FACT OR FICTION: The Lincoln's Early Poverty A Myth, Says Authority In 1974 Kiwanis Club Speech.

Recent research into the early life of Abraham Lincoln tends to show that much of the legend of the Great Emancipator's extreme poverty and illiteracy in childhood is a myth, started at the time Lincoln was running for president, M. L. Houser, an authority on Lincolniana, said.

Speaking at the Kiwanis club luncheon at the Jefferson Hotel, Mr. Houser said it has been relatively well established now that Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, owned 500 acres of good Kentucky farmland before the family moved to Illinois.

As a small boy in Indiana, Mr. Houser said, Lincoln's family lived in a cultural community with many of their neighbors being college graduates who gave their time and effort to the early education of young Abraham.

SAYS HE WAS WELL EDUCATED

"When Lincoln came to Illinois as a youth of 21," Mr. Houser said, "it is virtually certain that he had better than the average academic education."

Mr. Houser said the new slant on Lincoln's early background in no manner detracts from the fact that the future president was a bright industrious lad who never overlooked an opportunity to soak up the knowledge placed at his disposal.

Many of the early Indiana neighbors of the Lincoln family were college graduates who had migrated from the East. In addition, there were several nearby institutions of higher learning in Louisville and Parkstown, Kentucky.

RECORDS BACK STORY

"Old tax records have been found in Kentucky," he said, "showing that Lincoln's father, Thomas, was the sixteenth highest taxpayer on a list of 98 in his community."

In his early days as an Illinois lawyer, Mr. Houser said, there is no record of Lincoln ever mentioning his humble background.

In 1854, he said, Lincoln made a presidential campaign speech in Chicago and the Chicago Journal, which was supporting him, ran an accompanying "background' story playing up their favorite candidate as a product of abject poverty who had educated himself by reading heavy tomes (a large, heavy, scholarly book) by the flickering light of log fire.

VOTE─GETTING STORY

"The story apparently made a big hit with' the rough and ready pioneers of the middle west," said Mr. Houser, "and as such, it made thousands of votes for Mr. Lincoln."

From that point on, said Mr. Houser, Lincoln played heavily on the topic of his humble and disadvantageous childhood. 

With all of Lincoln's greatness, Mr. Houser said, he was a masterful politician who always kept his fingers on the public pulse.

Mr. Houser, holder of an honorary doctor's degree from a Tennessee college for his Lincoln research work, resides on the outskirts of Peoria and has devoted most of the last 15 years to getting the facts on the background of the Civil War president.

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Peoria [A Newspaper], Illinois, 1974.

Lincoln's Early Boyhood.

Abraham Lincoln spent his boyhood in three places and in three states. He was born at Nolan's Creek in Kentucky and lived there until he was eight. Then his father moved to Pidgeon Creek near Gentryville, Southwestern Indiana. Here young Lincoln lived until he was twenty, a grown man when the family moved again to Sangamon Creek, Illinois. All his homes were log cabins, and he was, for all intents and purposes, a true pioneer boy.

No boy ever began life under less promising auspices than young Abraham Lincoln. The family was very poor! his father was a shiftless man who never succeeded in getting ahead in life. Their home was a mere log cabin of the roughest and poorest sort known to backwoods people. The rude chimney was built on the outside, and the only floor was the hardened earth. It was not as good or as comfortable as some Indian wigwams. Of course, the food, clothes and beds of a family living this way were miserable. 

The family lived as did most pioneer families in the backwoods of Indiana. Their bread was made of corn meal. Their meat was chiefly the flesh of wild game shot or trapped in the woods. Pewter plates and wooden trenchers were used on the table. The drinking cups were of tin. There was no stove, and all the cooking was done over the fire of the big fireplace. Abe's bed was simply a couch of leaves freshly gathered every two or three weeks. 

At that time, Indiana was still part of the wilderness. It had just been admitted to the Union as a state. Primeval woods grew up close to the settlement at Pidgeon Creek, and not far away were roving bands of Indians and also wild animals; bears, wildcats and panthers. The settlers hunted these animals and made use of them for food and clothing. Young Abe and his brothers and sisters spent the larger part of their time out of doors. They hunted and fished, learned the habits of the wild creatures, and explored the far recesses of the woods. The forest lore Abe never forgot, and the life and training made him vigorous and tough and able to endure after days the troubles and trials that would have broken down many a weaker man. 

Lincoln was fortunate in his mothers. His mother died when he was eight, but she had done her best to start her boy in the world. Once she said to him: "Abe, learn all you can and grow up to be of some account. You've got just as good Virginian blood in you as George Washington had." Abe never forgot this. Years afterward, he said, "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my blessed mother." His stepmother, Sarah Bush, was a kind-hearted, excellent woman and did all she could to make the poor, ragged barefooted boy happy. She was always ready to listen when he read, to help him with his lessons, and to encourage him. After he had grown up and become famous, she said of him: "Abe never gave me a cross word or look and never refused to do anything I asked of him. Abe is the best boy I ever knew." 

There was a backwoods schoolhouse quite a distance away, which Abe attended for a short time. These log schoolhouses in Lincoln's day had large fireplaces in which there was a great blazing fire in the winter. The boys of the school had to chop and bring in the wood for the fire. The floor of such a schoolhouse was of rough boards hewn out with axes. The schoolmasters were generally harsh, rough men who didn't know much themselves. 

Abe soon learned to read and write, however, and after a while, he found a new teacher, and that was himself. When the rest of the family had gone to bed, he would sit up and write and cipher by the light of the great blazing logs heaped up on the open fireplace. So poor were this pioneer family that they had no means of procuring paper or pencil for the struggling student. Abe used to take the back of the broad wooden fire shovel to write on and a piece of charcoal for a pencil. When he had covered the shovel with words or with sums in arithmetic, he would shave it off clean and begin over again. If his father complained that the shovel was getting thin, Abe would go out into the woods and make a new one. As long as the woods lasted, fire shovels and furniture were cheap.

There were few books to read in that frontier cabin. Poor Abe had not more than a dozen in all. These were Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, Aesop's Fables, the Bible, and a small United States history book. The boy read these books over and over till he knew a great deal of them by heart and could repeat whole pages from them.

One book that made a great impression on him was "The Life of Washington" by Mason L. Weems (pub:1837). He borrowed this book from a neighbor, who loaned it to him on the condition of returning it in as good a condition as he received it. And this the young student intends to do. But one night, there was a great storm, and it rained down in the cabin and seriously injured the precious volume. Lincoln was very much troubled and informed the neighbor of what had happened. The surly old man told him that he must give him three days' work shucking corn and that then he might keep the book for his own. It was the first book that Lincoln ever owned. No one knows how many times he read it through. Washington was his ideal hero, the one great man whom he admired above all others. How little he could have dreamed that in the years to come, his own name would be coupled with that of the Father of his Country by admiring countrymen. 

By the time the lad was seventeen, he could write a good hand, do hard examples in arithmetic, and spell better than anyone else in the country. Once in a while, he would write a little piece of his own about something which interested him. Sometimes he would read what he had written to the neighbors, and they would clap their hands and exclaim: "It beats the world what Abe writes!"

So Lincoln was all the time learning something and trying to use what he knew. Perhaps the great success of his life lay in the fact that he always did his best in whatever position he was placed. The time when the boy could no longer stay in the small surroundings of Pidgeon Creek came. He tried life on one of the river steamboats, then he served as a clerk in a store at New Salem, where he began at odd moments to study law. In a short time, he was practicing his profession, and people in the West were talking of the tall, lank young lawyer and of what a future he had before him.

Such was the humble boyhood of Abraham Lincoln, but its simplicity and the hardships he endured and overcame made him a strong, successful man. Later, when he came to be President and the leader of a Nation through a great civil war, we find that it was these same qualities of perseverance and courage and fidelity which enabled him to triumph over difficulties and become the savior of a Great Republic. His life is a lesson and an inspiration to all aspiring boys. 

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Library of Congress ─ Evangelical Messenger (weekly, 1848-1946), February 12, 1913.

At The Lincoln's Table.

Perhaps the greatest American of the Civil War period was Abraham Lincoln, but how did he appear to the people who ate with him and cooked for him? Well, it was easy to prepare meals for Lincoln because he never complained about the fare. But, on the other hand, he never praised a dish either.

Mrs. Thomas Lincoln, Abraham's stepmother, declared that "Abe was a moderate eater ... he sat down and ate what was set before him, making no complaint; he seemed careless about this." Isaac N. Arnold, a close friend in Illinois, later learned from Lincoln that he had eaten very plain food in childhood. On the frontier, he was fed cakes made from coarse corn meal and are called "corn dodgers." Wild game supplied the necessary protein in his diet. 

In 1831 Lincoln moved to New Salem, a small community on the Sangamon River. During part of his stay at this village, he boarded at the Rutledge Tavern, where the beautiful Ann Rutledge worked as a waitress. The meals were plain, and Lincoln was served the usual fare: cornbread, bacon and eggs. At times the Railsplitter took his meals with other families in the neighborhood. Mrs. Jack Armstrong said that he ate mush, cornbread and milk in her home, and if Lincoln had a delicacy that he enjoyed then, it was honey. N.W. Brandon of Petersburg recalled that he "was very fond" of sweet honey. Lincoln's favorite dessert was Mary's Gingerbread with Apple and Brown Sugar topping.

As soon as Lincoln was admitted to the bar, he went to Springfield, where he became the partner of John Todd Stuart. But much of his law practice was on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. For many weeks each year, he rode hundreds of miles and lived where the food was poor, and the accommodations were primitive. A fellow lawyer on these trips, Leonard Swett, observed that Lincoln was very temperate in his eating habits. "He ate," said Swett, "simply because it was necessary and not for enjoyment. Indeed, it might almost be doubted whether eating furnished him enjoyment or that he knew the difference between what was good and what was not. ... I never, in the ten years of circuit life I knew him, heard him complain of a hard bed or a bad meal of victuals. We would go out, for instance, at Mrs. Scott's, at Danville, and be sumptuously entertained, and nobody would enjoy it more than he. but I never heard him say the food we got was any better than that which was furnished at the tavern." 

William H. Herndon, Lincoln's last law partner, remembered that what he ate made no difference to Lincoln. At mealtime, he took his place at the table involuntarily, said nothing, neither abused the food nor praised it, and asked no questions. No complaints ever passed his lips while on the circuit. Herndon also stated that Lincoln "had a good appetite and good digestion, ate mechanically, never asking why such a thing was not on the table nor why it was on it, if so; he filled up, and that is all."

If he had a favorite light meal, it was "apples & fruits generally," but sometimes he would come down to the Lincoln & Herndon law office in the morning and have breakfast of cheese, bologna sausage and crackers.

C.C. Brown, a young law student in Springfield, was examined for admission to the bar by Lincoln and Herndon. After a silly and routine question, Brown "passed the bar" and took his examiners to Charles Chatterton's Restaurant on the west side of the public square for a treat. It is not known who picked the menu, but Lincoln partook of it: fried oysters and pickled pig's feet! Evidently, it was a happy occasion for Lincoln because Brown recalled that he ate very heartily and told stories, some of which "would scarcely do for a Sunday paper." 

On November 4, 1842, Lincoln married the lovely and talented Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. She had been raised in the beautiful Blue Grass region, where gracious living and savory cooking were famous. It is said that Mary was a good cook; her parties were known for their variety of fine foods. Isaac N. Arnold wrote that "her table was famed for the excellence of its rare Kentucky dishes, and in season was loaded with venison, wild turkeys, prairie chicken, quails, and other game, which in those early days was abundant." However, Billy Herndon disagreed with Arnold. He stoutly declared, after reading Arnold's book, that Mrs. Lincoln "kept or set a poor table" for the daily meals and only splurged when guests were present. If this statement is true, Mary was either saving money for other household expenses or had learned the folly of spending long hours in the kitchen when her husband never praised her Kentucky recipes.

Mrs. Lincoln surprised Abe with a home remodeling project, adding a second story in 1856, while Abraham was out of town on the Eighth Judicial Circuit for nearly six months.

It must have been exasperating to cook for Lincoln. His sister-in-law, Mrs. Ninian Wirt Edwards, recounted that he "ate mechanically. I have seen him sit down at the table, and never unless recalled to his senses would he think of food." But at times, Lincoln did express a preference: he loved a "good hot cup of black coffee." And he liked meat as well as vegetables. Although the tall Sangamon lawyer was absent-minded while eating, he certainly kept his thoughts on food when he himself visited the market. His neighbors often saw him buying beefsteak downtown. For 10¢, Lincoln could purchase enough steak for a meal, and he carried the brown-paper package home himself instead of having it delivered. These episodes prove that Lincoln enjoyed the usual choice of a Midwestern man—beefsteak.

At times, perhaps, Lincoln did pay attention to fancy dishes, but he rarely commented upon them. Once, when speaking at Springfield, Illinois, on July 17, 1858, he hinted that he had once tasted some excellent French cuisine. While making fun of Douglas's pet theory of Popular Sovereignty, Lincoln declared that "it is to be dished up in as many varieties as a French cook can produce soups from potatoes." Perhaps the former Railsplitter recalled a meal that he had eaten in his favorite Chicago hotel, the Tremont Hotel III. 

Tremont House at the S.E. corner of Lake and Dearborn Streets, Chicago. c.1865

When Lincoln was elected President of the United States, he journeyed to Washington, D. C. to assume the most difficult task of his life. With weighty problems of state on his mind, the tired President neglected his meals even more than he had in Springfield. Dr. Henry Whitney Bellows of the Sanitary Commission remarked to Lincoln one day: "Mr. President, I am here at almost every hour of the day or night, and I never saw you at the table; do you ever eat?" "I try to," replied Lincoln. "I manage to browse about pretty much as I can get it." One day, while F. B. Carpenter was living with the Lincolns at the White House and painting "The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet," the clock struck 12 noon. Lincoln listened to the chiming and exclaimed, "I believe, by the by, that I have not yet had my breakfast ─ this business has been so absorbing that it has crowded everything else out of my mind." 

Noah Brooks, an old friend from Illinois and a Sacramento (California) Daily Union correspondent, testified that Lincoln was "never very attentive to the demands or the attractions of the table." "When Mrs. Lincoln, whom he always addressed by the old-fashioned title of 'Mother,' was absent from the home," Brooks revealed, "the President would appear to forget that food and drink were needful for his existence, unless he were persistently followed up by some of the servants, or were finally reminded of his needs by the actual pangs of hunger. On one such occasion, I remember, he asked me to come in and take breakfast with him, as he had some questions to ask. He was evidently eating without noting what he ate, and when I remarked that he was different from most Western men in his preference for milk at breakfast, he said, eyeing his glass of milk with surprise, as if he had not before noticed what he was drinking, 'Well, I do prefer black coffee in the morning, but they don't seem to have sent me any.'"

Yes, early in the morning, Lincoln wanted a cup of coffee. After this steaming aromatic beverage, the President might not find time for breakfast until 9 or 10 a.m. One of Lincoln's private secretaries, John Hay, often ate with the President. He remarked that Lincoln ate a frugal breakfast, "an egg, a piece of toast, coffee, etc." Sometimes the two men consumed a single egg apiece and plodded off to work. At noon Lincoln "took a little lunch—a biscuit, a glass of milk in winter, some fruit or grapes in summer." He "ate less than anyone I know," declared Hay. Carpenter, too, often witnessed Lincoln eating a "solitary lunch" when his family was gone. "It was often a matter of surprise to me," wrote Carpenter, "how the President sustained life; for it seemed, some weeks, as though he neither ate nor slept." When the hour for lunch arrived, a servant generally carried "a simple meal upon a tray" to Lincoln's second-floor office. Sometimes the Chief Executive would not examine the contents of the tray for several hours. Then, he would sample them in a "most unceremonious manner."

If the Commander-in-Chief ever had time for a full and pleasant meal, it was generally in the evening when dinner was served at the White House. At this hour, guests were often present, and Lincoln made a formal appearance to welcome them. On such occasions, Mrs. Lincoln had the food prepared in the White House kitchen or served it by a caterer. If Lincoln were hungry, he certainly could eat his fill of excellent food at this time.

There has been much debate about whether or not Lincoln ever drank liquor. Billy Herndon admitted that he "drank when he thought it would do him good." Leonard Swett remembered that Lincoln did drink wine upon occasion and that in the White House, "he used to drink a glass of champagne with his dinner, but I believe that was prescribed for him." Perhaps his physicians decided that the hard-working President sometimes needed a sleep aid. William Howard Russell of the London (England) Times ate with the Lincolns on March 28, 1861, and noted in his diary that wine was served at the dinner. But certainly, it was a rare occasion when Lincoln tasted alcohol. He had once joined a temperance society, although his account at the Corneau & Diller Drug Store in Springfield shows a few purchases of brandy by the bottle. Yet there is no positive proof that it was Lincoln who consumed this brandy. It is safe to say that Lincoln was temperate in his drinking. And the word temperance means "moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc."

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Frontier Corn Dodgers Recipe.

Corn dodgers were famous during pioneer life because they were very versatile and easy to carry around. You can eat them as a side to your meals or munch on them as a snack when you get hungry.

They’re relatively small, so pioneers would keep these in their pockets.

INGREDIENTS

2 Cups (coarse) yellow cornmeal

2 Tablespoons butter [or margarine]

1/2 Teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Cups whole milk

1 Teaspoon baking powder

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 400° F.
• Cook cornmeal in a saucepan with butter, salt, sugar and milk until the mixture boils.
• Turn off the heat, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes. 
• Add baking powder and stir.
• Spoon the mix onto the Baking Pan in heaping tablespoon-size balls, then bake for 10 to 15 minutes. 
• They are done when slightly brown around the edges.

Cast Iron Corn Dodger Shaped Baking Pan.

Thirty-Two Foods with Recipies, That Abraham Lincoln Knew.

BUTTER

Warm the cream to a temperature of 56° ─ 58° F, and it will churn in fifteen minutes. After the butter collects in the churn, take it out and stand it for a minute in a very cold place. Do not wash it, as in this way, you rob it of certain elements necessary for its preservation. Work it continuously and thoroughly until all the buttermilk is out, adding 2 even teaspoonfuls of very fine salt to each pound of butter after you have worked it for about five minutes. Make it at once into prints, and stand away in a cool place.

CANNED FRUITS

BRANDIED PEACHES

Take the large white or yellow freestone peaches. (They must not be too ripe.) Scald them with boiling water; cover, and let stand until the water becomes cold. Repeat this scalding, then take them out, lay them on a soft cloth, and let them remain until perfectly dry. Now, put them in stone jars and cover them with brandy. Tie paper over the tops of the jars and let them remain in this way for one week. Then make a syrup, allowing one pound of granulated sugar and a half pint of water to each pound of peaches. Boil and skim the syrup, then put in the peaches and simmer until tender. Then, take the peaches out, drain them, and put them in glass jars. Stand the syrup aside to cool. When cold, mix equal quantities of this syrup and the brandy in which you had the peaches. Pour this over the peaches and seal. 

CORN MUFFINS

1 quart of milk

3 eggs, well beaten

1 teaspoonful of salt

1 tablespoonful of melted lard

1 pint of cornmeal

1 teaspoonful of baking powder

Pour the boiling water over the meal and stir so that all may be wet and scalded. Add the melted butter, salt and milk, then the beaten eggs. Put the iron gem pans into the oven to heat, putting into each butter, and beat the batter up thoroughly; then pour into the hot mold. Bake carefully for about twenty or twenty-five minutes. This matter, when ready, will be very thin.

Iron Gem Pan

COTTAGE CHEESE

Set a gallon or more of clabbered milk on the stove hearth or in the oven after cooking the meal, leaving the door open; turn it around frequently, and cut the curd in squares with a knife, stirring gently now and then till about as warm as the finger will bear, and the whey shows all around the curd; pour all into a coarse bag, and hang to drain in a cool place for three or four hours, or overnight if made in the evening. When wanted, turn from the bag, chop rather coarse with a knife, and dress with salt, pepper and sweet cream. Some mash and rub thoroughly with the cream; others dress with sugar, cream and a little nutmeg, omitting the salt and pepper. Another way is to chop fine, add salt to taste, work in a very little cream or butter, and mold into round balls.

CURRANT JELLY

Wash and strip the currants from the stems and put them in a preserving kettle; mash them as they get hot and let them boil for half an hour; then turn them into a coarse hair sieve or jelly-bag and let them drip. When through dripping, without squeezing any, measure and pour into the kettle to cook. After it has boiled for about ten minutes, put in the heated sugar, allowing a pound of sugar to a pint of jelly, and the jelly will set as soon as the sugar is dissolved — about three-quarters of an hour. 

GOOSEBERRY COBBLER

Take one quart of flour, four tablespoons melted lard, half a teaspoon salt, and two teaspoons baking powder; mix as for biscuit, with either sweet milk or water, roll thin, and line a pudding dish or dripping pan, nine by eighteen inches; mix three tablespoons flour and two of sugar together, and sprinkle over the crust; then pour in three pints gooseberries, and sprinkle over them one coffee-cup sugar; wet the edges with a little flour and water mixed, put on upper crust, press the edges together, make two openings by cutting two incisions at right angles an inch in length, and bake in a quick oven half an hour.

GRAHAM BREAD

Take a little over a quart of warm water, one-half cup brown sugar or molasses, one-fourth cup hop yeast, and one and one-half teaspoons salt; thicken the water with graham flour to a thin batter; add sugar, salt and yeast, and stir in more flour until quite stiff. In the morning, add a small teaspoon of soda and flour, enough to make the batter stiff as can be stirred with a spoon; put into pans and let rise again; then bake in an even oven, not too hot at first; keep warm while rising; smooth over the loaves with a spoon or knife dipped in water.

GRAPE BUTTER

Take sweet apples and grapes, half and half. Cook the apples until tender, and rub through a colander. Prepare the grapes as above, using 1 pound of sugar to 2 pounds of mixed fruit. The skins may be boiled in a bag and taken out later, or they may be stirred into the butter. The above is the better way. Leave plain or spiced to suit your taste. 

HASTY PUDDING or MUSH

2 quarts of cornmeal

2 tablespoonfuls of salt

4 quarts of boiling water

Take freshly ground and newly sifted corn meal. Wet it with a quart of cold water. Add the salt to the hot water and stir in the meal gradually, keeping the mass hot and well stirred. Made in this manner, the mush will be smooth and will cook evenly. Boil not less than two hours. May be eaten hot with milk, butter, syrup, cream, and sugar. Hasty pudding is so-called from the custom of making it just as wanted and bringing it to the table with about 15 minutes of cooking. In this way, the meal was not thoroughly cooked, and therefore, was said to disagree with many people. A cast iron pot with feet lessens the tendency to burn and is, therefore, the best vessel to use. It is best to double the quantity needed and put away half to become cold for frying. Oiling the mush on the top prevents the formation of a crust by drying.

HOMINY

Fill a large pot half full of wood ashes. Then nearly fill with water, and boil for ten minutes. After draining off the lye, throw out the ashes and put the lye back into the kettle. Pour in four quarts of shelled corn and boil till the hull rubs off. Then, put it all in a tub and pour on a pail of cold water. Take an old broom and scrub the corn. As the water thickens, pour off and clean with cold water. Put through four glasses of water, and then take out in a pan and rub between the hands. Pick out the hulls and put them on to cook in cold water. When half boiled, pour off and renew with cold water. Do not salt till it is tender, and do not let it burn. Put in jars and eat with milk.

LADY FINGERS

Four tablespoons sugar mixed with yolks of four eggs, 4 tablespoons flour, and 1 teaspoon lemon extract. Beat whites to a stiff froth and stir in. Squeeze through a funnel of writing paper onto a greased paper in a dripping pan, and bake in small cakes in a moderate oven. These are good for Charlotte Russe.

MANGOES

Let the mangoes lie in salt water strong enough to bear an egg, for two weeks; then soak them in pure water for two days, changing the water two or three times; then remove the seeds and put the mangoes in a kettle, first a layer of grape leaves, then mangoes, and so on until they are all in, covering the top with leaves; add a lump of alum the size of a hickory nut; pour vinegar over them, and boil ten or fifteen minutes; remove the leaves and let the pickles stand in this vinegar for a week; then stuff them with the following mixture; One pound of ginger soaked in brine for a day or two, and cut in slices, 1 ounce of black pepper, 1 of mace, 1 of allspice, 1 of termeric, half a pound of garlic, soaked for a day or two in brine, and then dried; 1 pint grated horseradish, 1 of black mustard seed and 1 of white mustard seed; bruise all the spices and mix with a teacup of pure olive oil; to each mangoe add 1 teaspoonful of brown sugar; cut 1 solid head of cabbage fine; add 1 pint of small onions, a few small cucumbers and green tomatoes; lay them in brine a day and a night, then drain and add the imperfect mangoes chopped fine and the spices; mix thoroughly, stuff the mangoes and tie them; put them in a stone jar and pour over them the best cider vinegar; set in bright, dry place till canned . In a month, add 3 pounds of brown sugar or to taste. This is for four dozen mangoes.

MARMALADE or QUINCE HONEY

Pare, core and quarter your fruit, then weigh it and allow an equal amount of white sugar. Take the parings and cores and put them in a preserving kettle; cover them with water and boil for half an hour, then strain through a hair sieve, and put the juice back into the kettle and boil the quinces in it a little at a time until they are done; lift out with a drainer, and lay on a dish; if the liquid seems scarce add more water. When all are cooked, throw into this liqueur sugar, and allow it to boil ten minutes before putting in the quinces; let them boil until they change color, say one hour and a quarter, on a slow fire; while they are boiling, occasionally slip a silver spoon under them to see that they do not burn, but on no account stir them. Have 2 fresh lemons cut into thin slices, and when the fruit is being put in jars, lay a slice or two in each. Quinces may be steamed until tender.

MINCEMEAT

Four pounds of lean boiled beef, chopped fine, twice as much of chopped green tart apples, 1 pound of chopped suet, 3 pounds of raisins, seeded, 2 pounds of currants picked over, washed and dried, half a pound of citron, cut up fine, 1 pound of brown sugar, 1 quart of cooking molasses, 2 quarts of sweet cider, 1 pint of boiled cider, 1 tablespoonful of salt, 1 tablespoonful of pepper, 1 tablespoonful of mace, 1 tablespoonful of allspice, and 4 tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, 2 grated nutmegs, 1 tablespoonful of cloves; mix thoroughly and warm it on the range, until heated through. Remove from the fire, and when nearly cool, stir in a pint of good brandy and 1 pint of Madeira wine. Put it into a crock, cover it tightly, and set it in a cool place where it will not freeze but keep perfectly cold; will keep good all winter. 

Mincemeat

OLD-FASHIONED CREAM PIE

Pour a pint of cream upon one and a half cupfuls of sugar; let it stand until the whites of 3 eggs have been beaten to a stiff froth; add this to the cream and beat up thoroughly; grate a little nutmeg over the mixture and bake without an upper crust. If a tablespoon of sifted flour is added to it, as in the other custard pie recipes, it would improve it. 

PICCALILLI

2 dozen large cucumbers, chopped

2 quarts small onions, whole

1 peck of green tomatoes, chopped

1 dozen green peppers, chopped

1 head cabbage, chopped

Sprinkle one pint of salt over this, and let it stand overnight, then squeeze out very dry. Put in a kettle.

1 gallon of vinegar

1 pint of brown sugar

1/4 pound box of Coleman's mustard

1/2 ounce of turmeric powder

1/2 ounce of cinnamon

1 tablespoon each of allspice, mace, celery seed, and a little horseradish.

Cook the mess slowly for two hours, then add two hundred pickles, just as it is to come off the stove. Add the mustard last, as this thickens it and is apt to burn.

PICKLED PEARS

Select small, sound ones, remove the blossom end, stick them with a fork, and allow each quart of pears 1 pint of cider vinegar and 1 cup of sugar. Put in a teaspoonful of allspice, cinnamon and cloves to boil with the vinegar; then add the pears and boil, and seal in jars. 

SAUERKRAUT

Remove the outer leaves of cabbage and cores, and cut fine on a slaw-cutter. Put it down in a keg or large jar. Put a very little sprinkle of salt between each layer, and pound each layer with a wooden masher or mallet. When your vessel is full, place some large cabbage leaves on top, and a double cloth wrung out of cold water. Then a cover, with a very heavy weight on it — a large stone is best. Let it set for six weeks before using, being careful to remove the scum that rises every day by washing out the cloth, the cover, and the weight, in cold water. After six weeks, pour off the liquid and fill it with clear, cold water. This makes it very nice and white.

SCRAPPLE

Take a hog's jowl, a part of the liver and heart, and the feet. Cleanse thoroughly, put on to boil in cold water, and cook until all the bones can easily be removed. Then take it out in a chopping bowl and chop fine. Season with sage, salt and pepper. Return it to the liquor on the stove, which you must strain. Then, thicken with corn meal and a teaspoonful of buckwheat flour to the consistency of mush. Then dip out in deep dishes, and when cool, slice and fry a rich brown, as you would mush. It is very nice for a cold morning breakfast. If you make more than you can use at once, run hot lard over the rest, and you can keep it all through the winter. 

SPICED CRAB APPLES

Peel and half 9 pounds of crab apples. Add 4 pounds of sugar, 1 pint of vinegar, 1 teaspoonful of cloves (whole cloves), and 3 or 4 sticks of cinnamon and mace. Let it boil for one-half hour or less if it grows too soft.

STRAWBERRY PRESERVES

Put 2 pounds of sugar in a bright tin pan over a kettle of boiling water, and pour into it half a pint of boiling water; when the sugar is dissolved and hot, put in fruit, and then place the pan directly on the stove or range; let boil ten minutes or longer if the fruit is not clear, gently (or the berries will be broken) take up with a small strainer, and keep hot while the syrup is boiled down until thick and rich; drain off the thin syrup from the cans, and pour the rich syrup over the berries to fill, and screw down the tops immediately. The thin syrup poured off may be brought to boiling and, then bottled and sealed, be used for sauces and drinks or made into jelly. 

SWEET PICKLED BEETS

Boil them in a porcelain kettle till they can be pierced with a silver fork; when cool, cut lengthwise to the size of a medium cucumber; boil equal parts of vinegar and sugar with half a tablespoon of ground cloves tied in a cloth to each gallon; pour boiling hot water over the beets.

SUN-DRIED FRUITS

To dry fruits nicely, spread in shallow boxes and cover them with mosquito netting to prevent flies from reaching them. Dried peaches are better when halved and the cavities sprinkled with sugar. The fruit must be good, however, as poor fruit cannot be redeemed by any process. The secret of keeping dried fruit is to exclude the light and to keep it in a dry and cool place. 

YEAST

Wash and peel six potatoes the size of a large egg, cut in quarters and put on the stove to boil in a quart of water; as it boils away, fill up the tea kettle to the quantity. When your potatoes are nearly done, put a handful of hops to steep in a pint of hot water; take out the potatoes when well done, put them into a crock and mash fine; on these, put a pint of flour and scald this with the hot potato water, and hop water. Beat until perfectly smooth and free from lumps; into this, put a cupful of granulated or other good white sugar and not quite a half cupful of salt. It should be quite thin; if not thin enough at this stage, add a little cold water. When cool enough, stir into this a pint of good yeast or two good-sized yeast cakes dissolved in warm water; let it stand twenty-four hours, stirring very frequently; then put it away in a stone jug, and cork tight and keep in a cool place, but not where it will freeze. This recipe makes a pint over a gallon.

VINEGAR

Fourteen pounds of coarse brown sugar, 10 gallons of water, and 1 cupful of brewer's yeast. Boil the sugar with three parts of the water, and skim. Remove from the fire, and pour in the cold water. Strain into a ten-gallon keg. Put in some small pieces of toast with the yeast. Stir every day for a week. Then tack gauze over the orifice. Set where the sun will shine on it, and let remain six months, by which time, if made in the spring, it will be vinegar.

Always save all the currants, skimmings, pieces, etc., left after making jelly, place in a stone jar, cover with soft water previously boiled to purify it, and let stand several days; in the meantime, take your apple peelings without the cores, and put on in porcelain kettle, cover with water, boil twenty minutes, drain into a large stone jar; drain currants also into this jar, add all the rinsings from your molasses jugs, all dribs of syrups, etc., and when the jar is full, drain off all this when clear into vinegar keg (where, of course, you have some good cider vinegar to start with). If not sweet enough, add brown sugar to molasses, cover the bung hold with a piece of coarse netting, and set it in the sun or by the kitchen stove. Give it plenty of air. The cask or barrel should be of oak. Never use alum or cream of tartar, as some advice, and never let your vinegar freeze. Paint your barrel or cask if you would have it durable.

DESSERTS

BUTTER-SCOTCH CANDY

Two cups of sugar, 2 cups of dark molasses, 1 cupful of cold butter, and a grated rind of half a lemon. Boil over a slow fire until it hardens when dropped in cold water. Pour thinly into tins well-buttered, and mark them into little-inch squares before they cool.

CREAM DATES

Remove the stones from the large dates, and make the cream as directed in the cream recipe. Roll a tiny bit into a long roll, put it in the date where you remove the stone, and press the two halves together so that the white cream will show between. Roll the whole in granulated sugar, and stand away to harden. 

HOREHOUND CANDY

Boil 2 ounces of dried horehound in a pint and a half of water for about half an hour; strain and add three and a half pounds of brown sugar. Boil over a hot fire until it is sufficiently hard, pour out in flat, well-greased tin trays, and mark into sticks or small squares with a knife as soon as it is cool enough to retain its shape.

MAPLE SUGAR CANDY

Boil one cupful of maple sugar together with one-half cup of water and a small bit of butter. Boil this for about ten minutes. When done, add one teaspoonful of vanilla and pour into buttered tins. It must not be stirred.

FRUIT COOKIES

One cupful and a half of sugar, 1 cupful of butter, one-half cup of sweet milk, 1 egg, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, 3 tablespoonfuls of English currants or chopped raisins. Mix soft and roll out, using just enough flour to stiffen sufficiently. Cut out with a large cutter, wet the tops with milk, and sprinkle sugar over them. Bake on buttered tins in a quick oven. Fruit can be left out if preferred.

SOFT CREAM COOKIES

Three-fourths cup sour cream, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 egg, one-fourth teaspoon soda, and a pinch of salt. Mix very stiff with flour.

STICK CANDY

One pound of granulated sugar, 1 cupful of water, a quarter of a cupful of vinegar or half a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, and 1 small tablespoonful of glycerine. Flavor with vanilla, rose or lemon. Boil all except the flavoring, without stirring, for twenty minutes, half an hour, or until crisp when dropped in water. Just before pouring upon greased platters to cool, add half a teaspoonful of soda. After pouring upon platters to cool, pour two teaspoons of flavoring over the top. When partly cool, pull it until very white. Draw it into sticks the size you wish, and cut it off with shears into sticks or kiss-shaped drops. It may be colored if desired.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.