Food History

I promised you recipes from quite a different source. From teaching women how to be traditional, we have traditional women who demand their rights.

They proved they can cook by giving us volume after volume of fabulous recipes. They proved their politics in the title and the subtext of the books. The US was much later than Australia in getting the vote to women at the Federal level. This is rather odd, because US women were politicised early and actually had a significant amount of power at the time the US broke away from Britain.

Then it changed. From being ahead of the world, the US took a step back.

I find the history of the US vote for women sad and depressing. Women had the vote in specific colonies and then lost that vote between 1776 and 1807. New Jersey was the last to disenfranchise women and I do wonder what it was like to be a New Jersey woman in 1807 and to suddenly find oneself a mere political cipher.

I know women felt strongly about it and I know they reacted by saying “We won’t lose our femininity if we have full rights.” These books are evidence of both of those things.

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. Was edited by Mrs. Hattie A. Burr in Boston in the 1880s. It was a charity volume and quite different from Margery Daw in everything except the recipes. You can compare some of the recipes yourself, since they’re all about frying.

Doughnuts.

One-half cup cream, one-half cup sugar, three and a half cups St. Louis flour, one-half teaspoonful soda, one teaspoonful cream tartar, two eggs. Spice of any kind you like best, or nothing but one good-sized teaspoonful of salt.
MRS. D. W. FORBES.

Doughnuts.

Two eggs, one and a half cups of sour milk, a half cup of thick cream, or three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, one cup of sugar, a half-teaspoonful of soda (if the milk is very sour, a little more), and flour enough to mix soft. When butter is used instead of cream, mix the butter, sugar and eggs together first.
MRS. L. M. T. HIDDEN.

Children’s Doughnuts.

One cup sweet milk, two cups sugar, three eggs, lemon flavoring, three heaping teaspoonfuls baking powder. Sift about two quarts flour into mixing pan, making place in the centre for baking powder, sugar, eggs, flavoring, and butter size of walnut. Add the milk, mixing slowly, and use enough flour to roll without sticking. Roll quite thin; cut in rings, and fry in smoking hot lard. Drain well. Equal parts of lard and beef fat may be used.
MRS. JESSIE F. A. BANKS.

The second book is from the other end of the country and sports the motto:

Give us a vote and we will cook
The better for a wide outlook

The Washington Women’s Cook Book was published by the Washington Equal Suffrage Association in Seattle in 1909, seven years after Australian women started to vote in Federal elections. (for the record, we didn’t have Federal elections until the twentieth century.)

Fried Bananas.

Pare six bananas, slice lengthwise in thick slices, put two tablespoons of butter in frying pan, then put in just enough fruit to cover the bottom of the pan, brown and turn and brown on the other side. Care must be taken that the slices be not broken. When served the bananas may be plain or orange juice may be squeezed over them.
MRS. D. O’LEARY, Seattle.

Hashed Brown Potatoes.

Chop the potatoes with a slaw chopper, season with a little onion, pepper and salt. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet or use drippings from bacon. When hot, put in the potatoes and press down close to the skillet. It will brown in a little while. Turn as an omelet and serve very hot.
MRS. LOUISA BERRY, Lexington, Ky.

Corn Fritters.

To the contents of one can of corn add two eggs, beat well, add salt and pepper, one cup of sweet milk, two teaspoons baking powder and flour to make a stiff batter. Drop from a spoon into hot lard and fry to nice brown.
MRS. E. P. FRENCH.

Green Corn Fritters.

One pint of grated green corn, three eggs, two tablespoons of milk, one tablespoon of melted butter, one teaspoon of salt, beat the eggs well, add the corn by degrees, also the milk and butter, thicken with just enough flour to hold together. One teaspoon of baking powder should be put in the flour. Have ready a kettle of hot fat; drop the corn from a spoon into the fat and fry brown.
MRS. BERT ESTERBROOK, Bellingham.

Potato Pancakes.

Peal and grate five large potatoes, drain off the juice, add two well-beaten eggs to the potato, salt to taste, beat well and fry like pancakes with plenty of fat.
NETTIE SCHERBERT, Avon.

Doughnuts.

Two cups sugar, three eggs, one tablespoon melted butter, one and one-half cups sweet milk, three teaspoons baking powder, little salt, flavor with nutmeg, flour enough to roll.
MRS. ANNIE E. TAYLOR.