Caroline's Hasty Cornmeal Pudding

The breakfast of choice for most of your favorite historical characters!

Some recipes are so incredibly simple that they can stick around as a staple on family tables for generations. Take hasty pudding for example: this simple hot breakfast would've been an easy option for Caroline's mother or grandmother to whip up for breakfast, and it's something Caroline could learn to make herself as soon as she was old enough to be trusted near an open fire. 

But this dish has a much longer history, and is an appropriate breakfast for characters well beyond Caroline's time. Read on to find out more about the history of this breakfast staple!

Emily's Wartime Berry Shortbread & VE Day Tea Party

It's the 75th Anniversary of the end of the war in Europe!

Happy VE Day! Today marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, and I've been looking forward to this day literally all year. Longer than a year, because what a good opportunity to revisit some of my favorite wartime recipes with a celebratory party with historian friends! 

Unfortunately, the party turned into me, my wife, and our cat (and Molly and Emily), but I think we still managed to make it a nice occasion. Read on to see more pictures, and learn how to make this simple, ration friendly twist on shortbread.

Gabby makes President Obama's Favorite Chili

An unusual but tasty spin on chili!

Our final entry in our Black History Month series comes from the personal archive of the Obamas! To share it with you, I brought out Gabriela McBride, AG's first Black Girl of the Year character. Gabby runs for student body president in her third book, so besides being a modern girl who would have grown up during the Obama administration and probably been incredibly excited to see girls like her living in the White House, she felt like a good fit to share this unique but tasty recipe for one of my personal favorite foods. Read on to see what's for dinner with Barack and Michelle!

Melody's Pecan Pie

Enjoying a classic Civil Rights era treat!

Pecan pies have always been something of a mystery to me, as they're completely not my family's tradition when it comes to baked goods. Admittedly, maybe that shouldn't come as a shock: they are, after all, pretty iconically a southern food, and my family has lived in different parts of New England since they immigrated here. 

But because pecan pie is such a staple of southern comfort food, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it would have been a popular treat among Civil Rights leaders and activists. Soul food was an important part of the movement, as African Americans encouraged members of their community to embrace and celebrate their heritage by cooking things like collared greens. Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite dessert was reportedly pecan pie, and so it seemed like a perfect choice for our Melody recipe this February. Read on to find out how to make a historic version of the pie in your own kitchen!

Addy's Alphabet Cookies

Bringing the books to life!

I've talked before about how Addy's mom is one of my favorite American Girl characters. Ruth Walker is an extraordinarily brave woman who always seems to make the best of a bad situation in a way I - an eternal worrier and pessimist - really admire. Her embarrassment about not knowing how to read and Addy offering to teach her by shaping dough into letters in their small room over Ford's Dress Shop is one of my favorite scenes in the series, and Ruth tucking specially made cookies that spell "love" in Addy's lunch pail as a treat on the day of her spelling bee is a really sweet (literally and figuratively) end to Addy Learns a Lesson. 

To recreate this moment, I wanted to find the perfect period recipe, and finally tracked down a good one that's great for leaving creative notes to friends and family. Read on to find out how to make them yourself!

Felicity's Hot Chocolate, or "The American Nectar"

An adaptation of one of the oldest recorded recipes for hot chocolate!

We've done a lot of talking about hot chocolate on this blog, as well as chocolate in general. I've provided a review of American Heritage chocolate, tried out the official Josefina approved recipe for New Mexican hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows on top of hot chocolate, and even tried out champurrado, a recipe with links to some of the earliest ways human beings have enjoyed chocolate. 

The recipe we're trying out today is one of the recipes featured as part of the Folger Shakespear Library's First Chefs exhibit, which I've also shared with you guys before. All the recipes featured online and as handouts at the exhibit were adapted from historical recipes by Marissa Nicosia, a food historian who experiments with recipes from the 1600's through the 1800's. You can read more about her work on her website Rare Cooking. 

So, what makes this recipe different from the ones we've tried before?

Mrs. Ling's Special Ginger Pancakes

A treat straight from Ivy's family cookbook! Sort of...

In Julie's stories, it's mentioned that Mrs. Ling is famous for making ginger pancakes, and often treats Julie to them when she stays over at their house. I've been trying to make more historical recipes mentioned in the books themselves, and decided I needed to give these a whirl. 

There was just one problem: my favorite (and currently only) 1970's cookbook with breakfast recipes in it told me to just make my pancakes with Bisquick, and that wasn't good enough for me. So I had to turn to a slightly unconventional source to find my base recipe for ginger pancakes. Read on to see how Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook came to my rescue!

Molly's Sticky Buns

Celebrate Christmas like the McIntires!

In a sharp contrast to Maryellen's Christmas story, Molly's Surprise is all about how traditions have changed for the McIntires because of the war. With Dad overseas - and no letters from him in weeks! - things were always going to be different, but Mom doesn't have time to decorate, and Molly's grandparents can't come thanks to a flat tire. With a little help from her siblings - and a surprise from Dad - Molly manages to find a way to make the holidays special even with things so different. 

A traditional holiday snack for the McIntires are sticky buns, a cinnamony treat usually smothered in caramel and pecans. As this Christmas was apparently the year I wanted to practice baking with yeast, and I wanted to revisit some of the American Girl books for baking inspiration, I thought these would be a fun thing to try.

Maryellen's Coffee Cake

A recipe straight from the mid 20th century with a long, long history.

Although American Girl has snipped Maryellen's Christmas story from the most recent edition of her books, they sure do seem to like giving her a lot of winter and holiday releases. For those not in the know, Maryellen's Christmas adventure focused on how Maryellen is growing frustrated with her non-traditional Christmas in Florida. Every movie and holiday card depicts Christmas as a day full of snow, with an evergreen tree, sledding, ice skating... you get the idea. She gets it in her head that she wants to have a "real" Christmas, and ends up going to visit her grandparents in slightly colder Georgia. 

After enjoying some of her solo adventure, and getting an opportunity to ice skate, she realizes she misses her family's traditions and wants to go home. The whole story is meant to tie into one of the major themes of Maryellen's series: the 1950's was a period of conformity, but you should follow your heart instead of the crowd. 

One of the traditions the Larkins enjoy is eating a coffee cake on Christmas morning, and I've been contemplating trying my hand at making my own pretty much since her books were released. The recipe I'm going to share with you might not be exactly what you're thinking a good coffee cake should be - and very well might not be the exact kind of coffee cake the Larkins cut into while opening presents - but it is an authentic recipe from the period that made a very tasty final product, and got me doing some research into the history of coffee cake. Read on to see what we discovered!

Jane's Cranberry Cornbread

A cornbread that could have been served at the first Thanksgiving!

I swear I intended to have Jane represent the experience of settlers in Jamestown, but let's be honest: it's hard to ignore Plymouth as a source for early colonization and interactions between Europeans and Native communities, particularly when it comes to exchanging food. 

This corn bread is very different from the corn bread you've probably enjoyed alongside chili and fried chicken, but if you're looking for something that can pass as authentic for your Thanksgiving table, this really fits the bill. Read on to find out how to make this yourself!

Kit's Appalachian Apple Stack Cake

A cake that could be a real community effort!

Sorry again for the delay. My life post-vow renewal/reception has surprisingly meant even less time and energy for the blog than before, and as much as I miss it, it's kind of been nice to have some time to get the rest of my life back on track. 

What better way to get back in action than to try out this cake that - allegedly - would have been enjoyed at wedding celebrations in Depression-era Appalachia? Read on to see how this unusual, slightly involved cake may or may not have been the hit at weddings from time gone by.

Rebecca's New York Cheesecake

A New York classic you can make far from the Big Apple!

My wife loves cheesecake. I'm not sure I would go as far as to say she's a cheesecake fiend, but she's certainly close. I, however, am not as big of a fan (which is not to say I don't like them, just to be clear), so I haven't actually made very many of them in my time learning to bake and exploring historic recipes. I made one for her birthday based on Perfectly Preserved Pies from Fallout (which you can see on my Instagram), and I've made a very historic cheesecake that the Pilgrims might have enjoyed, but I'd never tried my hand at a very basic, classic New York style cheesecake before. 

Well, now I have, and it was a lot easier and more fun than I expected it to be. Some of that might be because I once again turned to American Cake by Anne Byrd, my favorite cookbook of all time, for guidance, but I think between this and my attempt at Perfectly Preserved Pie have encouraged me to try out a few more cheesecakes down the line. Read on to see how it turned out!

Emily's Oslo Lunch

Keeping British kids fighting fit during World War II!

I feel like September has always been a really rough month for the blog. I'm usually in the middle of moving, starting a new job, finishing grad school, or recovering from planning a wedding. 2019 had been especially unkind motivation wise, so this post is one of three that probably should have gone up way sooner, and will end up being backdated. Whoops. 

Anyway, one thing I've also been trying to do this September is eat better. As I've discussed before, historical recipes and eating "better" by modern standards often aren't really compatible. What was considered healthy for a pioneer family in 1854 is vastly different for an office worker in 2019, because I'm not getting up at the crack of dawn every day to do backbreaking labor like every member of the Larson family would have been. One period that does have surprisingly healthy - and often surprisingly not that bad, if not good - recipes to offer is World War II, especially when looking into British dishes, where rationing was a lot more intense than it was in the United States. Read on to see an experimental meal that helped British school kids stay healthy in spite of food shortages!

Samantha's Wellesley Fudge Cake

A cherished tradition from Wellesley College!

There's something about September that always seems to signal a slow down in my blogging. Whether it's moving to grad school, getting married, planning a vow renewal, or just wiping myself out with an anniversary post, September just hasn't been my strongest month production wise. 

That's my way of apologizing for taking so long to get this one up, and how quickly the next post is going to follow it! I've got quite a schedule I'd like to tackle, so there's no more time to waste. And what better way to get back in action than finally getting to test out one of my favorite cookbooks properly!

Nanea's Pineapple Mint Julep

A refreshing, fruity must have for any summer celebration!

Happy VJ Day! Today marks one of the many days the Allies celebrated as the end to the war in the Pacific. Nanea and her friends would have been young teenagers by the end of the war, and would be celebrating the end of the conflict and hoping for a speedy return of their friends and family who had gone off to war. Or maybe their celebrations were more subdued as they remembered the lives that had been lost in the conflict. Victory Days were fun, spontaneous holidays, but they also marked a very somber moment for families who had lost loved ones in the conflict. 

To celebrate, I decided to continue the summer of the mocktail at our apartment, and when I was looking around for something VJ Day inspired, I knew this was the treat that was meant to be featured. 

This tropical twist on the classic mint julep is appropriate for all ages, and comes straight from my 1943 copy of the Women's Home Companion Cookbook. Read on to see how you can bring this refreshing taste of history to life yourself!

Kirsten's Vinegar Lemonade

A trail recipe that should probably stay that way...

Some recipes have genuinely made me wonder am I a little crazy, a glutton for punishment, or both. This time, I'm pretty sure it's both. 

Maybe it was leftover confidence from how well my vinegar pie came out three years ago or just my ongoing commitment to trying out bizarre historical recipes, but I'm going to say this right up front: unless you're a settler making your way to Oregon in 1847, I wouldn't recommend trying this one at home.

Felicity's Raspberry Dumplings

A dessert that's both fancy and humble!

Boiled desserts are something that fascinate me. They used to be as American as apple pie, but sometime after we broke free from Great Britain, puddings started losing their appeal, and now they're something of a novelty only, and most modern cooks - including me! - can be a little intimidated by them. 

There's plenty of reasons for that: they're heavy, take a fair amount of time to make, and the flavors and textures can be a hard sell to American audiences who aren't quite sure what to make of them. 

Today, I'm sharing my first ever attempt at a boiled dessert, straight from the recipe archives of Colonial Williamsburg. These interesting dumplings might have graced the table of anyone from Felicity to Governor Dunmore, and were definitely an interesting culinary experiment. Read on to see how it went!

Melody's Arnold Palmer

The best way to relax and cool down after a long day outdoors!

Okay, this recipe might be cheating a little bit. I mean, it's really simple, is it really worth a whole blog post? 

My answer is yes, because I love Arnold Palmers. Is there anything more refreshing than something that's a little sweet, a little caffeinated, and a little tart? No. No, there isn't. 

Besides that, they do have some interesting trivia behind them, and they're very iconically 1960's. After a long day working on improving her community park or her own garden, Melody could kick back and enjoy this mocktail with her friends and family. Maybe she even would have made it herself!

Addy's Strawberry Nut Loaf

A treat Addy, Abraham Lincoln, and Jane Austen might have enjoyed!

In my experience, one of the many benefits of going to grad school is making a whole bunch of fun new friends who share similar dorky interests to you. These friends are then always willing to hook you up with cool things they discover that might catch your eye, leading to a whole lot of fun collaboration on hobby projects as well as actual academic research. 

Take today's post for example: this delicious tea bread comes from a cookbook I was gifted by a good buddy of mine for my birthday... two whole years ago. Sorry it took me so long to try something out, Ashlee! I promise it was worth the wait. Read on to discover the inspiration behind this perfect summer tea treat and the cookbook that clued me into it.

Melody's Luau Lulu

A super unusual sandwich from 1960!

This last post in my Hawaii inspired series is one of the most unusual sandwiches I've ever eaten. I know the ingredients are probably going to be a bit of a hard sell to some readers - even I was pretty dubious about how it would actually taste! - but trust me, this treat from 1960 is definitely not to be missed. 

But I can't take credit for discovering this unicorn of a sandwich. I was first introduced to it by reading The Mid-Century Menu, one of my favorite historic cooking blogs. If you aren't reading Retro Ruth's stuff, you're really missing out! Check out her post about the Luau Lulu, and read on to see how our version turned out!