After making the fudge recipe, I thought I’d delve a little more into the background on the “Favorite Receipt Book and Business Directory,” published in 1884 by the Ladies Aid Society of the Church of the Holy Comforter.
Unlike other charity cookbooks, this one doesn’t even name any of the women who might be involved in compiling it. The book doesn’t say what cause the book is benefitting, only that the money “is to be used for a benevolent purpose.” The introduction also gives a blanket endorsement to every single advertiser within the book, promising that they all sell “the best articles and at the most satisfactory prices,” and that “We” (presumably meaning members of the society), “have tested many of them ourselves and know whereof we speak.”
The first part of the book contains a lot of bossy advice about social graces and housekeeping. It turns out that that section has been lifted verbatim from the 1877 “Home Cook Book” by the Ladies of Toronto.
The Church of the Holy Comforter was established at Pratt & Chester Streets in 1876. (For a few years before that, the congregation had been meeting in another church.)
The Ladies Aid Society of the Church of the Holy Comforter appears to have been very on trend. In 1879 they held a Strawberry Festival – very popular for the time. Then, of course, there was this cookbook. In 1886 they started a Temperance Society. Maybe that’s what the book was raising money for and why they were so cryptic about it.
By far the most interesting thing about this book, however, is all of those advertisements. They give a great sense of the many types of specialized retail all over Baltimore at the turn of the century. Ice sales was a big one, which makes sense. There’s also multiple advertisements for places selling mattresses stuffed with husk and hair. Fire insurance is well represented. 10 years after the publication of this book, many customers doubtless cashed in.
Baltimore citizens had to go to a specialty store to buy an umbrella, lace, or “a gentleman’s two button walking glove.” Yet a store selling jewelry also sells trunks and cutlery. An advertisement for Stieff pianos is one of the most elaborately rendered. An ad for “Hutzler Bbothers One Price House” on Howard Street is simple text. The typo is real.
I made a rice pudding recipe from this book. Unlike many of the other recipes, it does not appear to be copied from the Canadian cookbook, but then again this is barely a recipe.
For what it’s worth, the famous fudge recipe is also original, or at least copied from somewhere less obvious. If you think about it one way, you could blame prohibition on fudge. That makes it seem a little less sweet now doesn’t it?
Recipe:
- 1 Cup rice
- 2 Quart milk
- 8 Tablespoon sugar
- a little salt
One cup of rice, two quarts of milk, eight tablespoonfuls of sugar, a little salt. Soak the rice in a pint of the milk two hours, add the other ingredients, and bake two hours slowly.
