Category Archives: Uncategorized

Warm Chowder for a Cool Day

picking-potatoes-85Potato Chowder

  • 6 Medium sized potatoes, sliced
  • 1 lb. salt pork, diced
  • 1 tablespoon chopped onion
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 pint milk (2 cups)
  • 1 pint water (2 cups)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  1. Fry the pork and onions together until they are a delicate brown.
  2. Put a layer of the sliced potatoes into a kettle, then a layer of the pork and onions, and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Repeat this until all materials are used.
  4. Pour over them the grease from the pan in which the pork and onions were fried and add the water.
  5. Cover and simmer 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
  6. Thicken the milk with flour mixed with the butter and pour it over the potatoes.
  7. Stir carefully, so as not to break the potatoes.
  8. Serve very hot.

Farmers’ Bulletin 712 School Lunches March 1916

Creativity, Cheese, and Whipped Cream?

202Cheese Jelly Salad

  • ½ cupful of grated cheese.
  • 1 tablespoon of gelatin.
  • 1 cupful of whipped cream.
  • Salt and pepper to taste.
  1. Mix the cheese with the whipped cream, season to taste with salt and pepper, and add to the gelatin dissolved in a scant cupful of water. This may be molded in a large mold or in small molds.
  2. When the jelly begins to harden, cover with grated cheese. The jelly should be served on a lettuce leaf, preferably with a cream dressing or a French dressing, to which a little grated cheese has been added.

Extension Bulletin 537 Low Cost Menus for One Month December 1939

And fun was had by all…

Celery with Cheese & Pimiento Salad SpreadWe had a great time, great food, and great guests!

In case you missed all my advertising posts, the Archives hosted The Taste of the ‘Chives on Friday afternoon. For those of you who missed the event, you can read about it in the Gazette-Times article “A taste of World War I” (make sure to watch the video clip at the bottom!) and look at the photos on our Flickr site.

Keep watching this space until the end of the month for more historic recipes.

Today is the day!

Rally SquadWash your hands, tie your aprons, put on your bibs — today is the day for the Taste of the ‘Chives. What will you find? Prune Loaf-Imperial, gnocchi, rice cookies, maybe even a recipe or two with vetch …

The fun starts at noon in the Willamette Rooms on the 3rd floor of The Valley Library.

It’s like Mac n’ Cheese, only better

Evaluating SquashBaked Macaroni with Peanut Butter

  • 1 c macaroni
  • 2 c milk
  • 1 t salt
  • cup bread crumbs
  • 3 T peanut butter

Cook macaroni in boiling salted water. Pour over cold water to separate. Scald the milk and add it gradually to the peanut butter so it will not lump. Turn macaroni into buttered baking dish. Pour over it the milk mixture, cover closely and bake slowly for 40 minutes. Sprinkle with crumbs and brown in hot oven.

Extension Bulletin 216, October 1, 1917 Substitutes for Meat

What else is happening this month? Oregon Archives Events

Dance ContestTomorrow: Taste of the ‘Chives: A Historical Recipes Showcase

Our tastiest offering in observance of Oregon’s heritage this year will be a showcase of historical recipes from Extension publications, USDA Farmer’s Bulletins, and other gems from collections in the Archives and the Library. Sample all manner of sweet and savory treats that were featured in bulletins printed from 1916 to 1939 for use by various audiences, including Boys’ and Girls’ Industrial Clubs, World War One era homemakers looking for wheat and meat substitutes, and aficionados of cheese.

There are plenty of recipes still available and we would love to see more featured in this smorgasbord of bygone tastes! If you want to bring historical tastes back to life, please stop by the Archives Reference Desk on the third floor and ask for the recipe folder. If some dish deeply intrigues you, we can make a copy for you and sign you up- if nothing else they make for fun and interesting reading!

Friday, October 17, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM in the Willamette Seminar Room East, 3rd floor of The Valley Library

October 22: Archives Film Fest: Join Karl McCreary again to watch 4 short films from the OSU Archives collections. Wednesday, October 22, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM in the Willamette Seminar Room East, 3rd floor of The Valley Library

October 30: Haunting for History: Get scared senseless with tales of terror! Grab your flashlight and join Tiah Edmunson-Morton for a ghostly tour through the 2 main campus quads. Thursday, October 30, 6:30PM – 7:30 PM, meet in the Archives on the 3rd floor of The Valley Library

Sweet Surrender…

Men making donuts at the Sugar Crest Donuts CompanyChocolate Corn Starch Mould

  • ½ c milk
  • ¼ square of chocolate
  • 1 T sugar
  • 3 t corn starch
  • Speck salt
  • 7 drops of vanilla

Heat chocolate in double broiler. Mix corn starch, sugar and salt thoroughly and add enough of the cold milk to make smooth paste. Add rest of cold milk to chocolate and bring to a scald. Stir corn starch mixture into heated milk and cook 20 minutes. Pour into wet moulds. When cold, unmould and serve with sugar and cream.

OAC Recipes for use in Freshman Cooking Classes, November 1909

What’s Cooking This Week?

4-h-bread.jpgTwice-Baked Bread

Bread cut or torn into small pieces and heated in a very slow oven until thoroughly dried and very delicately browned is good food for children.

The warming oven of a coal stove is about hot enough for this purpose. In the case of gas ovens it is often difficult to get the gas low enough without having the door open a little way.

The advantage of tearing instead of cutting the bread is that it makes it lighter in texture and easier to eat. The crust can be torn off from all but the ends of the loaf in one piece. This crust should be torn into pieces about two inches wide. The inside of an ordinary loaf of bread will make about 16 pieces of convenient size. Tear first across the loaf and then tear each half into eight pieces. It is usually necessary to make a small cut first in order to start the tearing. It is well to keep the crust separate, as otherwise they are likely to get too brown. Such bread will need to be reheated before being served unless it is kept in a warm place, like a warming oven.

The above is a good way to use stale bread. Some people crush it and use it with milk as a breakfast food.

Farmers’ Bulletin 717, March 4, 1916 “Food for Young Children”

“Why did they use that?”

whiddyAs I wrote last weekend, in addition to being tasty treats, these recipes also act as a window into the homes of their time. They reflect the economic and political realities. These quotes come from bulletins in the late teens and discuss the need for food substitutions:

“As a nation we have depended largely on meat as a source of protein, i.e., tissue-building food. At the present time, however, meat is not only scarce but also needed by our soldiers and Allies. Eggs, which often take the place of meat, are high in price because of the expense of feed. It is therefore necessary for fish. Milk, cheese and tissue-building vegetables to figure prominently is our menus as a substitute for meat and eggs.”

Extension Bulletin 216, October 1, 1917 “Substitutes for Meat”

“These recipes call for less sugar, or shortening, or something other than white flour; hence the name “war cakes”, which makes one think of conservation and economy.

Extension Bulletin 242, November, 1917 “Baking Club Project-War Cakes”

“To conserve wheat is not a hardship to the American people. With abundant crops of corn, rice, potatoes, oats, barley, buckwheat, kafir, milo, feterita, peas, beans, peanuts, etc., any one of which may be used in larger or smaller amounts in place of wheat flour, there is no danger of hunger or lack of bread. Every housewife, therefore is urged to use some substitute for part of the wheat flour in whatever bread, biscuits, muffins, pastry, etc., she prepares thereby joining the ranks of those who are helping to win the war. Such bread will have even greater nutritive value than if made from flour alone. In fact, many believe that for food purposes a mixture of different grains is better than one kind alone. In using wheat substitutes, therefore, locally grown products should be used as much as possible. All unnecessary shipment of materials should be avoided, so that transportation facilities may be reserved to the greatest degree for the needs of our soldiers and essential war business. Furthermore, almost every section of our country produces in abundance some crop other than wheat, and to market this at home rather than at a distance would prove an economic benefit to such localities.”

Farmers Bulletin, March 1918, “Use of Wheat Flour Substitutes in Baking”