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Old Recipe Book Provides Amusing Puzzles

By Capper's Staff
Published on August 30, 2012

I have an old recipe book dating back to about 1850. It includes general information as well as recipes – such as a method for removing head lice! I was amused by a formula for a face lotion containing an ample amount of whisky. Imagine going to a party after using that!

Here and there in the book are recipes contributed by Nellie. I’ve often wondered who Nellie was. Here is Nellie’s Pudding recipe:

“Half a pound of flour, half a pound of treacle, half a pound of suet, the rind and juice of one lemon, a few strips of candied lemon peel, three tablespoons cream, two eggs. Chop suet fine; mix it with flour, treacle, lemon peel minced and candied lemon peel; add the cream, lemon juice and two well-beaten eggs. Beat the pudding well, put in a buttered basin, tie it down with a cloth and boil from three and a half to four hours.”

In the book is a recipe for a ribbon cake that has left me puzzled. It is baked in three layers, a dark one for the center. The cake is put together with jelly while warm, and I quote: “Lay a paper over all and then a thin sheet on which put two irons. The cakes will be pressed in about two hours.”

Mrs. Kenneth L. Chase
Burr, Nebraska


Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.