I got this little book for free on my Kindle and had a wonderful time reading it over the weekend. It was written in the early 1800′s and is certainly not intended as an actual resource. In fact, if people actually used some of the home remedies it would go a long way toward towards explaining why people died so young. That being said, there were a lot of gems in it and I would recommend that you pick up a copy if you can find it.
I try not to waste food but I have nothing on these folk. When you read that the pigs head is done when the eyeballs fall out you know you’re in an entirely different league. Most kids I know don’t want to east the crusts on their bread and these ids ate scrambled brains. I was struck how, in very old fashoined language, she extoles the virtues of doing the same things we talk about here. Buying in bulk, making from scratch, wasting nothing and teaching your children skills are all things we know are important. It was also a bit funny to read her critisims of youth. Some things just never change.
I had a really busy weekend. In one day I had a Chrsitmas gift bag sew, a craft fair, a church pot luck and an art opening to atttend. Fortunately, everything happened in one place ( at the community house) and it’s acroos the street from my house. I so love a walkable community. I’m out the door but I’ll try to post my days of prepping later along with a a recipe and the directions from one of best sellers at the craft fair.
December 12, 2011 at 8:57 am
I love those old housewife books! They are a great glimpse at what life was like, but as you say, a reminder that somethings never change!
December 12, 2011 at 10:55 am
Actually alot of meat on a pigs head….dear BIL taught us how to make head cheese from scraps. Amexican friend also made us home made tamales from the meat. First (and last time–a huge job!) we home butchered a hog we dropped the pigs heads in the scalding water….still have a picture in my album of our Great Dane carrying around her prize cooked head!!!
December 12, 2011 at 12:20 pm
I wasn’t thinking pig brains last night, but while at the store I saw one of those things you can push down over a PB&J to make a heart or dinosaur shape out of the sandwich, and of course cut the crust off at the same time – and was thinking the same thing, that kids in other places and times would never dream of turning up their noses at the crusts.
I’m really into eliminating waste, but I have to admit, brains are in my “compost isn’t really waste” category. At least for now.
December 12, 2011 at 9:16 pm
I have to admit being in the same boat as EK – if it goes into the chickens, goats, or dogs, it wasn’t wasted. However, I guiltily admit to having some exceptionally well-fed chickens…
December 13, 2011 at 2:46 am
For anyone without a kindle, American Frugal Housewife is free as an ebook as part of the gutenberg project here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1491831
Brawn (head cheese) is actually delicious, as is the cheek meat roasted. If you ask your butcher to split the head in half, it’s not difficult to make, but does need to be done over a few days.
Last time I made it I ended up with 2 dishes of brawn, to be sliced and eaten cold in sandwiches or fried and eaten with mashed root vegetables or jacket potatoes; a bowl of lard that I rendered from the fat I didn’t include and some happy dogs and cats because they got the bits I didn’t include, like the eyes, the only bit I find difficult. I cheat and cut out a small square around them so I don’t have to deal with them! I add the brains too, but many save them and eat them on toast separately.
Because I get my head (and trotters) from my lovely regular butcher, they’re free, but even if you have to pay it won’t be much, making it very frugal indeed!
I know I am fortunate in what my children will eat. They’ve never turned their noses up at crusts (they even ask to eat the crust/knobbly/heel of fresh bread) and don’t balk at a roasted pigs head on the table for tea! What does make me despair is to watch the 6 year olds who I supervise at school dinners leave the edges of the sandwiches that their mothers have already de-crusted! They say the edges are too dry, so mum would be better saving her time and letting them eat up to the crust, if that’s what they’re going to do
They do all eat shop bought ready sliced bread though, not even what the supermarkets sell as ‘real’ bread. Maybe if their bread was tastier they’d eat more of it.
December 13, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Thanks for the link, Hazel!
December 13, 2011 at 3:20 pm
“Maybe if their bread was tastier they’d eat more of it.” – That is the truth! I don’t cut crusts off for my daughter but she does tend to leave them uneaten. However, bread that I make or buy artisan-made gets eaten (by the whole family) to the last scrap.
Cheek meat sounds fine to me, but I’m still not up for the brains yet. Are brains typically eaten by carnivores?