Grandma's Little Black Book of Recipes - From 1910

Book Synopsis: This little black book was discovered in an attic in 2015. The typed recipes and instructions are a direct translation of the handwriting seen in the photographs on each page. To preserve its authenticity, no extra instructions have been added. The cover is a photograph of the actual book, (with title added.)Bring your tablet into the rural English kitchen of 1910. Relive the tastes and smells of an age where there were no microwave ovens or digital scales. Back then, cooking was done on a Yorkshire Range.

This is not a book for the complete novice. You won't find any “preheat the oven to 200°” instructions. Their skills were not only in baking, but also maintaining the oven at a constant temperature, remember the heat came from the coal and wood, no thermostatic controls or glass fronted oven in doors existed back then. Grandma would feel the oven door knob to gauge the heat of the oven.

However, if you can bake scones and know by looking at things when they are “done,” you will enjoy experimenting as they did, adapting the recipes to your own taste.

Since Grandma knew how to bake she didn’t include step-by-step instructions in each recipe because she knew what to do so no repetitive instructions were noted.

The book was compiled before the First World War when young women visited each other's houses swapping recipes, as well as catching up on the latest gossip. Funny little markings on some of the recipes, (a cross “X” with a dot between each line) was a star rating, four dots being the best. The recipes included instructions like “place the chocolate and sugar into a bowl and warm by the fire, stirring until melted” (you will probably pop them into a microwave for a few seconds)

The hand written recipes contain simple ingredients available at that time. Self raising flour was not in common use, baking powder was used with plain flour. UK measurements are used; oz, lbs. and pints. Gills and quarts are given as mL and fluid ozs. Also terms like “bake in a quick oven” are used, a handy guide to all modern settings is given on the “Conversions” page. UK measuring cups and spoon sets are readily available online.

During the pandemic of 2020, I found myself being confined to the house, I decided to put my time to good use and revisit the shoebox containing Grandma’s little black books of recipes and notes. I have published another recipe book “More of Grandma’s Little Black Book of Recipes from 1905 to 1927” Another look of what our ancestors ate.

Above all……enjoy the taste of yesteryear ! Read more