Grandma’s “Every-Day Cook-Book” #2: THE 5-PENNY LOAF

(SMITH/POST) Look what I found folded between pages 146 and 147 of Grandma's "Every-Day Cook-Book":

Unfolded (and transcribed) below:

[Smith’s Boiled] Pudding

Chop fine a half pound of suet

Stone 2 Pounds of raisins

Soak a 5 penny loaf of Bread in one

pint of milk. When it has taken up all of the milk

add to it the raisins and suet

4 Eggs Well beaten

1 Cup of Brown sugar

1 nut meg

2 tablespoonfuls of flower [flour]

put this in to 3 Pudding [bags or basins] and Boil 3 ours [hours]

When I originally discovered this crumbling, hand-written recipe tucked between the pages of my grandmother’s “Every-Day Cook-Book,” I assumed that it was for making a traditional Christmas pudding but I now think it was a special dessert occasionally prepared for a family’s Sunday dinner. In contrast to the “Christmas Plum Pudding” recipe found published on page 154 of this book, the humbler, hand-written version consists of only half the ingredients and lacks the more extravagant additions of candied fruit and peel, fragrant spices, and the brandy we might expect to find in a classic holiday dessert. It also substitutes everyday bread for the richer ingredients and was likely classified as a “Bread-Pudding.”

It is similar to a recipe found in Mrs. Beeton’s “Book of Household Management,” 1861:

BOILED BREAD PUDDING.

INGREDIENTS: 1-½ pint of milk, ¾ pint of bread crumbs, sugar to taste, 4 eggs, 1 oz. of butter, 3 oz. of currants, ¼ teaspoonful of grated nutmeg.

MODE: Make the milk boiling, and pour it on the bread crumbs; let these remain till cold; then add the other ingredients, taking care that the eggs are well beaten and the currants well washed, picked, and dried. Beat the pudding well, and put it into a buttered basin; tie it down tightly with a cloth, plunge it into boiling water, and boil for 1-1/4 hour; turn it out of the basin, and serve with sifted sugar. Any odd pieces or scraps of bread answer for this pudding; but they should be soaked overnight, and, when wanted for use, should have the water well squeezed from them.

TIME: 1-1/4 hour

Average cost: 1s.; Sufficient: for 6 or 7 persons; Seasonable: at any time.

 

One ingredient in the hand-written recipe seems pretty standard for a pudding of this type: Bread. More specifically, “a 5 penny loaf” of bread.

This leads to a few questions:

1.     Who wrote out this recipe and placed it in this old book for use and safekeeping?

2.     What was the “missing” half of the title for this recipe?

3.     How old is this recipe?

In answer to Question #1: my great grandmother, Emma (Emerine) Smith likely received this recipe from either her mother or her mother-in-law, as was the custom of young housewives. In 1892, the year this popular edition was printed, my great grandmother Smith would have been 32 years old, as wife to William and mother of daughters Grace, 14, and Lillie, 12. Both her mother, Marietta (Watson) Emerine and her mother-in-law Honour (Reynolds) Smith had only recently died. A "hand-me-down" family recipe would have been a treasured legacy from either role-model.

I will venture to guess that the recipe was written out by Emma’s mother-in-law, Honour. One reason is that the spelling and handwriting were decidedly different from Emma’s (examples found elsewhere in the book), and likely from an earlier generation. Another is that “pudding” is a very traditional English dish, harkening back to the immigrant ancestry of both of her in-laws, Ishmael and Honour. (Ishmael arrived with his family from Lincolnshire in 1837. Honour was born the year her family emigrated from Suffolk in 1831.)

And my third reason is that this particular recipe was so special to Emma that she had copied a brief summary of it onto the back of this book’s title page (photo at left)…thereby solving the mystery of Question #2: The name of this recipe is “Plum Pudding.” (BTW, plum pudding doesn’t include plums. Go figure. “Plum” is a pre-Victorian term for raisins.)

As for Question #3: this recipe, if I’m right about it being “passed down” in the family, is likely very old. But the hand-written recipe may date to just before the turn of the century, probably shortly before Emma’s mother-in-law died in 1889. The recipe’s “5-penny loaf” hint provides some context. According to the calculations of the Consumer Price Index, the standard cost of a regular loaf of bread around that time was about five cents. (U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics)

(NOTE: It is worth considering that there was one more person who may have written out the pudding recipe for Emma. In 1892, her husband's English-born GRAND-mother -Sarah (Watts) Smith- was still alive.)  PHOTO: William H. and Sarah (Watts) Smith, the parents of Ishmael Smith and the grandparents of Emma’s husband--William R. Smith.

Grandma’s "Every-Day Cook-Book" #1: JENNY

 (SMITH/POST)

Pressed between the pages of my grandmother’s well-worn 1892 copy of “THE EVERY-DAY COOK-BOOK, and Encyclopedia of Practical Recipes” reside a number of little treasures, hidden away, just waiting to be re-discovered.

Take, for instance, Jenny.  Her name is written on the back of the small, sepia-toned photograph measuring 1.25 x 1.75 inches. Despite having been tucked, undisturbed, within the pages of this aging book for well over a century, the photo appears to have met with some previous mishap that left it crumpled. Pin-holes at the top suggest it was once displayed on a board but was later carefully tucked between pages 148 and 149, protected on each side by recipes for pickled mushrooms and Indian ‘chetney.’

Although the damaged photo proved difficult to scan due to the wrinkled, reflective paper, I was able to slightly enhance it to highlight the image. Jenny appears confident, smiling. Her hat and clothing suggest that she was from an earlier generation than my grandmother's.

Accurately dating the photo, of course, is impossible but Jenny’s marvelous hat provides a hint. With its high flouncy bow, wide satin band and narrow flat brim, it might lead an amateur like me to wonder if it is a “flower-pot”-style hat from the 1890s. One thing is certain, Jennie was dressed 'as pretty as a picture' that day!

I actually think that my grandmother, Ona D. (Post) Smith was given (or inherited) the cookbook from her mother-in-law, Emma (Emerine) Smith (at left). A number of items pressed between the pages suggest that Emma had originally saved them. So, it seems reasonable to assume that Jenny was either a friend, special acquaintance, or relative of Emma’s. 

(NEXT: what I found on the previous page)

 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY: Love, Elmer

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,

The Angels, whispering to one another,

Can find, among their burning terms of love,

None so devotional as that of “Mother”’

(Edgar Allan Poe)

Some years ago, I was gifted a lovely box of vintage handkerchiefs by my daughter. It may even have been for Mother’s Day. And, although the delicately embroidered hankies preserved within the box would later take on special meaning in my life, I discovered that it already had its own story.  

I do not know who Elmer was, where he lived, or how his life-story evolved. But Elmer once gave his mother a box of four pretty handkerchiefs, artfully pinned and layered in sheets of tissue. All neatly displayed beneath a pink satin bow. Each white hankie was embroidered with the word, “Mother.”

I do not know who Elmer’s mother was, either. All I know is that she was given this gift box of linen handkerchiefs by her son, evidenced by a small note tucked beneath the tissue. The time-yellowed message simply states, “Love, Elmer”.

Only one hankie had already been removed from the box when I received it. The rest had lain untouched for three quarters of a century.  

Why would I think that? Firstly, I had to unpin two of the remaining three handkerchiefs from their original paper backing and ease them out of the crackling tissue paper when I selected them to serve as special tokens for the mother-of-the-bride and mother-of-the-groom to carry on the occasion of our children’s marriage in 2016. But, even then, Elmer’s surprise remained hidden. Unseen. Unknown.

Recently, I had been photographing a number of vintage handkerchiefs from my ever-growing collection, including the last remaining hankie from this box. As I lifted it from beneath the pink ribbon and pulled the tissue from between its folds, I was surprised to see that there was something dark tucked behind the tissue. Money.

Two ten-dollar bills had been carefully placed behind this last hankie, unseen and undisturbed since the day that someone put them there. Had Elmer lovingly tucked them there for his mother to discover when she reached for one of her new hankies? If so, sadly, Mother never found his surprise. And, sadder yet, the evidence suggests that Elmer never had the opportunity to remind her it was there.

Although Elmer's story will never be fully known, it appears that he gave his mother this gift around the time of the Second World War. This conjecture is based on the fact that both bills were issued in 1934 and each bill was well-worn, folded in half, with wrinkles carefully smoothed out. 

I'd like to think that this unexpected discovery has allowed two succeeding -and unrelated- generations of mother and child to complete a long-forgotten chapter in the loving story between a son and his mother. On behalf of all mothers, thank you, Elmer, for this belated surprise!

[Note: Elmer’s surprise gift of two ten-dollar bills in the 1940’s would be equivalent to roughly $300 in today’s currency.]

Happy Mother’s Day ~ Love, Elmer