• 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 Civilian & Telegraph, of Cumberland, Maryland, July 4, 1861) Ingredients: 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 4 tbsp. sweet milk 1 tbsp. butter 2 eggs 1 tsp. cream of tartar 1/2 tsp. soda Instructions: Railroad Cake. — 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 4 tablespoonsful sweet milk, 1 tablespoonful butter, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar, half teaspoonful soda, beat ten minutes, then put in pan, and bake as usual.
(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by L.A. Godey, Sarah J. Hale, 1865) Ingredients: 2 eggs 2 tbsp. flour 2 oz. warm butter 2 oz. grated cheese Instructions: Beat up well two eggs, and add two tablespoonfuls of flour, two ounces of warm butter, and two ounces of grated cheese. Mix all these well together, and bake them for quarter of an hour in small boxes made of writing paper. They should be served hot in the paper boxes, and eaten after the game course. They require care in the preparation. "Ramakins" comes from a word that meant toasted or baked cheese. It can also refer to the small individual dish (here the box) in which the cheese preparation is served.
(from The Housekeeper's Encyclopedia of Useful Information for the Housekeeper, by E. F. Haskell, 1861) Ingredients: 1 gallon raspberries 1 qt. vinegar 1/2 tsp. mace 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. mustard seed 1/2 tsp. ginger 1 lb. sugar citric acid as needed Instructions: Boil one gallon of the fruit in one quart of vinegar; strain, and add mace, cinnamon, mustard, and ginger, each half a teaspoon without grinding; boil half an hour slowly; strain, and measure the liquor; to every quart add one pound of sugar; boil until of proper consistency; if not sufficiently acid, add citric acid dissolved in very little vinegar. Photo by Ivar Leidus CC 4.0
(from Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery, by Eliza Leslie, 1838) Ingredients: 2 quarts ripe raspberries - twice 1 quart vinegar 1 lb. loaf sugar per pint of juice Instructions: Put two quarts of ripe fresh-gathered raspberries into a stone or china vessel, and pour on them a quart of vinegar. Let it stand twenty-four hours, and then strain it through a sieve. Pour the liquid over two quarts of fresh raspberries, and let it again infuse for a day and a night. Then strain it a second time. Allow a pound of loaf sugar to every pint of juice. Break up the sugar, and let it melt in the liquor. Then put the whole into a stone jar, cover it closely, and set it in a kettle of boiling water, which must be kept on a quick boil for an hour. Take...
(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by L.A. Godey, Sarah J. Hale, 1861) Ingredients: 1 pint good milk 1 lemon cinnamon 2 ounces of sugar crumb of two small rolls pieces of Savoy cake, or four sponge cakes 1/4 pound of ratafias 1/4 pound of almond cakes 5 eggs 1 glass of brandy, 1 glass of sherry, grated nutmeg. butter stoned raisins dried cherries slices of oranges citron-peel Instructions: Put a pint of good milk into a saucepan with the yellow rind of a lemon pared thin, a little cinnamon, and about two ounces of sugar. Place this by the side of the fire to simmer very gently for about a quarter of an hour. In the meantime, put into a basin the crumb of two small rolls, sliced thin, some pieces of Savoy cake, or four sponge...
(From The Cook's Oracle by William Kitchiner, MD, 1829) Ingredients: Purple cabbage Salt Pickle for red beets (recipe below) Instructions: Get a fine purple cabbage, take off the outside leaves, quarter it, take out the stalk (core), shred the leaves into a colander, sprinkle them with salt, let them remain till the morrow, drain them dry, put them into a jar, and cover them with pickle for beet roots. Pickle for beet roots Add to a quart of vinegar an ounce of ground pepper, half an ounce of ginger pounded, same of salt, and of a horseradish cut in thin slices; and you may warm it, if you like, with a few capsicums, or s little Cayenne; put these ingredients into a jar; stop it close, and let them steep three days on a trivet...
(from The Book of Household Management, edited by Isabella Beeton, 1861) Ingredients: red currants 3/4 lb. of loaf sugar per lb. of fruit Instructions: 1532. INGREDIENTS. - To every lb. of fruit allow 3/4 lb. of loaf sugar. Mode. - Let the fruit be gathered on a fine day; weigh it, and then strip the currants from the stalks; put them into a preserving-pan with sugar in the above proportion; stir them, and boil them for about 3/4 hour. Carefully remove the scum as it rises. Put the jam into pots, and, when cold, cover with oiled papers; over these put a piece of tissue paper brushed over on both sides with the white of an egg; press the paper round the top of the pot, and when dry, the covering will be quite hard and air-tight...
(from The Book of Household Management, edited by Isabella Beeton, 1861) Ingredients: red currants 3/4 lb. of loaf sugar per pint of juice Instructions: 1533. INGREDIENTS. Red currants; to every pint of juice allow 3/4 lb. of loaf sugar. Mode. - Have the fruit gathered in fine weather; pick it from the stalks, put it into a jar, and place this jar in a saucepan of boiling water over the fire, and let it simmer gently until the juice is well drawn from the currants; then strain them through a jelly-bag or fine cloth, and, if the jelly is wished very clear, do not squeeze them too much, as the skin and pulp from the fruit will be pressed through with the juice, and so make the jelly muddy. Measure the juice, and to each pint allow...
(from Confederate Receipt Book. A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the Times, published by West & Johnson, 1863) Ingredients: 1 cup soft boiled rice pint of milk cup of sugar three eggs butter the size of an egg served with sauce Instructions: Take one cup of soft boiled rice, a pint of milk, a cup of sugar, three eggs, and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Serve with sauce. Puddings were very popular in 18th century England and to the Colonists in America. In addition to sweets, the puddings had all kinds of ingredients, including oysters, roast beef and suet. During the Civil war, batter was still cooked the old traditional Englishwat, wrapped in a buttered and floured "pudding cloth" which was similar...
(from Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery, by Eliza Leslie, 1838) Ingredients: young green stalks of rhubarb brown sugar fresh pie shell white sugar Instructions: Take the young green stalks of the rhubarb plant, or spring fruit as it is called in England, and having peeled off the thin skin, cut the stalks into small pieces about an inch long, and put them into a sauce-pan with plenty of brown sugar, and its own juice. Cover it, and let it stew slowly till it is soft enough to mash to a marmalade. Then set it away to cool. Have ready some fresh baked shell; fill them with the stewed rhubarb, and grate white sugar over the top. For covered pies, cut the rhubarb very small; mix a great deal of sugar with it, and put it in raw. Bake the...
(from A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, by Elme Charles Francatelli, 1852) Ingredients: 1 lb. rice 12 apples 2 oz. sugar Instructions: Ingredients, one pound of rice, twelve apples, two ounces of sugar. Tie up the rice very loose in a pudding-cloth, so as to admit that while boiling it may have sufficient room to swell out to five times its original quantity. While the rice is boiling, which will take about one hour, peel the apples, and put them in a saucepan with nearly half-a-pint of water, a bit of butter, lemon-peel, and the sugar, and stew them on the fire till dissolved, stirring them while boiling for a few minutes. When your rice pudding is done and turned out on its dish, pour the apple-sauce over it. This...
(from the Edgefield Advertiser of Edgefield, South Carolina, February 18, 1863) Ingredients: a pint of rice a pint of rice flour 2 tbsp. wheat flour a pint of milk and 2 eggs if you have them something to grease a baking pan good syrup for fried cakes Instructions: Boil a pint of Rice soft, and let it get cold; divide it in two portions, and with the additions needed it will make breakfast or tea bread for a large family. Add a pint of rice flour and two tablespoons of wheat flour to one half the cold rice; -- if you have milk and eggs, you can make it delicious by beating a pint or less milk and two eggs; if you have not, simply add water enough for a thin batter, pour half of this batter into a thin pan, greased, and set it to...
(from Confederate Receipt Book. A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the Times, Richmond, 1863) Ingredients: 1 quart of milk + extra milk for mixing sugar & rose water rice flour Instructions: Boil one quart of milk, season it as to your taste with sugar and rose water, take four tablespoonfuls of the rice flour, mix it very smooth with cold milk, add this to the other milk while it is boiling, stirring well. Let all boil together about fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally, then pour it into moulds and put it by to cool. This is a very favorite article for invalids.
(from Emigrants Guide to Oregon & California by Lansford Hastings, 1845) Ingredients: 1/2 cup of rice 1 cup of water fresh milk butter sugar Instructions: Boil 1/2 cup of rice with 1 cup of water, or more, per serving desired. Cook with much stirring until quite soft which can be 1/2 hour. Serve in bowls with fresh milk and butter, topping with sugar to taste. Even though this were used by pioneers, it would be good for Civil War soldiers.
(from The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-table Directory, by Charlotte Campbell Bury, 1844) Ingredients: 1/2 pint cream 1 chicken liver parsley 1 anchovy caper liquor 2 hard-boiled egg yolks pepper salt nutmeg juice of lemon butter Instructions: Half a pint of cream, the liver of the chicken, a little parsley, an anchovy, some caper liquor, the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, a little pepper, salt, nutmeg, and juice of lemon, with a piece of butter, about the size of a walnut, to thicken it. Send it up hot, with the chicken.
(from Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, 1871) Ingredients: 2 guinea fowl, young stuffing of choice butter shallot, chopped parsley or summer savory browned flour currant or other tart jelly Instructions: A pair of young Guinea fowls, stuffed and roasted, basting them with butter, until they are half done, deserves an honorable place upon our bill of fare. Season the gravy with a chopped shallot, parsley or summer savory, not omitting the minced giblets, and thicken with browned flour. Send around currant, or other tart jelly, with the fowl. A little ham, minced fine, improves the dressing. I thought an interesting recipe. My Granny who lived in Lexington, Ky. raised Guinea fowl.
(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by L.A. Godey, Sarah J. Hale, 1860) Ingredients: breadcrumbs salt & pepper sweet marjoram, or savory butter flour Instructions: Make deep incisions round the bone and in the flesh, prepare a dressing of breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, sweet marjoram, or savory, and as much butter as will make the crumbs adhere together; fill all the incisions with the dressing; season the meat with salt and pepper; roast it before a clear fire, and when nearly done, dredge flour over, and baste with the gravy; skim the fat off the gravy, and add a little flour mixed with water; let it boil once, and serve it as a gravy-boat. This recipe for Roast Leg of Lamb is from "Civil War Recipes Receipts from the Pages of...
(from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, 1878) Ingredients: young, tender leg of mutton salt water salt & pepper butter minced parsley grated brown cracker Instructions: Choose young and tender mutton. Take off the shank — wash it well; let it lie fifteen or twenty minutes in salt water to take the blood out. Rub with little salt and pepper well. Lay on a grate, which will go nicely in a baking-pan, over one pint boiling water ; break the bones of the shank in the water, adding more pepper and salt. Set it in a very hot oven, and baste frequently to prevent it from being hard and dry. When it is of a light brown, cover with sheets of buttered paper. Place it on a dish ; add minced parsley to the gravy, which...
(from Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery, by Marion Harland, 1871) Ingredients: leg of pork, about 7 lbs. browned flour pepper salt juice of 1 lemon - or - leg of pork, from a full grown hog bread-crumbs sage onion juice of a lemon, or vinegar pepper salt butter serve with: tomato, or apple sauce pickles Instructions: One weighing about seven pounds is enough, even for a large family. If the pig is young, the leg will be even smaller. Score the skin in squares, or parallel lines running from side to side, for the convenience of the carver. Put it down to roast with very little water in the pan below. Heat gradually until the fat begins to ooze from the meat, when quicken the fire to a red, steady...
(from The Cook's Oracle by William Kitchiner, 1829) Ingredients: Pigeons, fresh butter salt pepper Parsley, fresh Instructions: Cover pigeons with a little pepper and salt, and fill the belly of bird with it. Roast them. They will be done in twenty to thirty minutes, send up the parsley and butter in a dish under them, and serve in a boat, and garnish with crisp parsley, or fried bread crumbs, or bread sauce. According to William Kitchiner author of "The Cook's Oracle" pigeons are best from mid-summer to Michaelmas (Sept. 29). I don't know if I would try them. These were domesticated pigeons, that were carefully fed and raised. Also "Crisp parsley" is parsley that has been dunked in boiling oil and fried.
(from A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, by Elme Charles Francatelli, 1852) Ingredients: leg of pork salt six onions twelve sage leaves butter pepper six ounces of bread potatoes apples Instructions: Let us suppose, or rather hope, that you may sometimes have a leg of pork to cook for your dinner; it will eat all the better if it is scored all over by cutting the rind, or rather slitting it crosswise, at short distances, with the point of a sharp knife; it is to be well sprinkled all over with salt, and allowed to absorb the seasoning during some hours previously to its being cooked. Prepare some stuffing as follows:--Chop six onions and twelve sage leaves fine, fry these with a bit of butter, pepper, and salt, for five...
(from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, 1878) Ingredients: 1 turkey 1-1/2 lbs. truffles, or chestnuts 1-1/2 lbs. fat bacon half a sheet of white paper for roasting Instructions: Truffles must be peeled, chopped and pounded in a mortar; one and a half pound will do for one turkey. Rasp the same amount of fat bacon and mix with the truffles and stuff the turkey with it. This dressing is usually placed in the turkey two days beforehand, to impart its flavor to the fowl. Lay thin slices of fat bacon over the breast of the turkey, cover it with half a sheet of white paper, and roast two hours. Chestnuts dressed in the same way as truffles are found an excellent substitute. - Mrs. S. G. Personally, it is my opinion...
(from Mrs. Elliott's Housewife: Containing Practical Receipts in Cookery, by Sarah A. Elliott, 1870) "FAVORITE DISH WITH CHAPEL HILL STUDENTS IN OLDEN TIMES." Ingredients: 1 possum salt & water bath weak red pepper water 3 slices of bacon small sweet potatoes salt butter pepper dry sage Needed for Optional Stuffing: bread crumbs salt butter pepper sage Instructions: After having the possum nicely cleaned, put it in salt and water for six hours. Rinse it well, and put it in an oven with weak red pepper water, and give it one boil up. Prepare a dressing of bread crumbs, salt, butter, pepper, and a little sage, if you wish to stuff it like a pig; if not, put it in an oven or stove pan, with one pint of water, and three nice slices of...
(from A Southern Woman's Story, by Phoebe Yates Pember, 1879.) Ingredients: 1 skinned & cleaned rat bacon fat Instructions: Epicures sometimes managed to entrap them and secure a nice broil for supper, declaring that their flesh was superior to squirrel meat; but never having tasted it I cannot add my testimony to its merits. They staid with us to the last, nor did I ever observe any signs of a desire to change their politics. Perhaps some curious gourmet may wish a recipe for the best mode of cooking them. The rat must be skinned, cleaned, his head cut off and his body laid open upon a square board, the legs stretched to their full extent and secured upon it with small tacks, then baste with bacon fat and roast before a good fire...
(from The Southern Watchman Newspaper, Athens, Georgia, July 27, 1864) Ingredients: food to roast in the heat of a burning fire such as potatoes, apples or eggs Instructions: A friend has given, the Montgomery Advertiser the following easy mode of roasting potatoes, apples or eggs, which we publish for the benefit of soldiers and others: Take your potatoes, or whatever you wish to roast, and after washing them clean, wrap them up in a paper two or three times over. When this is done, put them in a can of water and squeeze them until the paper is wet to the potato; squeeze them well and make a place in the embers, lay them in and cover them with hot ashes, with no coals. After they have lain a proper time, take them out and the...
(from the Family Recipes of Robert E. Lee) Ingredients: 12 eggs their full weight in sugar (about 1-1/5 of a lb.) a half-weight in flour (about 3/5 of a lb.) 2 lbs. nice "A" sugar juice of five oranges with the pulp juice of three lemons with the pulp Instructions: Twelve eggs, their full weight in sugar, a half-weight in flour. Bake it in pans the thickness of jelly cakes. Take two pounds of nice "A" sugar, squeeze into it the juice of five oranges and three lemons together with the pulp; stir it in the sugar until perfectly smooth; then spread it on the cakes, as you would do jelly, putting one above another till the whole of the sugar is used up. Spread a layer of it on top and on sides. This is the original citrus cake named...
(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by L.A. Godey, Sarah J. Hale, 1864) Ingredients: 1 teacup of best rice, softened in new milk powdered loaf sugar currant jelly, or preserved fruit of any kind 5 egg whites powdered sugar orange-flower water, or vanilla 1 tbsp. rich cream Instructions: This will be found a very ornamental as well as a delicious dish for a supper-table. Boil a teacupful of the best rice till quite soft in new milk, sweeten it with powdered loaf sugar, and pile it up on a dish. Lay on it in different places square lumps of either currant jelly or preserved fruit of any kind; beat up the whites of five eggs to a stiff froth, with a little powdered sugar, and flavor with either orange-flower water or vanilla. Add to...
(from The Book of Household Management, edited by Isabella Beeton, 1861) Ingredients: 1 pint new milk 6 oz. flour 6 oz. sugar 6 oz. butter 6 oz. currants 6 eggs brandy nutmeg Instructions: 1260. INGREDIENTS. - 1 pint of new milk, 6 oz. of flour, 6 oz. of sugar, 6 oz. of butter, 6 oz. of currants, 6 eggs, brandy and grated nutmeg to taste. Mode. - Mix the flour to a smooth batter with the milk, add the remaining ingredients gradually, and when well mixed, put it into four basins or moulds half full; bake for 3/4 hour, turn the puddings out on a dish, and serve with wine sauce. Time. - 3/4 hour. Average cost, 1s. 9d. Sufficient for 7 or 8 persons. Seasonable at any time. With brandy, nutmeg and currants, I thought that it sounds...
(from Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book by Catharine Beecher, 1846) Ingredients: 6 lbs. ripe strawberries 2 oz. citric acid 1 qt. spring water about 8 lbs. of sugar Instructions: Take three pounds of ripe strawberries, two ounces of citric acid, and one quart of spring water. Dissolve the acid in the water and pour it on to the strawberries, and let them stand in a cool place twenty-four hours. Then drain the liquid off and pour it on to three pounds more of strawberries, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Then add to the liquid its own weight of sugar, boil it three or four minutes (in a porcelain lined preserve kettle, lest metal may affect the taste), and when cool, cork it in bottles lightly for three days, and then tight...
(from The Kentucky Housewife, by Lettice Bryan, 1839) Ingredients: thyme parsley sweet basil sweet marjoram the peel of two fresh oranges the peel of one lemon 1/2 oz. of mace 1/2 oz. of black pepper 1/4 oz. of cayenne pepper 1/4 oz. of cloves 1 quart of good vinegar salt 1/2 pint of madeira wine 1/2 pint of rum Instructions: Chop fine a small handful of thyme, parsley, sweet basil, sweet marjoram, the peel of two fresh oranges, and one lemon, half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of black pepper, a quarter of an ounce of cayenne pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Put them all in a pan with a quart of good vinegar, cover it, and boil it a few minutes till the flavor of the spices, &c. is extracted. Then strain it, throw in...
(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by L.A. Godey, Sarah J. Hale, 1866) Ingredients: 3 eggs 2 ounces of fresh butter, or well-washed salt butter 1 teaspoonful of cream, or new milk Serve on buttered toast Instructions: Very convenient for invalids, or, when required, a light dish for supper. Beat up three eggs with two ounces of fresh butter, or well-washed salt butter; add a teaspoonful of cream or new milk. Put all in a saucepan and keep stirring it over the fire for five minutes, until it rises up like a souffle, when it should be immediately dished on buttered toast. Photo by Ren West, CC 2.0
(from A Poetical Cook Book by Maria J. Moss, 1864) "Of wine she never tasted through the year, But white and black was all her homely cheer, Brown bread and milk (but first she skimmed her bowls), And rasher of singed bacon on the coals." -Chaucer Ingredients: 2 quarts of rye 2 quarts of Indian meal 3 pints of milk 2 tablespoons of salt 1/2 pint of good, fresh yeast; if from the brewery and quite fresh, a smaller quantity will suffice. Instructions: Sift the rye and Indian meal, and mix them well together. Boil the milk; pour it boiling upon the meal; add the salt, and stir the whole very hard. Let it stand till it becomes of only a lukewarm heat, and then stir in the yeast. Knead the mixture into a stiff dough, and set it to rise...
(from Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery, by Eliza Leslie, 1838) Ingredients: 2 quarts rye 2 quarts Indian meal 3 pints milk 2 tsp. salt 1/2 pint good fresh yeast Instructions: Sift two quarts of rye, and two quarts of Indian meal, and mix them well together. Boil three pints of milk; pour it boiling hot upon the meal; add two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and stir the whole very hard. Let it stand till it becomes of only a lukewarm heat, and then stir in half a pint of good fresh yeast; if from the brewery and quite fresh, a smaller quantity will suffice. Knead the mixture into a stiff dough, and set it to rise in a pan. Cover it with a thick cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it near the fire. When it is quite light, and has...
(from F. W. Claussen in the Charleston, South Carolina Mercury, February 8, 1862) Ingredients: rye grains Instructions: Take rye, boil it, but not so much as to burst the grain; then dry it, either in the sun, on the stove, or in a kiln, after which it is ready for parching, to be used like the real Coffee Bean. Prepared in this manner, it can hardly be distinguished from the genuine Coffee. The Rye when boiled and dried, will keep for any length of time, so as to have it ready whenever wanted for parching.
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