Recipes From 1831: Black Pudding Anyone?

 

EWGS Member Lynn Krogh shared some "delightful" recipes with me that she gleaned from a cookbook titled A Virginia Housewife, compiled in 1831. 

Black Pudding: Catch the blood as it runs from the hog, stir it continually till cold to prevent its coagulating; when cold thicken it with boiled rice or oatmeal, add leaf fat chopped small, pepper, salt, and any herbs that are liked. Fill the skins and smoke them two or three days; they must be boiled before they are hung up, and prick them with a fork to keep them from bursting.  

Maybe Yankee Cake would be more to your liking:  Dry half a pound of good brown sugar, pound it and mix it with two pounds of flour, and sift it. Add two spoonsful of yeast and as much new milk as as will make it like bread. When well risen, knead in half a pound of butter and make it in cakes the size of a half dollar and fry them a light brown in boiling lard. 

Or Broiled Eels?  "Clean the eels and cut off their heads and dry them. Rub them with the yolk of an egg strew over them bread crumbs mixed with chopped parsley, sage, pepper and salt. Baste them well with butter and set them in a dripping pan. Serve them up with parsley and butter for sauce.