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calliope_gw

Whatcha have for Breakfast?

17 years ago

I've been working on getting the house in order to shut it up for winter, and have been packing books away and straightening up the bookcases. My mother had a prize cooking book, and I pulled it out, because this particular book was mentioned on another forum I frequent. It's called the White House Cook Book, and the particular edition I have is copyrighted first in 1887 and again in 1891. These were given by merchants as advertising gimmicks to their customers. Not bad, considering it's a five hundred page tome. The preface section has a photograph of the 'Bride of the Whitehouse'.......Francis Folsom Cleveland.

There is a section on how to plan menus for every day off the week in each month. Just for grins, I turned to a Thursday in October and this is what a housewife might be expected to serve for the day. Martha Stewart, move over. You have been topped.

Breakfast

Baked quinces......... Broiled grouse

Boiled rice........... Potatoes a la creme

Raised muffins.......Dry toast....... and coffee

Lunch

Veal croquettes.......... Cheese souffle

Potato Salad..... Buns

Grape Pie.... and tea

Dinner

Swiss White Soup......... Pot Roast

Steamed Potatoes

Lima Beans ..... French Cabbage

Lettuce salad

Plum Puff Pudding......... Blanc Mange

Dominoes......... Fruit........ and Coffee

My g'mother was a young woman when people ate like this. My father remembers her cooking like this when he was a child. She had ten children and they were all pressed into service in the household to allow her to spend most of her time having and tending babies, and cooking. My g'father's wages went straight to the table, and every hobo had her number.

Mama said she'd start all over from scratch the next day, and left-overs, if they weren't taken home by an adult child, were pitched. So, I can tell you that people did indeed cook like this. (or at least some of them)

This is a wonderful reference book, because it can tell you how to make the most basic ingredient from scratch. Exuse me now, as I have to shoot a grouse for tomorrow's breakfast, and find four calve's hooves to render down for some lemon jelly. rofl.

BTW, I don't even eat breakfast.

Comments (15)

  • 17 years ago

    I had 3/4 cup of bran flakes with half a banana with 1/4 cup skim milk and 14 cup French vanilla creamer poured over it. I know, I know. What good does it do to use skim milk, if I add sweetened creamer to it? My excuse is that Maggie (cat) loves what's left in the cup. I add water, so that she gets some extra liquid. :>)

    I'm not sure I even know what a grouse is!

  • 17 years ago

    1 strip bacon,1 hard boiled egg and a piece of whole grain bread toasted....and i think thats enough darn cooking before 9am.

  • 17 years ago

    Grape pie? Rendering hooves? Goodness. Actually, there is a thread on the cooking forum about oxtails in quite the same manner. Guess things don't change too much over time.

    I don't eat breakfast either. The HealthPlus people keep telling me it'll help me lose weight if I were to eat breakfast. I don't see how eating eggs benedict smothered in hollandaise causes you to eat less, but, there it is. Maybe they mean more like Pam and M eat??? (((grins)))

    Here is a link that might be useful: see number 3 under

  • 17 years ago

    Same every morning -- cappuchino froma Mr. Coffee with skim milk, artificial sweetener; about 1/3 cup oj; English muffin, toasted, with my salade de thon piquant a la creole, namely, tuna mixed with olive salad, minced scallion, a lot of dijon mustard, a touch of mayonaise and some Louisiana Hot Sauce.

  • 17 years ago

    My uncle and I had breakfast at a restaurant at the Minneapolis airport, where we both had a two-hour layover on our way back to our respective cities from my uncle's and his brother's funeral. I had chorizo con huevos and he had huevos con queso. This might be the longest, un-interrupted, one-on-one conversation I've ever had with my uncle, who now lives in Dallas. I am grateful for having had the layover.

    Calliope, up until a couple months ago, I could have sent you a spare grouse. (Not that you're not perfectly capable of getting your own!) My dad's bird dog, who will fetch any other game bird with textbook precision, will not put a grouse in his mouth. Either Izzy or my brother's dog needs to retrieve those.

    My paternal grandma used to cook like the description in your post. She and my grandpa had 11 kids and at times other relatives lived with them... and a lot of other people just "happened" to show up around dinner time. Her ingredients were not gourmet, but her cooking was top-notch. They lived in a 900 sf 3-bed 1-bath house, but she cooked for an army, and usually made veggies three different ways to accommodate picky eaters. They were dirt poor, but ate like kings. There were never leftovers.

  • 17 years ago

    Not having a dog anymore, I usually end up eating the small leftovers from the evening before. Today it was carrots and beans, a scrambled egg and a thin 2x4" slice of turkey breast. If I don't have any leftovers, it's oatmeal and some fruit and always tea.
    What I would prefere is a good old German breakfast, fresh, still warm hard rolls, butter, jam and or cold cuts.

  • 17 years ago

    Pop Tarts and chocolate milk. I know, I know. It's better than nothing.

    I have nothing against a good breakfast, but the thing is I don't want it the first thing in the moring. I have been known to have breakfast for lunch, and even supper, on occasion.

  • 17 years ago

    First thing is a mug o' very milky tea. I cut out the sugar a few months ago. Just ain't the same. Crunchy p-nut butter on multi grain bread eaten in car as drive to work. I always have crumbs on me when I walk into the office. Then it is my first cup of coffee. My staff gets to work a 1/2 hour before me and always has the coffee made. She never has to worry about getting fired.

  • 17 years ago

    Pretty standard breakfast. Half grapefruit, bowl of oatmeal. Yes, there is cream on it. 2 cups of strong tea and an English muffin with jam. This morning I sneaked one of Leone's oatmeal cookies to, they are healthful, they have oatmeal in them

  • 17 years ago

    Two cups of coffee/two toaster strudel without the glaze--the coffee while I check the news online, the strudel while I am throwing myself together for work. I love the strudel and probably prefer it to the eggs, biscuits and sausage that is our usual Saturday fare.

  • 17 years ago

    No breakfast consistency here. Yesterday, nothing. And I'm out of chicory coffee, my most consistent breakfast treat. For the past couple of weeks, I've been rationing out to myself some really nice fresh-laid eggs from the Madison farmers market. I haven't found any local ones anywhere near as good. Otherwise, I usually eat leftovers or toast. Maybe today I'll whip up a banana-and-skim smoothie.

    Neil--olive salad? Do you have a local source for the real stuff (meaning something along the lines of what they use at Central Grocery)? I've been hoarding my last jar of NOLA-bought stuff.

  • 17 years ago

    About olive salad --

    Hyde Park Produce sells something called "Yo Yo's Olives" that includes hot pickled celery and peppers and other odds and ends. I use that, chopped up, when I've got it.

    Otherwise, I just chop up regular pimento-stuffed olives or use salad olives and then maybe liven things up with some chopped gardiniera. If I happen to have some pickled watermelon rind, I'll chop up a few pieces and throw that in.

    I've tried making it with Zatarain's Creole Mustard, and it works fairly well but you need to increase the hot sauce to maintain the bite.

  • 17 years ago

    King syrup on oatmeal pancake (already made up, so just popped the frozen disk into the microwave); apple cider. The syrup made it sorta high calorie, but the rest is healthy enough. Glass of skim milk.

    I think the size of the breakfast is directly related to the usual physical activity of the consumer. Back when I got up at 0430 to bike-deliver papers over a 5 mile route, I probably tucked in a couple thousand calories via pancakes, eggs, bacon and several pieces of jelly-topped toast. But that was followed by a full school day, a couple hours doing yard and garden work, an hour to fix dinner and make breads and desserts, cleaning house the old fashioned way - no vacuum or steamer; then babysitting and homework. No car, so transportation was shank's mare or bike. Oh yes, and I played baseball with the neighbor kids a couple times a week and eventually took up other sports at school which involved biking 8 miles to/from the school.

  • 17 years ago

    I think you're spot on with it relating to one's activity level meldy, as I have to think ahead when I am remodeling and eat well the night before and then stock up in the morning too. Forget either one and I am waning come midday.

  • 17 years ago

    For me it definitely has to do with what my activities are.
    Most days I have walked 4 miles before breakfast. If I don't walk I usually have a cup of tea and 2 to 3 hours later eat something.

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