Although this is called gravy soup, I do wonder if it is more like stew. I assume where she says to “prepare a carrot…” etc that she means to chop or slice the vegetables and to finely chop the herbs. Also, she’s left out a word where it says “…a few cloves…” and I take it that this should be garlic.

Gravy Soup

Take 1 lb lean fresh beef, cut it up into small pieces free from fat. Put into a saucepan a piece of butter the size of a walnut, make it quite hot. Throw the beef into the pan & with a spoon press it & move it about for 5 or 6 minutes. Put the lid on the pan & allow it to sweat for 3 or 4 minutes. Then prepare a piece of carrot, a piece of turnip, an onion, a blade of mace, a few cloves, a few peppercorns, a sprig of parsley, thyme & celery. Add these to the beef & allow them all to sweat for 5 minutes longer. Then add slowly 8 pints hot water. Let the  soup simmer slowly for about 1 1/2 hours. Strain it & skim off any fat that may come to the top.

This recipe is a bit confusing because we don’t think or measure or even use some of these ingredients anymore! First and foremost, treacle. What exactly is this stuff? You might have heard some snarky society commentator complaining that “so and so is spewing utter treacle and it’s nauseating” or the like. Treacle is a sugar syrup and is the product of the sugar cane refining process. It is still in use in Britain under the name dark treacle. The closest similar item you will quickly recognize is molasses, also a product of the sugar refining process, yet one is obtained in a different way than the other. I found Recipes4Us has the Reader’s Digest version on treacle so click over there for more detail. For our purposes today, you may use molasses, but do know that there is clear treacle and dark treacle. Dark treacle is similar to black strap molasses and will give you a stronger flavor. If you wanted to try a clear treacle substitute, you could try light Karo. Unfortunately, the recipe above does not specify which type of treacle was to be used, though I suspect it is dark treacle (in which case just use molasses).

Secondly, this business of weighing your saucepan. When Maggie Ritchey was writing this recipe in class, she did not have the ability to take the “tare weight” of the container, meaning she couldn’t just pour out 1/2 a pound of treacle; it had to go into something and that something had a weight as well, so she calculated the weight of her saucepan plus 1/2 a pound, took out the weight, then poured her 1/2 pound of treacle. Today’s modern scales will weigh your container and then balance the scale to zero, effectively setting the scale to a negative weight. What does this mean in 21st century measurements? You will be using somewhere around 8 ounces of treacle or molasses. Use a scale to weigh your measuring cup, hit the tare button, then start pouring until your scale reaches 1/2 pound. Normally I would calculate this for you but my scale broke and I’ve yet to replace it.

This gingerbread recipe does not sound like the sweet and spicy gingerbread our modern palate is accustomed to – it uses cayenne pepper and caraway seeds, probably giving it a kick back that is a savory and pleasant finish after the sweetness of the treacle and sugar.

Gingerbread

Take the weight of a saucepan, add 1/2 lb weight. Pour into the saucepan 1/2 lb treacle. Take the saucepan off the scales & weight 1/4 lb lard. Add this to the treacle. 1/2 lb sugar 1/2 teacupful water. Put the pan on the fire & let these melt. Put into a basin 1 lb flour 1/2 teaspoonful salt 1/2 teaspoonful ground ginger 1/2 teaspoonful ground cinnamon, a pinch of allspice 1/2 teaspoonful carbonic of soda, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a tablespoonful carraway seeds. Mix these all well together. Drop in 2 whole eggs, with the melted treacle, lard & water. Beat very thoroughly. Place in a greased baking sheet & bake in a slow oven for 1 hour. The addition of some blanched, chopped almonds will be an improvement to those who like them.

I found three references to Victoria Buns online, from 1861, 1880 and 1885. In 1861, the recipe for Victoria Buns was almost the same as this one, and was found in a household book for women. Vintage Recipes has this book available for you to peruse in a transcribed format, as well as many other heirloom recipes. 1880 brought us a book called Tasty Dishes with loads of old advertising that is worth clicking over in itself, and the recipe remains similar to this one. The last reference to Victoria Buns was from a Creole cookbook from 1885 and sounds nothing like Maggie Ritchey’s recipe, but you can’t help but browse through just for the sake of looking. I believe these might have been made as tea biscuits.

Victoria Buns

2 oz butter, beaten to a cream with 2 oz pounded sugar, 1 1/2 oz ground rice, 1 1/2 oz currants, a small piece candied peel, 1 egg, a pinch salt, a little flour & 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder. When the butter & sugar are worked to a cream, add the rice flour, then add an egg, beat again, add a little flour sufficient to make it stiff. Clean the currants, drop them in, mix them lightly, throw in the candied peel cut into neat pieces, add the baking powder, mix very lightly again. Drop the mixture on to greased patty-pans & bake in a moderate oven. Sometimes the mixture is made so stiff by flour that it is rolled up into balls & baked on a tin. Bake until firm & a nice brown colour.

I can’t find any historical references to Catherine Soup so this could very well be the soup devised by the home economics teacher. It sounds an awful lot like a homemade tomato soup or vegetable puree. This could be good as a winter lunch soup, as it sounds hearty and sustaining, while also warming the body. As to the ingredients, I have no idea how much a tin of tomatoes contained, so try 1 medium tomato. Also, cut the vegetables into smaller pieces so they will cook through more quickly! Finally, feel free to run this through your blender once the vegetables are soft rather than smashing them through a sieve.

Catherine Soup

Put into a saucepan 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, 1 tin tomatoes, 4 tablespoonful rice, salt, pepper, 1 cupful milk, a piece butter the size of an egg & 3 pints cold water. Put the pan on the fire & let these boil until the vegetables are quite soft, then rub them through a sieve. Return to the saucepan, add tiny pinch sugar & stir until boiling. Serve with a round of bread toasted & cut in neat pieces.

There are numerous recipes for dough nuts/donuts/doughnuts and the name always makes me wonder if they were originally called dough knots. I haven’t found any evidence of such naming, it just makes sense to me.

I have noticed that Maggie frequently directs to “rub in” the butter. I can only surmise this was how it was done in the days before the electric mixer. You could probably use a pastry cutter or even your fingers. I myself will use the mixer on low.

Dough Nuts

1/2 lb flour 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder, pinch salt, mix these thoroughly well together, then add a tablespoonful sugar, mix again, then rub in 1 oz butter, lard or fat. Fat is best, rub it in until quite small. Mix to a stiff batter with butter-milk. Drop some tiny pieces from a spoon into boiling fat & cook them until a golden brown colour, yet thoroughly cooked through. Sprinkle over some fine sugar. They may be eaten either hot or cold.

P.S. I promise to be more diligent at updating this site. It has fallen by the wayside and yet I have so much source material to work with! Just today I scanned well over 50 recipes, so look forward to more frequent updates, and hopefully back to daily soon!

Fish cakes can be served with basic tartar sauce or more fancy aioli sauce, kept simple to preserve the flavor of the fish or jazzed up with Parmesan cheese and garlic. The choice is yours. This recipe from Maggie Ritchie give a good base for fish cakes that is still followed today in upscale kitchens across America. Make it with salmon and add a mango salsa for something interesting, try it with cod and top with a tangy chutney. Whatever sounds good to you, that’s the beauty of cooking at home!

A note, Maggie has written “equal quantities of cold mashed potato.” What she means here is to use the same volume of potatoes as you do of fish. Also, rather than using boiling fat, try using canola oil. Olive oil would also be fine but if you take it to too high of a temperature it can smoke.

Fish Cakes

Take any cold fish that may be in the house, free it from the bone with two forks. Put it into a basin, add to it a pinch salt and a pinch cayenne pepper & equal quantities of cold mashed potato. Bind with an egg, mix these together with a spoon & take a little of the mixture on to a floured board. Shape it with the back of a knife into flat cakes, then dip them into a beaten egg & bread crumbs. Fry them in boiling fat.

Queen cakes are a very early form of cup cake! So for all you cup cake enthusiasts out there who happen to like history, this recipe is very similar to one dating back to the 1600s. According to the Researching Food History blog, various royal chefs wrote cookbooks, with names like The Queen’s Royal Cookery and The Queen’s Closet Opened and often included recipes named for certain people, including the Queen. These little pound cakes are made in what we now call muffin tins, but at the time were called patty pans (and in some parts of the world this term in still in use). You can also bake them in crockery, cups, and small bowls that can withstand the heat of the oven. I found several years ago those cute little tins you might make madelines or a little tart in, at an upscale cooking shop, and now I know just what I will be making in them! Early Queen cakes could be iced in the method which baked the icing onto the cake, much like Martha Washington’s Great Cake, meaning, the icing was spread all over the cake, then the cake returned to the oven at a low heat and essentially dried onto the cake. The icing could be flavored with orange water or rose water, something our modern palate might not appreciate. I expect I’d use a simple vanilla icing.

Queen Cakes

1/4 lb sugar, 1/4 lb butter, 1/4 lb flour, 1/4 lb currants, 5 eggs, a pinch salt. Put the sugar & butter into a basin & with your right hand work it to a cream. Then add the flour & the yolk, mix carefully one way, add the rest of the yolks, beat lightly again. Beat the whites to a very stiff froth. Mix them lightly in. Clean the currants, drop them in, mix round once. Grease some patty-pans, put a little of the mixture into them. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 min. A little flavouring of any sort may be added.

You might not think you know what semolina is, but I bet you do. Once a wheat grain has been through the mill, there are essentially three parts – the bran, the germ and the center, known as the endosperm. I’ll just call it the center if that’s okay with you. When the wheat you are using is of the durum variety, this center is called semolina, and can be ground more finely into flour. When you use many varieties of wheat, this center is called farina, and in America we have the brand Cream of Wheat. Semolina and farina are used in pasta making as well. This recipe is for either rice or semolina pudding. I’m not a big fan of rice pudding myself, but it is a great gluten free dessert for those who need or want it.

Rice or Semolina Pudding

Put into a basin 2 tablespoonful of rice or semolina, well wash it, put it into a clean saucepan with plenty of water & boil it until soft. Pour the water from it, grease a pie dish. Put the rice into it & fill up the dish with milk & stir in with a fork a well beaten egg. Put in a tablespoonful sugar & a little flavouring, beat it all well to-gether in the dish. Grate a little nutmeg over the top. Place in a moderate oven & bake until firm to the touch & a nice golden brown colour.

If you have been looking for a traditional scone recipe, here it is. Honestly, scones can be difficult to make, but when you consider this very old method is quite straight forward, then maybe it’s just that making scones from scratch is intimidating, but not actually difficult. These scones would be more like a biscuit, so you may want to try adding raisins or currants, orange zest and cranberries, cinnamon or lemon zest for variety. Note, carbonic of soda here refers to baking soda. Also, she references “enough butter milk” which I think could simply mean “make it damp but not soggy.”

Scones

Put into a basin 1 lb flour, teaspoonful salt, 1/2 teaspoonful cream of tartar, 1/2 teaspoonful carbonic of soda & mix these thoroughly well with the tips of your fingers, until quite free from lumps. Then rub in  oz butter & mix with your right hand to a soft wet dough, with enough butter milk. Grease a baking tin. Shape the scone round, mark it in four. Lay it onto a baking sheet & bake it in a quick oven for about 20 to 25 minutes.

I am reminded of the old rhyme “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old!” I certainly hope this doesn’t last nine days, as it sounds quite good. We are big fans of pea soup in my house, so perhaps I will try this one.

Pea Soup

Put into a clean saucepan 1 lb of well washed split peas, 8 breakfastcupfull cold water, 1 teaspoon salt a piece of fat or butter the size of an egg, a piece of carrot, a piece of turnip, an onion, a sprig of parsley, a sprig of thyme & a pinch of sugar. Let the peas cook until they are quite soft, then rub them with the other vegetables through a sieve or a colander, return the soup to the saucepan, let it boil up. Taste it & see if it needs a little more salt or pepper, if so add it. If you have in the house, a ham bone or bacon bone, it will be a great improvement, to boil it with the soup. The fat or butter may then be omitted. Toast cut in dice & served on a plate is an improvement also, sometimes sweet herbs are crushed & served, separately with the soup.