Economical Housekeeper

In 1845, The New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book was published and sold for the grand price of 25 cents.   Interestingly enough, the inside title page says the name of the book is The American Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book, written by Mrs. E.A. Howland.  The copy I have access to notes that it is the second edition, reprinted after brisk sales as the original 1500 copies sold out in a mere 15 weeks.  The second edition has those recipes with no practical utility removed and more than 50 new recipes added, which they tell us have been tried and approved.

The cake recipe which struck my fancy was recipe number 103, Bedford Cake.   It's a simple cake and the recipe looked to be not horribly expensive to make, not overly rich, flexible and I had the ingredients on hand.  





One pound of flour.  It's easier to weigh it but depending on your flour and the humidity, it's between 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups of flour.    I'd start with about 3 cups if you don't have a scale.  It's a pretty flexible cake.   One pound of sugar is 2 cups.  A quarter pound of butter is 1/2 cup.   Four eggs are what the chooks laid the day before, so the number was quite hand.    A tea-cup of milk is about 1/2 cup.   If you don't have sour milk handy, add a couple of teaspoons full of vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk.  I used skim because it's what was in the fridge.   I also used sour milk because the rising agent called for is saleratus, which is another name for baking soda or sodium bicarbinate by this time.   Spice and fruit to suit your taste.   That took a bit of thought.  I had currants, so about 6 oz or 1 1/2 cups.   I also put in 1/2 cup of candied citrus peel because not only was there some in the pantry, but it really adds a nice zing to the sweetness of the currants.   For spice I added a variety of spices commonly used together in these types of cakes, a blend of cinnamon, mace, allspice and nutmeg.

3 cups flour (454 gm)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cups butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup sour milk
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup candied citrus peel
1/2 nutmeg, grated (about 1 tsp.)
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp mace
2 tsp cinnamon

cream butter and sugar together.  Stir eggs in one at a time until they are well blended.  Add milk and stir well until blended.  Mix spices, fruit, baking soda with flour.   Combine the flour mixture with the wet ingredients, stirring together just until smooth.   Pour into greased 9 x 9 pan and bake at 350 until done.  Start checking about 25 - 30 minutes.    I've not done this in my home oven yet, only the bake oven, so I'm sort of guessing at the time.  The bake oven was cooling down and that adds a bit of extra time to whatever one is baking at the moment.

This was really delicious!  I was a bit worried about the amount of sugar because it's twice as much a lot of recipes with these sorts of ingredient ratios have, but it was fine.  Definitely a sweet cake, but the citrus peel did cut that a bit and the amount of spice countered the sweetness as well.

Bake Oven and White Projects

It's Open Doors at Westfield, on May 4th.  That means there is no entry fee to the museum!    Most, if not all of the buildings will be open as there will be lots of volunteers.   If you need something to do, it would be a great day to visit the site.    It will be the first day this year that the bake oven will be working.   If all goes well, 'cause baking outside in a downpour just isn't very much fun, there will be bread, cake and cookies in the oven.   Maybe even more in celebration of the first run of the oven.   I'm pretty sure the cookies will be an exploration of ginger.  There are so many gingerbread recipes in 19th c. cookbooks, with lots of variations, some minor and some extreme.   I'm also wondering about exploring the use of egg whites as levening but am not sure that I want to whip egg whites by hand for an hour, before I can mix my ingredients.    I was reading in one cookery book that it is noted that it is always mindful to separate the eggs and beat the yelks and the whites separately, adding the whites in just before baking. We'll see about that one.

Whatever I'll be baking tomorrow, I'll be sporting my new day cap, based on one from the Anitoch Historical Societies collection.  This is a wearable mock up, made in a very soft, white cotton.  Instead of using lace like the original, I used plain cotton for the ruffles and only did two of them. I think the original has at least 3 ruffles around the face and a separate ruffle at the back.  But to work the bake oven, where I've a good chance of getting, wet, smokey, sooty and smudged with batter, I want a plain cap that will wash easily.  From the look my DH gave me when I modeled it, I'd say it's about as attractive on me as it would be on anyone else.  However, the aim was for period acceptable and I had to admit, that wearing a cap does keep the hair controlled, tidy and cleaner. 



It seems to have been a week of working with white.   I finished spinning up two separate bobbins of cotton.  Okay, really only half bobbins full.  I plied them for this mediocre 2 ply cotton yarn for Level 5 dyeing.  If I'd kept going and done 3/4 bobbins full, I'd have had enough for all the dyeing, but there is only 300 yards here.  I still need 160 for one particular dyeing exercise.  I decided to switch up and spin some Ramie.  Ugh.. I so don't like ramie.  It's slippery and fussy.  While it can be spun both wet and dry, I find I don't like the feel of it wet.  I've been spinning it dry, which makes it a bit of a hairy yarn.   I've no idea what my yardage is yet because I didn't measure when I should have.   Instead, I'll guess and then spin up a second bobbin to match, hopefully having enough.