President's cakes, pies, jumbles and pudding

Numerous recipes have been named to honor the Presidents including Washington Cakes, which were discussed in a previous posting HERE. Period recipes for Washington Pie, Madison Cake, Jackson Jumbles, Harrison Cake, Tyler Pudding, and Lincoln Cake are given below. Some other presidential cakes were "Tilden and Cleveland cakes, Old Hickory cake...Old Rough-and-Ready (General Zachary Taylor) cake" [Every Where, Jan 1911, see below]

WASHINGTON PIE
Three quarters of a pound of sugar; half a pound of butter beat to a cream; add a cup of cream, half a teaspoonful of saleratus, six eggs beat up well; flavor it with lemon; add a pound of flour; bake it in round tin pans, or a wooden box-cover, about fifteen or twenty minutes; when cold, lay one on a plate, and spread over it marmalade, or any other jelly, as thick as the cake; then cover it with another cake. Frost it, or not, as you please.
Mrs. Putnam's Receipt Book. NY: 1860

The White House Cook Book, 1890 by Fanny Gillette stated: "This recipe is the same as 'Boston Cream Pie'"

MADISON CAKE
Pick clean two pounds of sultana raisins, (those that have no seeds,) and cut them in half. If you cannot procure the sultana, use the bloom or muscatel raisins, removing all the seeds. When the raisins are cut in two, dredge them thickly on all sides with flour, to prevent their sinking or clodding in the cake while baking. Sift into a pan a pound and three quarters (not more) of flour. Cut up a pound of fresh butter into a deep pan. Mix with it a pound of white lump-sugar finely powdered; and stir them together till they become a thick, white, cream. Have ready a teaspoonful of powdered nutmeg, and a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and mix these spices, gradually, with the butter and sugar. Beat fourteen eggs (not fewer) till very light and thick. Then stir them, gradually, into the beaten butter and sugar, alternately with the flour and a pint of rich milk, (sour milk will be best.) Add at the last a very small tea-spoonful of pearlash, or of bi-carbonate of soda, dissolved in a large wine-glass of brandy. Give the whole a hard stirring, and then put it immediately into a deep circular tin pan, the sides and bottom of which have been first well greased with fresh butter. Set it directly into a well-heated oven, and let it bake from five to six hours, according to its size. It requires long and steady baking. When cool, cover it (top and sides) with a thick icing, made in the usual way of beaten white of egg and sugar, and flavoured with rose-water or lemon.

If the above directions are closely followed this will be found a very fine cake, and it will keep soft and fresh a week if the air is carefully excluded from it.

It will be still better, if in addition to the two pounds of raisins, you mix in two pounds of Zante currants, picked, washed, dried before the fire, and then well floured. Half a pound of citron cut into slips and floured, may also be added.
Leslie, Eliza. The Lady's Receipt Book. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1847

JACKSON JUMBLES
Three tea-cups of sugar, one of butter, five of flour, one tea-spoonful of salæratus in a cup of sour cream and two eggs; bake in a quick oven; season them with the peel of a fresh lemon grated, and half a wine-glass of brandy.
Lea, Elizabeth Ellicott. Domestic Cookery. Baltimore: Cushings and Bailey, 1869

HARRISON CAKE
Two cups of molasses, one of butter, one of sugar, one of sour cream, a teaspoonful of powdered clove, two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, and two teacups of currants. The butter should be cut small and put into a sauce-pan with the molasses. Melt them thoroughly together and pour the mixture upon three or four cups of flour; then add the sugar and half the cream. Put in the rest of the cream when you have dissolved the saleratus in it. Take enough more flour to make it about as thick as cup cake; stir it ten or fifteen minutes, add the currants, and bake it in pans like cup cake. Take care that it does not burn. This is excellent cake, far better than some which is more costly.
The Young Housekeeper's Friend. Mary Cornelius. Boston: 1846

TYLER PUDDING
Four eggs, 3 coffee cups of sugar, 1 teacup of butter, 1 teacup of cream. Season with lemon and bake in a paste.
Frazer, Mary Harris. Kentucky Receipt Book. Louisville: Bradley & Gilbert Company, c1903

LINCOLN CAKE
Two eggs, two cups of sugar, half a cup of butter, one cup of sweet milk, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of extract of lemon, one of cream tartar, and half a teaspoonful soda.
Arthur's Home Magazine. July 1869

From the Jan. 1911 issue of: Every Where. Brooklyn, NY:

"Who was ungallant enough to say the housewife takes no interest in her country's affairs? Let certain favorite cakes rise up and rebuke him. There is Martha Washington and George Washington cake. Lincoln cake and General Jackson election cake, which "once tried is always elected for a second term"; Tilden and Cleveland cakes, Old Hickory cake, Liberty, Freedom and Fourth-of-July cakes, Columbus cake, Old Rough-and-Ready (General Zachary Taylor) cake, and Phil Sheridan cake. There are hard times cake, prosperity, sixteen-to-one, goldstandard, gold, silver and gold-and-silver cakes. Politicians ought not to go hungry for sweet cakes while there is this wide range to choose from."

The photographs are from the Library of Congress

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Washington Cake

Washington Cakes were named for our first President and prepared for his birthday in February, which was a larger celebration in the 19th century. There were at least three types of cakes in cookbooks - with raisins and currants, with soda and brandy, and with yeast. In 1838, a confectionary store displayed a Washington cake which they claimed weighed twenty-six hundred pounds.

1) In the cookbook, Cook Not Mad, 1830, the Washington Cake contained currants and raisins. Later cookbooks which had fruited Washington Cakes include Gillette's White House Cook Book, 1887, and The Blue Grass Cook Book, 1904.

"Washington Cake. One pound of sugar, one of flour, half pound butter, four eggs, one pound of raisins, one of currants, one gill of brandy, tea cup of cream, spice to your taste."
Cook Not Mad. Watertown: 1930

2) A second type was a lighter cake with salaratus or baking soda, flavored with brandy and nutmeg. Leslie has a delicious recipe for what Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, of Maryland, called a pound cake.

"WASHINGTON CAKE. --Stir together a pound of butter and a pound of sugar; and sift into another pan a pound of flour. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them into the butter and sugar, alternately with the flour and a pint of rich milk or cream; if the milk is sour it will be no disadvantage. Add a glass of wine, a glass of brandy, a powdered nutmeg, and a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Lastly, stir in a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, or salaratus, that has been melted in a little vinegar; take care not to put in too much pearl-ash, lest it give the cake an unpleasant taste. Stir the whole very hard; put it into a buttered tin pan, (or into little tins,) and bake it in a brisk oven. Wrapped in a thick cloth, this cake will keep soft for a week."
Leslie, Eliza. Directions For Cookery, In Its Various Branches. Phila: 1837

3) Positioned between recipes for pancakes and flannel cakes, the yeast cake in Edgeworth's The Southern Gardener and Receipt Book, 1860 asserts that "This cake derives its name from the fact that it was a great favorite at the table of General Washington; the last two years of his life, it always formed one of the delicacies of his breakfast-table, and is considered one of the standing dishes of a Virginian."

"Take two pounds of flour, one quart of milk, with an ounce of butter, heated together; put the milk and butter into the flour when it is about lukewarm; add one gill good yeast, three eggs, a teaspoonful of salt; place it in a pan over-night, and bake it in the morning in a quick oven for three-quarters of an hour."

Size. "MAMMOTH CAKE. Have you seen the great Washington Cake?  If not, call at the Confectionary of Messrs. John Pease & Son, 45 Division street, foot of Christie, and view it. It is a great curiosity, weighing twenty-six hundred pounds! And, in this festive season, would almost tempt a Grahnmite! It will be cut on the 27th inst., and furnished to those who may wish a portion to grace their new-year's table."
Universalist Union, Volume 4 Dec 15, 1838

Name legend. A story from The Market Book, by Thomas De Voe, NY: 1862, recounted how a freed slave of Washington's living in NYC, celebrated his birthday: "..a most remarkable colored woman, who lived on GoldenHill, corner of Cliff and John Streets, named Mary Simpson, usually known as Mary Washington, as she had once been a most faithful slave of General Washington, whom he had set free, while President of the United States, residing in New York. After she had left Washington's family, she had opened a little store in the basement of this house, where she sold milk, butter, and eggs, with cookies, pies, and sweetmeats of her own manufacture; and she also took in washing for several bachelor gentlemen who resided in the neighborhood. She never forgot her old master's birthday, nor did she want her friends or patrons to forget it, as that day was above all the holidays with her; and she kept it most faithfully, by preparing a very large cake, which she called " Washington Cake," (once a favorite of Washington,) a large quantity of punch, then a fashionable drink, and hot coffee. These were nicely arranged upon a large table; then against the wall hung an old portrait of Washington, which graced the head of the table, and a small leather trunk, on which was marked the initials " G. W.," made of brass-head nails; both of which had been given to her by Washington himself. Every anniversary morning, some of the first men, old and young, paid a ceremonious visit to this much respected colored woman, to eat her "Washington Cake," drink her punch and coffee, praise her old master's portrait, and his many noble and heroic deeds; and thus was passed every Washington's birth-day until her death. She said she "was fearful that if she did not keep up the day by her display, Washington would be soon forgotten."

For other recipes named for presidents see my posting HERE


©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Maple sugaring - 1792

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Rush's pamplet which may be viewed HERE or at the Library of Congress.

An Account of the Sugar Maple-tree, of the United States, and of the methods of obtaining Sugar from it, together with Observations upon the Advantages both public and private of this Sugar. In a Letter to Thomas Jefferson, Esq. Secretary of State of the United States…
by Benjamin Rush, M.D. Phila: 1792. 16p.

The Acer Sucharinum of Linnaeus, or the Sugar Maple-tree, grows in great quantities in the western counties of all the Middle States of the American Union. Those which grow in New-York and Pennsylvania yield the Sugar in a greater quantity that [sic] those which grow on the waters of the Ohio.

It is not injured by tapping; on the contrary, the oftener it is tapped, the more syrup is obtained from it. … From twenty-three gallons and one quart of sap procured in twenty hours from only two of these dark coloured trees, Arthur Noble, Esq. of the state of New-York obtained four pounds and thirteen ounces of good grained sugar. … The season for tapping the trees is in February, March, and April, according to the weather which occurs in these months. Warm days and frosty nights are most favourable to a plentiful discharge of sap. …

These are three methods of reducing the sap to sugar. 1. By freezing it… 2. By spontaneous evaporation...and 3. By boiling. … The sugar is improved by straining the sap through a blanket or cloth, either before or after it is half boiled. Butter, hogs lard or tallow are added to the sap in the kettle to prevent its boiling over, and lime, eggs or new-milk are mixed with it in order to clarify it. …

I am disposed to believe that the most productive method both in quantity and profit of obtaining this sugar will be by the labour of pivate [sic] families. For a great number of years many hundred private families in New-York and Pennsylvania have supplied themselves plentifully with this sugar during the whole year. I have heard of many families who have made from two to four hundred pounds in a year; and of one man who sold six hundred pounds, all made with his own hands in one season. …

A comparative view of this sugar has been frequently made with the sugar which is obtained from the West-India sugar cane, with respect to its quality price, and the possible or probable quantity that can be made of it in the United States, each of which I shall consider in order. …

But the profit of the maple tree is not confined to its sugar. It affords a most agreeable melasses, [sic] and an excellent vinegar. The sap which is suitable for these purposes is obtained after the sap which affords the sugar has ceased to flow, so that the manufactories of these different products of the maple tree, by succeeding, do not interfere with each other. …

Sugar affords the greatest quantity of nourishment in a given quantity of matter of any substance in nature; of coarse it may be preserved in less room in our houses, and may be consumed in less time… [it is] said that sugar injures the teeth, but this opinion now has so few advocates, that it does not deserve a serious refutation.

Sugar Production, Sugar Mills, Sugar Plantations

The site, Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, HERE has many terrific images of sugar mills and plantations.  Click on each image for a larger version.

HARVESTING THE CANE - LOUISIANA 1873

JUICE BEING EXTRACTED FROM THE CANE IN THE VERTICAL MILLS FLOWS DOWN THE PIPE TO THE BOILING CAULDRONS.  FRENCH WEST INDIES 1667 

THE CANE IS PRESSED IN THE VERTICAL ROLLERS POWERED BY A WATER WHEEL.  THE CAULDRONS WHICH BOIL DOWN THE JUICE ARE ON THE RIGHT.  BRAZIL 1682

SUGAR MILL POWERED BY WATER WHEEL, SURINAM, 1839

THE DIDEROT SKETCH SHOWS THE SYRUP ENTERING THE BOILING ROOM AT THE LEFT, THEN INTO THE BOILING CAULDRONS, 1762

THE CONES, WHERE THE SUGAR SYRUP IS PLACED TO DRAIN INTO CONTAINERS BELOW THE CONES, 1762



©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Chocolate making equipment

This posting is about some of the historic or reproduction equipment needed to make chocolate at home or museum setting.  For suggestions on modern equipment, the website Chocolate Alchemy describes the process of roasting, grinding, conching, etc. on a small scale.  He suggests using the Champion Juicer to grind the nibs.  For more information on making cocoa see Cocoa and Chocolate Beverages

Very briefly [more details with period pictures will be posted at a later time], chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree.  The seed pods are picked, opened, and the seeds fermented for a few days then dried.  The beans are roasted in a pan, pot or coffee/chocolate roaster [see below] at the hearth.  The shells are removed leaving the usable chocolate "nibs."  The nibs must be ground down into a paste by using a metate and mano, stone or steel, or in a choclate mill. Further grinding, conching, results in a smooth texture.  The 19th century brought the cocoa press resulting in the seperation of powder from cocoa butter.

In the 1762 Diderot image of a chocolate factory in Paris, the beans are roasting in the pot to the left.  Once cooled, the shells are seperated from the beans in a flat basket in the front.  The nibs are worked on the stone under the window.

Beans and nibs.  I have found nibs locally, and unroasted beans are available on line at various sites.  One is the above mentioned Chocolate Alchemy

Roaster.   If you get unroasted beans, use a coffee or chocolate roaster or a pan over the coals. Peter Goebel of Goosebay makes a reproduction roaster, at right.

Metates or chocolate stones with coals underneath. The nibs are crushed and eventually form a smooth liquid on the warm stone. The first sketch is from 1687 in Nicolas de Blegny's Le Bon Usage du Thé, du Caffé, et du Chocolat. The photo is at Colonial Williamsburg. Both have a container with hot coals under the metate.

Metates can be found less expensively in Mexico, California and the southwest markets, or for alot more at Gourmet Sleuth [out of stock right now] here To heat up the metate, you need to put coals in a container of metal or pottery under it.

Chocolate Pots.   Although from early 1800s, the sketch shows how the molinillo worked inside the pot with the handle protruding through the hole in the lid.  It is agitated to mix the cocoa with the liquid and form foam. 

Reproduction pots can be obtained from Goosebay which has two styles of tin lined copper pots, c1740 with European style muller; and a French/Dutch c1703 from Fortress Louisbourg. For repro oaxacan and porcelain styles click  Here where you can also purchase molinillos and metates.

Mortar and Pestle.  "The Cacao... a Seed... when they have been divested of their Shells by Fire, and are afterwards peeled, and roasted in a Bason, before a moderate Fire, they are pounded in a very hot Mortar. The Americans bruise them with an Iron Cylinder, on a flat Stone made very hot; they are then formed into a Paste, which is afterwards boiled with Sugar; and this is called plain Chocolate. But if it is to be enriched with a fine Odour, four Pounds of this Paste, and three of powdered Sugar, are worked together in a Mortar, or on some Stone..."  [Spectacle de la Nature. Noël Antoine Pluche. 1766]
"The Cacao seeds are roasted like coffee ... When the kernels are perfectly purified, they are pounded in a mortar of heated iron over burning charcoal, and thus reduced to a coarse paste, which is set to cool on a marble slab. A second rolling is bestowed with a steel cylinder on a smooth freestone, and as soon as the paste becomes sufficiently smooth, it is mixed with sugar in a hot basin and poured into tin moulds..."  [The encyclopædia of geography, Hugh Murray. Phila: 1837]

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Sugar Chest, Sugar Desk, Sugar Table

Sugar casters can be seen in a previous posting on Mustard Casters. I'll post more on sugar holders on the table shortly.  For storage, some beautiful pieces of furniture were made, particularly in the south, as detailed in several articles [see below].

SUGAR CHESTS

SUGAR DESKS

SUGAR TABLES

For information about the various types of sugar funiture, click on the following links.  The sugar chest/box is from the book  Neat Pieces: The Plain-style Furniture of Nineteenth-century Georgia. 2006.    The first desk is http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6084347  the second sugar desk is from the Speed Art Museum exhibition [last link].  The table is from: http://www.claudeandsharonbaker.com/Furniture.html

An article on sugar chests and sugar boxes

Sugar Chests in Middle Tennessee and Central Kentucky, lengthy article in Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winter, 1997

Photographs of antique sugar chests at Google Images

For Safekeeping: The Kentucky Sugar Chest, 1790-1850, a 2007 exhibition at the Speed Art Museum in Kentucky

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com