A Year of Cooking Genealogically, Brown Bread (Belle) OR "When is a Pound no longer a Pound?"

Good morning!  I decided to go to the front of the book to make my progression easier.  Having said that though, I will choose to cook seasonally if the recipe ingredients are more readily available at different times of the year.  This is the first recipe in the journal, and I began prepping for it 6 days ago.  You might be wondering what recipe with only 10 ingredients would require such a long prep time?  Well, as usual, one ingredient, "Graham Flour" isn't available in my area.  Even Jungle Jim's International Market, a foodie paradise with 180,000 items (that's HUNDRED THOUSAND, folks) doesn't carry it, and honestly, I thought they had everything.  Once again though, Amazon Prime rides to the rescue!

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Side note:  Graham Flour is not made from ground up graham crackers or the flour used in making graham crackers (and yes, I did wonder if that was it's composition).  According to Wikipedia, Graham flour is a type of flour named after Sylvester Graham (1794–1851), an early advocate for dietary reform. Graham despised the discarding of nutrients such as germ and bran when making flour for white bread and believed that using all of the grain in the milling of flour and baking of bread was a remedy for the poor health of his fellow Americans during changes in diet brought on by the Industrial Revolution. Graham flour is similar to whole wheat flour in that both are made from the whole grain; however, graham flour is not sifted during milling (i.e. unbolted) and is ground more coarsely. Turns out Sylvester was a health nut ahead of his time.

Ingredients:
2 cups white flour sifted with 1/2 teaspoon salt & 2 teaspoons soda*

*Henceforth, going forward "Soda" will be forevermore baking soda

2nd
2 cups graham flour (see above)
1 cup sugar
1 cup raisins

1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
2 cups sour milk***
2 tablespoons melted lard

***To make 1 cup (250 mL) sour milk for baking, use 1 tbsp (15 mL) vinegar or lemon juice and enough milk to equal 1 cup (250 mL). Stir and let stand for 5 minutes before using.  I am using 2% milk, though my guess is that this recipe used whole milk.  Spoiled milk is unsafe to use (duh).  

Once the ingredient list was managed, the real drama started.

Instructions:
Beat together (Executive decision assumes this means the 3rd set of ingredients).  Add 1st mixture and beat well.  Add 2nd mixture when well mixed divide in 3 coffee tins.  Bake at 350 degrees (hooray, a temperature!  But no time, boo).

But wait - coffee tins?  Do manufacturers even sell coffee in cans anymore?  (short answer, yes - Chock Full O' Nuts.  Most are cardboard or plastic.) Not that the idea of cooking in a coffee can is foreign to me; my mother used to steam her Christmas puddings in Folgers one pound coffee cans.  But this instruction has really slowed me down, not only for the scarcity of the can, but the lack of original size, too.  Anyone who has shopped in the last century knows that packaging is decreasing while prices are increasing.  The Boston Globe has a great article on this very (touchy) subject - read it here.

Case in point - I scored these big coffee cans by beg, borrowing and stealing from friends.  The red Folger can is 3 pounds, even.  The middle Maxwell House can is 2 lbs, 7 oz, and the right Maxwell House is 2 lbs, 1 oz, a full 15 ounces less (and it's plastic to boot).  And damn, does that print get smaller and smaller, too, and it isn't just the bifocals needed, folks!  Even the small seemingly 1 pound Master Blend can (pictured right and I'm guessing the size I'm seeking) is actually only 13 ounces, down to 11.5 currently.

So you might be asking why this matters.  Well, for anyone who has ever dusted off an older relatives recipe, the 'can' or 'bag' or 'package' or even cooking container called for is in all certainty not going to be the same proportion and probably a much smaller amount than is required.  And baking is just darned finicky enough to require correct proportions to turn out right.  Finally, I'd like my attempts to replicate these recipes to be as authentic as possible.

After weighing many options I decided to use the smaller coffee can (for authenticity sake) and just two glass loaf pans for the remainder of the batter.  I generously sprayed them with Pam Spray, as the batter has the consistency of cake rather than a traditional bread (even though greasing is not called for).  I placed all three in a 350 oven for 30 minutes (no time was given), and began testing for done-ness.  It became apparent that the cook time would be more along an hour, though in retrospect the glass pans appeared to set more quickly than the coffee tin - surprising, given the thinness of the metal.  The coffee tin bread set very well, staying moist.  The exposed loaf pan loaves are denser and probably a bit overbaked.  Sorry for the um, suggestive loaf shot above, but I was trying to show the rings around the tin loaf, supposedly a hallmark of authentic brown bread.

While the bread was baking, I was off to question The Google. According to Wikipedia,

New England or Boston brown bread is a type of dark, slightly sweet steamed bread (usually a quick bread) popular in New England. It is cooked by steam in a can, or cylindrical pan.  Boston brown bread's color comes from a mixture of flours, usually a mix of several of the following: cornmeal, rye, whole wheat, graham flour, and from the addition of sweeteners like molasses and maple syrup. Leavening most often comes from baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) though a few recipes use yeast. Raisins are often added. The batter is poured into a can and steamed in a kettle. Brown bread is somewhat seasonal, being served mostly in fall and winter, and is frequently served with baked beans. (Baked beans and raisins?  Really?  Hmmmm.....)

As for my little journal, I have yet to figure out who Belle is, genealogically, or why a New England staple would feature in this book, as we have no ancestral connection to the area.  I will say that brown bread was a hallmark of a poor family (despite the better nutritional impact of the flour), and my family along that thread of family tree were farmers, so the recipe fits from that aspect.  Most importantly, the bread is freaking delicious and I would definitely make it again, this time steaming it instead.  And because DH LOVES them, I'll probably serve it with baked beans, too.

A Year of Cooking Genealogically, Matrimonial Cake

I have to admit I was as much intrigued by the name and description of the cake as the recipe itself.  The text reads "Probably you have this already but if not it's worth making.  I think it must owe its name to the fact that any beau to who it's served keeps coming back for more".  Admittedly my first inclination was to run for the Google and look up the history of Matrimonial Cake.  But I held off, and decided to give this recipe a whirl.  Please note, this is not the first entry in the book, but I did have all the ingredients on hand, so it gets first billing.

On to the recipe:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats*
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup butter**
1 cup brown sugar
 1 teaspoon soda***

*Doesn't specify quick or long cooking; I used quick as I had it on hand
**Salted stick sweet cream butter
**Executive decision decided that soda is Baking Soda

Instructions read "Mix these thoroly (don't think that milk has been accidentally omitted - it's a dry mixture)"

1 pkg dates, stoned & cut*
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water

*Executive decision meant using an 8 ounce packaged of dates that I chopped into a small dice

Instructions read "Boil until thick"

Final instructions read "Put half the dry mixture in a pan & spread with date mixture - cover with the other half and bake till a nut brown".

So, artistic cooking license was required here in several places.  There is no reference to the size of the pan, so I used an 8 x 12 ceramic baking dish.  There is no recommendation for buttering the dish, but I did take the modern route and sprayed it with cooking spray.  Finally, there is no recommendation about oven temperature or baking time.  I decided to go with 325 convection for 30 minutes. 

I could tell after assembling the dual ingredients that this was 'cake' in name only, and more resembled a date cookie bar.  In the future I will do more to document the steps of baking for your faithful reading reference, but the final product looks like this. A chewy bar type cookie that is not too sweet and really freakin delicious.  I think, given the ingredient proportions that I might have gone with a smaller 9 x 9 baking pan.  While tasty, the topping was a bit dry.  But my guesses on the baking time were correct, and it was completely necessary to butter or spray the dish.  I would probably increase the amount of dates to a pound to increase the filling to topping ratio.

I was intrigued by the name Matrimonial Cake, so once I was finished baking, I checked Google for the history.  Wikipedia defines it as "A date square (that) is a Canadian dessert or coffee cake made of cooked dates and with an oatmeal crumb topping. In Western Canada it is known as Matrimonial Cake. It is often found in coffee shops as a sweet snack food. There can be nuts added to the base layer or crumb topping. There can be candied peel added to the date stuffing for a contrasting texture."  The two blogs below give their guesses on the background on the cake's meaning, though there isn't a definitive answer.

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2008/07/matrimonial-cake.html 
http://www.littlegraybird.ca/littlegraybird/2011/4/18/matrimonial-cake.html

My theory as to why it appears in my little book is noted in the The Old Foodie blog, stating that the recipe appeared in the 1933's in Ohio.  Given the fact that my relatives are from Northeastern and Middle Ohio, this guess fits as well as any.  Kate's description works for my beau; DH proclaimed them delicious and would definitely 'come back for more'!

A Year of Cooking Genalogically, Intro

I find it hard to believe, but 10 years ago this January 2018, my one-hell-of-a mother passed away after just 79 short years of gracing this earth with her wit and wisdom.  Just 5 months later in May, her beloved cousin Ray died, too.  In the twisted roots that make up my family tree, Ray was my mothers mother's cousin - but to my mom and my sisters and I, Ray was much like a brother and uncle.  Ray was a single man, never married, and both he and my mother were only children, so two family deaths in such close calendar proximity meant that the disposal of two household worth of lives well lived fell to my sisters and me; actually mostly to my middle sister Claudia.  As with most families not named "Hilton" or "Kennedy", items left behind were comprised of the expected and loved (pictures and family heirlooms, such as china and furniture), and the not so expected and problematic, of which I'll spare you the details.

As can often happen in these situations, decisions are made pretty much on the spot.  Keep this, discard that, donate a lot, and dispose of a lot more.  In retrospect, there is always a tinge of regret in what is kept and what is not, and only time can sharpen that distinction.  But occasionally you find a diamond in the rough, so to speak.  A piece of time that might be tossed in a box and stuck away for later (and in this case) much later disposition.

I discovered one such item when going through a box of old papers, tucked in the crawlspace of our basement, a subterranean wonderland that has accumulated 27 years of toys, furniture, papers, pictures, spiders and dust bunnies of gargantuan proportions.  This pocket sized journal was included in items from Ray's home.  After some searching through the fragile pages, I found this dedication page.  The text reads: "Ruth, I've put in only recipes that I use every day and know are good.  I hope that at least a few of them are new to you and that you find them useful. Kate"

Immediately, my curiosity was piqued.  Ruth is Ray's mother, Ruth Ramsire, born 1900, died 1991.  But I have no idea who Kate is - in all my family research, it isn't a name that is familiar.  She might not even be a relative, though she does know Leslie Coe Butler, my great-great uncle, referring to him in one of the recipes in the book.  Beyond that page, there is no other reference as to who this cookbook author might be.  The pages are fragile and the book binding is beginning to come apart.  Upon the advice of DH Rob, I've decided to scan the pages of the book that are written on.  And just for the absolute fun of it, I've decided to cook the recipes contained within.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, big deal.  Recipes abound on the internet.  And you'd be right.  But what makes these recipes unique, besides the family connection are their instructions.  Or lack thereof.  As you'll see going forward, many of the recipes come with 'sparse' details.  There are no oven temperatures, though occasionally Kate calls for a moderate oven.  Of course, there are no pictures included, so the outcome can be left to the imagination.  Some ingredients will require ordering from Amazon.  Some recipes lack for specific measurements, and in those cases I will just use a best judgement going forward.  And while some recipes sound delicious, others leave me wondering what the outcome will be.  Prune Whip, I'm looking at you.

To make this exercise as authentic as I can, I've set some ground rules going forward.

1. I will use the ingredients listed unless they're no longer available on the commercial market.  
2. I will do my best to decipher the ingredients listed, but may have to take poetic license with spelling and printing.  
3. I might scale down the size of some recipes though, as I'm not sure if I want to tackle a 'peck' of cucumbers. 
4. I will not google recipes ahead of time, as I suspect many similar versions can be found online. 
5. Instead I will document decisions I make in the execution of the recipes, especially when instructions are lacking.  
6. I will dutifully document the success and failures of what I make.  

Finally, I will share whatever information I discover through genealogy research of Kate and her recipes.  Ride through the past with me to see what some of my ancestors enjoyed eating.