. — One cup of water; one cup of butter; two cups of sifted flour; five eggs. Boil the water and butter together, stir in the flour while boiling, when cool add the eggs, beating them...
(from The Lady's Receipt-book: A Useful Companion for Large Or Small Families, by Eliza Leslie, 1847) Ingredients: 2 cocoa-nuts 1/4 lb. fresh butter 1/4 lb. finely-powdered loafsugar 6 eggs 1 pint rich cream optional seasonings: 1 tsp. mixed nutmeg and cinnamon finely powdered 1 tbsp. rose brandy Instructions: Take two cocoa-nuts of large size. Break them up, and pare off the brown skin from the pieces. Then grate them very fine. Stir together a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, and a quarter of a pound of finely-powdered loafsugar, till perfectly light. Beat six eggs till very thick and smooth; afterwards mix them, gradually, with a pint of rich cream. Add this mixture, by degrees, to the beaten butter and sugar, in...
(from Dr. Chase's Recipes; Or, Information for Every Body, by Dr. Alvin Wood Chase, 1865) Ingredients: Syrup for Nectar... 1 gallon of water 8 lbs. loaf-sugar 8 oz. tartaric acid 1 oz. gum arabic 4 tsp. flour 4 egg whites 1/2 pint of water 3 tbsp. Nectar Syrup 1/2 to 2/3 full glass of water 1/3 tsp. super carbonate of soda Instructions: First, take water 1 gal.; loaf sugar 8 lbs., tartaric acid 8 oz., gum arabic 1 oz.; put into a suitable kettle and place on the fire. Second, take flour 4 tea spoons; the whites of 4 eggs, well beaten together, with the flour, and add water 1/2 pt., when the first is blood warm put in the second, and boil 3 minutes, and it is done. DIRECTIONS: Three table-spoons of the syrup to a glass half or...
(from Ingall's Home and Art Magazine by Author's Name, 1889) Ingredients: celery veal stock or chicken broth salt & pepper flour butter sweet cream or milk Instructions: After reserving the finest celery for the table, select the coarser white blades from that which remains, rejecting the green portions. Boil them till very tender - from an hour to an hour and a half. Rub through a coarse sieve or colander. For every pint of this pulp, have ready three pints of veal stock or chicken broth, boiling hot. Add the celery pulp, with two level "teaspoonfuls of salt, one scant fourth teaspoonful of pepper, and a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into two tablespoonfuls of butter. Let it boil up, add one pint of sweet cream or milk, and when it...
(from Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery, by Marion Harland, 1871) Ingredients: pie paste, enough for top and bottom pie crust raspberries powdered sugar 1 small cup of milk - half cream Whites of 2 eggs white sugar - 1 tbsp. for mixture, a sprinkle on top to finish 1/2 tsp. corn-starch Instructions: Line a dish with paste and fill with raspberries, made very sweet with powdered sugar. Cover with paste, but do not pinch it down at the edges. When done, lift the top crust, which should be thicker than usual, and pour upon the fruit the following mixture: - 1 small cup of milk - half cream, if you can get it, heated to boiling. Whites of two eggs, beaten light & stirred into the boiling milk. 1...
(from The Housekeeper's Encyclopedia of Useful Information for the Housekeeper, by E. F. Haskell, 1861) Ingredients: Cucumbers Vinegar Pepper Instructions: Grate large cucumbers before they begin to turn yellow; drain out the juice and put the pulp through a sieve to remove the large seeds; fill a bottle half-full of the pulp, discarding the juice, and add the same quantity of ten per cent vinegar; cork tightly; when used, add pepper and salt; salt kills the vinegar if put in when made. This is almost like a fresh-sliced cucumber when opened for use. Photo by Prathyush Thomas, GNU Free 1.2
(from The Cook's Oracle: And Housekeeper's Manual, by William Kitchiner, 1822) Ingredients: cucumbers flour fresh butter pepper and salt Instructions: Peel and cut cucumbers in quarters, take out the seeds, and lay them on a cloth to drain off the water: when they are dry, flour and fry them in fresh butter; let the butter be quite hot before you put in the cucumbers; fry them till they are brown, then take them out with an egg-slice, and lay them on a sieve to drain the fat from them (some cooks fry sliced onions, or some small button onions, with them, till they are a delicate light-brown colour, drain them from the fat, and then put them into a stew-pan with as much gravy as will cover them): stew slowly till they are tender...
(from The American Frugal Housewife, by Lydia Maria Child, 1832) Ingredients: 1 cup butter 2 cups sugar 3 cups flour 4 eggs Instructions: Cup cake is about as good as pound cake, and is cheaper. One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs, well beat together, and baked in pans or cups. Bake twenty minutes, and no more. Photo by Steph Laing, CC-2.0
(from Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats by Eliza Leslie, 1828) Ingredients: Five eggs. Two large tea-cups full of molasses. The same of brown sugar, rolled fine. The same of fresh butter. One cup of rich milk. Five cups of flour, sifted. Half a cup of powdered allspice and cloves. Half a cup of ginger. Instructions: Cut up the butter in the milk, and warm them slightly. Warm also the molasses, and stir it into the milk and butter: then stir in, gradually, the sugar, and set it away to get cool. Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour. Add the ginger and other spice, and stir the whole very hard. Butter small tins, nearly fill them with the mixture, and bake the...
(from the Southern Aegis and Harford County Intelligencer, Bel Air, Maryland, December 20, 1862) Ingredients: 1 cup of butter 2 cups sugar 3 cups flour 8 egg whites 1 cup sweet milk 2 tsp. cream of tartar 1 (small) of soda Instructions: 1 cup of butter, 2 of sugar, 3 of flour, the whites of 8 eggs, 1 cup of sweet milk, 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, 1 (small) of soda. The cream of tartar to be put in the flour, the soda in the milk. Stir in the milk and flour the last thing, alternately. For cocoa-nut cake, grate one cocoa-nut and add to it - or a pound of blanched almonds, and extract of bitter almonds and a glass of brandy, will make delicious almond cake.
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