Advice from the creator of Kentucky Derby Benedictine sandwiches - Jennie C. Benedict

Virginia "Jennie" Carter Benedict (1860-1928) created Benedictines - the green cucumber sandwich common at Kentucky Derby parties.  In the late 1890s she was forced to earn a living and rapidly developed her cooking business.  She wrote two cookbooks, both contained advice for women wanting to enter the cooking profession.

Mary Randolph's refrigerator described by Harriott Pinckney Horry in 1815

On the trip north from her South Carolina plantation the 67 year old made a point to stay at "Mrs. Randolph's" - a renowned boarding house.  It was full, but Mr. Otis (from Boston) gave up his room and Horry was able to write in her journal about the refrigerator and a table fan.

Hot-cross Buns - 100,000 sold on one day in London

Once sold on the streets on Good Friday, the buns, marked with a cross on top, are now remembered as a nursery rhyme "One-a-penny, two-a-penny, hot-cross buns!" In 1851 "500 persons" sold the buns on the street that one day. Another author, in 1825, lamented that "some thirty or forty years ago pastrycooks and bakers vied with each other for excellence in making hot-cross-buns; the demand has decreased, and so has the quality of the buns."

Piping icing through paper cornets or ox guts

In an early (1842) detailed description to pipe icing onto cakes, paper was rolled into a cone, and the end was cut.  In addition to "stout foolscap paper" the author also used small bags made of "gut of the ox" with tin tips.  Urbain Dubois noted in his Artistic Cookery, 1870, that "icing-sugar, squeezed through a cornet" was an "innovation of rather recent date" and kept secret, which he learned in the 1840s in Rome.