FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY ~ How to make Parker House Rolls, early 1900’s, from by maternal grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne

My grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne left us a spiral bound notebook, written entirely by hand.  The notebook was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph A. Milne in 1906.  In it she left a treasure chest of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

 
P.S.  That's my grandmother in the group picture of the ladies in the right column of this blog.  She’s the one in the center.

TODAY’S RECIPE IS FOR PARKER HOUSE ROLLS

Here’s my transcription of the recipe.  There are some words in doubt, but I’ll do the best I can.

Put  3 Tablespoons of butter

        2    “         “       of sugar

        1 Tea “     “       of salt

2 cups   “  hot milk in bowl

  When luke warm add

1 cake of yeast disolved in a quarter of cup of luke warm water and

3 cups flour   Beat well cover and let rise till light  Stick a knife down center of dough add

2 1/2 cups of flour knead and return to bowl to rise untill double _ Toss it on biscuit board _____ one third inch think cut with biscuit cutter.  Dip handle of spoon in flour make think crease across each biscuit

Brush with melted butter fold and place in butter pans one inch apart let rise untill light

Bake in oven (hot) 15 minutes

I have never tried any of my grandmother’s recipes.  I suppose one day I should.  However, anyone who knows me, knows I’m not “into” cooking.  Preserving these recipes from the early 1900’s though, does allow us to take a look back and that time in our history.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY–HOW TO MAKE BAKED CHICKEN FRICASSEE

FAMILY "RECIPE" FRIDAY - HOW TO KEEP HAIR CURLED BACK IN 1906

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY ~ Massaging Cream ~ From my grandmother’s journal

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY

My grandmother, Florence BOWDEN  MILNE left us a spiral bound notebook,  which I refer to has her journal.  The entire notebook is written in her hand and was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph, in 1906.  In it she left a treasure trove of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

Not only did she leave names & birth dates for many of our ancestors, but she left various types of recipes.  Some for cooking, some for making items that we can now purchase at a store.  This is one of those items.

MASSAGING CREAM


Transcription - Rub yolks of two eggs with 1/4 lb. of strained honey & 2 oz. of ground bitter almonds.  Then add slowly an oz. of almond oil & 1/2 dram each of attar of cloves and attar of bergramot, this is for use in massaging lower arms

What are attar of cloves and attar of bergamot?

I conducted a search on the internet and learned that “attar” is a noun that means perfume or essential oil obtained from flowers or petals.
 
Ok, we know what the attar of cloves are then.  But, how about bergamot?
 
From dictionary.com I found the following word origin for bergamot:

Noun

1. a small citrus tree, Citrus aurantium bergamia, having fruit with a rind that yields a fragrant essential oil.

2. Also called essence of bergamot. the oil or essence itself.

3. any of various plants of the mint family, as Monarda fistulosa, yielding an oil resembling essence of bergamot.

4. a variety of pear.
 

I’ve learned something new today.  Have you?  I had never before heard of bergamot.

Do you have “recipes” such as this, shared by an ancestor?  I’d love to hear about them.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY - How to Make Shampoo
FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY - How to Keep Hair Curled Back in 1906

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY–Fried cauliflower from my Grandma Florence

 

 

 

 

 

 

My grandmother, Florence BOWDEN  MILNE left us a spiral bound notebook,  which I refer to has her journal.  The entire notebook is written in her hand and was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph, in 1906.  In it she left a treasure trove of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

TODAY'S FEATURED RECIPE

Fried Cauliflower

Here is a transcription of her recipe:

Pick out all the green leaves from a cauliflower & cut off the stalk close; put it head downward into a sauce pan of boiling, salted water, do not over boil it.  Drain it into a sieve, pick out into small sprigs and place them in a deep dish with plenty of vinegar, pepper & salt; when they have laid for an hour in this, drain them, dip them in batter and fry them in hot lard to a golden brown.  Very delicious.

I personally love cauliflower.  It’s one of my favorite vegetables, if I can choose a favorite.  But, I’ve never heard of it deep fried.  It seems that in our current times, people fry all sorts of things, like ice cream, snickers bars & Twinkies.  Maybe my grandma was on to something back over 100 years ago?

Please tell me about recipes you have from your family.

HERE ARE SOME OTHER POSTS FEATURING MY GRANDMOTHER’S RECIPES.

Family Recipe Friday - Chocolate Fudge
Family Recipe Friday - How to Make Baked Chicken Fricassee
Family Recipe Friday - Orange Coconut Custard

AND SOME POSTS THAT ARE “RECIPES” OF ANOTHER KIND.

Family "Recipe" Friday - How to Keep Hair Curled Back in 1906
Family "Recipe" Friday - How to Make Shampoo

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY - Orange Coconut Custard

 

My grandmother, Florence BOWDEN MILNE left us a spiral bound notebook, which I refer to has her journal.  The entire notebook is written in her hand and was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph, in 1906.  In it she left a treasure chest of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

TODAY'S FEATURED RECIPE

Orange Coconut Custard

Here is a transcription of the recipe.

3 eggs slightly beaten
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teas. salt
3 cups milk
3/4 teas. vanilla
3/4 teas. grated orange rind
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1 cup 40% corn flakes cereal
1 teas nutmeg

Mix eggs, sugar & salt: add milk gradually & mix well.  Fold in remaining things.  Put into 1 1/2 qt. casserole, in pan of hot water & bake at 350° an hr. or until set.

Apple crunch
6 cups sliced pared apples
1 1/4 cups light br. sugar
1/4 teas. nutmeg
1 teas. grated lemon rind
4 cups corn flakes
1/4 cup butter or margarine melted

Apples in 9x9 inch pan cover with 1 cup br. sugar, nutmeg & lemon rind.  Crush corn flakes, mix with rest br. sugar & butter, sprinkle over apples bake 375° an hr or until apples tender.

I haven’t tried any of the recipes in my grandmother’s journal.  However, I was curious as to whether this recipe or something called Orange Coconut Custard was still around today.

Here are a couple of sites with recipes with similar names.

Taste of Home - Orange Coconut Custard Recipe
Soft Orange Custard Recipe
Orange-Coconut Custard

These current recipes seem to have far fewer ingredients.  I wonder if they taste similar?

Do you have a family recipe from an ancestor?  I’d love to hear about it in a comment or on your own blog.
 
PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS SERIES CAN BE FOUND HERE:
How to Make Complexion Cream
How to Make Shampoo
How to Make Chocolate Fudge
How to Keep Hair Curled Back in 1906
Eggs Baked in Gravy

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY–Eggs baked in gravy

My grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne left us a spiral bound notebook, written entirely by hand.  The notebook was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph A. Milne in 1906.  In it she left a treasure chest of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

TODAY'S FEATURED RECIPE

EGGS BAKED IN GRAVY

The excerpt from my grandmother's journal - in her handwriting

Here is a transcription of the recipe.

Take chicken gravy, making it thin and season well.  Put it into a baking dish and drop into it as many eggs as will cover the bottom of the dish.  Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and bake in a hot oven.  Serve on sliced toast.

I’ve personally never heard of this dish, nor have I tried this recipe.  However, it does sound interesting.  Maybe I’ll give this recipe a try.  Wonder if my husband will like it?  What do you think?  Would you try it?

So many of the things written by my grandmother, in this notebook, are interesting and unusual.  I’m sure glad I have this memory from her.

OTHER POSTS THAT MY BE OF INTEREST

Family Recipe Friday - How to Make Baked Chicken Fricassee

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY–HOW TO MAKE BAKED CHICKEN FRICASSEE

My grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne left us a spiral bound notebook, written entirely by hand.  The notebook was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph A. Milne in 1906.  In it she left a treasure chest of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.  
 
P.S.  That's my grandmother in the group picture of the ladies on the right side of my home page.  She's the one standing on the right.

TODAY'S FEATURED RECIPE

BAKED CHICKEN FRICASSEE

According to Wikipedia, a chicken fricassee is a “method of cooking meat in which the meat is cut up, sautéed and braised, and served with its sauce, traditionally a white sauce.”

This recipe from my grandmother doesn’t seem very detailed compared to the recipes I looked at online.  However, here it is, as written by her.  

My grandmother's recipe for baked chicken fricassee

Transcription: Select nice, fat chicken, butter the baking pan, cut chicken in small pieces, pepper, salt, butter & flour each piece thoroughly.  Cover with boiling hot water, cut in celery if desired, bake in slow oven and serve with hot baking powder biscuits.

Does this recipe need some tweaking?  I say, yes it does.

Here are some sites for chicken fricassee I found online that sound much more tasty.

http://www.marthastewart.com/925889/chicken-fricassee-fricassee-de-poulet-lancienne

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ingrid-hoffmann/grandma-titas-chicken-fricassee-recipe.html

http://blogcritics.org/julia-childs-chicken-fricassee-fricassee-de/

Well, there it is.  Today’s family recipe, brought to you by my maternal grandmother.  I will say, that of my two grandmothers, my paternal grandmother, Marie Lindsay Gould, was the better cook.  I sure wish I had her recipe book.  I can still taste her custard pudding.  

However, I cherish this notebook from my maternal grandmother.  There are many more recipes, both food and non-food, in this journal.  I will continue to share them with you as the weeks go by.  I find the recipes for complexion cream and how to make shampoo and other things like that, the most interesting.

Here are the previous posts from this series:

How to make complexion cream - http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2013/10/family-recipe-friday-my-grandmother_4.html

How to make shampoo - http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2013/11/family-recipe-friday-how-to-make-shampoo.html

How to make chocolate fudge - http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2013/11/family-recipe-friday.html

How to keep hair curled back in 1906 - http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2013/11/family-recipe-friday-how-to-keep-hair.html

Please, share your family recipes with me.  I’d love to read them.

Happy cooking,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

FAMILY "RECIPE" FRIDAY - HOW TO KEEP HAIR CURLED BACK IN 1906

My grandmother, Florence BOWDEN MILNE left us a spiral bound notebook, which I refer to has her journal.  The entire notebook is written in her hand and was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph, in 1906.  In it she left a treasure chest of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

  

                                                               

 
 
 
  
 

On the left, my Grandmother at age 18 - when she began her notebook and on the right when she was about 60 years old.

 

A recipe doesn't necessarily have to be something that is for cooking.  With that in mind I will be sharing various types of recipes, both for cooking and for other things from my grandmother's journal.  These items range from recipes for shampoo to how to keep hair curled (featured today), to curling fluids for your hair,  cures for blackheads or acne, chocolate fudge and how to tell if your wood-burning stove is the correct temperature.  You'll see them all here as the weeks continue.  So, please come back often.

TODAYS FEATURED “RECIPE”

TO KEEP HAIR CURLED

Please enlarge the picture above, by double clicking on it,  if you want to see it more clearly

 

This “recipe” or formula calls for Gum Arabic, Bichloride of Mercury and Sal Ammoniac.  

• Exactly what are those items?  They certainly aren’t common to me.  
• Are they even still around today?  Let’s find out by taking a look online.

 

“GUM ARABIC also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Senegalia senegal and Vachellia seyal. The gum is harvested commercially from wild trees throughout the Sahel from Senegal to Somalia, although it has been historically cultivated in Arabia and West Asia.

Gum arabic is a complex mixture of glycoproteins and polysaccharides. It was historically the source of the sugars arabinose and ribose, both of which were first discovered and isolated from it, and are named after it.

Gum arabic is used primarily in the food industry as a stabilizer. It is edible and has E number E414. Gum arabic is a key ingredient in traditional lithography and is used in printing, paint production, glue, cosmetics and various industrial applications, including viscosity control in inks and in textile industries, although less expensive materials compete with it for many of these roles.

While gum arabic is now produced mostly throughout the African Sahel, it is still harvested and used in the Middle East. For example, Arab populations use the natural gum to make a chilled, sweetened, and flavored gelato-like dessert.”

You can find this description of Gum Arabic with much more information about it at GUM ARABIC on wikipedia.

 

BICHLORIDE OF “MERCURY or Mercury(II) chloride or mercuric chloride (archaically, corrosive sublimate) is the chemical compound of mercury and chlorine with the formula HgCl₂. This white crystalline solid is a laboratory reagent and a molecular compound. Once used as a treatment for syphilis, it is no longer used for medicinal purposes because of mercury toxicity and the availability of superior treatments.”

You can find this description of Gum Arabic with much more information about it at BICHLORIDE OF MERCURY on wikipedia.

 

“SAL AMMONIAC is a rare mineral composed of ammonium chloride, NH₄Cl. It forms colorless to white to yellow-brown crystals in the isometric-hexoctahedral class. It has very poor cleavage and a brittle to conchoidal fracture. It is quite soft, with a Mohs hardness of 1.5 to 2, and has a low specific gravity of 1.5. It is water-soluble. Sal ammoniac is also the archaic name for the chemical compound ammonium chloride. The Romans called the ammonium chloride deposits they collected from near the Temple of Jupiter Amun (Greek Ἄμμων Ammon) in ancient Libya 'sal ammoniacus' (salt of Amun) because of proximity to the nearby temple.^[4] Salts of ammonia have been known from very early times; thus the term Hammoniacus sal appears in the writings of Pliny,^[5] although it is not known whether the term is identical with the more modern sal-ammoniac.^[6] In any case, this salt ultimately gave ammonia and ammonium compounds their name.

It typically forms as encrustations formed by sublimation around volcanic vents. It is found around volcanic fumaroles, guano deposits and burning coal seams. Associated minerals include sodium alum, native sulfur and other fumarole minerals. Notable occurrences include Tajikistan; Mt. Vesuvius, Italy; and Parícutin, Michoacan, Mexico.”
You can find this description of Gum Arabic with much more information about it at SAL AMMONIAC on wikipedia.
 

Many of the items used in my grandmother's recipes aren't even available to us any more.  But, what fun it is to look at them.

 

Have we ever thought of our ancestor's lives without all of our modern conveniences?  Even something as common as shampoo had to be made by hand. And we can use curling irons and hair spray today to keep our hair curled.

 

Can you find any old recipes from your family?
 
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl 


 
Copyright © 2013 Diane Gould Hall

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY - HOW TO MAKE SHAMPOO

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY

My grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne left us a spiral bound notebook, which I refer to has her journal.  The entire notebook is written in her hand.  In it she left a treasure chest of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's. 

My Grandmother at age 18 - when she began her notebook

A recipe doesn't necessarily have to be something that is for cooking.  With that in mind I will be sharing various types of recipes, both for cooking and for other things from my grandmother's journal.  These items range from recipes for shampoo (featured today), to curling fluids for your hair to cures for blackheads or acne, chocolate fudge and how to tell if your wood-burning stove is the correct temperature.  You'll see them all here as the weeks continue.  So, please come back often.

TODAY'S FEATURED RECIPE

SHAMPOO

How to make shampoo
Please enlarge the picture above if you want to see it more clearly

Many of the items used in my grandmother's recipes aren't even available to us any more.  But, what fun it is to look at them.

Have we ever thought of our ancestor's lives without all of our modern conveniences?  Even something as common as shampoo had to be made by hand.

Can you find any old recipes from your family?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl 

Copyright ©  2013   Diane Gould Hall