In 1918 and 1919 thirty-seven young women, friends and neighbors of my grandmother Fannie Mae Turner were members of the Edelweiss Club in Montgomery, Alabama. These are snapshots from their lives, place and times.
Click any image to enlarge
Today we are going back to delicious luncheons. On January 3, 1919, Alberta Boykin , who I wrote about in depth in 2021, entertained the Edelweiss Club at the home of her sister. A delicious two course luncheon was served. I have chosen to start with a combination salad and finish with a Sunshine Cake. Which as you can see in the picture above, is a delightful YELLOW.
Article from Dec 25, 1919 The Montgomery Times (Montgomery, Alabama)
A Combination Salad
Take two apples, two peppers, two onions a ripe tomato, a bunch of celery, and some crisp lettuce leaves. Cut the celery into small pieces and mix them with the following dressing: Pour a beaten egg into a small saucepan, add one-half cupful of vinegar, one-half cupful of milk or cream, one table-spoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir and cook until thick, then cool and pour over the vegetables. Chill and serve on the lettuce leaves.
Sunshine Cake. Beat six egg whites until stiff. Boll together a cupful of sugar and a quarter of a cupful of water until it hairs, pour over the whites, beat well and cool. Then beat the yolks of the eggs, add to the whites and a cupful of pastry flour sifted with a teaspoonful of cream of tartar and a pinch of salt, flavor and bake slowly for 40 to 60 minutes. Cover with frosting when cool.”
I love those old recipes — and that salad sounds good! I have a bunch of old recipes of my grandmother’s, and they mention ingredients we can’t find in the 21st Century. I enjoyed your wonderful blog post!
Thank you! Wonder what those ingredients are?
That is a bright yellow cake for sure. The creamy-vinegar salad dressing sounds especially yummy, if you can keep the milk from curdling.
Yes, that is one yellow cake. That’s what made it perfect for Y is for yellow. 🙂
I am loving these old recipes! I always marvel at the “slow” versus “fast” ovens that are often called for. You’d have to be a good baker to learn what that meant and how to turn out a perfect cake.
And know your stove.
Thank you for the link to hairs. I had not read the term before.
The cake is indeed sunshine yellow and would cheer up any table.
I hadn’t either. I wonder if the cake was actually that yellow, but it’s perfect for this post.
That’s quite a salad dressing!
Wonder if I should try it.
Come on–that is surely colorized?! It does look tempting and I do like the sound of it, although I would have to cut the sugar way down, and then it might not be enough to “hair”.
The salad dressing sounds interesting, but celery seems like a key ingredient and I can’t eat the stuff.
I wish our papers today would carry notices of social gatherings like those of the Edelweiss Club. I wonder if they sent in the copy themselves with all their names listed? I’m remembering that you and your children used to write and publish a family newspaper. Did you write up parties and visits from friends and family?
I’m sure it is a bit exaggerated, but it’s a painting and not a photo. We would cut down the sugar too.
I think they did send in their own article with the names listed. I know that in the Baldwin Newspaper, our local paper when we lived in Idlewild, MI, did have regular columns by local people who would ask people about their trips, their gatherings etc and name names.
We did write up parties and visits and births and deaths in the Ruff Draft. I was looking through old copies lately and came across a recipe for apple cream cheese cake that my then ten year old son “invented” and wrote up for the Ruff Draft. Hmmm maybe next year, if I do it again I could do 26 articles from the Ruff Draft.
I followed the link for “until it hairs,” but could not find “hairs” on the linked page. Did another search and found out what it was. I’m just not a candy-maker. Old recipes are the best.
It said “threads” on the linked page. I believe that is the same as “Hair”. That is a thin strand. I like old recipes too.
I’m a little dubious about the combination salad, but I’d certainly be curious to give it a try. Thanks for sharing these recipes. It’s fun to see how different they are from what we’d make today.
I was a bit dubious about the way these two recipes were written up, sort of all jumbled together. But maybe they’re tasty. 🙂