Why no actual Dinner at 1800 today? Because when this post goes up I’ll be overseas! So, I thought I’d leave you with some interesting facts and clarifications I’ve received from readers about the recipes I’ve made.
From Janelle S.:
Fried Cakes: [This] was a bit more authentic than you imagined. The livestock they traveled with would have been too valuable to slaughter on the trail as they would have wanted it to set up housekeeping. All meat drippings would be saved and used in cooking, such as your rendered ground beef fat.
Sponge Cake: It was a common practice in historic recipes to beat the egg yolks separate from the whites. The yolks with the sugar and butter, and the whites beaten to stiff peaks and folded in at the last to create lift and airiness. Baking soda, baking powder, etc were often not used at all in a recipe like that. The eggs being the only leavening.
From Marissa D.:
Apple Croquettes: I think the modern equivalent to “rubbing through a fine sieve” would be running it through a food mill. In that case, I think you’d end up with something more like apple sauce, and the crackers would help firm it up to hold shape.
Strawberry Dumplings: My Czech ancestors had recipes for fruit dumplings, but generally it was a whole stone fruit wrapped in dough and then boiled. The dough itself is pretty bland, so the dumplings were often served with melted butter, extra sugar to sprinkle, and sometimes cottage cheese.
From Jocelyn D. (who cooks in a historical kitchen! Follow her on Instagram):
In response to a question I asked her about what “sweet cream” meant: Typically a sweet cream or sweet milk refers to whole milk. As they had to differentiate between sweet milk, sour milk and buttermilk. They could have just said “use milk”, but then people would ask what kind. So sweet milk or cream just means whole milk which would have been the most readily available.
Forest Idylls 