The American Kitchen

Open the room · 3 min

Ask everyone: what is one dish your family made the same way for years? Who made it, and was it ever written down?

Visit four kitchens · 20 min

1. Hartford, 1796. Read about Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, which the Library of Congress calls the first cookbook by an American author printed in the United States. Read her pumpkin recipe below aloud. How much molasses? She leaves it to the cook. What did someone in your family make with pumpkin, squash or cornmeal, and when?
2. Boston, 1896. Open Fannie Farmer’s cookbook. She wrote, “A cupful is measured level.” Read her biscuit recipe below. Who taught you to cook or bake, and did they measure with cups and spoons or by hand and eye?
3. Washington, 1942. Read how sugar rationing began. Every person, children too, received a ration book and about half a pound of sugar a week. Did anyone in your family talk about rationing or “making do”? What did they cook?
4. Omaha, 1954. Open the TV dinner record. Swanson sold ten million trays that year. Do you remember the first refrigerator, freezer or frozen dinner in your home?

Close the circle · 7 min

Choose one recipe below to cook together next time, or ask each person to bring one family recipe that was written down. What would a stranger need to know to make it the way your family did?

The four recipes, word for word

Each recipe is quoted exactly from its original source and is in the public domain. The “Today” notes are Prometheus’ own.

Pompkin · Amelia Simmons, 1796

No. 2. One quart of milk, 1 pint pompkin, 4 eggs, molasses, allspice and ginger in a crust, bake 1 hour.

American Cookery (Hartford, 1796), p. 28. Today: about ½ cup molasses and 1 teaspoon each of allspice and ginger; two 9-inch crusts; 375°F for 50 to 60 minutes.

Baking Powder Biscuit I · Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1896

2 cups flour. 4 teaspoons baking powder. 1 teaspoon salt. 1 tablespoon lard. ¾ cup milk and water in equal parts. 1 tablespoon butter.

Mix dry ingredients, and sift twice. Work in butter and lard with tips of fingers; add gradually the liquid, mixing with knife to a soft dough. It is impossible to determine the exact amount of liquid, owing to differences in flour. Toss on a floured board, pat, and roll lightly to one-half inch in thickness. Shape with a biscuit-cutter. Place on buttered pan, and bake in hot oven twelve to fifteen minutes. If baked in too slow an oven, the gas will escape before it has done its work.

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (Boston, 1896), p. 70. Today: a hot oven is about 450°F; butter or shortening can replace the lard.

Beans Baked the Michigan Way · U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1943

To 1 quart of beans that have already been cooked tender in water with a 4-ounce piece of salt pork, add 4 tablespoons of molasses or brown sugar and salt to season. Place in a shallow pan with enough of the bean liquid to moisten well. Slice the salt pork over the top. Brown in the oven.

Dried Beans and Peas in Wartime Meals (USDA, June 1943). Today: two 15-ounce cans of navy beans and thick-cut bacon; 375°F for 30 to 40 minutes.

Oven Fried Fillets · U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1950s

2 pounds fillets. 1 tablespoon salt. 1 cup milk. 1 cup bread crumbs. 4 tablespoons butter or other fat, melted.

Cut fillets into serving-size portions. Add the salt to the milk and mix. Dip the fish in the milk and roll in crumbs; place in well greased baking pan. Pour melted fat over fish. Place pan on shelf near the top of a very hot oven 500°F. and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve immediately on a hot platter, plain or with a sauce. Serves 6.

Basic Fish Cookery (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1958 printing), p. 20. Today: cod, haddock or pollock; you can cut the salt to 1 or 2 teaspoons.

Further reading · Library of Congress: American Cookery, 1796 · Farmer’s 1896 cookbook (Harvard copy) · National Park Service on sugar rationing · Smithsonian: a 1954 TV dinner tray

ExploreChronicle.com/shop/kitchen-card.html · You may print and share this session card for your group. The four recipes are in the public domain; the notes and questions are Prometheus’ own. Linked sources keep their own terms.