One thing I love about the holidays—Thanksgiving and Christmas, in particular—is how my family already knew what was on the menu without question.
The staples: Turkey for Thanksgiving, ham on Christmas with the accompaniments of dressing, giblet gravy, macaroni and cheese, and greens – all made from scratch that day.
Sweet potato pie is a seasonal favorite and no matter the occasion, we all expect my grandmother to make her famous 7-Up cake.
In my adult years, I moved away from my hometown, Detroit, and can’t always make it back for the holidays. The responsibility of making holiday dinners fell on me once I moved to Louisiana.
I’ve learned a few of those family recipes that havebeen passed down through the generations. As a modern-day foodie, I keep an eye out for new recipes to change things up. However, as a still-fledgling home cook and food writer, I appreciate and welcome old-fashioned recipes and methods that will give me a solid culinary foundation.
Recently, in my travels to the Northwest, I came across a couple of secondhand cookbooks originally published in the early 1920s and 1950s. I purchased the treasures — which came with original handwritten notes tucked inside — and I was intrigued by some of the dishes and ingredients used, which I wasn’t familiar with or don’t commonly see presented on dining tables of my family and friends in the 21st century.
One of my favorite things was the menu listing what to make for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day of the week and for holidays. And the books include many other helpful tips and best practice methods for cooking.
These findings made me wonder what vintage and antique cookbooks are available in the Noel Collection in Shreveport.
Noel Collection is a rare book library located on the third floor of the Noel Memorial Library on the LSUScampus. There are more than 200,000 rare items in the collection, which was acquired and donated by James Smith Noel. The current curator continues to add to the collection and its pieces are cataloged and maintained by a small yet highly knowledgeable staff.
As the founder intended, the Noel Collection is open to LSUS students and the public to use its resources, and special guided tours are available by reservation.
I visited Noel Collection’s cookbook section, which had shelf after shelf of recipe books dating back several decades to more than a century. They consist of an array of styles and flavors and the recipes fit for wide-ranging occasions.
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“Factors that make cookbooks collectible may include former ownership, marks from previous owners, notes in the margins — for example,printing date, time period represented, any additional illustrations, items left in the books, et cetera,” said Martha Lawler, director of the Noel Collection.
Nearly every item in the section was acquired directly by Noel, Lawler said. Although he wasn’t known as a food connoisseur, he was very interested in health and wellness, which included nutrition, Lawler said.
Cookbooks give snapshot of another life
As the holidays approach, I searched the library for festive recipes that may give my dinner menu a fresh twist. However, what caught my eye were the antiquated recipes and ingredients and information.
The contents may be considered outrageous and dated, nowadays. However, this was how some people lived and ate.
One may not find pigeon — or squab — on many dining tables today, but Godey’s Lady’s Book has 16 recipes dedicated to preparing it (Vol. CVII, June 1883-Jan. 1884; pages 85-90).
In addition, many of the books include cooking tips, serving and presentation guidelines, fashion illustrations, etiquette rules, household laws, and other instructions fit for its demographic of readers of its times.
Cookbooks offer an intimate look into the daily lives and the prevailing culture of certain eras.How we prepare our food says a lot about our lives.
Godey’s Lady’s Book series, published in the late 1800s, includes writing and illustrations on fashion, short stories, poems, sheet music, patterns, and insight on navigating women’s work-related issues.
Cassell’s Household Guide, published in the same era, teaches readers medical remedies, dancing, exercises, household laws and mechanics, government job posts open for women, how to negotiate salaries and benefits with household workers, and much more, in the four-volume encyclopedia series.
“Godey’s Lady’s Book and Cassell’s Household Guides offered suggestions for daily housekeeping, much like magazines of today — for example, Better Homes & Gardens,” Lawler said. “They were meant for women, mostly because women were the main keepers of the home. Some of them served as guides for new brides.”
Local cookbooks in Noel Collection
Many 20th century books by regional and local groups and authors are in the Noel Collection mix, as well.
Inside “Cookinanny,” a compilation of recipes gathered by the B’nai Zion Sisterhood in Shreveport in 1964, one section of the ring-bound book is dedicated to “Jewish Cooking.” The recipes within were compiled by the sisterhood with submissions, including those from members and the community. It’s where one can learn to make Meriam’s Matzo Balls, submitted by Mrs. Albert Sklar (pg. 20) and suggested menus for Jewish holidays year-round (pg. 40).
A few highlights for Chanukah — the Festival of Lights — are gefilte fish with beet horseradish, roast-stuffed goose, noodle-apple pudding, challah, braised kale, pineapple chiffon pie, and Mandelbrot.
Other local cookbooks I came across are: “Holiday Cooking” compiled by The Gift Shop of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Shreveport (first edition, Dec. 1966, Second Jan. 1967, Third Feb. 1967); “To a King’s Taste” collected by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Louisiana (1957); and the “Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Collection of Tastin’ Tea Cookbooks 1961-1978” compiled by the North Highlands Women’s Club in Shreveport.
In the light-hearted spirit, I’ve included a few interesting and perhaps odd recipes found in the massive Noel Collection cooking section.
Although, I recommend making a stop into the library to do your own research and see what else tickles your fancy and entices your taste buds.
“The Noel Collection is a unique resource for researchers but is fascinating all on its own,” Lawler said. “The sheer magnitude of the items and the breadth of knowledge that they represent make it an important aspect of the community. The cookbooks are only one facet of the intriguing offerings available for perusal.”
Entrée
Finding pigeon or squab on a restaurant menu would be far-fetched as it’s an obsolete entrée in 2019. Pigeons don’t have a sterling reputation for being delicious.
However, if you were living in the 1760s, guests would probably flock to the table if presented with Pigeons in Compote with White Sauce, as seen on page 87 of the 1767 edition of “The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy.”
If daring to veer away from traditional birds this season, be sure to acquire domestic pigeons from a certified exotic meat dealer — do not try hunting street pigeons, as it is illegal and probably unsanitary.
Pigeons in Compote with White Sauce
“The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy” (1767; pg.87)
“Let your pigeons be drawn, picked, scalded, and flayed; then put them in a flew-pan with veal sweetbreads, co*cks combs, mushrooms, truffles, morels, pepper, salt, a pint of thin gravy, a bundle of sweet-herbs, an onion, and a blade or two of mace; cover them close, let them stew half an hour, then take out the herbs and onion, beat up the yolks or two or three eggs, with some chopped parsley in a quarter of a pint of cream, and a little nutmeg; mix all together, stir it one way till thick; lay the pigeons in the dish, and the sauce all over. Garnish with lemon.”
If you choose to stick to the traditional turkey, refer to the “Hints on Carving” section of Cassell’s Household Guide, Vol. 1 (page 79).
Cassell’s has step by step instructions on how to carve and serve turkey, as well as hares, calf heads, and muttons — with hand-drawn illustrations.
“A turkey generally appears on the board at Christmas, if at no other time. It requires more skill to carve a turkey than any other bird, excepting a goose, and on the carver’s operations will depend on how far the bird will go in point of economy. The breast is reckoned the best, and the wing the next in preference. Gentlemen are often partial to the drumstick, the slender part of the leg. Commence by cutting slices from the breast on each side… If seasoned with herbs, the seasoning will be found in doing this; a little seasoning is served with every portion of the bird…”
Bread
Sally Lunn Cakes
Cassell's Household Guide (Vol. 1, pg. 28)
Make a soft dough with flour, a little salt and butter, two or three eggs, yeast, and milk and water. After kneading well, let it rise before the fire. Then make it into cakes of a size convenient to slice across and toast. Bake slightly, but in an oven sharp enough to make them rise. When wanted, slice, toast, and butter your Sally Lunns, and serve piping hot on a plate which you cannot hold with your naked fingers. There are two objections to these and the following -- they are indigestible, and are also terrible "'stroys" (destroyers, consumers) for butter.
Dessert
Your guests have a sweet tooth that needs to be sated. Serve them a festive Plum Pudding using a recipe from Godey’s Lady’s Book (Vol. CVII, June 1883-Jan. 1884). The spirited dish calls for the use of brandy and wine — and it’s to be served with“fairy sauce.”
Plum Pudding recipe (pg. 578)
- Six ounces of grated bread
- Six ounces of flour
- Half a pound of suet
- One and a half pounds of currants
- One pound of sugar
- Six eggs
- One gill of brandy
- One wineglass of wine
- Two ounces of citron
- Half a pound of raisins
- One nutmeg
- One teaspoon of cinnamon, one of cloves
Wash the currants well, and dry them the day previous to using them: stone the raisins, and slice the citron. Flour the fruit well with some of the flour, chop the suet fine, grate the nutmeg, and mix all the ingredients well together. Boil three hours either in a mould or in a pudding-cloth, keeping the water boiling all the time, and having a kettle filled with boiling water near by, so it can be added when needed, as the pudding will be heavy if it is stopped in boiling. Room must be allowed for the pudding to swell either in the cloth of mould. To be eaten with fairy-sauce.”
Fairy sauce (page 579) is made with a quarter-pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, half a nutmeg grated, and a glass of wine. To make it, simply “beat the butter and sugar to a cream, add the wine and nutmeg.”
If you go
- What: The Noel Collection
- Where:Noel Memorial Library, LSUS campus, 1 University Pl., Shreveport
- Hours:8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday
- Info:For more details, call (318) 798-4161 or visitjsnoelcollection.org
This article is a part of The Shreveport Times' Noel Collection monthly series.
For more articles about Noel Collection, visit shreveporttimes.com.
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