Grandma’s “Every-Day Cook-Book” #8: GREEN TOMATO CHOWDER

 (Smith-Post)

Emma (Emerine) Smith, 1925

                   CHOWDER RECIPE

 [*Note the tell-tale “e’s” that reveal that this handwritten recipe was recorded by the same person who submitted the “Ham Pickle” and “Drop Fried Cakes” recipes, too. Without any proof, I still think this is my great-grandmother Emma Smith’s handwriting.]

 The term “chowder” evokes memories of my mother’s creamy, steamy soups simmering in a pot filled with fish, potatoes and corn (and lots of black pepper). So, when I discovered this handwritten recipe folded between the pages of my grandma’s “Every-Day Cook-Book,” I was confused.

Green tomatoes? Cabbage? Mustard seed and cinnamon? Wait a minute—this isn’t a recipe for chowder… or is it?

It was the “vinegar” that tipped me off. My husband happens to be the reigning Canning King of this household kitchen and vinegar is an essential ingredient for his delicious dilly beans, bread-and-butter pickles, and pickled beets. Since this is the time of year when his garden is “put to bed” for the winter, it is also the time when those last garden stragglers are gathered up and preserved in one way or another. You don’t want to waste them, but what do you do with them?

In the case of this antique recipe, you take those end-of-season, unripened tomatoes and peppers, add some onions and cabbage …and you make a large batch of “chowder.”  This version of chowder, however, is a type of pickled relish. Today, similar recipes can be found under the name of “Green Tomato Relish” or “Chow Chow.”  

Originally discovered in another random section of the cookbook, I have now placed the handwritten recipe where it belongs—between the published recipes on pages 146-147 for Chow Chow,” “Piccalilli,” and (as shown here) a similar “Green Tomato Pickle.” 

[Handwritten recipe transcribed below]

Chowder

1 pk [peck] of green tomatoes. Chop.

1 cup of Salt.

6 large onions

Let this stand overnight and drain.

1 large cabbage.

3 peppers.

add 2 qts. of vinegar

1 qt of water boil 15 minutes

then drain.

2 lbs of sugar, 1 qt of vinegar

1 tablespoon of mustard seed.

1 teaspoon pepper.

2 tablespoon cinnamon

[2 Tbsp] Cloves and allspice and ginger

mix well and boil 20 min.

Grandma’s “Every-Day Cook-Book” #7: HAM PICKLE

 (Smith-Post)

Pressed between the pages of my grandmother’s 1892 copy of the Every-Day Cook-Book are wonderful hand-written artifacts from my family’s past. These scraps of paper from well over a century ago provide a peek into the typical household preparation and storage of foods prior to the advent of modern refrigerators (or, as my grandmother Smith used to call them, “ice-boxes.”)

Although the canning, preserving and drying of garden-harvested produce were common ways to stock the pantries and root cellars of yore, meat preservation required some extra efforts to ensure its freshness and safety throughout the long Great Lakes winter months.

As shown in the previous post, I am beginning to recognize the handwriting on some of the recipes found tucked into this turn-of-the-century cook book. With nothing more than a hunch, I am attributing the tell-tale “e’s” to my great-grandmother, Emma (Emerine) Smith.

This recipe was placed in the cookbook for safekeeping long before her namesake, my mother, was born. And what it suggests is that Emma was a busy homemaker tasked with preparing and preserving meat for her family’s dinner table. Her recipe (as shown above) is transcribed below:

Ham Pickle

To every 100 lbs. meat, take 7 lbs. salt, 2 oz. salt peter, 1 oz. cayenne pepper, 5 lbs. brown sugar or 2 qts. molasses. In packing hams, use ½ the salt. The rest of the salt with the other ingredients should be put in water enough to cover the meat. Boil, skim, let stand until cool then pour over hams. Let remain in brine five or six weeks, rinse + smoke.

Apparently, pork was a popular staple in the Smith house since Emma also included the following recipe, written on the back of a blue envelope postmarked “Detroit, Mich. 1906." This impromptu recipe appears to be jotted down in the no-nonsense scrawl of a "Wm Robbins" of Milan, Michigan:

“Pickle for hams A strong brine to hold up a potato one cup of sugar for two hams and a small tablespoon of saltpeter”

Although Emma’s recipe is a bit more helpful in detail than his pithy version, the Every-Day Cook-Book itself provides a fuller sense of the time and efforts that were required to properly “pickle” a ham:

from The Every-Day Cook-Book, page 92