Historical Food Fortnightly 2016 #18

 

Historical Food Fortnightly 2016  Challenge 11:

Let's Get Saucy!

The Challenge: 
Let’s Get Saucy! (August 26 - September 8) They can be the perfect addition to a delicious dish, the crowning glory, or stand on their own. Make your best sauce and show us how to use it!

The Recipe: 

Hot Chocolate Sauce 

The sauce must be made just before serving time as the ice cream is served the hot sauce is poured over which forms a sort of icing. Put four ounces of chocolate with a cup of sugar and a half cupful of milk in a sauce pan. Cook slowly until the chocolate and sugar are melted and then boil until it slightly hardens when dropped in cold water. Turn at once in a sauce boat and send to the table.

Macon Cook Book: A Collection of Recipes Tested Principally by  Benson-Cobb Chapter, Wesleyan College Alumnae, Macon, Georgia, Wesleyan College (Macon, Ga.). Alumnae, 1909.

Date and Region: 1909 southern U.S.

How did you make it: I melted a mini Hershey bar with sugar and milk in a saucepan. 

How Successful Was It?: Semi-successful. My sauce never really turned hard but it did become a fudge-like consistency. I was afraid to cook it longer for fear it would burn, so I removed it from the stove and poured hot over my ice cream. It still didn't get hard but it tasted good!

Time to Complete: 15 minutes or so?

Total Cost: I bought a bag of mini Hershey bars at Walgreens but I don't remember how much it cost.

How Accurate Is It?: Well, Hershey bars were around in 1909 but that wasn't the kind of chocolate the recipe called for, apparently. You can decide how accurate that makes it!

Historical Food Fortnightly: Challenge #2

Historical Food Fortnightly: Challenge #2

The Challenge:  Soups, stews, sauces, gravies! Make a soup or a sauce from a historical recipe.

The Recipe: Raspberry Sauce from New American Cookbook edited by Lily Haxworth Wallace, 1947

1/2 c. sugar

1 c. raspberry jelly

2 tsp. cornstarch

Combine sugar and 1/2 c. water. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add jelly and cornstarch, blended to a smooth paste with 2 T. cold water. Bring again to a boil. Remove from heat. Strain. Serve hot or cold.

The Date/Year and Region: 1940s United States. I say 1940s because it took several years to prepare a cookbook and there is a whole section on rationing. The first two printings were in 1941 and 1943. Sugar rationing ended rationing in the U.S. in 1947.

How Did You Make It: (a brief synopsis of the process of creation)

Exactly as the recipe says.

Time to Complete: ~ 15 minutes

Total Cost: Nothing to me. We had the ingredients already

How Successful Was It?: (How did it taste? How did it look? Did it turn out like you thought it would?)

It's very good but maybe a bit too runny. It's very very sweet and tastes great over ice cream or on biscuits.  

How Accurate Is It?: (fess up to your modifications and make-dos here)
I used Smuckers raspberry jam instead of jelly and instead of making my own as home cooks in the 40s probably would. Commercially made jams and jellies were available and the recipe doesn't specify. I strained it but I wasn't sure what that was supposed to do except strain out the seeds and the jam was already seedless. It didn't seem to do anything. So, 95% accuracy?