Food History

My mind keeps coming back to The Woman Suffrage Cook Book. I know I’ve given you the election cake from it already, but there’s another bit you might want to see. Let me start from the very beginning.

The very beginning in this case is the title, which is important to understanding why the book was put together. It’s The Woman Suffrage Cook Book, containing thoroughly tested and reliable recipes for cooking, directions for the care or the sick, and practical suggestions, contributed especially for this work. Edited and published by Mrs. Hattie a. Burr, 12 Wayne Street, Boston. In aid of the festival and bazaar, December 13-19, 1886. “Country Store,” April 21-26, 1890. Boston.

Women’s suffrage was more than the vote. It fitted the perceived role of women in society and when the vote was taken away from women in the various States, their roles diminished and their prestige suffered. The very first words acknowledge this, without being accusatory or sounding difficult.

“THIS little volume is sent out with an important mission. It has been carefully prepared, and will prove a practical, reliable authority on cookery, housekeeping, and care of the sick, especially adapted to family use. While many of the receipts are original, it is not claimed that all are so; but each has been thoroughly tested, and is vouched for as reliable by the contributor whose name is appended.

Among the contributors are many who are eminent in their professions as teachers, lecturers, physicians, ministers, and authors,-whose names are household words in the land. A book with so unique and notable a list of contributors, vouched for by such undoubted authority, has never before been given to the public.

Grateful acknowledgments are due to the kind friends,-many of them in distant homes,-who have so willingly contributed of their knowledge and experience for the accomplishment of this undertaking. I believe the great value of these contributions will be fully appreciated, and our messenger will go forth a blessing to housekeepers, and an advocate for the elevation and enfranchisement of woman.

HATTIE A. BURR.
BOSTON, NOVEMBER 25, 1886.”

Never watch the news. It will turn your sensible plans upside down and turn bits of your day to disarray.

I was going to give you a thoughtful post about fruit varieties, but the man on the television was so vary loud about “Hilary’s last chance to obtain nomination” that (whether he was correct or not) I felt it was time for another piece of election cake.

In honour of the most senior woman in the race for President, this recipe comes from the second edition of The Woman Suffrage Cook Book. There’s such a strong natural link between the two things. It took forever for the US to realise that women ought to be voting once they had rescinded those early rights, and now it’s just as slow a process to get a woman as President. Mind you, Australia has only had a woman a Acting Prime Minister since the last elections (ie this year) so we’re not doing much better.

I doubt if getting the recipe for cake right is an essential first step to achieving change, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. And this recipe is particularly interesting. It’s enough to feed a party, but it’s a yeast-based recipe, not a quick-rise cake.

Mother’s Election Cake

Five pounds flour, six eggs, two pounds sugar, one pint yeast, three-fourths pound butter, one quart sweet milk, three-fourths pound lard, six nutmegs. Take about three pounds of the flour, and about one-third of the sugar, and stir up with the yeast and two-thirds of the milk, to rise over night, or until it begins to fall on the top; then add the rest of the ingredients and bake in loaves about the same as you would bread.
MISS M. A. HILL.

I’m torn. I promised more on ice cream history and I promised I would blog recipes alongside the US elections. I don’t have time to do two posts. I could flip a coin, but it’s a wet and tired day here, so I’ve opted for an election cake recipe, albeit with less commentary than usual. A wet and tired election post, hopefully things will pep up as we get closer to November. This means I can get on with preparing for tomorrow, which is first day teaching this year. This election cake recipe is from the second edition of The Frugal Housewife (1830).

I love it that by 1830 the writer was already claiming the election cake recipe was from an old-fashioned recipe. This means that there are earlier ones. W00t!! The trouble is that there just aren’t that many early US cookbooks. To take election cakes earlier, I would have to delve into manuscripts, which is unsurprisingly just a little hard to do from Australia. I rather suspect 1830 is as far back as we can go with this topic. This means that from now on we’re venturing into more recent cookbooks (though still old – let me race in with that reassurance.)

Election Cake

Old fashion election cake is made of four pounds of flour; three quarters of a pound of butter; four eggs; one pound of sugar; one pound of currants, or raisins, if you choose; half a pint of good yeast; wet it with milk as soft as it can be and be moulded on a board. Set to rise over night in winter; in warm weather three hours is usually enough for it to rise. A loaf, the size of common flour bread, should bake three quarters of an hour.

I’m in the mood for doh-re-mi. Or should that be dough-re-mi? I want to sing “Let’s start at the very beginning.” It’s a very fine place to start, you see.

Actually, I don’t have a beginning for election cakes. My research wasn’t quite serious enough to provide me with one. What it did, however, was give me the perfect place to start. The beginning place of most people who look into US food history. Yes, I’m talking about Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Miss Leslie (not for the first time, either).

Miss Leslie’s book is of undoubted importance, so hers is the first election cake recipe I’ll give you. I used the 1840 edition, for those who care about such things (I can’t be the only one who always notes down edition details, can I?)

Election cake

Make a sponge (as it is called) in the following manner: − Sift into a pan two pounds and a half of flour; and into a deep plate another pound. Take a second pan, and stir a large table - spoonful of the best West India molasses into five jills or two tumblers and a half of strong fresh yeast; adding a Jill of water, warm, but not hot. Then stir gradually into the yeast, &c. the pound of flour that you have sifted separately. Cover it, and let it set by the fire three hours to rise. While it is rising, prepare the other ingredients, by stirring in a deep pan two pounds of fresh butter and two pounds of powdered sugar, till they are quite light and creamy; adding to them a table - spoonful of powdered cinnamon; a tea - spoonful of powdered mace; and two powdered nutmegs. Stir in also half a pint of rich milk. Beat fourteen eggs till very smooth and thick, and stir them gradually into the mixture, alternately with the two pounds and a half of flour which you sifted first. When the sponge is quite light, mix the whole together, and bake it in buttered tin pans in a moderate oven. It should be eaten fresh, as no sweet cake made with yeast is so good after the first day. If it is not probable that the whole will come into use on the day it is baked, mix but half the above quantity.