A short tour of the Ozarks food history

[Norm Matthews]

My mother's family is from that part of the country.  She was born near Mountain Home, in northern Arkansas, one of her sisters lived in Little Rock all her life. Another in West Plains (southern Mo.) We spent lots of time there in my childhood. In the last couple of weeks I have traced her family back to England in the late 1500's and early 1600's. They came to the Ozarks region largely from Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.  

Edited January 23, 2019 by Norm Matthews (log)

[gfron1]

8 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

Lexington, Missouri Cookbook, 1919.

Entertainment Cook Book: Recipes by Students of Central College for Women.

This book falls in the category of homogenization that I've mentioned either here or my restaurant thread. Right around 1920 two companies came into the Ozarks gathering recipes from communities, adding them to a base set and publishing the books to sell back to churches and groups who would then sell them in their communities. The difference between recipes before and after is night and day, and is why I've focused all of my efforts on pre-1920 and moreso the 1800s. 

[chileheadmike]

Lexington, MO is pretty far North of the Ozarks. It's on the Missouri river about 100 miles East of KC.

 

There was a pretty big Civil War battle fought there. AKA Battle of the Hemp bails as several of them waiting to be loaded onto boats caught fire during the battle. 

[Martin Fisher]

42 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

This book falls in the category of homogenization that I've mentioned either here or my restaurant thread. Right around 1920 two companies came into the Ozarks gathering recipes from communities, adding them to a base set and publishing the books to sell back to churches and groups who would then sell them in their communities. The difference between recipes before and after is night and day, and is why I've focused all of my efforts on pre-1920 and moreso the 1800s. 

 If it makes any difference, 1919 was the second print run, the first was 1917—I'm sure the recipes didn't all come into existence in 1917.

The recipes are all purported to be from individuals, in Missouri, and favorites of the students.

Edited January 23, 2019 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Martin Fisher]

@gfron1

Are a you familiar with the Cattail Moonshine book by Tammi Hartung?

[gfron1]

2 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

@gfron1

Are a you familiar with the Cattail Moonshine book by Tammi Hartung?

I am now. thanks

[captaincarl]

On 1/22/2019 at 5:21 PM, gfron1 said:

On 1/21/2019 at 11:41 AM, ElsieD said:

Wow.  That is a LOT of fruitcake.  A place where I used to work had documents going back to the late 1800s.  The penmanship was amazing, the same as what you posted.  I used to look at these documents and wonder what the original writers might have thought if they knew that 100 years later someone would be looking at them.

Actually the large volume is because they would make a bunch of fruitcakes that were intended to get them through winter.

Another factor to consider with older recipes:  Before the industrial revolution and the birth of the modern food industry, many ingredients (from eggs to apples to animals) were significantly smaller on average than we're used to today. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, captaincarl said:

Another factor to consider with older recipes:  Before the industrial revolution and the birth of the modern food industry, many ingredients (from eggs to apples to animals) were significantly smaller on average than we're used to today. 

 

So were people.

 

[gfron1]

13 hours ago, captaincarl said:

Another factor to consider with older recipes:  Before the industrial revolution and the birth of the modern food industry, many ingredients (from eggs to apples to animals) were significantly smaller on average than we're used to today. 

Fortunately for me this is addressed in Chicora's Help to the Housekeeper (mentioned above) which give me eggs to quarts, etc. I haven't looked at the conversion yet, but my guess is it would be subtle just based on eggs alone.