Hosting Thanksgiving and on the hunt for some recipes? Tasked with bringing along a side dish, but frustrated with modern options? With Turkey Day just around the corner, let’s look to the past for some ideas.
The Woman’s Missionary Society of St. Paul Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, offers a few traditional options for your meal. A waldorf salad to start, perhaps, followed by a side dish of baked sweet potatoes smothered in butter and sugar. Round off the meal with two delectable dessert dishes: homemade cranberry pudding to be served with hard sauce, and a pumpkin pie sans eggs!
Each suggestion is followed with the name of the kind person who offered it up: whose recipe recommendation is your favorite? (Personally, we’ll be trying out Mrs. Lunger’s egg-less pie recipe.)
If you're bored of canned cranberry, perhaps you ought to try your hand at a relish alternative! This cranberry relish was found within the 1985 edition of "Favorite Recipes of the Oak Lane Presbyterian Church," a congregation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To make the relish, you will need:
- 1 lb cranberries, fresh or frozen;
- 3 apples, unpeeled;
- 2 oranges, one peeled;
- 2 small packages or 1 large package of lemon jello;
- 2 cups boiling water or heated fruit juice;
- 1 cup chopped nuts;
- 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained.
Once you've gathered your ingredients, the first step is to dissolve the jello in the boiling water or fruit juice. Then, add the nuts and pineapple. In a separate bowl, grind together the cranberries, apples and oranges, then stir that into the jello mixture. Add sugar to taste (about one cup of sugar is suggested by author Dawn Shellenberger), and chill until thickened.
Originally published in 1895 in Nashville, Tennessee, "The Cumberland Cookbook" contains “four hundred tested recipes of Tennessee cookery.” The publication's full title is: "The Cumberland Cook Book—Four Hundred Tested Recipes of Tennessee Cookery Compiled by the Ladies of the Educational Circle of the Cumberland Presbyterian Churches of Nashville, Tenn." Back then, making a turkey required more than a simple trip to the grocery store. Here's their guidance if you're set on roasting a turkey this holiday:
"In selecting a turkey choose a plump, medium sized fowl. Pick the turkey without scalding; remove each feather carefully; then pour over it boiling water to plump it, after which singe with a piece of lighted writing paper, so that no particle of down remains. Wash thoroughly inside and out; wipe dry; rub with salt and let remain over night (longer would do no harm). When ready to cook rinse thoroughly and rub inside and out with salt and pepper. Place in pan, filling turkey with boiling water. Grease the outside to prevent blistering, and baste at frequent intervals with its own liquor. Leave turkey in the oven till almost done, then fill with the following dressing: Equal parts of biscuit and eggbread crumbs, intermixed with small bits of butter and peper (in case the eggread is omitted use the yelks of hard boiled eggs, mashine fine, with plain corn bread and biscuits.) Over this pour a sufficient quantity of warm water to soften the mixture. Any prepared seasoning may be used, such as sage, etc. Add some of the liquor from around the turkey, making it rather thin. Place a small quantity of lard or butter in a vessel on the stove, in which fry dressing to a light brown. remove turkey and fill. Return fowl to the stove, dredge with a little flour, and let bake a rich brown. After removing turkey place pan back on stove, adding a little hot water and allowing it to boil before stirring in brownel flour, until the gravy is of the consistency of cream. This should be served with cranberry sauce.--(Tested)."
Also included in "The Cumberland Cookbook" is this recipe for turkey dressing:
"Take about fifteen cold biscuits, cut in fine slices; put in the oven to brown a little. Have ready one pound of stoned raisins, one teaspoonful of pulverized cinnamon, one-half nutmeg, grated, and two eggs well beaten. When the bread is brown, put into a large bowl or pan; then pour over it enough turkey gravy to soak well; now stir in eggs, spices, and raisins. This quantity is enough to fill a large turkey.--Miss Tavel."
Not a turkey fan? Not to worry--we've found two ham recipes you might try instead.
To make the Ham-Cheese Rolls from "The Allardt Cookbook," you will need two packages of pull-apart dinner rolls, some thinly sliced ham, and swiss cheese. Slice the rolls in half-horizontally and lay them in an oven-ready pan. In a small bowl, mix together 1 stick of margarine (melted), 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard, 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of onion blakes, and a dash of worcestershire sauce. Spread a bit of this butter mixture on the bottom layer of each roll before layering ham and cheese and topping with the other half of the bun. Brush the remaining butter mixture across the tops of the constructed rolls and bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes.
The Ham-Balls from the 1873 "Presbyterian Cook Book," compiled by the ladies of the First Presbyterian Church in Dayton, Ohio, take a bit less work. To make them, "Beat together two eggs and half a cupful of bread-crumbs; chop fine some bits of boiled ham, and mix with them; make into balls, and fry a nice brown." Voila!
From First Presbyterian Church in Lake Forest, Illinois, we present the "Benevolent Society Cook Book." Published in 1923, the recipes within this booklet are over 100 years old! If you feel like a culinary adventure, we recommend their sausage and apples recipe. It sounds delicious, and is noted as being an inexpensive dish to make.
We also enjoyed this rhyme we found within the pages of the cookbook: “We’ll mix and bake the dainty cake / And beat the frosting light. / The surest plan to please a man is through his appetite.” We’d argue, however, that the surest plan to please anyone—anyone at all—is through their stomach!
Even older than The Cumberland Cookbook, "Gleaners’ Bric-A-Brac.," published by Flemington Presbyterian Church in New Jersey, put out their second edition in 1889.
The Gleaners’ Mission Band published this pamphlet and sold it for 20 cents. Besides advertisements for local businesses, such as Stockton’s Ladies’ and Gents’ Dining and Ice Cream Parlor, "Gleaners’ Bric-A-Brac" includes church histories and sermons. It also has a “large number of valuable household recipes, furnished by ladies of the congregations, and which have been tested in their own families.” Nestled within the pages alongside some more summery recipes are two dessert dishes that would fit well on a Thanksgiving tablescape: plum pudding and hickory-nut cakes.
To make the pudding: "One-half pound suet, one-half pound currants, one-half pound raisins, one-quarter pound citron, six ounces sugar, one nutmeg, twelve ounces flour, three eggs, two wine glasses brandy, little over half pint of sweet milk: salt to taste: boil eight hours. MRS J. B. H."
To make the cakes: "Scant cup of butter and two cups of sugar; cream these thoroughly; four eggs, a cup of luke-warm water, three cups of flour, two heaping teaspoonfuls of sea-foam, bake in gem pans with the kernels of the nuts sprinkled thick on the top of each cake. MISS C. H. B."
Another beloved dessert-slash-breakfast option is cinnamon rolls. This recipe for homemade sour cream cinnamon rolls is taken from "The Allardt Cookbook," which was compiled by the United Presbyterian Women of the Allardt Presbyterian Church in Tennessee. Skip the Pillsbury this year, and make the recipe your own by tossing in some raisins or nuts!
The day after the Thanksgiving feast, your stomach will thank you for taking it easy. Either toss together some leftovers, or cook up a simple dish of eggs to ensure you have the protein to take on the day.
As for leftovers, wouldn’t coleslaw be a nice addition to your turkey sandwiches this year? "Favorite Recipes from the Women’s Association of Community United Presbyterian Church," Drayton Plains, Michigan, contains this easy recipe: Shred 1/2 cabbage, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery. Add 1/4 c sugar; salt, pepper; About 1/4 c Miracle Whip." Easy as pie!
A staple of the kitchen, eggs are a versatile food—they can be cooked so many different ways and included in so many different recipes. Whether you like yours boiled or poached, deviled or scalloped, here are two egg recipes to try, taken from "The Cumberland Cookbook."
Above the directions for scalloped and stuffed eggs is a recipe for a special concotion. The Dayton-organized "Presbyterian Cook Book" recommends beef tea for your sick infant. They claim it’s a perfect cure for an under-the-weather babe!
To whip up this healing elixir, "Take one and one-half pounds of the best steak; cut it into very small pieces, and put them into a glass jar with enough cold water to cover the meat; tie the top of the jar on, and put it into a sauce-pan full of cold water; place it on the fire, and boil three hours."
This Thanksgiving, what will you be serving? Whether you faithfully follow your grandmother's stuffing recipe or are going into the holiday with the intention of starting new traditions, we encourage you to recreate a recipe from the past. A dish pulled from the 1889 "Gleaners' Bric-a-Brac" and set next to a 2025 green bean casserole becomes more than just food--it opens up conversation about what this holiday used to look like, and what it might look like in the coming years.
The recipes shared here are a tasty version of time-travel. Transport your tastebuds to the 19th or 20th century by whipping up one of the dishes above--if you do, we want to hear about it!
Interested in hearing more about archival cookbooks at PHS? In a March 2021 PHS LIVE webinar, Dr. Heather J. Sharkey (Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania) joined PHS staff for a discussion on the genre of community cookbooks. Cookbooks from Dr. Sharkey's personal collection and PHS’s holdings were shared to discuss the unexpected insights community cookbooks offer into culture and history, in general, but with a specific emphasis on the United States. Watch Rethinking the Value of Community Cookbooks now to continue learning about community cookbooks like the ones mentioned in this article!
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