Now here's a breakfast I've got some experience making! I did pick up some interesting trivia from my cookbook today. Scrambled Eggs were once known as Battered Eggs.
Grapefruit Juice
Scrambled Eggs
Toast
Coffee
I've definitely learned a little something during the second week of The Great Housekeeping Experiment. Looking ahead at some of the breakfast menus in my 1945 cookbook, I can see the same cereals used over and over again in different ways. I should note that the menus I've been using are all "winter" menus. There are alternatives suggested for warm weather, usually involving prepared cereals and fresh fruits. If a '40s housewife wanted to be well-equipped for breakfasts on winter mornings, her shopping would have been fairly simple. She'd keep a stock of cereals on hand (rolled oats, cornmeal, wheat, farina), a prepared cereal or two, dried fruits (apricots, prunes), milk, eggs, bread, canned/bottled juices (apple, grapefruit), and some fresh citrus fruit.
And this may sound strange, but I feel like I'm getting better acquainted with my stovetop. Better able to judge where I should set the burner, that getting the water to boil before adding the cereal is always best, that stewing fruits need lots of water. Each cereal has it's own protocol --- as I learned yesterday with Corn-meal Mush. Speaking of which, I may not have been able to find a recipe on my package of cornmeal, but here's a recipe from the Aunt Jemima website with a whole step I missed!
Corn Meal Mush
1 cup Quaker or Aunt Jemima Enriched White or Yellow Corn Meal
1 cup cold water
3 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
In large saucepan, bring 3 cups water and salt to a boil. In small bowl, mix corn meal with cold water. Gradually stir corn meal mixture into salted boiling water. Cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Cover, and continue cooking on low heat 5 minutes for white corn meal or 10 minutes for yellow corn meal, stirring occasionally. Serve hot with milk and sugar. Yield: 6 servings
4 comments:
So I am obviously really late in reading your fabulous blog, but the "corn mush" recipe that colonists made in the 1600's.
You would have to add the corn meal to the boiling water pinch by pinch or else you would end up with a mushy mess, lol.
Keep it up, it's really admirable to watch your progression :D
So they had some tricks to the trade as well!
I've found that making a paste from the corn-meal and 1 cup of cold water (while the rest of the water is coming to a boil), then adding the paste to the water semi-slowly works really well.
Thank you for your kind comments!
I'm uber late to the party but you can also make the cornmeal mush with milk...its tastes much better (its creamier) than with just water. Love the blog!!
Never too late for a party! I think I'll try your tip next time corn-meal mush is on the menu. Articles on nutrition from this period recommend to mothers that they cook breakfast cereals in milk instead of water so their kids can get that extra serving.
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