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Colonial America: Curry, Potato and Mushroom Recipes

© Pat Williams

While many meal preparations during the 1800's are somewhat familiar to the 21st century kitchen, there are a few recipes that are amusing or surprising. Two of these are included with this week's selections. Try them and give your taste buds an exciting treat.

Based on recipes from Peterson's, September 1863.

Potato Biscuits

• Grate half a dozen potatoes
• Add one quart of water
• Put in one cup of hop yeast at night, and in the morning,
• When light, add three tablespoonfuls of sugar, and flour to form a dough
• Let it rise; when light, put it in tins
• Let it rise again, and bake for half an hour. 

Potato Puree

• Roast six large potatoes
• Make a hole in the top of each
• Wen well roasted, scoop all the insides into a bowl
• Mash them well with a little boiled milk or cream
• Add salt, cayenne, and an egg, well beaten all together
• Put the mixture again carefully into the hole of each potato skin
• Bake them twenty minutes
• Serve up on a dish with a napkin covering them all over, very hot 

Broiled Mushrooms

• The largest mushrooms are the best.
• Have a clear cinder fire and make the gridiron hot
• Rub the bars with suet to prevent the mushrooms from sticking
• Place them also on the gridiron with their stalks upward
• Sprinkle them slighty with salt and a good shake of pepper
• Serve them on a hot dish, with a little cold butter under and over them.
• When they begin to steam they are sufficiently done.  

Fricassee Mushrooms

• Peel the mushrooms [mainly scrubbed clean], which should be large
• Broil them on a gridiron
• When the outside is brown, put them into a stewpan with a little milk
• When they have stewed ten minutes, add a spoonful of white wine and the same of browning
• Thicken it with butter and flour and serve it up garnished with sippets.

[Sippets; same as Sop: Anything steeped or dipped and softened in liquor, but chiefly something thus dipped in broth or liquid food, and intended to be eaten; Webster's, 1855. A hearty crusty bread would enrich this dish. 

Curry Powder

• One ounce of ginger and the same of coriander-seed
• Half ounce of cayenne pepper
• Two ounces of fine pale turmeric;
• These ingredients to be pounded separately to a fine powder
• Warm by the fire and mix together

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