This is one of several dozen (hundred?) recipes that were stuck (literally stuck, probably with flour-and-water paste) in a couple of books rescued from my grandmother’s kitchen. These books appear to have been compiled by Mrs. L, the woman who used to live in the house between my grandmother’s home and my great-grandmother’s. She had been a cook at the local high school, and apparently cooking was her hobby as well as her career.
There were two books with recipes collected from newspapers, magazines and various labels and cards from companies promoting their products (so far, I don’t think we have found all the recipe book yet) in the box we went through this weekend. One was mostly dessert and sweet recipes, the other savory dishes and meats. One book was originally a household budget book (the spaces between recipes show a tantalizing view of what was expected for households in the 1930s), the other was an old magazine that had been cut down and reused. Thrift was definitely one of her generation’s hallmarks!
So this recipe seems much like the one my mother used when we were children. I will try to make it later this week, and we’ll give it the “taste test.” I believe it was published in 1940, based on a snippet of text on the back, announcing Professor Harold W Thompson’s appearance and speeches at some event in Otsego County, New York. A quick google search indicates that he was at the Sesquicentennial celebrations Aug 29- Sept 1, 1940 to honor James Fenimore Cooper… No idea which east-coast paper this may be from, however.
Hot Cinnamon Rolls
1 cup milk (scalded)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fat
1 yeast cake
1/4 cup warm water
3 to 4 cups general purpose flour
Melted butter
granulated sugar
Cinnamon
Scald milk and add to it the sugar, salt, and fat. Cool until luke-warm and add yeast which has been softened in the warm water. Add a sufficient amount of flour to enable handling as a dough. Knead thoroughly, and allow dough to rise until it doubles in volume. Knead lightly, and allow the dough to double in bulk a second time. Then knead lightly and roll dough into a sheet — 1/2 inch thick. Spread with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and granulated sugar. Roll like a jelly roll and cut in slices one inch thick. Place on a well-greased baking sheet and allow to rise until light. Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees) approximately 20 minutes. This basic recipe may be used to make any kind of coffee cake or sweet roll.
Some things I note: The recipe calls for “fat” which I assume could have been the lard a thrifty housewife saved from a roast, I will substitute a non-hydrogenated shortening. Yeast isn’t generally sold in cakes any more, but one tablespoon of refrigerated yeast would probably work (I’ll let you know). Some modern recipes eliminate the scalded milk — scalding was to help make sure bacteria weren’t growing in milk — so this recipe is also before pasteurization was common. We use soy milk, so I will just warm it up a bit to help the yeast work sooner.
Another historical note. The magazine that some of the recipes were pasted in was from November 1941 — BEFORE Pearl Harbor. And yet, there were any number of advertisements of a highly patriotic nature: buy government bonds to support the military, Lincoln urging citizens to do something-or-another. And yet the country was obviously in a period of prosperity, and other ads are for toothpaste to control bad breath as well as whiten teeth, the best new car batteries, and other very domestic, simple things. Some of the recipes Mrs L collected were obviously pre-war, based on abundance (sugar, butter and fat were restricted during the second world war). Others, from during or after the war, because ingredients changed and the whole “flavor” of recipes changed.
I think, looking at Mrs L’s recipes and the books from my grandmother and great-grandmother are going to be a wonderful look at history through the eyes of housewives. I hope that helping me make these things, and tasting them, the children will begin to understand some of our family history as well. How does our food reflect our lives, our realities? What does our food say about us?
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