old family recipes

I have some old recipes I am scanning in and thought they might be of interest here.

They are not necessarily 'good' ones...quite old and sometimes dated in their point of view.

The first is front and back of Mrs Thias's 'how to' on canning string beans and also corn from 1911.  

I'm guessing she wrote this out for my grandpa's first wife as a young bride.

Hope they are clear enough to read?

This one might be something used by one of the veterinarians or doctors in my family?
William H. Browning is a great great grandpa.

As far as I can tell this is called a 'bonkling salve'?
Quite interesting ingredients....and hard to read...any guesses?
3 pounds rosin
six ounces beeswax
six ounces of 'muting tallow' that we think must mean mutton tallow?
one ounce laudanum
camphor gum
one ounce carmative balsam?
3 tea spoons turpentine
six tea spoons something or other???

...any ideas what else that might say other than 'bonkling'? I'm not having any luck finding the word let alone reference to a similar salve?

Maybe hard to read but here's a well used recipe for Fudge Squares.

Mary J is my mother...Helena is my grandma and 'mama' is Helena's mother, my great grandma.

I think the 'dinner bucket' mentioned must be school lunch pail although it could be what they took out into the fields for the day?

The oven was a wood cook stove....no temperature mentioned other than a 'moderate' oven.  Tested by 'feel'...put your hand in the oven briefly to determine if it's hot enough

EDIT to add the backside of the piece of paper....equally interesting maybe?

Matie Carleton's Strawberry or Peach Shortcake sounds delicious!

The Salmon Mold, not so much...

I'm not sure what Spanish Buns are?
Lots of brown sugar...and the egg and sugar mix to put on top maybe?

Judith Browning wrote:This one might be something used by one of the veterinarians or doctors in my family?
William H. Browning is a great great grandpa.

3 tea spoons turpentine
six tea spoons something or other??

The last one looks like benice of turpentine. I know there's Venice turpentine...

Haha - the salmon mold actually sounds pretty good to me! Like a salmon souffle.

Going with the assumption that the last ingredient in the salve is Venice turpentine, I was trying to figure out what else bonkling might be. I don't know enough about horses, though. Anyone know some old terms for hoof ailments? Or maybe some old brand names of a salve that he was making a home made version of?

Spanish buns appear to be these;

webpage

Jan White wrote:Going with the assumption that the last ingredient in the salve is Venice turpentine, I was trying to figure out what else bonkling might be. I don't know enough about horses, though. Anyone know some old terms for hoof ailments? Or maybe some old brand names of a salve that he was making a home made version of?

I think you're right and it is 'Venice Turpentine'...and that makes me wonder if the word 'bonkling' is something else also?

I've looked and looked for bonkling and can't find anything even close....something for horses is likely as they all had teams of horses on the farm.  Grandpa was a veterinarian but this recipe was back a generation or so.

I tried looking for the list of ingredients and found a article about laudanum and when it was legal and then made illegal except for doctors to prescribe...so that might date this better as it seems like a DIY kind of 'how to'?

Maybe something topical for a cut or open wound?

Skandi Rogers wrote:Spanish buns appear to be these;

webpage

That's it! ...in my recipe it calls the the sugar and egg 'dressing' and that seemed odd to me but looking at the link you posted it makes sense as the part that is at the bottom of the pan and then served with that side up?

Nan's Cawl

A family recipe from my own native Cymru.

*Ahem*

2lb mutton neck

3 pints stock

6oz onions, chopped

10oz leeks (don't skip on the leeks, it's what makes it Welsh, and therefore what makes this cawl), chopped

8oz Swede, diced.

To cook

Put the mutton in a pan and cover with stock, boil for 15 mins and then let simmer for 1 and a quarter hours.

Add the veg and cook for another hour.

Boil until heated to serve before finally dishing up with bread and cheese.

Thoughts

This dish is very important to me, not only as it is the national dish of my country, not only because it has comforted my family and most likely my ancestors since humans started to cultivate the land in Wales, made better by the Roman addition of the allium, but because the stew, or at least my family recipe, makes use of a much underused type of sheep meat, Mutton.

these are all cakes.....

Some use lard drippings and most are using fresh milk that is sometimes soured or boiled depending on the recipe.
When baking soda is called for the sour milk provides the acidity necessary for it to work well.

Many details are left out because all of the cooks just *knew* those things ...like oven temperature, what to sift and what to whisk, order to add, etc.

Brown Pudding, a Mock Angels Food (cake), a Buttermilk Pie and a 'Gold Cake' calling for 'yolks of 8 eggs'...using up the yolks left from the Angel Food cake no doubt!

Jack Durston wrote:Nan's Cawl

A family recipe from my own native Cymru.

*Ahem*

2lb mutton neck

3 pints stock

6oz onions, chopped

10oz leeks (don't skip on the leeks, it's what makes it Welsh, and therefore what makes this cawl), chopped

8oz Swede, diced.

To cook

Put the mutton in a pan and cover with stock, boil for 15 mins and then let simmer for 1 and a quarter hours.

Add the veg and cook for another hour.

Boil until heated to serve before finally dishing up with bread and cheese.

Thoughts

This dish is very important to me, not only as it is the national dish of my country, not only because it has comforted my family and most likely my ancestors since humans started to cultivate the land in Wales, made better by the Roman addition of the allium, but because the stew, or at least my family recipe, makes use of a much underused type of sheep meat, Mutton.

Thanks for that Jack!
It's wonderful to pass down recipes, especially if they are well used.

Thank you, Judith. It is very well used, probably dating from the ironage. I did forget to say that you can add soaked barley grains to it too but it's not very traditional.

The salve is what I've seen called a "drawing salve."  I've used similar salves (no laudenum, though). The ingredients are pretty straightforward: tallow for a base that helps keep the skin moist, beeswax for a stiffener, laudenum for pain relief, most of the others are antiseptic. That seems like an awful lot of rosin, not sure what's going on there. I don't know about the name, though. Maybe a local term.

I tried looking for the list of ingredients and found a article about laudanum and when it was legal and then made illegal except for doctors to prescribe...so that might date this better as it seems like a DIY kind of 'how to'?

Maybe something topical for a cut or open wound?




Laudanum was given for attacks of "nerves"/hysteria, as well as for pain relief.  It is a tincture of opium.  So my guess would be the salve was for an infection of some type. Rosin and balsam both have  anti-bacterial properties, and camphor can be used for pain, although not on wounds or broken skin.

Jack Durston wrote:Nan's Cawl

A family recipe from my own native Cymru.

*Ahem*

2lb mutton neck

3 pints stock

6oz onions, chopped

10oz leeks (don't skip on the leeks, it's what makes it Welsh, and therefore what makes this cawl), chopped

8oz Swede, diced.

To cook

Put the mutton in a pan and cover with stock, boil for 15 mins and then let simmer for 1 and a quarter hours.

Add the veg and cook for another hour.

Boil until heated to serve before finally dishing up with bread and cheese.

Thoughts

This dish is very important to me, not only as it is the national dish of my country, not only because it has comforted my family and most likely my ancestors since humans started to cultivate the land in Wales, made better by the Roman addition of the allium, but because the stew, or at least my family recipe, makes use of a much underused type of sheep meat, Mutton.

What is "Swede"?

It's a big round root vegetable that's purple on top and yellowish on the bottom with orange flesh.

Not my recipe, I saw it on a barbecue website.

I was a bit amused that on that forum, a couple folks didn't know what 'oleo' was.  Then again, my daughters didn't know either when I recently asked them.  I had to explain that in the 70s and earlier, oleo was a healthy(!) alternative to evil, artery clogging butter.

Related story:  My mom told me that 70+ years ago (she's north of 90, BTW), it was illegal for food factories to color oleo/margarine yellow, lest customers would think it was actually butter.  To bypass the law, the opaque white margarine would be sold in a sealed clear plastic pouch, and also within was a small tablet of yellow food coloring.  A fun activity of my then preteen mom, was to bust open the yellow tablet and knead the margarine within the pouch til the yellow food coloring (gawd, I *hope* it was food coloring, now that I think about it!) would eventually change the oleo's color to a more palatable yellow color.

Gary Numan wrote:

Not my recipe, I saw it on a barbecue website.

I was a bit amused that on that forum, a couple folks didn't know what 'oleo' was.  Then again, my daughters didn't know either when I recently asked them.  I had to explain that in the 70s and earlier, oleo was a healthy(!) alternative to evil, artery clogging butter.

Related story:  My mom told me that 70+ years ago (she's north of 90, BTW), it was illegal for food factories to color oleo/margarine yellow, lest customers would think it was actually butter.  To bypass the law, the opaque white margarine would be sold in a sealed clear plastic pouch, and also within was a small tablet of yellow food coloring.  A fun activity of my then preteen mom, was to bust open the yellow tablet and knead the margarine within the pouch til the yellow food coloring (gawd, I *hope* it was food coloring, now that I think about it!) would eventually change the oleo's color to a more palatable yellow color.

good one! My mother fell for oleo and margarine in a big way and white bread. I remember the yellow dye pouches!
This was after she grew up on a farm with fresh eggs, honey, beef and pork, milk and creme and butter and a garden...go figure
Much much later, when I had moved to the woods in the early seventies she began eating somewhat more mindfully again. (Apparently, according to her, anxiety caused by my lifestyle led to colitis so she had to watch her diet...but I think it was from years of white bread and other refined foods).

Judith Browning wrote:

Jan White wrote:Going with the assumption that the last ingredient in the salve is Venice turpentine, I was trying to figure out what else bonkling might be. I don't know enough about horses, though. Anyone know some old terms for hoof ailments? Or maybe some old brand names of a salve that he was making a home made version of?

I think you're right and it is 'Venice Turpentine'...and that makes me wonder if the word 'bonkling' is something else also?

I've looked and looked for bonkling and can't find anything even close....something for horses is likely as they all had teams of horses on the farm.  Grandpa was a veterinarian but this recipe was back a generation or so.

I tried looking for the list of ingredients and found a article about laudanum and when it was legal and then made illegal except for doctors to prescribe...so that might date this better as it seems like a DIY kind of 'how to'?

Maybe something topical for a cut or open wound?

Venice turpentine is still used in the horse community for toughening the sole of the hoof.

Despite having grown up with horses and even worked at a vet college for a while, I don't recognize the term 'bonkling' or anything close to that as being a veterinary term associated with a horse ailment. I wondered if the final g was actually an e and if it might be the name bonklein or von klein. Maybe after passing the recipe from user to user the original name got lost and was just written down phonetically? I dunno.

While trying to dig a little deeper into this truly weird and fascinating (and rather alarming, to be honest) recipe, I came across a patent office filing of one withconsiderable overlap in ingredients. Also used for horse's hoof issues and claiming to work for other injuries as well.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US228724A/en

Jack Durston wrote:It's a big round root vegetable that's purple on top and yellowish on the bottom with orange flesh.

Swede = rutabaga

Jack Durston wrote:Nan's Cawl

A family recipe from my own native Cymru.

*Ahem*

2lb mutton neck

3 pints stock

6oz onions, chopped

10oz leeks (don't skip on the leeks, it's what makes it Welsh, and therefore what makes this cawl), chopped

8oz Swede, diced.

To cook

Put the mutton in a pan and cover with stock, boil for 15 mins and then let simmer for 1 and a quarter hours.

Add the veg and cook for another hour.

Boil until heated to serve before finally dishing up with bread and cheese.

Thoughts

This dish is very important to me, not only as it is the national dish of my country, not only because it has comforted my family and most likely my ancestors since humans started to cultivate the land in Wales, made better by the Roman addition of the allium, but because the stew, or at least my family recipe, makes use of a much underused type of sheep meat, Mutton.

'Cawl' is a stew. In my family it had potatoes as well as swede. I have also heard of it being made with cabbage and even bacon, which sounds rather good.

You are correct, Cawl is indeed a stew. I think potatoes is a North Wales thing, me and my family are from South Wales (Glamorgan, the Rhondda and Pen-y-bont).

Jack Durston wrote:You are correct, Cawl is indeed a stew. I think potatoes is a North Wales thing, me and my family are from South Wales (Glamorgan, the Rhondda and Pen-y-bont).

Ah, that's interesting. I was born in Pontypridd, and my parents grew up in Pontypridd and Treharris, so same area as you are from; but my mother's family originated from The Gower before they came to work in the coal mines. So maybe the potato thing is also a West Wales modification to the basic recipe. Or maybe my mother added it after we moved to Canada, although that seems unlikely as she stuck pretty closely to her mother's recipes for things like Welsh cakes and bread pudding. I do recall she substituted onions for the leeks, as until fairly recently leeks weren't easily come by in Canadian grocery stores or even simple to find at seed companies before internet shopping.

I have a very old recipe book handed down from my grandmother, not handwritten but a printed book of traditional recipes (with some modifications and notes in the margins, if I recall correctly). I wonder if that has a cawl recipe with or without potatoes.

I have to admit I disliked cawl intensely as a child. I haven't eaten it or even thought about it for years.

Well sheep meat isn't for everyone, but growing up on a sheep farm, it was unavoidable. I hope you didn't have to put up with a welsh breakfast every Sunday (Cockles, laverbread, beans and bacon) though I do dislike shelfish (especially molluscs) intensley. Funny thing is though Ponty isn't too far from me, I'm from up Pentyrch way though originally actually I'm from Caerphilly.

Seeing that you're from Ponty reminded me of going down there to use the pool and queing in line for the little digger thing they had in Ynysangharad park.

Welsh cawl sounds similar to what in my family was called Irish stew (as in the old music hall joke: "Irish stew in the name of the law!") and consisted of mutton or lamb chops, potatoes, onions, and carrots in a thin broth.
My old family recipe is too simple to have been written down and is just an oral tradition spanning at least 4 generations in my family. We make it at least 5 or 6 times a year. It tastes better and is easier to make than apple pie.

Apple Crumble
8-10 apples, core, peel and slice, then place in the bottom of 9x13 dish
Topping:
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
Mix topping and crumble over apples evenly and bake 350F for 1 hour.
Optional in season: blackberries.
Serve hot with ice cream or cold just by itself.

Personally I like gooseberries in my crumble with custard and a mug of malted milk.

This is the old cookbook I mentioned. It doesn't have a date, and I couldn't find it online. I did discover that this format of the name of the publishing organization was in use around 1959 or so, but their publications around that time had the name in both English and Welsh so this booklet must be earlier. I also learned that the 'homecraft staff' who prepared the booklet worked with a network of women's clubs (women's institute maybe?) and that some clubs had been established for 25 years by 1960. So I am guessing my grandmother might have been a member of one of those clubs possibly as early as the 1930s. I found a present-day reference to Ynysangharad Women's Institute so if that was around at the time it would be a possible club she might have joined. I assume their headquarters might be in the vicinity of the park with the pool and I recall that park being an easy walk down from her house with my cousins when I was a kid.

I am attaching photos of the cover and inner title page, table of contents and a few recipes that were standard fare in our house when I was growing up. We had the pancakes for breakfast on weekends (growing up in Ontario, Canada, an 18 hour drive to the nearest ocean spared me the cockles and laverbread), bakestone fruit tart often made with a jam filling, Welsh cakes, rarebit. We would also have pancakes for supper on what I now understand is called Shrove Tuesday. Until pretty recently I had gone for decades only knowing it as Pancake Day. The only one of the recipes I routinely make is rarebit. Having now found this book again I think I will try to start making some other things as well, if I can adapt them to my daughter's need for a gluten free diet.

I also photographed a page with nettle wine. I have never had this as until I moved to BC I had never lived as an adult anywhere with nettles. But I have access to what feels like an infinite supply now and this looks like an interesting recipe that can be used after a couple of days so I think the yeast must just give it a bit of fizz instead of making an alcoholic drink.

In the process of attaching these it looks like some photos have very odd orientations and I am not sure if I can correct that from my iphone...so apologies in advance if you have to do a headstand to read them. If they are that bad I will try to post an updated and improved photo later.

If anyone wants photos of any other recipes from this book just let me know.

Sorry! Let's try that again. I just discovered the thingy on the phone camera that lets me rotate photos. No need to stand on your head.

Dammit I apparently shouldn't be let out without a keeper today. Here are the rest of them.

I figured out that SR flour is self-rising flour, but what is "1 tsp GRP"?

Emilie McVey wrote:I figured out that SR flour is self-rising flour, but what is "1 tsp GRP"?

According to the glossary on page 7, it is "Golden Raising Powder" but I have no idea what that is. Some kind of baking powder? When I googled it just now I only found someone else looking for it as well...

https://rec.food.historic.narkive.com/fWTJVtTZ/golden-raising-powder

The only thing I learned from that other person's inquiry that is new information is that it was from the company Bird's, which is the same people who make Bird's Custard Powder, which was one of my mother's household staples and is still around.

You can buy the old cans on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Birds-Golden-Raising-Powder-Tin-1950s-Display-purposes-only/174591801685?hash=item28a67b7955:g:H1QAAOSwUepf11t8

From the recipe suggestions on the back it appears to have been used in mostly sweet recipes. The "golden" may have been powdered eggs to save having to use fresh or for use where none were available??

A different eBay item has a can with ingredients listed as "raising agents (E450a, sodium bicarbonate, E341), wheat flour"

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Bird-s-Golden-Raising-Powder-String-Tin-with-String/402638975911?hash=item5dbf2733a7:g:2DIAAOSwaDRfyqtb

E450a is various diphosphates: https://www.morechemistry.com/food-additives/e450a.html
E341 is calcium phosphate: https://doublecheckvegan.com/ingredients/e341/#:~:text=E341%20may%20or%20may%20not,%2Dmaking)1%20and%20bones.