What They Ate

Exactly 100 years ago, the ladies of Williamsburg Presbyterian Church published a cookbook, containing local recipes. Today, we'll look at a few of them, beginning with Caroline "Carrie" Heller's recipe for loaf bread or rolls. I think we'll find that cooking was a bit different then than it is today. 

The Heller House where Carrie Heller, no doubt, made many batches of bread and rolls.

LOAF BREAD OR ROLLS

Wash and peel 3 medium sized white potatoes, boil and mash, using the water they were boiled in; to this add 1 qt. of lukewarm water, 1 cake of compressed yeast, stir in enough flour to make a stiff sponge, set aside to rise in a very warm place. When risen, add 1 tablespoon butter or lard, 1 tablespoon salt and enough flour to make a stiff dough, knead until it blisters, then set to rise again. For either loaf bread or rolls.

Only one gentleman contributed recipes to the book. His name was Edgar B. Maynard. A quick look at The County Record archives revealed that in 1921 he was operating The Paragon Restaurant on Academy Street in Kingstree. 

Advertisement for the Paragon Restaurant in The County Record, March 24, 1921

MOCK DUCK

Take my advice, try this: (Not my advice. This is actually part of the recipe printed in the book.)

Three lbs. round steak in one piece. Make a deep slice in the middle. Fill this with four onions chopped in fine pieces, boil in 2 waters, 1 cup of toasted bread crumbs, 2 cups mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, and powdered sage to taste. Run threads of bacon through beef to make it more tastey (sic). Bake slowly until done, 3 to 4 hours. Use a good brown gravy to pour over when served.

Essie Montgomery

I am including Essie Montgomery's recipe for Mayonnaise Dressing because I cannot count how many times I heard my mother say that once you had tasted Miss Essie's homemade mayonnaise, you understood that nothing you bought at a store could compare.

MAYONNAISE DRESSING

Yolks of 4 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 pt. Wesson oil, 3 to 4 tablespoons vinegar, few grains of cayenne.

To your egg yolks add salt, beat about ten times with Dover egg beater before adding oil, add oil gradually, at first drop by drop, beating constantly, as mixture thickens, thin with vinegar or lemon juice, add oil and vinegar or lemon juice alternately until all oil is used, stirring or beating constantly. If oil is added too rapidly at first dressing will have a curdled appearance. A smooth consistency may be restored by taking a yolk of another egg and adding curdled mixture slowly to it. Mayonnaise should be stiff enough to hold shape.

Bessie Britton shared her recipe for shrimp salad. Somehow, I've never associated beets and potatoes with shrimp salad before.

SHRIMP SALAD

One small can shrimp, 2 large Irish potatoes, 2 slices red beets, 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon celery seed, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, salt to taste.

Dice potatoes, beets, and eggs. Mix with shrimp, add lemon juice, sprinkle with celery seed, sugar, and salt. Mix thoroughly with mayonnaise dressing and chile before serving. (I suspect that "chile" should be "chill," but...)

A postcard of The Columns after Belle Blakely sold it to Mrs. Rodgers.

I wonder if Belle Blakely served this apple pie to her guests at The Columns.

APPLE PIE

Three or 4 mellow apples, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg, 1 lb. butter, 2 tablespoons water.

Line pie plate with paste, pare and cut apples in thin slices, covering paste with thin slices of apples, sprinkle 1/2 sugar and butter over this. Then put another layer of apples and remainder of sugar and butter. Then sprinkle the nutmeg and water over this. Bake until brown in a moderate oven.

I include these last two recipes for personal reasons. The first, Lillian Payne's chocolate fudge, because I can attest to its goodness. My parents rented the apartment in the back of the Payne house on Kelley Street for several years, including the year after I was born. Even after we moved, we went back often to visit, and those memories include Mama Lill's chocolate fudge. 

Lillian Payne from around 1919-1920

Source: Ancestry.com

CHOCOLATE FUDGE

Boil 1 cup of sugar to 1/2 cup of sweet milk and 1/2 block of chocolate until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water. Take from fire, adding butter the size of a walnut and two teaspoons vanilla. Beat until creamy, then spread on buttered paper and cut into blocks.

Finally, here is Luna Arrowsmith's sponge cake. When I was growing up, I never thought that one thing I would long for as an adult would be to have just one more piece of Celeste Hodge's sponge cake. So, if anyone has Miss Celeste's recipe for sponge cake, please share it. I will be forever indebted to you if you do.

SPONGE CAKE

Ten large or 12 small eggs, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon flavoring, 1 salt spoon salt.

Break up eggs (yolks and whites), add sugar and beat until stiff, adding salt. Fold in flour sifted twice, add flavoring. Bake in moderate oven 30 minutes or less for layer cake. If desired, sift 1 cup powdered sugar over cake before baking and cut in squares.

By the way, if you want to browse through the 1921 Kingstree Cook Book, click here to go to the South Caroliniana Cookbook Collection.