NCN Videos
Cooking Demonstrations
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The following series of cooking demonstrations were created in partnership with The Milan Museum, Milan, Ohio. This five-part video series features step-by-step tutorials on how to create an authentic 1860s meal from period recipes. Each video is accompanied with the original recipes and modern conversions.
First Course: Baked Apples
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To "Bake Apples Whole"
Source: Domestic Cookery, Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, 1845
Wash and core your apples, and in the vacancy left by the core, put brown sugar, and bake them in a stove or oven.
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Modern Conversion:
Use 6-10 apples, depending on size. Core to remove seeds but do not peel. Place in a baking dish. Sprinkle vacancy with cinnamon and nutmeg and pack each apple with brown sugar. Add a tablespoon of water to bottom of pan. Cover with a lid or foil. Bake in a 350-degree oven until soft, 30-40 mins.
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To "Preserve Apples for the Year Round"
Source: The American Frugal Housewife, Lydia Maria Child, 1832
Put them in casks in layers of dry sand. Let the sand be perfectly dry, and each layer being covered keeps them from the air, from moisture, from frost, and from perishing, as the sand absorbs their moisture, which generally perishes them. Pippins have often been kept in this manner until mid-summer; and were as fresh then as when put in.
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Modern Conversion:
Use apples; sand; wooden boxes. Apples need to be free from bruises or cuts. Place a layer of sand in the bottom of the box. Add apples so they do not touch the sides of the box or each other. Layer more sand on top of the apples. Repeat, ending with a thick layer of sand. Note: Pippins are difficult to find however, according to quarryhillorchards.com, Northern Spies make great storing apples.
Main Course: Chicken Croquettes
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"Chicken Croquettes"
Source: Ladies’ Indispensable Assistant, 1852
Take the skin from a cold boiled chicken; mince the meat fine from the bones, mix it with an equal portion of grated tongue or ham, add a handful of grated nutmeg, a teaspoonful of grated lemon and enough yolks of eggs to make it sufficiently moist to make into balls; pound it in a mortar till it becomes a smooth mass; then make it into balls the size of walnuts, flour, and fry them a light brown in butter.
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Modern Conversion:
Use 2 cups finely minced, cooked chicken, 2 cups minced, cooked ham; 2-3 egg yolks, ½ tsp nutmeg; 1 tbsp lemon juice; pepper, salt, lemon zest to taste. Combine all ingredients and mix well – pound in a mortar to make a smooth consistency. Roll mixture into balls the size of walnuts, then roll each ball in flour to coat. Fry in hot shortening in a frying pan. Note: these are similar to modern-day meatballs.
Main Course (side dish): Macaroni Pipes with Cheese
"Macaroni Pipes with Cheese"
Source: The Cook’s Own Book, 1832
Simmer it in a little stock, with pounded mace and salt, and an onion stuck with two cloves. Boil them for three quarters of an hour. When quite tender, take it out of the liquor, lay it in a dish, grate over it a good deal of cheese, then over that put bread grated very fine. Warm some butter without oiling, and pour it from a boat through a little earthen cullender all over the crumbs, then put the dish in a Dutch oven to roast the cheese, and brown the bread of a fine color. The bread should be in separate crumbs and look light.
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Modern Conversion:
Use 8 ounces macaroni; chicken or beef broth for cooking macaroni; ½ tsp salt; ½ tsp mace; 1 ½ cups grated parmesan cheese; ½ cup fresh grated bread crumbs; ¼ cup butter. Boil the macaroni, according to directions on box, using broth seasoned with cloves and mace. Drain when macaroni is tender. Mix cooked, drained pasta with cheese and place in greased baking dish. Cover with bread crumbs and drizzle with melted butter. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 20-30 minutes. Serve hot. Note: I covered the dish with a lid for baking, then uncovered and browned the bread crumbs under the broiler for 1 minute. You may also want to add additional butter to the pasta along with the cheese to improve flavor.
Main Course (side dish): Cold Slaugh
"Cold Slaugh"
Source: The Kentucky Housewife, Lettice Bryan, 1839
Select firm, fragile heads of cabbage (no other sort being fit for slaugh); having stripped off the outer leaves, cleave the top part of the head into four equal parts, leaving the lower part whole, so that they may not be separated till shaved or cut fine from the stalk. Take a very sharp knife, shave off the cabbage roundwise, cutting it very smoothly and evenly, and at no rate more than a quarter of an inch in width. Put the shavings or slaugh in a deep china dish, pile high, and make it smooth; mix with enough good vinegar to nearly fill the dish, a sufficient quantity of salt and pepper to season the slaugh, garnish it round on the edge of the dish with pickled eggs, cut into ringlets. Never put butter on the cabbage that is to be eaten cold, as it is by no means pleasant to the taste or sight.
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Modern Conversion:
Use fresh cabbage, cut in quarters; vinegar; salt; pepper; mustard seeds. Shave the cabbage with a sharp knife. Place in a large serving dish. Prepare the dressing with sufficient vinegar for the amount of cabbage you have. Add other ingredients in proportion to the vinegar and pour over the cabbage.
Dessert: Pumpkin Pie
"Pie Crust"
Source: American Frugal Housewife, Lydia Maria Child, 1832
To make pie crust for common use, a quarter of a pound of butter is enough for half a pound of flour. Take out about a quarter part of flour you intend to use, and lay aside. Into the remainder of the flour, rub butter thoroughly with your hands, until it is so short that a handful of it, clasped tight, will remain in a ball, without any tendency to fall in pieces. Then wet it with cold water, roll it out on a board, rub over the surface with flour, stick little lumps of butter all over it, sprinkle some flour over the butter, and roll the dough all up; flour the paste; and flour the rolling pin, and roll it quickly and lightly; and so on, till you have used up your butter. Always roll from you. Pie crust should be made as cold as possible, and set in a cool place; but be careful it does not freeze. Do not use more flour that you can help in sprinkling and rolling. The paste should not be rolled out more than three times; or it will not be flaky.
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Modern Conversion:
For a double crust use 2 cups flour; ½ cup butter or margarine, 6 tbsp cold water. For single crust use 1 cup flour, ¼ cup butter or margarine, 3 tbsp cold water. Combine the flour and butter and mix well. Mixture should resemble meal. Next add the water to the flour and combine to form a dough. Do not over mix as your crust will be tough. You may need to add more water to form the dough. If so, add a tablespoon at a time as not to have the dough too wet.
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"Pumpkin Pie"
Source: Kentucky Housewife, Lettice Bryan, 1839
Line a buttered pie-pan with standing paste, and crimp it neatly round the edge. Having stewed a fine sweet pumpkin, mash it to a pulp, press it through a cullender, and put it in a sauce-pan, liquefying it with sweet milk. Put it on the fire, and when it begins to boil, add enough butter and sugar to make it sufficiently rich; stew it gently, stirring it all the time, till it is of proper consistency for pies; then take it from the fire, and set it by to cool. After which, stir well into it two or three beaten eggs, a half teacup of brandy. Add some cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Put a thick layer of it in your paste, bake it in a moderate oven, and grate sugar over it when done. Pumpkin pies when properly made, are very good. A salt-spoon of salt may be added to pumpkin and squash pies, which will assist in taking off the raw taste.
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Modern Conversion:
Use 2 cups stewed and mashed pumpkin; 3 eggs; ¼ cup brandy; ½ cup brown sugar; 2 tbsp butter; 2 cups whole milk (add 1 tbsp corn starch to ensure pumpkin sets); cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to equal 1 tbsp. Combine the pumpkin, sugar, and milk in a pan and heat. Allow to cool slightly and add the eggs, brandy, and spices, stirring to keep the eggs from cooking in the heated pumpkin. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the crust, flute edges, and bake in a 425-degree oven for 15 mins, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake another 35 mins. until pumpkin is set. Allow to cool before cutting. *I followed the period recipe and baked it in a 350-degree oven for 60 mins. I also put stewed pumpkin mixture in a blender to smooth it out.
"Pompkin Pie"
Source: American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, 1796
Two versions of this recipe: Number 1) One quart stewed and strained pompkin, three pints cream, nine beaten eggs, mace, nutmeg, and ginger, laid into paste and baked into dishes three quarters of an hour. Number 2) One quart stewed and strained pompkin, one quart milk, four beaten eggs, molasses, allspice, and ginger to taste, laid into paste and bake one hour.
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Note: this is an early recipe so it is very different from the flavor our modern tastebuds associate with pumpkin pie! Baker beware as the first time I made this, I was turned off by the flavor and consistency. No cinnamon! And I used a carving pumpkin instead of a pie pumpkin. Yuck!
First-Person Speeches
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Angie giving a riveting first-person speech at the Maritime Museum of Sandusky in February 2020. The speech was a highlight at the museum's unveiling of their Underground Railroad exhibit. North Coast Narrative members Angie and Doug both attended the event in period-appropriate attire.