1800's foods Aunt Agnes Wilson's Cookbook History Specialty Foods admin 5 years agoDecember 9, 2021

July 1st, 1880’s Food For the Gods

From a handwritten cookbook dated in the 1880’s and 90’s; then into the 1920’s from some of the loose papers and a food pamphlet that was with it. I got it from Franklinville New York but several of the newspaper cutouts have other locations, but mostly from the north east area states. The main book has a little note that says; “Aunt Agnes Wilson’s Cookbook”, it has the majority of the 1880’s dates in it.

This is a fun recipe that sounds very good.

Food For the Gods

½ lb. of dates, ½ cup of English walnuts, ½ cup of pecans, 6 Uneeda biscuit, 1 ½ teaspoonfuls of baking powder, 1 cup of sugar, 4 eggs beaten separately. Grind it together and bake in two-layer pans, in a very slow oven. Serve whipped cream between the layers, or on top. If necessary, this can be kept several days.

Mrs. A.E. Seuseney

There are no baking temperatures listed in these recipes; during this time, it was assumed you would know how to put together a recipe without directions and what temperature to cook or bake them at. You gauged your oven temps through experience of working in the kitchen next to your mother and other relatives throughout your childhood and youth. You learned methods, techniques and timing so you never needed to have it written down in the cook books or diaries passed through each generation of the family.

Oven temperatures are seldom given in the old books and recipes; most times the only say something like a slow oven or quick oven. These are the equlivent to today’s oven temperatures;

A very slow oven equals 250 to 275 degrees.

A slow oven equals 300 to 325 degrees.

A moderate oven equals 350 to 375 degrees.

A hot or quick oven equals 375 to 400 degrees.

A very hot oven equals 400 to 450 degrees.

For the biscuits you could substitute saltine crackers, although I think these are a bit thicker and fluffier in size, so you may need a few more than the 6 the recipe calls for. From the descriptions of them, Ritz crackers would be close to them.

Uneeda Biscuits – This is the first biscuit (soda cracker/saltine) that Nabisco packaged and sold. They were discontinued it seems around 2006.

“The company dates to 1898, and Uneeda Biscuits were among its first products. The term biscuit refers to what we call a cookie or cracker today. Uneeda Biscuits were among the first sold in a package as opposed to loosely packed and sold from barrels in a grocery store.”