January 2021

I have had an interest in old recipes and cooking for many years, for various reasons.  The first one is trying to find some recipes that my Mother used to make and in later years, she threw away the recipe cards when paring down her stuff.  I have been looking for a replacement for the wonderful Red Velvet Cake she made for special occasions like my older brother’s birthday; his special request. 

There was also the Chex Mix party mix the I really loved, especially the pretzels, a spicy, salty, flavorful blend of Chex cereal, popcorn, pretzels, nuts and cheese crackers.  In subsequent years, and collecting many, many old recipe boxes and handwritten cook books, I have now found several copies of the Chex Mix original recipe for the party mix. 

After many years I finally found a replacement for the cake by finding in an old recipe file box a Red Velvet from about the same time period, late 1950’s to the 80’s when she threw out the cards and I changed it to match my memory of the rich dark cake Mom made.  I will give you the research and recipe in a later post. 

Over the years, I have collected a lot of recipe boxes, old cook books and handwritten books.  In reading them, using the recipes to recreate flavors from the past and loving the history each one represents; I have come to the realization that although we all are different in so many ways, our love of good food, family and personal history is universal.  We all want to reconnect with our ancestors in some form.  Through these wonderful glimpses of the past, the carefully handwritten recipes passed down from Mother to Daughter to Granddaughter and so on, we get a flavor of them by tasting the dishes they shared. 

In so many of the books and cards, there is often a notation of who gave them the recipe and with this we get a glimpse of the friendships and relationships of their community. 

I recently had a thought, because of a chance name in one of these books, of an ancestor of mine and how fascinating it was to think that maybe, just maybe I was looking at something from one of My family!  How much it could mean to someone else to find a name from their history and place in their hands a taste of their past through a recipe in a book.  

The purpose of this blog is to share some of those recipes and names with others who might be just as interested in cooking, history, genealogy and family as I am. 

Anne Wren’s Sponge Cake

Four eggs, whites & yolks separately

ordinary Kitchen tea cup of flour

¾ of a cup or enough. 

One cup of sugar –

Juice & rind of a Lemon

I put in a scant quarter of a teaspoon of Bakery Powder.  Sifted in the flour. I think it improves the cake

Anne Wren’s Bread

Four heaping quart bowls of Flour

Two scant quarts of water

One heaping great spoons of salt

One heaping great spoons of sugar

Sugar & salt sifted in the flour

This makes six small Loaves. 

These two small written recipes give me a look at the everyday life of this Anne Wren and there is the possibility that they are from her, My American Anne. 

Dating the time period of the recipe can be done by looking at the ingredients, measurements, and directions.  The Sponge cake uses a kitchen tea cup of flour; this tells me it is mid to late 1800’s into the very early 1900’s, around 1900 through 1920’s.   Before the 1930’s the commonly known measuring cups and spoons that we use today were not always what people had available.  They used common kitchen implements to measure with; tea cups, wine glasses, pints, gills and so forth. 

It uses bakery powder, so it is after 1843 when an English man developed it. 

“The first single-acting baking powder was developed by food manufacturer Alfred Bird in England in 1843. The first double-acting baking powder was developed by Eben Norton Horsford in the United States of America in the 1860s.”

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder

The recipe has no actual directions on how to make it.  During this time period it was assumed that everyone already knew how to make a cake, you did not need to be told to cream the butter, then add the sugar and egg yolks and sift the flour, whip the egg whites to a stiff peak and fold into the mix last. (this gives it the lift that baking powder, soda or yeast does in breads and cakes now.)  Again, it helps me to date the recipes to a certain time.  It also does not give you a temperature to bake at, it is assumed that you would know that already. 

This all gives me the clue that the recipes are from the time period that she lived, and the place that I got the handwritten cookbook from is the area she lived in.  All this gives me the positive feeling that It very well could be from My America Anne. 

If I can get such a thrill in believing I could be holding something from someone in my history, what would others do or feel like in possibly finding a bit from their ancestors; making and eating something that they made.  How completely Cool is that? 

I will add to this blog recipes from around the country and some from England, I have several books from there.  The handwritten ones are mostly from the late 1800’s through the 1950’s and 60’s, all are fascinating and show how recipes were shared and traveled across the country.  How they passed down through the family’s in generational diaries, and how they changed over the many years of use.  So far, I have assembled many different cakes into categories and types, many of them I have for sale in my ebay shop, and as I finish them, I will add to this site or the ebay shop for you to enjoy as much as I do.  

ozzies.attic720

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254477929226

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254580838155

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254667645761

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254554072320

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254498696035

Some of the handwritten recipes will be available for a small fee, downloadable from this site.  The recipes from newspapers, magazines and published cook books will be available for free, as I cannot verify the copyright dates on most of them.   I will add the names of people as I come across them and a list of the recipes they contributed.  If you want to have a copy of the recipes that go with those names, for a small fee, you can download it. 

There is a list of measurements and cook times equivalents in this part of the blog that I have assembled from all the various books and recipes that I have. 

I am new to this type of communication, so bear with me I am learning about blogging as I go.

Thanks, and happy cooking/baking!

Visit my ebay store to find some great kitchen utensils and collectables to go along with these vintage and antique recipes.

https://www.ebay.com/str/ozziesattic720?_trksid=p2047675.l2563