I got into this whole The Historical Food Fortnightly http://historicalfoodfortnightly.blogspot.com/p/about-historical-food-fortnightly.html only recently so am doing a bit of catch up as well as trying the current challenges. Fun, the emphasis on research and documentation, & the goal  to learn more about historic cooking through experience and trial; will make this whole process INTERESTING to say the least

oh, and their definition of 'historic' is anything prior to 1960.. now i feel just a tad old.. haha!!

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  Challenge 9:  The Frugal Housewife…September 21-October 4

Throughout history, housewives and housekeepers have kept a close eye on their budgets and found creative ways to pinch pennies while providing delicious and nutritious food. Create a dish that interprets one historically-documented method of frugal cooking.

 I feel it fits the catagory really well. I can easily see it as a way to use up left over vegetables with a simple biscuit dough and a gravy to add to a simple frugal meal - perhaps a way of coaxing the 'kids' to eat their veggies by calling it a cake :).

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From:   Upside-Down Vegetable Cake

America's Cookbook New & Revised Edition

cookbook page instructions 

all vegetables in baking pan

started with onions sauted in butter

in 425 oven for 25 min

baked but not on plate yet

right side up on serving plate.

The Date/Year and Region: 

  1944 page 434 = American
How Did You Make It:  

I made the cake batter as per instructions - was more of a biscuit dough although its called a cake - in both texture and taste.  for the Vegetables i used fresh onions and canned peas, carrots corn & lima beans.  I did not make the gravy accompaniment.

Time to Complete: 
Less than one hour, start to finish.

Total Cost:

  everything i used was in my cupboard - probably in the $4 range all told if that much

How Successful Was It?:  
had several compliments on it. I would count it as successful as i personally plan to make it again.
How Accurate Was It? I would say very close though not perfect.
the instructions were somewhat incomplete such as it called for mixed vegetables & then said to arrainge hot seasoned vegetables in greased pan- it did NOT say if they were to be fully cooked or simply sauted or just warmed.. it also does not specify if fresh or canned vegetables were to be used. I did not use celery (i dont like it cooked) but i did add corn. also the instructions failed to say When to add the batter - i made an educated guess it was the last item added.

Also, the recipe called for a mushroom gravy i did not make.
as we had a gravy at the dinner for the meat I didnt bother. it was good without & I think it would go with any preferred gravy.

Further thoughts:several things. 
1st: the batter, because its consistancy & taste were more biscuit dough than cake like i will try a basic bisquick type mix the next attempt.
2nd: the vegetables. I really liked the combination that I made but i felt that the 4cups called for were too much.. it overwhelmed the dish..
3rd: the pan - i used what i had available (a springform) and it was too big for the amount of dough i had. a proper 8x8 would have been better - easier to put on platter too.
 

Round TWO


Challenge 12:  If They’d Had It…  November 2 - November 15
Have you ever looked through a cookbook from another era and been surprised at the modern dishes you find? Have you ever been surprised at just how much they differ from their modern counterparts? Recreate a dish which is still around today, even if it may look a little - or a lot - different!
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 From "The Lily-Wallace New American Cook Book
1943 Edition (first published 1941) page 230 in the Breads chapter.
  MINCEMEAT COFFEE CAKE 

 

In a deep cake pan Melt two tablespoons butter. Sprinkle two tablespoons brown sugar over butter and cover evenly with one cup mincemeat.

 
Over this pour  pour the batter made of the remaining ingredients and bake in a moderately hot oven. (425F) 25 minutes

 

 The Date/Year and Region: 

American/1943

How Did You Make It: As it was a very basic recipe I simply followed the instructions  verbatim

 
Time to Complete: 
Less than two hours, start to finish.

Total Cost:

About $2 for the mincemeat - I had everything else on hand (correction: cost of jar was $5.57 but i only used half of jar- for a cost of $2.85)

How Successful Was It?: Very – easily made and smelled delicious coming out of the oven- and the taste is very pleasant.. (am not a huge mincemeat fan & found it tasty. the cake itself is somewhat dense - a bit like a pound cake rather than a standard airy cake but the butter flavor is very nice. mom has already said she would not mind if I make it again :)

 
How Accurate Is It?: Very Accurate. All the ingredients are pretty much the same as in 1943 – I researched the mincemeat product I used and found the following:  

History of the None Such Mincemeat:

The Merrell-Soule Company, manufacturer and distributor of canned goods, successfully introduced condensed mincemeat under the None Such® brand name for Borden. Merrell-Soule Company was purchased by Borden in the late 1920’s.

And in asking my 78yr old mom of her memories of family making mincemeat dishes when she was a child, she said that her mother always bought her mincemeat from the local market rather than make it from scratch – pretty much as I did tonite.