A Second Sort of Lemon Cheesecakes

Take two large lemons, grate off the peel of both, and squeeze out the juice of one, and add to it half a pound of double-refined sugar, twelve yolks of eggs, eight whites well beaten, then melt half a pound butter in four or five spoonfuls of cream, then stir it all together and set it over the fire, stirring it till it begins to be pretty thick; then take it off, and when it is cold, fill your patty-pans little more than half full. Put a paste very thin at the bottom of your patty-pans. Half an hour, with a quick oven, will bake them.

From The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, by Mrs. Glasse, 1805

A modern interpretation: Lemon Cheesecake

1/2 lb. Butter
1 lb. Sugar 2 ¼ cups
2 lg. Lemons, plus the grated peel
A dozen eggs
4 or 5 spoonfuls of cream

Combine ingredients and bake in a pastry shell. (The all-purpose pie crust of the 18th century was puff paste, which Pepperidge Farm makes – look for it in the freezer section.) Bake in a 350º oven until a knife stuck in the center comes out clean.

To make a Corn Pudding

Take six large, tender, milky ears of corn. Split the corn down the center of each row, cut off the top and then scrape the cob well. Beat two eggs and stir them into the corn. Add one fourth cup of flour, one teaspoon of salt and one half teaspoon of black pepper. Stir in one pint of fresh milk and mix all together thoroughly. Put in a cold buttered pan about four inches deep. Cover the top with two heaping tablespoonfuls of butter cut in small pieces. Bake in a moderately hot oven about one hour. Serve hot.
From The Williamsburg’s Art of Cooking

Modern interpretation:

2 c. corn kernels (fresh or canned)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. Flour
½ tsp. Salt
Pepper to taste
1 c. milk

Combine the above ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Spoon the mixture into a greased 1 ½ quart casserole, and bake at 350° F. for around 45 minutes, or until just set in the center. Let stand a few minutes before serving.

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and instant yeast. In a separate bowl, stir together the warm milk and melted butter. Combine the milk mixture with the flour mixture to form a soft dough. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes until it is silky smooth. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Set the bowl in a warm place and allow it to rise for about 1-1 1/2 hours.

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/2". Cut into small squares. Separate the squares and cover with a damp cloth and set aside for another 30 minutes.

 In the meantime, heat your frying fat to 350 degrees. Ease the doughnuts, one at a time into the hot oil with a slotted spoon. Once they turn golden brown on one side, carefully slip them over to fry the other side.

When done, remove from fat and drain on a cloth. When cool enough to handle, roll in cinnamon and sugar.

Cara cuts up the dough to just the right size:

Dough nuts frying in oil over the camp fire:

 

Dough nuts about to be coated with cinnamon sugar on left and finished dough nuts on right. Scrumptious!

To Make Gingerbread Cakes

Take three pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, one pound of butter rubbed in very fine, two ounces of ginger beat fine, a large nutmeg grated; then take a pound of treacle, a quarter of a pint of cream, make them warm together, and make up the bread stiff; roll it out, and make it up into thin cakes, cut them out with a tea-cup, or small glass, or roll them round like nuts, and bake them on tin plates in a slack oven.
From The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy by Hannah Glasse, 1747 & 1796

Modern Adaptation

21 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 pound butter
1 tbsp. Ginger
1 tsp. Nutmeg
H cup molasses
2 tbsp. Cream

Add more molasses if needed. Roll thin (3 – 1 inch). Cut out using any cookie cutter. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in a 350º oven.

From The Backcountry Housewife, Vol. I, Improved by Kay Moss and Kathryn Hoffman, 1985 & 1994.

To make an Orange Pudding

You must take sixteen yolks of eggs, beat them fine, mix them with half a pound of butter melted, and half a pound of white sugar, half a pint of cream, a little rose water, and a little nutmeg. Cut the peel of a fine large Seville orange so thin as none of the white appears, beat it fine in a mortar till it is like a paste, and by degree mix in the above ingredients all together; then lay a puff paste all over the dish, pour in the ingredients, and bake it.

From the Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, by Mrs. Glasse, 1805

Our interpretation:

Colonial eggs were smaller so use 13 – 14 eggs. A half pound of sugar is about 1 1/8 cups. We replaced the rose water with juice from about ½ orange (about ¼ cup). Use about a half a nutmeg, grated. Use any pie crust; Pepperidge Farm makes a puff paste, located in the freezer aisle of your grocery store. Cook in a moderate oven (350º.) It is done when a knife comes out clean.

To make a Pound Cake

Take a pound of butter, beat it in an earthen pan with your hand one way till it is like a fine thick cream; then have ready twelve eggs, but half the whites, beat them well, and beat them up with the butter, a pound of flour beat in it, a pound of sugar, and a few caraways ; beat all well together for an hour with your hand, or a great wooden spoon, butter a pan and put it in, and then bake it an hour in a quick oven.
For a change, you may put in a pound of currants, clean washed and picked.

From The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, by Mrs. Glasse, 1796

Our adaptation:

Flour should be spoon sifted into your measuring cup.

1 lb. butter
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
10 egg yolks
5 egg whites
Caraway seeds or currants if you like

Cream butter and sugar with large wooden spoon until well-mixed. Beat egg yolks and whites together, and add gradually to butter and sugar mix, mixing thoroughly with electric mixer. When mixture is smooth and blended, add flour gradually, mixing until well blended. Mix in seeds or currants by hand. Place in a greased/floured tube pan or two bread (loaf) pans, and bake in a 325º oven for 1 hour or longer if needed. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into center comes out dry and clean.

To Make a Quakeing Pudding

Take a quart of creame & put 2 or 3 spoonfulls of it in a dish, with a spoonful of wheat floure, beat it a good while, yn put in a halfe a nutmeg, a little salt, a quarter of a pound of suger, & 10 eggs, youlks & whites; beat all these together a quarter of an houre, yn put in all the rest of the creame & keep it stired, then wet a cloth in faire water & butter it as far as you think the batter will goe; yn tie it up & put it into a pot that boils as fast as may be for halfe an houre.
From Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery, pre 1715

Modern interpretation:

1 quart of cream
4 tbsp. of wheat flour
1 tsp. of grated nutmeg
salt
1 cup of sugar plus 1 tbsp
10 eggs – colonial sized (8 or 9 large modern eggs)

Beat 3 tablespoons of cream with the flour for a good while.
Add nutmeg, salt, and sugar. Beat for 15 minutes. Add the rest of the cream.
Keep it stirred, then wet a cloth in water and butter it as far as the pudding will reach. Tie it up and boil it for half an hour. Be sure to keep the water boiling throughout the cooking period. Untie to check if it is completely cooked. Return to boiling water, if not.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pudding is mixed and ready to go in the bag!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cloth is buttered and floured and ready for the pudding batter. Be generous with the butter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tie up the bag tightly with string.

No leaks!

Keep the water boiling

It looks great and was tasty too!

A satisfied cook!