What would be a dish for the 19th century?

Question

I have an assignment to fix a dish that could have been commonly cooked between 1803 and 1882. I don't need it to be too complex, it will be 9th graders who are eating this. Please help me. I am at a loss of ideas. I'm not a culinary person.

Answer 1

beef stroginoff    Ingredients:

2 lbs tender beef

10-15 allspice

1/4 lb butter

salt

2 spoons flour

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 teaspoon Sareptskaja mustard"

---A Gift to Young Housewives, Elena Molokhovets, [Moscow, 1861], recipe #635

translated and introduced by Joyce Thomas [Indiana Press:Bloomington] 1992 (p.213-214). Ms. Thomas adds this note: "Molokhovets' simple recipe did not endure. Already by 1912, Aleksandrrova-Ignat'eva was teaching the students in her cooking classes to add finely chopped sauteed onions and tomato paste to the sauce, a practice which still turns up in modern Soviet and American recipes, with or without the addition of mushrooms. It is worth noting that Aleksandrova-Ignat'eva served this dish with potato straws, which have become the standard modern garnish for Beef Stroganov."

you can use meat balls for this too

[1881]

"Shepherd's pie

1 pound of cold mutton

1 pint of cold boiled potatoes

1 tablespoon of butter

1/2 cup of stock or water

Salt and pepper to taste

The crust

4 good-sized potatoes

1/4 cup cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the mutton and boiled potatoes into pieces about one inch square; put them in a deep pie or baking dish, add the stock or water, salt, pepper, and half the butter cut into small bits. The make the crust as follows: Pare and boil the potatoes, then mash them, add the cream, the remainder of the butter, salt and pepper, beat until light. Now add flour enough to make a soft dough--about one cupful. Roll it out into a sheet, make a hole in the centre of the crust, to allow the escape of steam. Bake in a moderate oven one hour, serve in the same dish."

---Mrs. Rorer's Philadelphia Cook Book, Mrs. S[arah] T[yson] Rorer [Philadephia: 1886] (p. 117)

[1881]

EARLY PEANUT BRITTLE RECIPES

    [1847]

    "An Excellent Receipt for Groundnut Candy

    To one quart or molasses add half a pint of brown sugar and a quarter of a pound of butter; boil it for half an hour over a slow fire; then put in a quart of groundnuts, parched and shelled; boil for a quarter of an hour, and then pour it into a shallow tin pan to harden."

    ---The Carolina Housewife, Sarah Rutledge, facsimile copy 1847 edition, with an introduction by Anna Aells Rutledge [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1979 (p. 219)

    [1908] "Peanut candy.

    Have ready one cupful of peanuts shelled and chopped. Be sure you are rid of all the brown skins. Put one cupful of white sugar in a hot iron frying plan and stir until it is dissolved. Add the peanuts and turn immediately. As it cools cut into squares."

    ---The Evening Telegram Cook Book, Emma Paddock Telford [Cupples & Leon:New york] 1908 (p. 157)

    [1919] "Peanut brittle.

    5 pound sugar

    2 1/2 pounds corn syrup

    1 1/2 pints water

    Cook and boil and then add 3 pounds Spanish shelled peanuts, and stir and cook until peanuts are done, then set kettle off fire and stir in it 1/2 teaspoonful of baking soda. After the soda is well stirred, drop in a little more soda, about 1/4 teaspoonful, and stir good. Pour on the slab and spread as thin as possible. When partly cold turn batch over. By adding soda as above batch will be the same color on both sides, not yellow on one side and brow on the other."

    ---Rigby's Reliable Candy Teacher, W. O. Rigby, 19th ed., [1919?] (p. 160-1)

    [NOTE: this book also contains a recipe for non-sugar peanut brittle. This is not a diabetic alternative. It substitutes corn syrup and molasses for refined white sugar.]

    [1925] George Washington Carver's Peanut recipes ]

hope this helps

Answer 2

potato/green peas/ham dish and bread rolls and each get a fresh apple.

Answer 3

a mutten lettuce and tommato sandwich

Answer 4

Cooking back then was very regional and class-specific and that's a long time period.  The country changed a lot over those 80years.   What region are you talking about?  The northerners ate very differently from the southerners, rich very different from poor.  Can you give any more details?  For instance, if southern and poor, would eat cheap game like squirrel or rabbit with greens and hoecakes.  If northern, might be more refined.  Beans were commonly eaten.  Most meat not eaten immediately was smoked, so you would be fairly accurate with ham or bacon as your main ingredient.  Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Irish Stew and dumplings

Answer 6

Johnny cakes or molasses cookies