14 historic cookbooks reviewed by John Stimson and Rena Goff. 1.5 hours (!)
A few recipes from 1902 Mother’s Cook Book
Very Good Puff-Paste (recipe follows)
To every pound of flour allow one pound of butter, and not quite one-half pint of water.
Carefully weigh the flour and butter, and have the exact proportion; squeeze the butter well, to extract the water from it, and afterwards wring it in a clean cloth, that no moisture may remain.
Sift the flour; see that it is perfectly dry, and proceed in the following manner to make the paste, using a very clean paste-board and rolling-pin.
Supposing the quantity to be one pound of flour, work the whole into a smooth paste, with not quite one-half pint of water, using a knife to mix it with; the proportion of this latter ingredient must be regulated by the discretion of the cook; if too much be added, the paste, when baked, will be tough.
Roll it out until it is of an equal thickness of about an inch; break four ounces of the butter into small pieces; place these on the paste, sift over it a little flour, fold it over, roll out again, and put another four ounces of butter. Repeat the rolling and buttering until the paste has been rolled out four times, or equal quantities of flour and butter have been used. Do not omit, every time the paste is rolled out, to dredge a little flour over that and the rolling-pin, to prevent both from sticking. Handle the paste as lightly as possible, and do not press heavily upon it with the rolling-pin.
The next thing to be considered is the oven, as the baking of pastry requires particular attention. Do not put it into the oven until it is sufficiently hot to raise the paste; for the best-prepared paste, if not properly baked, will be good for nothing. Brushing the paste as often as rolled out, and the pieces of butter placed theron, with the white of an egg, assists it to rise in leaves or flakes. As this is the great beauty of puff-paste, it is as well to try this method.
MUSTARD SAUCE, also from the Book Mother’s Cook Book, 1902
Put half a pint of milk in a perfectly clean stewpan, and set it over a moderate fire; put into a pint bowl a heaping tablespoonful of wheat flour, quarter of a pound of sweet butter, and a saltspoonful of salt; work these well together with the back of a spoon, then pour into it, stirring it all the time, half a pint of boiling water; when it is smooth, stir it into the boiling milk, let it simmer for five minutes or more…Stir three tablespoonfuls of mixed mustard and a speck of Cayenne into the butter sauce… and it is done….
