Found a recipe in a 200 year old notebook! UPDATED

[csziggy]

Last edited Sat Apr 12, 2014, 02:38 PM - Edit history (1)

The entries in the book are between 1812 and about 1842. This recipe was in the book:

2 or 3 tea cups of sugar
1 or 2 of butter and
1 of pecans
3 Eggs
1 Teaspoon of perlash *
3 tea cups flour
brandy to your taste.

*(Pearl ash or potassium carbonate was an early raising agent but when added to fats could make soapy tasting baked goods. Substitute baking powder.)

It sounds as though it would be some sort of cake. I'm thinking of trying it when I get home, using baking powder.

UPDATE - Final version of the recipe - this is my second effort and it got rave reviews at my needlework meeting this morning.

Modern adaptation:
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup (two sticks) salted butter
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or brandy or Irish Mist
2 cups chopped pecans
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. Stir in pecans. Add 1 cup flour and baking soda, mix until just blended. Add rest of flour, mix until just blended; scrape sides of bowl, blend.

Drop by teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove to rakes to cool completely. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Notes: I used salted butter since that is what my husband brought home. I was going to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt but with the salted butter I omitted it.

The original recipe called for "brandy to your taste" but I used vanilla extract with my first try. While the cookies were OK, they needed something. The second time I used Irish Mist and they were much more interesting!

[Oscarmonster13]

1. coolness!

a tea cup sounds like an interesting measurement, probably less than a cup nowadays...

I'm dying to hear how it turns out!

[csziggy]

3. I know a lot of people used to use tea cups before standardized measuring cups

Rachel Ray uses a tea cup - apparently that is what whoever taught her to cook used.

If I try it, I will use a standard cup to make the recipe repeatable. I may add a bit of cinnamon, too, or just go for the pure experience, though I may have to buy some brandy. Unless Irish Mist or Archbishop's mead would be a good substitute!

[Oscarmonster13]

7. Korbel is the best

mmmm...brandy sounds good as it is snowing outside right now!

[csziggy]

8. Well, I have some aged Archbishop's mead that is sitting in the cupboard and needs to be used

I may try that. No brandy in the house and I don't want to buy any since I don't drink anymore. I think of what we have, the mead or the Irish Mist come closest to brandy.

[The empressof all]

2. 1 or 2 WHAT of butter.... Tea Cups?

This sounds more like a cookie than a cake to me as the dough would be quite dense...Unless of course you add a few cups of the brandy...which could be to My taste....

[csziggy]

6. Yes, I would think the butter and pecan measures would be the same as the sugar

And it does sound pretty dense - I think if a cup or two of the brandy was used, it would have been specified!

[Arkansas Granny]

4. Without any liquid (other than brandy), I'm guessing it would be some kind of shortbread or cookie.

[csziggy]

5. Oh - should I make into smaller "cakes" then?

When I get home I will compare it to other recipes and see what I can find. I have some older cookbooks, but nothing this old - but they might give some clues.

[Sentath]

11. Classic shortbread sugar cookies are

3 parts flour to 2 parts butter to 1 part sugar. Then you add an egg for every pound of flour, and a little flavoring like vanilla extract.

The recipe you found has Lots more egg in it. It really depends on the consistency of the dough.

I would still use the creaming method to bring these together.

[woodsprite]

9. Sounds interesting! Let us know how it turns out.

I'm in seventh heaven when I get on Pinterest. I've found that if you search on "vintage recipes" that a ton of people have linked to scanned in handwritten recipe cards from their grandmothers, etc. I love that kind of stuff!
I guess I'm more a recipe collector than a recipe maker

[csziggy]

10. OK, a tea cup = 1/3 pint; 1 pint = 2 cups; so a tea cup = 2/3 cup!

So the recipe becomes:

1 1/3 to 2 cups sugar
2/3 to 1 1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup pecans
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda (see below)
2 cups flour brandy to taste

It does sound like a cookie recipe. In looking for more info on pearl ash, I found this article:

The History Dish: Pearlash, The First Chemical Leavening

Published on May 23, 2012
<SNIP>
Sometime in the 1780s an adventurous woman added potassium carbonate, or pearlash, to her dough. I’m ignorant as to how pearlash was produced historically, but the idea of using a lye-based chemical in cooking is an old one: everything from pretzels, to ramen, to hominy is processed with lye. Pearlash, combined with an acid like sour milk or citrus, produces a chemical reaction with a carbon dioxide by-product. Used in bakery batter, the result is little pockets of CO2 that makes baked goods textually light. Pearlash was only in use for a short time period, about 1780-1840. After that, Saleratus, which is chemically similar to baking soda, was introduced and more frequently used.

I was curious to try this product out and see if it actually worked. I ordered a couple of ounces from Deborah Peterson’s Pantry, the best place for all your 18th century cooking needs. I used it during my recent hearth cooking classes in a period appropriate recipe.
<SNIP>
When the cookies came out of the oven, they had risen! They gained as much height, and as much textural lightness, as a modern cookie made with baking powder.

But how did they taste? The first bite contained the loveliness of orange and caraway (for a modern version of this recipe, I highly recommend using this recipe {http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/history-dish-mondays-the-original-christmas-cookie/}, and replacing the coriander with orange zest and caraway). But after swallowing, a horrible, alkaline bitterness filled my mouth. My body reacted accordingly: assuming that I had just been poisoned, I salivated uncontrollably.

More: http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/the-history-dish-pearlash-the-first-chemical-leavening/

In her exploration, the recipe she suggests using rather than the one with pearl ash, uses baking soda, not the baking powder I had thought to use.

[rdharma]

12. Did the recipe have a name?

I agree with Arkansas Granny it's not a cake.

You are correct. Pearlash (Pottasche) is a baking aid used in some German baking recipes, especially gingerbread (Lebkuchen) recipes. It was often used in conjunction with hartshorn or baker's ammonia. In modern baking it has been all but replaced by baking soda ("Natron" or sodium bicarbonate). It was used as a leavener in Germany and European countries staring around 1780.

The old British "teacup" measurement is 1/3 pint (150ml).

[csziggy]

15. No, no name at all, just the information in my first post here.

I believe it is in the handwriting of my great-great-great-grandmother who lived in Cayuga County, New York. She lived from 1806 to 1854.

The notebook (really just a few pages folded and stapled together) and the wallet it was in probably belonged to her first husband (my ancestor) who was a doctor. The puzzling part is the page of the notes on money dated 1812 since the doctor would have been only 11 years old then. He died at 33 and I think his wife used the notebook after that. One of the notes in the same handwriting as the recipes is the date of her second marriage in 1842.

[Major Nikon]

13. Pearl ash is actually closer to baking soda

Pearl ash is a leavening agent found in many old recipes. Pearl ash was eventually replaced by baking soda. For old recipes like these, you can substitute 1/2 tsp of baking soda for each tsp of pearl ash. The strange thing about this recipe is that for pearl ash to work, like baking soda, you need an acidic ingredient and this one doesn't seem to have anything that's acidic (perhaps buttermilk is missing?). Baking powder does not need an acidic ingredient as it contains both the acid and base part of the equation. This recipe also doesn't seem to have enough leavening agent so I'm not sure it's a cake. Normally for leavening you'd use 1 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp salt per cup (4.25 oz by weight) of all purpose flour. A tea cup is 6 oz or 3/4th of a cup. 3 tea cups = 2 1/4 cups flour (9.6 oz by weight) so if I were making this recipe I'd use about 2 tsp of baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt (assuming you want a cake).

[csziggy]

16. Yes - I don't think this is a complete recipe

The article I posted above from the Four Pounds Of Flour site discusses a little about the chemistry of pearl ash.

I don't really want to waste a lot of ingredients - that's why I posted it here. I figured there would be people like you that knew more about cooking chemistry and how to adapt the recipe for modern ingredients.

I'm not sure what I'll do at this point - I may keep comparing it to old recipes.

I just got home a little bit ago, have stuff to do all day tomorrow, so it will be Sunday or Monday before I can do mroe research.

Thanks!

[Major Nikon]

17. The more I thought about it, the more I agree with Arkansas Granny

This is most likely a cookie recipe. Compare it with the Nestle Toll House cookie recipe and you'll find it's pretty close.

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/Original-NESTL%C3%89-TOLL-HOUSE-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/detail.aspx

[csziggy]

18. Good catch - now I am getting very interested in trying it!

I'll post the results and the actual recipe I use.

Thanks for the comparison to the Toll House recipe - that will be a good place to start.

[Major Nikon]

19. I like old recipes

I'd be interested to know exactly how old it is if you know. Granulated white sugar really just started to become widely available right at about 200 years ago. Prior to that time it was sold either in loaves (in the case of white sugar) or brown sugar (much like today), or molasses. Lots of old recipes called for molasses because other forms of sugar were prohibitively expensive for most people. At that time brown sugar was also cheaper and less refined, although today brown sugar is made from white sugar with molasses added. It wouldn't surprise me if by "sugar" they meant brown sugar.

[csziggy]

20. The earliest date in the notebook is 1812, latest is 1842

One entry does read "Died 15.5.1796" but I think that is a record of the doctor's grandfather, not a contemporary date to the notebook though it is on the first page. I just wish we could read the entire entry since we have not been able to trace the grandfather's name.

I was wondering if the variation in the amount of sugar was because of the difficulty in obtaining sugar products with consistent sweetness.

The family lived in King Ferry, Cayuga County, New York, just south of Albany, between some of the finger lakes if that makes a difference on the type of sweetners available.

[Major Nikon]

21. My guess is the variance had more to do with what you could afford

There was a lot of demand for sugar and at that time not much supply. Most of it was sugar cane produced outside the US, mostly in Haiti, farmed by slaves, and imported.

[northoftheborder]

14. Let us know how it turns out, if you try it, and how much of each ingredient you used.

Perhaps the brandy is poured over as a flavoring after baking. ?

It would need a bit of salt.

[eShirl]

22. I'd try as much brandy as if it were vanilla extract, for this recipe

[csziggy]

23. I finally made the recipe! Pecan cookies, slightly puffy

And very soft and tender in the middle. The flavor is very good, but might need more pecans - and maybe some brandy! The exact recipe I used is:

200 Year Old Pecan Cookies
(Or Julia Bradley Pomeroy Milliken Spaulding Pecan Cookies)
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup (two sticks) salted butter
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 F. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. Add 1 cup flour and baking soda, mix until just blended. Add rest of flour, mix until just blended; scrape sides of bowl, blend. Stir in pecans.

Drop by teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove to rakes to cool completely. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Notes: I used salted butter since that is what my husband brought home. I was going to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt but with the salted butter I omitted it. With this first try, I only used 1 cup of pecans - the original recipe called for 1 tea cup of pecans. The next time I make them, I will add at least 1/2 cup more or maybe even a total of 2 cups of pecans. The biggest problem was that the pecans were not evenly distributed - I simply can't stir cookie dough and my KitchenAid did not mix them in thoroughly. Maybe I should have added the pecans earlier in the order - the original recipe listed them after the butter and before the eggs.

The original recipe called for "brandy to your taste" but I used vanilla extract. I don't have any brandy and thought about using Irish Mist but chickened out.

The baking temperature and time were taken from the Toll House cookie recipe linked above. With my convection oven, next time I may reduce the temperature to 350 F and cook a minute or two longer. Some of the cookies were a little browner than I expected but they did not taste burnt and were still soft in the middle.

[Lucinda]

24. Cool to hear how they turned out! And some info on the cook:

I have a big fascination with old recipes! And what a name!


According to Ancestry:

Born in Milton, Genoa, New York, USA on 21 Jul 1806 to Reuben Pomeroy and Esther Bradley.
Julia Bradley married Nathaniel Spaulding and had 2 children.
Julia Bradley married Samuel Milliken and had 4 children.

[csziggy]

25. Yes, Julia Pomeroy has an interesting ancestry

Her mother was Esther Bradley Bradley, whose mother was Esther Bradley, The second Esther married Jabez Bradley, thus the double last name! Since Jabez and Esther Bradley were early settlers of the area, I think her parents wanted to memorialize the name.

Julia's first husband, Dr. Samuel Milliken (my ancestor), died young, at only 33 leaving her with the four children. She married Nathaniel Spaulding who had a number of children (according to a Bible record compiled by the Illinois DAR, he had nine children with his first wife). In 1850, a daughter by his first wife, the two children he had with Julia and two of her Milliken children are living with them.

Another of Julia's children ran away from home and in 1853 took ship for Australia to make his fortune in the gold rush. We have letters he wrote home on the way and in Australia, then New Zealand. He never made a fortune and ended up managing saw mills in both countries. When his sister's family moved to Vancouver Island, BC in 1890, the brother returned from New Zealand to live with them and is buried in Victoria, BC.

My family pretty much keeps everything and is really into genealogy - we have letters to that Milliken sister's husband from a cousin of his discussing genealogy - in the 1870s and 1880s! I know many of ancestors' stories very well since I grew up hearing about them.

[Lucinda]

26. Fascinating info! I dig into mine from time to time

but i've reached stumbling blocks. When that happens, I usually go back several months later and find that someone has usually added to the info I have gathered and posted.

I am a history junkie in general but when you add food and social customs into the mix, I enjoy it even more.
The New Zealand ties to your family are really interesting. It's definitely one of the p[laces that I would love to visit.