Reclaiming Old Cooking Methods, Preserving the past

This probably goes along with the Early American Recipes thread.


I was just given my Great grandma's cookbooks a couple months ago. The majority of them are old, like the cookbook from 1896.

I have looked through these and realized that cooking has really changed a lot. I have been trying to revive these menthods in the way I cook.

I would hate for it to die out. Does anyone else feel the same way?

I sure do!!!!

My family from myself down through my 6 kids ( 26 year down to 10 years old ) can all cook over an open fire, in the hearth, and on top of a wood stove. Some times the neighbors think we are nuts... we will on occasion dig a firepit in the back yard when the electric is out and cook away! We smoke and barbeque year round... I have been seen in a blizzard flippin steaks on the grill ...LOL!!!

And no this should be a topic all it's own!
Fuels used for cooking in the past are varied and each require special attention. Some used peat, some dried cattle dung, etc. to cook over and all where not early american.

The old methods may not be time savers, but they sure as hell can be life savers!

Think about it!

Everything tastes better cooked over an open fire.

Oh, this is a HUGE passion of mine! I have been working on a cookbook for several years. And in it are the Old ways of cooking. What i have been doing is taking family recipes ( mine included) from all the states I have visited. From people cooking in little camping areas, or resturants, and ask people about the food they make at home. (This normally happens in little towns. ) I tell them what I am doing and they are usually glad to help!

I still have many more states to visit and many i want to go back to. Always lots to do with it...

I actually fried my first sausages on an old coal fire-cooker =) it's mine now, standing somewhere in Germany until I can have it shipped over. I love that thing and it generates so much warmth in the kitchen..

I intend to make my dream kitchen mostly myself one day, make the furniture, the work tops and such. And then two cookers, my coalfire one and a modern gas one. And maybe a japanese cooking plate (those big metal things). Depends on how much money I can spend on it. But since eating and cooking is one of the most important things in my life, the kitchen is going to be the heart of my house.

Btw, nothing better than a stew that boiled down for hours on the oven, or a roast out of a log-fire...

Potting meats is a very old tradition in most cultures and is a form of preserving meat in a clarified fat or butter... this recipe is from the 1800's:

Recipe Name: POTTED TONGUE
Category: 19TH CENTURY
Serves: 6

SOURCE FEEDING AMERICA: THE HISTORIC COOKBOOK PROJECT

1 cold boiled tongue, all hard parts removed
cut into small pieces and afterwards pounded
into a smooth paste .
(a modern food procesor makes short work of this)
cayenne, to taste
1/4 the weight of the tongue of clarified butter

Take the remains of a cold boiled tongue, remove all the hard parts and cut the meat into small pieces,afterwards pounding into a smooth paste. Season with cayenne, and beat with 1/4 it's weight of clarified butter. Press it into small jars, cover it one-fourth deep with clarified butter, melted drippings, or melted suet. A smaller portion of butter will be required if a little of the fat of the tongue is used instead of the lean only, but the butter must not be entierly dispensed with. It can be seasoned by the addition of one teasoonful of mixed mustard, one saltspoonful of white pepper, a pinch of cayenne, and as much nutmeg as will cover a three cent piece to each pound of tongue. Potted tongue is excellent when pounded with cold chicken, cold veal, or partridge. The tongue must be pounded to a perfectly smooth paste.


From Mrs. Frank H. Daniell , of New Hampshire, Alternate Lady Manager, circa 1893

This recipe is can be made with whatever greens are available:

QUICK SPINACH
Make this recipe with spinach or chickweed or lamb's lettuce or lamb's quarters or nettles, all can be found growing wild. With spinach wash and shake off as much water as posslble because a great deal of water will come out of the spinach itself during cooking. Do not cut the spinach. With the other plants, add a half cup of water after washing, and again, do not cut the leaves. After cooking, the dish can be kept in pot or pan for a few minutes. It will retain its green colour and flavour. If you dislike "spinach", you will enjoy a new, favourful taste.
This recipe is not so much a take along meal but one that can be made from forage.

· 1 full tsp salt
· 3 tbsps oil or
· 2 heaping tbsps lard


1. Heat oil or lard in skillet until hot.
2. Add spinach or other greens and salt,
3. Stir and turn for 3 minutes and it is done.

This topic came on with such passion and now seems to have died!

You all have old relatives and some of you still cook using old methods... what happened? Come on share!

It would be my dream to be able to have a stove like this in my home.



A true woodburning stove. I've seen the same styles modernized as electric and gas, too.

HERE is a link to a suppliers website.

Do any of you know what a spyder is?
Can you cook in a real "dutch oven" ?

Share some more methods here please.

Ah the wood cook stove...old but not much different then modern stoves , just had to feed them wood. LOL!

Hmmm, old style cooking methods huh? Some of those are the norm down here. Whenever we have a big fiesta and make a big pot of arroz con pollo, it is cooked outside over wood. Mainly since the paila (big, round bottomed pan) is too big for the stove.

Below is a clay pot made for supporting a pan and cooking with wood. These are called a fugón de barro.

The picture is of one in use in the rancho behind the house in Pesé. Complete with arroz con pollo cooking above.


Leo


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Thank you !!! That is the type stuff I am looking for here...

What is used for fuel in places without much wood ? Can you answer, anyone?

The following pic is how we do it in the century I play in:

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A quarter mile from where I work is a panaderia (bakery). Called Pan de La Arena, it is the most famous and copied bakery in this country. Below is a picture looking inside one of the two clay ovens. The ovens themselves are made of clay layed over small twigs and sticks to make the form. These have been closed off across the front with clay brick to make an enclosed room for health reasons. But the clay ovens are much like they have always been. They are fired with wood in the fire box down below the floor of the oven.

Leo (incidentally, this is no reenactment, these ovens are still in use daily)



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Cool! I love it! By the way my family cooks over open fire as often as we can( not just at reenactments )... as I have said before we have a fire pit dug in the backyard ( neighbors think we are nuts , LOL! ). We cook in our fireplace and on our wood stove as well.

Can one supply directions for building such things?

I am looking for the directions I have on how to build a beehive oven from here in the colonies... soon to be posted!