Historic Hood River
Grandma’s Holiday Recipes
Notes
This one comes just in time for Thanksgiving, and with a little story. These pages are from the official ledger of School Districts No. 5 and No. 18 in the Hood River valley from 1884-1896. John Hinrichs was the board chairman. Apparently some years later his daughter Lenora Belle Hinrichs (Larson) re-purposed the ledger to record recipes given to her by women all around the valley. It goes on for several pages, full of comfort food and desserts.
There are some dated items tucked in the ledger from 1922 and 1923. The recipes use Crisco, which was introduced in 1911.
These recipes in this book are from a “who’s who” of old Hood River valley family names. I suspect you will find many of Grandma’s special holiday dishes in here, so I’ve scanned the entire set of recipes for download. If you try any of the recipes please let us know if they work. Of course, I don’t recommend following her canning instructions.
You may want to check out the prohibition era recipe for homemade wine.
I think I’ll try the applesauce cake for Thanksgiving.
L.E.
I think I will try the Lemon Sponge Pie.
What a treat!! Our local community group is in the process of publishing a cookbook and we tried to include some of the older community recipes. I don’t think we had any this old. Interesting how long Crisco has been around.
Thanks for the download. How sad that since there is a push to no longer teach cursive writing, there will be a generation of young folk who won’t be able to read Grandma’s recipes.
Charlott
Dill Pickles by Mrs. Mack. Mrs. Mack was Emma Jampsa Brosi/Mack who was my great-great aunt by marriage. Her husband was Fred Mack and they resided in Pine Grove. She had married Otto Brosi and moved with her extended family from North Dakota. He soon died leaving her with a little daughter Helen. She later married my Uncle Fred. She was related to a lot of the Hukari and Annala family also.
Jill Stanfprd
I’m going to give the Fruitcake a whirl! This ledger is simply fascinating!
nels
So where are the rest of the recipes stored? I love reading thee old collections.
L.E.
Arlen? Buzz? Kenn?
What recipe will you be trying?
Arthur
nels, just click on the "download" link in the "Notes" section and you’ll see the whole set of recipes.
L.E.
I made the Lemon Sponge Pie. It was OK, but I prefer today’s lemon filling out of a box. I like the texture better. This definitely was more of a souffle texture.
I had not told my family that this was an old recipe, so it was interesting when my daughter in law said…."Oh my Grandma would have loved this."
Evidently that was how her grandmother made lemon pie.
Steve Marschman
So, I made Mrs. Price’s Apple Spice Cake. Wish I could share a picture of the outcome as the results are very nice, yielding a perfect cake for Christmas. I used my cinnamon applesauce made from transparent apples off my tree (short ripening season here in eastern Idaho). Currants are a little hard to find, but Sunkist still produces them (check Winco if you have one). I substituted pecans for walnuts as I like a milder flavor. I baked at 350F for over 1 hour using the toothpick check method. I suppose many readers won’t be that impressed with my effort, but it was fun to connect with the past. The taste? Heavenly!