Opal Haines Recipes

The recipes this week came from a collection belonging to Opal Haines. I found them in a cookbook that had been donated to the Rosebud County Museum from Opal’s granddaughter Vickie Kraus. Cookbooks, like this one, that are handwritten are usually filled with family favorites but most of the older recipes that were hand written assumed you knew how to cook and what “slow oven” meant.

Cornflake Cookies

Whites of 4 eggs well beaten, 1 cup sugar sifted twice. Beat into the whites of eggs, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup chopped nuts and 4 cups cornflakes. Mix well and drop on buttered tins and bake in a very slow oven until golden brown.

Apple Sauce Cake

1 1/2 c. apple sauce
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter or lard
1 egg
2 c. flour
1/2 c. nuts cut in pieces
1 c. raisins
1 t. each soda and cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. vanilla
Bake in slow oven 45 min.
(Note: Berries or any other kind of sauce may be used.)

Ginger Cookies (Marjorie Cole)

2 eggs
1 c. molasses
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. lard
1 c. buttermilk
1 t. ginger
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. soda dissolved in milk
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
flour enough to make a soft dough. Drop 1 T. batter on pan and cook quickly.

German Cookies

4 c. brown sugar
1 c. lard and butter
4 eggs (mix 1 at a time)
6 cups of flour
1 T. soda
1 T. cream of tartar in flour
1 T. vanilla
Mix at night. Roll up like bologna and cut up in morning.

Pimento Cheese

Cook:
1 cup sweet milk
1 T. flour
1 t. salt
a dash of cayenne
1/2 lbs cream cheese
over hot water until very thick.
Add:
1 c. pimento cut in pieces.
Let cool.

Scotch Shortbread

2 c. sifted flour
1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. powdered sugar
Sift flour once and measure. Cream butter and sugar. Work in flour with fingers. Press into pan. Bake in moderate oven. Cool and cut into squares.

Meat Loaf

Make a soft rich biscuit dough, roll well and line dish.
Dice:
3 potatoes
3 carrots &
1 large onion
Cook until done. Add:
1 can tomatoes
Make a flat cake of ground beef on top. Fold dough over top and cook until browned and beef is done.

Spanish Buns

Cream:
3/4 c. butter
Add:
1 c. sugar
4 egg yolks
Beat thoroughly
Sift:
3 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
Add to first mixture alternately with enough thin cream to make a thick batter. (From 1/2 - 1 c.)
Beat in stiffly beaten egg whites of 4 eggs and add
1 c. currants (slightly plumped in the oven and floured.)
Bake in flat tins, cut in squares when done and eat hot with butter.

Stuffed Onions

1/2 c. ground beef
1/2 t. salt
few grains pepper
1 well beaten egg
1/2 c. bread crumbs
Stuff into cavities made in large white onions. Place in greased baking dish. Bake until tender, about 40 minutes.

Date Roll (Edith Finch)

3 c. sugar
1/2 c. white corn syrup
1/2 c. milk
1 T. butter
1/2 lb. dates
1 c. walnuts
Cook all but dates and walnuts till it forms a soft ball in cold water. Add dates cut in small pieces and cook a few seconds long. Remove from stove and add cut walnut meats.
Beat until it begins to thicken and pour on wet towel. Pour so it will be long, roll, let stand a few minutes and cut like jelly roll.

Best Ever Pickles (Leah Coate)

300 med. sized cukes
Wash and dry.
Sprinkle with:
2/3 c. salt
1/2 t. alum
Cover with boiling water. Let stand overnight. In morning remove from brine, drain and wipe dry. Place in crock.
Mix:
1/2 gal. vinegar
4 t. mustard
4 t. salt
4 T. sugar
1/2 c. mixed pickling spices
Mix well and pour over pickles. Weigh 3 lbs sugar. Place plate on top of pickles to weigh down and each morning add 1/2 c. sugar until all is used. Put sugar on plate.

Tomato Relish

1 peck ripe tomatoes
Peel and cut in pieces.
Mix with
1 c. of salt
and let stand overnight.
Drain in morning.
2 large or 3 small bunches celery
6 onions chopped fine
5 red peppers
2 oz. mustard seed
2 lbs. sugar
3 c. vinegar
Mix and seal without cooking.

Ice Water Pickles

Soak large cukes in very cold water 5 hrs. Cut lengthwise without peeling into about 5 pieces.
Pack very closely into qt. jars with 3 stalks celery and 3 slices onions.
Heat together 1 qt vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 c. water, 1/3 c. salt. Boil well, pour over pickles and seal.

Mustard Pickles

2 T. salt
3 T. sugar
1 T. mustard
small cukes
vinegar
Place cukes in jar, put in salt, sugar and mustard and fill with cold vinegar.

Cassia Bud Pickles

Cut lengthwise 75 - 2 to 3 in. cukes. Heat to boiling
4 qts water
2 cups coarse - medium salt.
Cool - pour over cukes - cover. Let stand 1 week - drain. Cover with boiling water and let stand 24 hours.
Drain - cover with boiling water. Add 1 t. powdered alum.
Let stand 24 hours - drain. Cover with hot syrup made from:
6 c. vinegar
5 c. sugar
1 oz. celery seed
1 oz. cassia buds
For 3 successive days drain off syrup, add 1 c. sugar, heat to boiling and pour over pickles (Total 8 c. sugar). On 3rd day, drain, pack in sterilized jars, pour over hot syrup, seal. Makes 14 pints.
(Cassia Buds are the unopened flowers of the cassia (cinnamon) tree that are picked just before blooming and dried in the sun.) Print this post