Front Burner: 19th-century cookbooks
Nannie Figgat, the keeper of one of the cookbooks. Courtesy photo.
Mary Martha Godwin of Fincastle and her daughter, Nannie Figgat, collected recipes from family, friends and newspapers. This is no different from the way most of us operate, except Godwin and Figgat lived more than 150 years ago.
Their manuscript cookbooks are part of a larger collection of fascinating old documents purchased by Virginia Tech in 2000. In this past Sunday’s Extra, we shared what Figgat’s diary and family correspondence revealed about her life.
But the recipe books are just as interesting to researchers Gail McMillan and Jean Robbins. McMillan, director of digital archives at Virginia Tech, transcribed as many of the recipes as possible. It was a difficult task because some of the writing is so faded, and some pages are stained or torn.
Robbins, a retired dietitian and founding member of the university’s Peacock-Harper Culinary History Friends committee, studied the recipes in an effort to fill in the gaps. To unlock the hidden words, she referenced cookbooks from the same period, such as Mary Randolph’s 1824 “The Virginia House-Wife,”one of the earliest known American cookbooks.
As a result of their work, we are able to peek inside the household of a 19th-century Fincastle family.
To continue reading this column, click here.
If you missed Sunday’s story about Nannie’s life, click here.
Here are a few of the recipes from Mary Martha Godwin’s manuscript cookbook. What do you think of these?
Mince meat
Four pounds of suet, four pounds currants, two pounds raisins, three pounds sugar, eight lemmons, one-fourth pound of candied peel and a few apples.
Pickled Eggs
Boil the eggs until very hard; when cold, shell them and cut them in halves lenthways. Lay them carefully in large-mouthed jars, and pour over them scalding vinegar, well seasoned with whole pepper, allspice, a few pieces of ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. When cold, tie up closely, and let them stand a month. They are then fit for use. With cold meat, they are a most delicious and delicate pickle.
Rice Chicken Pie
To 1 large chicken 1 large cup of rice boiled together with a little salt until the rice is entirely done, remove the fowl, season the rice with a lump of butter the size of an egg, beat 3 eggs add to the rice alternately with a sufficient quantity of milk to reduce it to a thin batter, add pepper & salt to your taste, fill the dish alternately with a layer of batter then chicken, commencing and finishing with batter, bake until nicely browned.
December 14, 2011 - 5:48 AM
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The thing I love about the old cookbooks is that they already assume you know how to cook. Unlike modern books, which break everything down to the simplest steps, the old timers figured you had basic knowledge of cookery and if you didn’t, that was not the place for you to learn.
I love cooking from those old books now, for the challenge and for the way they spur invention/
Luckily, I found a copy of Mrs. Randolph’s “The Virginia Housewife” on eBay a couple of years ago, as well as a copy of “Housekeeping in Old Virginia.” Both books are quite interesting and while some of the recipes still work today, others are quite different. We are fortunate to be able to reference these cookbooks, which gives us insight into how many of our ancestors lived and provided for their families.
I’m wondering how much mince meat that recipe made.
Loved the stories of these two women, and I love reading old cookbooks.
Some of my grandmother’s recipes had ingredients without directions. I guess she just needed to remember how much of the ingredients were needed, she already knew what to do with them.