• 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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Mixed Dishes Gumbo

gumbo
512px-Gumbo_%281027297591%29.jpg
(from The Kentucky Housewife, by Lettice Bryan, 1839)

Ingredients:

2 quarts ripe tomatoes​
2 quarts young pods of ochra​
4 oz. butter​
salt and pepper​
serve with crackers, toasts, or light bread​

Instructions:

Peel two quarts of ripe tomatoes, mix with them two quarts of young pods of ochra, and chop them small; put them into a stew pan, without any water; add four ounces of butter, and salt and pepper to your taste, and boil them gently and steadily for one hour; then pass it through a sieve into a tureen, and send to table with it, crackers, toasts, or light bread.​

Photo by Father.Jack, CC-2.0
 
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Out of these 13 recipes, 9 were well known ( and very common during the Civil War) :

Now that's just cruel. You shouldn't leave us hanging this way!

I can't say for most whether these recipes were common or not during the Civil War, but I know Sazerac was around then because there were at least two bars in Nevada (one in Virginia City; the other in Austin) named the Sazerac Saloon. And the Muffuletta is one that was not around; it's generally traced to Italian immigrants in the early 1900s. King's Cake has been around since the middle ages, but there's some debate about whether it was in New Orleans before the Civil War -- most historians have it showing up there in the 1870s. But some claim it was there much earlier, and I don't know which you'd go with!
 
Now that's just cruel. You shouldn't leave us hanging this way!
I didn't intend to leave anyone in suspense.
Much less be cruel !

:bounce:

But you do seem to be well versed about New Orleans cuisine.
And I have altered my list.

A Muffuletta and Yakamein soup are indeed 20th Century creations.

Plus, there's no doubt that some version of the Po'boy has been around NOLA since before their "official incorporation" back in 1718.

The story of a Sazerac cocktail is so convoluted ... I doubt we will ever know the true history.
(much like New Orlean's long and complicated relationship with Absinthe).

I don't know which you'd go with!

Always trust what the locals say about any topic in their area.

:smile coffee:
 
Since folks have hit this thread up again, I thought I would share my solution to the okra problem; red okra. We planted this, this year and the plants have been pumping out okra really well since late July. We missed a week of picking and when I went out found the okra to be in excess of a foot long, no good for eating of course.

View attachment 418884
Never saw that before. Wow.
 
Agreed, never knew such existed.

It look's like rhubarb.

I wonder if it can be chopped-up, dredged in cornmeal ... and fried ... like "normal" okra ?

:D
They can. The taste is slightly different but you know you are eating okra. Just do not let them grow to a foot in length. Ours seemed to sprout new shoots every time I cut one so as the summer went on it was pumping out more and more. I believe we got about 10 one gallon freezer bags worth chopped about 1/4-1/2" from three plants. We are still getting okra but we stopped harvesting when we had two dogs die within a month.
 
They can. The taste is slightly different but you know you are eating okra. Just do not let them grow to a foot in length. Ours seemed to sprout new shoots every time I cut one so as the summer went on it was pumping out more and more. I believe we got about 10 one gallon freezer bags worth chopped about 1/4-1/2" from three plants.
Yep ... that is okra.

Miss one day and the pods have grown three inches overnight.
Miss two days and they are up to one foot.

My Dad came from a farming family, so he would plant okra in his yearly vegetable garden.
But he made me harvest the new pods every morning (before school).
My hands & arms would itch all day after cutting okra & brushing up against those stalks !

:furious:

we stopped harvesting when we had two dogs die within a month.

:frown:
 
Yep ... that is okra.

Miss one day and the pods have grown three inches overnight.
Miss two days and they are up to one foot.

My Dad came from a farming family, so he would plant okra in his yearly vegetable garden.
But he made me harvest the new pods every morning (before school).
My hands & arms would itch all day after cutting okra & brushing up against those stalks !

:furious:



:frown:
I never noticed any itching, maybe the stalks just do not like me.
 
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