1 meal in this book
“Prior to the rebellion the great mass of the people were satisfied to remain near the scenes of their birth. In fact an immense majority of the whole people did not feel secure against coming to want should they move among entire strangers. So much was the country divided into small communities that localized idioms had grown up, so that you could almost tell what section a person was from by hearing him speak. Before, new territories were settled by a "class"; people who shunned contact with others; people who, when the country began to settle up around them, would push out farther from civilization. Their guns furnished meat, and the cultivation of a very limited amount of the soil, their bread and vegetables. All the streams abounded with fish. Trapping would furnish pelts to be brought into the States once a year, to pay for necessary articles which they could not raise--powder, lead, whiskey, tobacco and some store goods. Occasionally some little articles of luxury would enter into these purchases--a quarter of a pound of tea, two or three pounds of coffee, more of sugar, some playing cards, and if anything was left over of the proceeds of the sale, more whiskey.”
1 cup scalded milk ⅓ cup butter, or butter and lard ¼ cup sugar ½ teaspoon salt 1 egg ⅓ yeast cake dissolved in ¼ cup lukewarm milk ½ cup raisins stoned and cut in pieces Add butter, sugar, and salt to milk; when lukewarm, add dissolved yeast cake, egg well beaten, flour to make stiff batter, and raisins; cover, and let rise over night; in morning spread in buttered dripping-pan one-half inch thick. Cover and let rise again. Before baking, brush over with beaten egg, and cover with following mixture: Melt three tablespoons butter, add one-third cup sugar and one teaspoon cinnamon. When sugar is partially melted, add three tablespoons flour.
Recipe from The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896.
Sources: Every passage above is quoted verbatim from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipes come from cookbooks of the period, also free in full. All are in the public domain in the United States. The binding is ours — oxblood cloth, teapot stamp.