Great Spice Blends Created Nearly 100 Years Apart Easily Enhance Meats and Vegetables

Spices blend following an 1857 recipe

pepper, dry mustard, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg

When we were doing research into recipes from the 1850s, 60's and 70s, we encountered a number of articles in cookbooks, and farming or women's magazines of the day offering up spice blends. These home concocted mixes of seasonings are often a fusion of herb and spice. Some featured dried herbs as well as ground spices. All of them lend a delicious difference to pots of soup, sauces, or as with the spice blend below to "forcemeats and gravy."

A forcement is a kind of small meatball with crumbs of buttered bread bound together with beaten egg. Victorian soups weren't complete unless they had a couple of forcemeat balls leading a savory spiciness to rich broth.  Well, here at Potluck Paradise headquarters we're not often into dusting off the soup tureen, but we have found that forcemeat makes a nice stuffing for broiled mushroom caps or they are quite tasty by themselves as a small appetizer meatball.

When we were studying kitchens and homemaking during the 1950s, we found other kinds of blends to dress up cooked vegetables. Here, busy cooks seeking to add a bit of elegance to fresh or canned vegetables could toss the pound of carrots with a quarter of a cup of mint jelly. Or they could cook up this compound butter to toss with green beans, asparagus, or other green vegetable.  Once made, it is easy to keep on hand in the refrigerator for a couple of days or in the freezer for weeks. Freeze it in a flat container and then you can easily slice off a gold and green "bar" to toss into the drained vegetables.

1857 Herb Blend for Forcemeat and Gravy

1/2 cup ground black pepper
1/4 cup ground ginger
1/4 cup ground nutmeg
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1/8 cup cloves

Mix the spices in a container and store in a dry place. When ready to use add a half teaspoon to a cup of gravy. For making meatballs with a pound of meat, start with 1/2 teaspoon for mild and 1 teaspoon for strong flavor.

1950s Herb Butter Blend

1 stick butter
1/4 cup minced celery
3/4 cup minced onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried basel
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Melt the butter in a medium frying pan. Add the celery and onion and cook about five minutes until the onion is transparent. Add the remaining ingredients, lower heat and cover. Cook for ten minutes, stirring from time to time.  Store in refrigerator of freezer. Use about a tablespoon to a serving of vegetables.