In the smaller bowl, beat the egg; stir in the milk and baking soda. In the larger bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and cream of tartar. Work in the remaining butter with your fingertips until the mixture is uniformly coarse. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry mixture until all is moist. Stir in the blueberries last with a few strokes, taking care not to crush the berries. Pour the blueberry batter into the prepared mold or can and cover tightly. Set the container in the kettle and fill the kettle two-thirds full with boiling water. Cover and simmer for 1½ hours or longer. As long as there is plenty of water in the kettle, there is little danger that the pudding will overcook. Unmold the finished pudding on a platter and serve with the sauce.
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Sauce For Blueberry Pudding SE RV E S 6
77
made—that was once as well known in this country as it is today in the Middle East. By now it has been so thoroughly replaced by vanilla in American cooking that it is difficult to find, and you can use lemon juice instead.
1 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons rose water
Pinch of salt
1-quart saucepan
Simmer the sugar with 2 cups of water until it begins to thicken into a syrup, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients. Serve warm in a pitcher.
Food s f rom t he Wood s, Wi ld s, a nd Wat er s
This light sauce is unusual in containing rose water, a flavoring—frequently home-
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Pumpkin Pie M A K E S 1 PI E ; SE RV E S 6 TO 8
Pumpkin pie was part of every special dinner in the “Little House” series, whether for threshers, for a social or fair, or for a holiday celebration. Unlike English pies, made with slices of pumpkin and apples, American pumpkin pies have always used stewed pumpkin, made into a custard with milk and eggs. The traditional flavorings—cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves—can be bought as “pumpkin pie spice.” The richness depended on the cook’s resources: a standard recipe (for an unspecified number of pies), passed on from colonial times, called for three pints of heavy cream and nine eggs! The recipe here is for pumpkin pie as it may have been made in the Big Woods, with fewer eggs and with brown sugar and maple flavoring standing in for Ma’s maple sugar. 166
T he L it t le Hou se Cookbook
2 cups Stewed Pumpkin (page XXX)
Pinch of salt
Common Family Paste for Pies (page XX)
1 teaspoon maple extract
2 eggs ⁄3 cup packed brown sugar
2
Pinch each of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger 9-inch pie pan; 3-quart bowl
1¼ cups whole milk or half-and-half
Prepare the stewed pumpkin according to the recipe. Prepare Common Family Paste for Pies and line a buttered pie pan with it. Preheat the oven to 425°F. In the bowl, beat the eggs well, then beat in the brown sugar, milk, salt, maple extract, spices, and pumpkin. Pour this into the pie shell and place it on the center oven rack to bake at 425°F for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F and continue to bake until the crust is brown and the pumpkin custard is firm; a knife inserted should come out clean and dry. This will take about 40 minutes in all. Cool but do not chill before serving.
PICKLES AND PICKLE MAKING Pickles have always had a special place on the table; even in today’s varied diet they seem a treat.
188
In Laura’s youth they brought bright color,
Luckily Ma Ingalls lived during the
crisp texture, and tangy flavor to win-
canning revolution; she was able to seal her
ter meals of mashed and stewed potatoes,
pickles in newly invented glass jars that kept
squash, beans, and meat. Preserved cucum-
them from becoming too strong or spoiling.
bers or “green pickles” were often the only
She used a combination of old-fashioned
touch of green on the table from October
brining and “open-kettle” canning that is
to May.
still used today. Her green tomato pickles omitted the brining step entirely; they
Wilder table. They were also part of the
were fully cooked, just like preserves. So
maple sugaring festivities in the Big Woods
were Mother Wilder’s beet pickles. Mother
of Wisconsin. But not until the Ingallses
Wilder also made pickles of watermelon
finally settled on the Dakota claim did Ma
rind. In these days of watermelon bred with
again have the garden vegetables, the vin-
thin skins, recipes for this old favorite are
egar, and the containers to make her own.
more abundant than the prime ingredient.
Pickles are vegetables preserved in an
What about pickling ingredients? The
acid solution strong enough to kill bacteria
salt was not—and should not be—“iodized”
that cause spoiling. The oldest kind needed
like modern table salt. Kosher salt is a good
no container but a wooden barrel, where
home substitute for coarse “pickling salt.”
fresh cucumbers were put at harvest time
The water was rain, well, or spring water,
in a mix of water, salt, vinegar, and spices
not the chlorinated water of modern city
called a brine. Kept submerged with a stone
systems. City water can’t spoil your pick-
and stored in a cool cellar, the cucumbers
ling efforts, but some say it affects the taste.
fermented, gradually becoming stronger in
As for vinegar, housewives in Laura’s
flavor. Fetching pickles from cold brine in
youth were urged to make their own and not
a dark cellar is a childhood memory rarely
rely on a store product that might turn out to
forgotten by those who did it.
be weak sulfuric acid. Protected against such
Co n t i n u e s
189
Food s f rom Ga rden s a nd Orc h a rd s
T he L it t le Hou se Cookbook
Pickles belonged to the bounty of the
1 cup butter, plus 1 teaspoon for pans
10 egg whites
2 cups granulated sugar
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 (10-inch) milk pan and 1 (8-inch) milk pan, or 2 (9-inch) round cake pans; 6-quart bowl; 16-inch oval platter; 2-quart bowl
½ teaspoon lemon extract 1⅓ cups whole milk
Pinch of salt
At least an hour before starting set out all the ingredients to warm to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter the cake pans. In the larger bowl, cream the butter with a wooden spoon until fluffy. Using the back of the spoon, blend in the sugar until the mixture is no longer grainy. This will be hard work, best done at arm’s length or in the lap. Add the baking soda and almond and lemon extracts to milk and beat them into the butter-sugar blend. Place the egg whites on platter, add the salt, and beat 270
them by tracing circles in the air that catch the whites at the bottom. Beat until they are too stiff to slip when you tilt the platter. This will take about 10 minutes.
T he L it t le Hou se Cookbook
In the smaller bowl, sift together the flour and cream of tartar. Sift a second time. Fold the flour into the sugar-butter mixture a large spoonful at a time, alternating with a spoonful of egg whites. Continue until the ingredients are blended. Divide the batter between the buttered cake pans and bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until the cakes begin to pull away from the pan edges. Cool the cake layers in pans 10 minutes before turning them out on clean clothes to cool further. Meanwhile make Sugar Frosting (recipe follows). Apply it according to directions. The yolks remaining from cake and frosting recipes can be used for scrambled eggs.