GRANDMA’S RECIPES

Grandma’s Recipes

In the early years of white settlement times were extremely tough. Money was hard to come by no matter how hard you worked. People had to make do to just survive and their recipes reflected those times. There was very little manufactured or processed food. Everything the housewives of our early years produced was generally made from scratch.

Below is a number of recipes printed in the early editions of the Great Southern Herald and were used by your grandmothers and great grandmothers. Perhaps you might like to give them a try…

The Housewife.

Great Southern Herald
21 July 1926 – P4

APPLE GRIDDLE CAKES.

2 cups bread broken in pieces, 2 cups hot milk, 2 eggs separated, 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon fat or butter, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup chopped ripe apples.
Soak bread and milk together overnight or until soft. Then rub to a paste. Add fat, sugar and salt; then egg yolks, beaten until light. Add flour and baking powder sifted together. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Stir apples into batter with fork. Drop by spoonfuls on griddle or into boiling fat. Cook until partly done and then turn and finish cooking. Turn only once.

FRENCH PANCAKES.

2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, jelly, 1 tablespoon melted butter.
Beat eggs light. Add butter and milk. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Add and beat smooth. Grease griddle, using about as much as you would to grease a cake pan. When hot drop spoonfuls of butter on griddle. Cook until nearly done, then turn and finish on the other side. Put on plate, spread with jelly, roll and dust with powdered sugar. This makes ten pancakes.

VEGETABLE CROQUETTES.
With Cheese Sauce.

2 cups potatoes, riced or mashed, 1 cup cooked green peas, fresh or canned, 1 cup diced carrots, cooked, fresh breadcrumbs, beaten egg, 2 teaspoons cream, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce. Be sure peas and carrots have been thoroughly drained of all water.
Mix potatoes with a fork. Add salt and Worcestershire sauce, then the cream. Mix thoroughly together with a fork. Shape into croquettes of any size or form you like. Dip in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs. Drop in hot fat. Cook until brown. Drain on soft paper and serve hot with cheese sauce.
Cheese Sauce.
2 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 & 1/2 cups grated cheese, 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon salt, dash of Worcestershire sauce. Blend flour and butter together in saucepan over fire. Add milk. Bring to boil over fire, stirring until smooth. Then stir in cheese and salt. Add Worcestershire sauce.

SWEET POTATO PUFFS.

4 medium-sized sweet potatoes, 1 egg well beaten, breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, dash pepper.
Boil potatoes until soft. Peel and put through the ricer. Add salt, pepper and egg. Cool. Drop teaspoonful into grated breadcrumbs. Toss with fork or fingers until covered, then drop into hot fat until brown. This amount will serve four to six people.

The Housewife.

Great Southern Herald
24 July 1926 – P6

ARTICHOKE AND CELERY SOUP.

With the approach of chilly days, a plate of well-made soup is very welcome; it need not be of the costly elaborate kind, which in many cases does not contain the necessary nutriment. For this soup you require some stock made previously with a good broth bone, and a small shank of mutton. (The latter can be bought for 5d. or 6d.). You must also have five or six artichokes, and the blanched inside part of a small head of celery. Scrub and peel the artichokes and wash the celery. Cut both up roughly and boil them in as much stock as you require for the soup, and a little over. When quite tender pass all through a sieve or fine colander, return to the pan, add seasoning of salt and pepper, and stir in a little browning. Add a dessertspoonful of butter, and simmer again for a few minutes. It may be made richer if an Oxo cube, dissolved in a little hot water, is added.

MUTTON COOKED IN CASSEROLE.

Cut about 2 lb. of neck of mutton into meat cutlets; peel and quarter 1&1/2 lb. of potatoes, and peel and slice 6 onions and 2 rather small carrots. Two sheep kidneys may be used if cared for. Put all in layers in a casserole or large earthen jar which has a well-fitting lid. Season each layer slightly with salt and pepper, the last layer being potatoes. Add 1 pint of stock and a little butter or dripping. Cover, and cook gently in a slow oven for about two hours and half. About twenty minutes before the jar is taken out remove the lid. and increase the heat of the oven, so as to brown the top layer of potatoes.

PINK APPLE SNOW.

Four egg whites, 3 tablespoonfuls sugar, 2 tablespoonful thick unsweetened apple sauce, l tablespoonful Jelly. Whip egg whites very stiff, add sugar and beat in the apple sauce. Colour with any kind of red jelly. Beat all again and pile it lightly on top of the dessert. Recipe makes eight servings.

MINCEMEAT FRITTERS.

Have you ever tried mincemeat fritters? They are so delicious and are a variation from pies.
Take three eggs, separate the yolks from the whites, and beat up well. Moisten a tablespoon of flour with them, and, when the mixture is smooth, add 8 ozs. of mincemeat and some of the juice of a lemon. Fry in boiling lard, then put the fritters before the fire for a minute or so before serving.
There are one or two points to remember when following this recipe. Make your fritters quite small and drop the mixture into the pan with a large spoon. If you like, you can use breadcrumbs in the place of flour, only see that they are rubbed very fine. You will need about 2&1/2 ozs. The actual frying should take about six minutes.

PRUNE PIE.

A pound and a half of prunes should be first well washed, then soaked in water for 24 hours, when they may be cooked in the same water in a stone jar in a moderate oven. After the stones have been removed from the cooked fruit the flesh should be pressed through a sieve, and, when the pulp is quite cold, a cup of thin cream or milk, thickened with a teaspoonful of cornflour, should be added. Add a third of a breakfast cup of white sugar, the well-beaten yolks of two eggs, and a little lemon juice.
Line a pie-dish with good paste, put in the mixture, and bake in brisk oven. Meanwhile, beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, adding two tablespoons of white sugar gradually towards the end of the beating. Cover the centre or the pie with this and replace in the oven until It Is a light brown.

The Housewife.

Great Southern Herald
4 August 1926 – P4

WHITE SOUP.

To a knuckle of veal of 6 lbs., put three quarts of water and some salt; let it simmer till the scum rises, skim it, and put to it 6 ozs. rice, 2 parsnips, 2 or 3 turnips, part of a carrot, a few cloves, and a very little mace; simmer gently all together for several hours, skim and strain it, then add 3 oz. sweet almonds, blanched and pounded very fine, and two tablespoons flour moistened with milk. Let the soup boil again and strain it. When using, add ½ pint cream to one quart of soup.

CHICKEN CREAM.

Take the breast of a chicken, after being cooked, and put it through the mincing machine, then beat in a mortar with a little nutmeg, mace, pepper and salt; have ready a small piece of bread boiled in milk, pound nil together, beat up 2 or 3 yolks of eggs, then beat all together with half cup of cream; add the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth, mix all together, butter a shape, and steam with paper on the top. Serve with plain butter sauce.

SAVORY STEAK.

Place 2 lbs. of steak on a flat dish, and rub in the following ingredients, each in turn:1 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 of salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 2 teaspoons flour, and 13 tablespoon vinegar. Rub the last in extra well. Turn and do the same to the other side with the exception of the vinegar, adding instead one tablespoon each of mustard, tomato sauce, and Worcester sauce. Pour round 1 ½ cup of water, cover with a flat tin to keep in steam, and bake 1 3/4 hours. This is delicious.

MACARONI AU GRATIN.

Take four ounces of macaroni, four ounces of grated cheese, one plat of white sauce, butter, brown breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Put the macaroni into boiling salted water, boil 20 minutes until tender. If not required for immediate use, cover macaroni with cold water to prevent pieces sticking together. Cover bottom of well-buttered pie dish with white sauce, sprinkle with cheese, add a layer of macaroni. Repeat layers until dish is full, cover last layer of macaroni thickly with white sauce. Sprinkle with brown bread crumbs, add a few small pieces of butter. Bake In quick oven.

RICE MOULD.

1/4 of a pound of rice (about half a breakfast cup), 1 1/2 pints of milk, one dessertspoon of butter, and two tablespoons of cream, flavouring with a pinch of salt. Wash the rice and boil with the milk gently till a soft mass. A few laurel, peach or bay leaves or a strip of lemon peel may be put into the milk when it is put on to boil but must be taken out as soon as the flavour is strong enough.
When cooked, add the batter or some thick cream, and a tiny pinch of salt. Pat into a wet mould and turn out when cold and firm. This is very nice with stewed fruit or cream and jam. Sugar may be added, but it is nicer without it. Vanilla, lemon brandy, or any essence |may be used instead of peach or laurel leaves.

FRENCH FRITTERS.

Cut some slices of sponge or Madeira cake, pour a little wine over them. Make a batter with two eggs, two tablespoons of flour, a little milk, and a pinch of salt, and pour it over the cake. Let it remain for half an hour, then fry in hot lard. Drain well, and serve hot, with a little jam on each side.

The Housewife.

Great Southern Herald
5 September 1925 – P6

ROUX FOR THICKENING SOUP.

Melt some butter. Skim till quite clear. Pour it into an earthenware saucepan and add to it its weight in flour. Work with a wooden spoon till perfectly smooth. Stir over a fire for a few minutes. Then put it in a moderate oven. Stir occasionally and be very particular that it does not colour or burn. It should be left in the oven from 30-35 minutes. This thickening, which is called roux, is used for white soups.
Brown roux for brown soups is made in the same way but is left in the oven until slightly coloured. It will keep for some time. When adding roux to soups, melt it in a small saucepan, and thin it with a little hot stock. The add it very gradually to the soup.

BUTTERMILK PIE.

Beat two eggs to a froth with half a teacupful of sugar and, very gradually, one pint of buttermilk, and one tablespoon of butter, just warm ed. Mix well, line a shallow pie dish with good pastry; pour in the filling, and bake in a steady oven till set. Grate a little nutmeg over the top.

PEA SOUP (Economical).

Four quarts of water, 3 lbs. of split peas, 1 tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a slice of lean ham or a ham or bacon bone, a bone of beef or mutton, pepper and salt, mint, 2 onions, 4 strips of celery.
Boil the peas with the ham and bones until they are tender, then pass through a sieve if desired; when too thick, add a little water; pepper and salt to taste. Fresh mint chopped very fine is an improvement. Sippets should be served with the soup.
SIPPETS.
Cut the bread into a dice and fry to a nice golden brown in a small frying pan or saucepan, as only a little dripping is required. Take up the bread with a strainer and drain on crumpled paper.

DEVILLED EGGS.

Carefully remove the shells of six hard-boiled eggs. Take a sharp knife and cut them in half. Collect the yolks in a bowl and add to them a tablespoonful of olive oil, a teaspoonful of vinegar, a saltspoonful of salt, a dash of red pepper, and a scant saltspoonful of dry mustard.
With a silver fork beat this well together until it is thoroughly blended. If too thick, add a little more oil. If liked, add a teaspoonful of grated onion. Cut a tiny slice from the bottom of each half of the white of the egg, so that they will stand up, and fill them with the mixture prepared.

TRICKERY IN THE KITCHEN

Great Southern Herald
30 November 1951 – P5

Oven-Toasted Shrimp Sandwiches:

Make plenty of these sandwiches, for everyone will want a second. To one tin of shrimps mix 1 cup grated cheese, one teaspoon each of salt, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard and vinegar and a dash of cayenne pepper. Mix together and add one beaten egg. Toast bread on both sides and butter the top side. Spread three tablespoons shrimp mixture on each slice. Place on a tray and toast in hot oven for five minutes.

Italian Toast:

This is really a delicious fried cheese sandwich and goes well with a tart tossed salad. Slice cheese and place between slices of bread from which the crusts have been removed. Cut each sandwich in half. Beat an egg and add one tablespoon of milk. Dip sandwich in this mixture and fry in hot skillet in which margarine has been heated. Turn when first side is brown and brown the second side.

Quick Sauce for Vegetables or Croquettes:

If you need a sauce in a hurry for new potatoes, peas, asparagus or any one of many meat or fish croquettes, you can use a can of cream of celery soup as a base for it. Pour soup in pan and add, a little at a time while stirring constantly, half cup milk. Heat and add three tablespoons chopped pimientos. Season with salt and pepper. This makes about one and three-fourth cups of sauce.

BREAD MAKING
Grandma’s way…

In years gone by bread, although a major part of any household’s dietary requirements. was not readily available from bakeries or shops. In most cases, there was either no bakery or store, or they were simply too far away.

So the family’s bread requirements had to be made by hand at home by the wives and daughters within the family using a wood stove. It was another time consuming effort that had to be fitted in with washing clothes by hand, cleaning floors on hands and knees, cooking and preparing meals three times a day, every day, looking after children – often ten or more.

Would YOU be able to fit it in your busy schedule today? Would you even know how to bake bread, from scratch, by hand?

Well, there’s one way to find out. Click HERE and it will take you to a page with full step-by-step instructions and all the ingredients required from 1925.

Have a look and let me know if you could do what your grandmother had to do every single week!

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