Historic Cookery

In 1837, Eliza Leslie followed up the publication of her
highly successful Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes,
and Sweetmeats (1828) with the larger work Directions
for Cookery in its Various Branches. This new volume
contained receipts for a wide variety of dishes and,
like its predecessor, went through numerous editions.
Although many of the receipts found in one or more
editions of [...]

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Something else that begins to show up in 19th century published
cookbooks here in America are receipts for New-York Cup Cake.
Yep, New Year’s and now, New York.
Before I go any further, we need to look at those two little
words “cup cake.” What they do NOT refer to are those small
individual fluffy cakes with dollops of creamy [...]

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Howdy. Yeah, I’m still here. Gee, what has it been?
Ten days?!? eeegad. It’s amazing how chunks of time
can pass by basically unnoticed. It sure flies when
you’re…doing other things! dagnabit. There was
some personal business, feeling under the weather,
then a bit of…well…oh, blah, blah, blah.
Excuses, mckooses! My apologies. Now let’s get back
to work!
Okay. Before my [...]

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Yep, I have another receipt for New Year’s Cake. It’s from the manuscript
cookbook of Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, which she most likely began in 1821
and completed in 1842. It was eventually published as a book in 1845.*
Now, it may look rather familiar. That’s because it’s nearly
the exact same receipt as the one in Eliza Leslie’s [...]

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Good, because I have more New Year’s Cake receipts to share!
This one is from an 1846 issue of The Genesee Farmer,
the first major agricultural journal published in New York.
Note the instructions “to roll it thin and cut it in small cakes,”
resulting in what we today might call cookies.
_________________________
New Year’s Cake.
Seven pounds of flour, two pounds
and [...]

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Receipts for New Year’s Cake also found a place in the pages
of individual manuscript (handwritten) cookbooks. Below is one
from the home of Elizabeth Van Rensselaer (1799-1835), who
was a member of the upstate-New York Philip Van Rensselaer
family. As is typical of personal receipt books, it merely lists
the necessary ingredients. Of course, there was no need for
anything [...]

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Receipts for New Year’s Cake began to appear frequently
in 19th century published cookbooks. Here’s another,
from the ninth edition (1836) of Seventy-five Receipts
for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, by Eliza Leslie.
Interestingly, this was NOT included in her first edition
(1828) or any other earlier editions.
Other items of note in this receipt are: the layout,
with ingredients and [...]

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Speaking of cakes…
January 6 is Twelfth Night, also known as the Epiphany or
Three Kings Day. It marks the arrival of the three wise men
(or Magi) who brought gifts to the baby Jesus. It also signals
the end of the twelve days of Christmas, which traditionally
began on December 25 and ended on January 6. Hence the
ever popular [...]

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I’ve been doing a bit of research the past few days
on 18th and early 19th century receipts (recipes)
for New Year’s Cake. I’ve been doing this partly
because of the season, the New Year having just
begun and all, but also because I’ve been trudging
through a holiday-themed book entitled The Christmas
Cook, by noted food historian William Woys Weaver.
And [...]

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