Cool Desserts for a Victorian Summer Evening

Cool Desserts for a Victorian Summer Evening

Cool, inexpensive dessert recipes appealed to our Victorian grandmothers, especially in summertime heat. These three recipes, published in the Saint Paul Globe of Saint Paul, Minnesota on June 24, 1888 were perfect for a cameo appearance in my Holidays in Mountain Home title 8– Unmistakably Yours.

Victorian Fare: Cookies

Victorian Fare: Cookies

Can you imagine baking cookies like a Victorian? Given many ingredients and measuring methods are unfamiliar to today’s cooks, I’ve shared brief info about those mystery ingredients and 19th-century measuring implements.

Book Review–Things Mother Used to Make: A Collection of Old Time Recipes, Some Nearly One Hundred Years Old and Never Published Before

Book Review–Things Mother Used to Make: A Collection of Old Time Recipes, Some Nearly One Hundred Years Old and Never Published Before

This book review of an historic cookbook illuminates my reasons for a 4.5-star review. This vintage cookbook is so much more than a collection of historic recipes–it provides a peek into the homemaker’s roles, available ingredients, methods of food preparation and attitudes about waste, as well as regional favorites. Small elements–such as reference to measuring salt with a dessert spoon–explains much to amateur historians about the way things once were. Article includes one of the recipes from the book: cream pie with a rich pie crust.