Submitted by JayhawkInMaine t3_ya6fo9 in Maine
New to Maine & I bought a house that’s 190 years old. As a fun thing to do with the kids, I’d like to recreate some old traditional Maine recipes on the wood cook stove.
We did something similar when we moved to GA 10 years ago & the kids had a lot of fun. Would love to try it here also.
Anyone have any you’re willing to share?
You’re thinking of sugar on snow. You need to heat the syrup to almost carmalizing then put it on the snow.
you can do it with maple syrup too, mom and I used to make them in the freezer when I was little. They don't hold up at room temp though so it's more a novelty.
the key is it’s not maple syrup, you have to keep boiling the maple past syrup stage but stop short of burning it or crystallizing.
Gotcha. I’m just operating off little kid memories, so I’m sure you’re right.
haha i’m just talking like i know things anyway. your memory’s as good as mine i’m sure
We do it every year at easter. You're right, you have to heat the syrup til it's just boiling and then pour it in strips on the snow. Peel eat and enjoy!
Pickles and doughnuts and sugar on snow
It is with maple syrup. I used to have this at my granparents house in northern vt. and they and their old neighbors called it sugar on snow.
This is described in detail in Little House In the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
When I was growing up, the local farm did maple sugar snow for Maple Sunday every year. It didn't solidify on top, but was more like a snow-cone. Super yummy as well!
If traditional recipes are anything like what I grew up with.. it would be boil the food to death, and add salt and butter.
Salt? What is this you speak of?
Not sure if it's a traditional thing but my grandmother often makes New England Boiled Dinner. It's just a slab of beef, carrots, potatoes, turnips, and cabbage boiled literally all day. A whole stock pot and she probably adds like a teaspoon of salt. I don't understand why they all love it...
It’s an Irish thing if I’m not mistaken, but I’d never heard of it til I moved to Maine… boiled dinner…
An Irish blood who transplanted in Maine, maine was the first time I had heard the term boiled dinner
Boiled dinnah
My family made this with corned beef. I think before refrigeration was common they used salt preserved beef. So no extra salt needed.
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Or cook the Thanksgiving turkey for 15 hours
Like the one in christmas vacation where it splits open the second the knife touches it?
Sounds like a pork pie!
You must be eating the wrong pork pies, because usually they are the opposite of that.
I have heavily modified the recipe.
Make ployes, you will not be disappointed.
Edit: could have said disapployented
yes ployes! was going to suggest and they beat me to it. acadian crepes, can do anything with them
Nice, thanks! Have never heard of these before now. What’s your favorite way to eat them?
They are amazingly versatile. Add syrup or other sweet things for a pancake-ish experience, or eat them alongside savory things sort of like injera bread. You can put on butter, jam, gravy, really anything.
With baked beans and maple syrup.
Spread some butter on the warm ployes, sprinkle some brown sugar on top, and then dip them in some maple syrup
Eat them like bread during a meal. My grandmother liked to spread mustard or creton (pork spread sort of like head cheese…Hannafords sells it in the deli).
Ployes are so versatile 😍 I grew up eating them with applesauce & sour cream. You can spread the batter super thin onto a flat pan to make easy crepes.
up here, a diner outside madawaska, Dollys, serves them with everything. I guess the "signature dish" would be the chicken stew n ployes. Dont expect a traditional pancake- they're made with buckwheat.. and dont let the greenish (?) tinge to them throw ya.
Follow up: made ployes this morning. Drizzled them with a little maple syrup. So good! Thanks for the recommendation!
Glad you liked them :) they have aged very well as a foodstuff, and I'm surprised they aren't more popular with their simplicity and price.
Smelts and fiddleheads come spring
Check out historical cookbooks! Archives collect them and digitize them - here is a collection at Michigan State University, there are quite a few from the era you are looking for..not specific to Maine, but there is one from 1807 from Boston.
The Maine Women Writers Collection at UNE also has some historical cookbooks that may be from Maine- can contact them if the aren't digitized.
Thank you!
Also University of Maine has some traditional recipes (many already mentioned here) though they don’t give a ton of history. https://umaine.edu/undiscoveredmaine/category/recipes/
These look fantastic. Thanks!
If you go to your local library they have access to libraries (and consequently old cookbooks) from all over the state. Churches used to collect family recipes, bind them and sell them as fund raisers. Baked beans are the quintessential Maine food. Every family does them a little differently, but always from dried beans, which are soaked all night and then cook all day in that wood stove that’s blazing all day anyway to heat the house. Potatoes boiled with the jackets on. Finnan Haddie and red flannel hash. Can’t say I’m a fan of these but the names are worth the price of admission. With beans my Dad always had “brown bread” which came in a can.
We were still part of Massachusetts in 1807 so it works.
ha ha red hot dog go brrrrrr
That was a welcome gift from a neighbor. 3lbs of Jordan’s. So good!
Fanny Farmer cook book is a great cook book for old tymie WASP cooking.
Definitely some fantastic old times recipes in there.
I remember my mother’s old copy of this. It was (is?) held together by duct tape. My sister must have it because I certainly don’t and it’s not something one would get rid of!
Salt cod. Boil the salt out of it, rinse and repeat about 3 times then make a gravy with flour and milk and serve over Maine potatoes. By far, my favorite comfort food.
Townsends has you covered for early American recipes, unsure on Maine specific ones though.
I second this. It's a fantastic resource for cozy early American style food and stuff.
^ Agreed! They feature many recipes from NE and early Massachusetts before Maine became a state. On top of that, they produce some very wholesome content and have multiple videos with kid friendly recipes. Actually with how simple many of the recipes are, I’d say most are kid friendly anyways ha.
There’s a rare and historical cooking bookstore in Biddeford https://www.rabelaisbooks.com/ claims to have 6 centuries of cookbooks bet they’d have some Maine stuff
Nice!
And the last option would be the Maine Bicentennial cookbook https://www.maine200cookbook.com/
I’d also recommend asking at your local library, you could also search the statewide shared library as well, I love getting cookbooks from libraries to see which ones are worth buying
Welcome to Maine! What a great way to connect with the state and your home’s history. Thanks for sharing this idea! (And sorry I have no food suggestions!)
https://visitaroostook.com/blog/sugar-pie Some traditional Acadian sugar pie! Heres some history on it too if you want to read about it! https://thetakeout.com/sugar-pie-is-a-quebec-tradition-and-a-canadian-staple-1845350398 .
Thanks!
What area are you in? I have a few cookbooks from 1895 on. Or what type of meal and I will pick one?? I always loved Sunday baked beans in a real bean crock, in a wood stove.
I’m in Lincoln. Always interested in what would be considered comfort foods of the day or desserts are always good, too. Thanks!
Head to the library or the historical society in town. Those folks can take right care of you. I might suggest a type of ginger bread/cake so many different types.
I'll look through a few, pick a couple and try to photograph or scan them and PM them to you over the next few days. Great post by the way.
Thanks on all counts 🙂
Indian pudding! Cornmeal, molasses can’t remember what else. My dad also showed us how to pull taffy outside in the winter so it wouldn’t stick to your hands. Hi from Old Town.
Fresh Trout or pretty soon venison. Trout with fresh herbs and a little lemon and salt. Venison with butter. Garlic, green peppers, onions, parsley, a little thyme salt and pepper
Check out old book stores and local thrift stores; I've found all sorts of old local cookbooks that way. If you were a little closer, I suggest stopping by Washburn-Norlands Living History Center and asking questions.
Of course, the easiest thing to cook on a woodstove is stew: chunk up your meat (dredge it in flour if you're using beef), brown it slightly, add just enough liquid (broth is best but water will do), chop up some root vegetables and throw them in, and let it simmer. You can add things like corn, peas, string beans, etc later, although if you want to keep the stew thick you may need to cook them separately and then add them. Herbs and spices are whatever you want in whatever amounts you like. My own preference is to use enough liquid that I can throw in a cup of barley before setting it to simmer, but YMMV.
Thank you!
Check out “Good Maine Food” by Marjorie Mosser. It was published in 1947, but has lots of classic “old timey “ recipes from the 1800s. Believe it or not, it is still available as a paperback and can be found on Amazon (but please buy it from a local bookstore).
Better get your hunting license for this white tail season!
I have a bit of acreage with the house. Hoping to harvest on my own land this year.
Still need a permit.
You should go to Michigan State University's library site. They have been creating a historical database of American cookbooks. You should be able to refine the search for Maine and 19th Century.
Overall, it is a fantastic rabbit hole to get lost in.
I have some recipes from the very early 1900’s and on that belonged to my great great grandmother. She was born in like 1899 and lived to be 105! I could dig some of the very early ones up sometime and send some pictures. They aren’t 1800’s recipe, but very old nonetheless, and cooked by a 1800’s Maine born woman!
Oh, wow! That would be amazing. Thank you 🙏🏻
See if you can find a copy of Robert tristam coffins book. 1st edition is called "mainstays of maine" and the reprinting was renamed "maine cooking: old time secrets"
One of my favorite old regional cookbooks. Has the most legit recipe for lobster stew of all time.
Sounds like it’s right up my alley!
The guy was a poet. Its a really fun read. Things arent really in a recipe format... he just sort of writes about things and explains how to make them.
Here is the lobster stew recipe. I'm trying to read it and condense to a recipe...
Steam lobster with their backs turned downwards. After that. Pick the lobster over a bowl so you can reserve all the liquid from the lobster.
As he says "save every part part of the hot lobsters except the shells, the colon, and the stomach"
The proportion onf meat and liquid should be 50:50.
Sautee the tamale in equal quantity of butter. 7 minutes. Then add the lobster meat, blood, and juice. Cook for 10 minutes.
Gently add some cream and simmer very gently.
Cool and allow to sit for a day if you can for according to him "for every hour that passes increases the flavor, not arithmetic, but Im geometric progression"
Baked beans and brown bread steamed in a can.
What a great sub !!! I want to try everything
Cooking Down East is a classic cookbook from the 1960s. Our friend, who did her thesis on cookbook design and their influence on culture, gave it to us. Mostly the recipes are from later than you requested, but it's a great look into the food of Maine and NE.
Look up Maine recipes for: Brown bread and beans cooked in a hole Whoopie pies Fiddle heads Strawberry rhubarb pie Boiled supper (/dinner?) Maple syrup
Wow these comments are way off ! They must have been flat landers !! Maine has some great food - most of it can be grown right here ! Traditional baked beans , apple pie, strawberry rhubarb pie , lobster stew , dandyLion greens , Harvard beets , New England boiled dinner is with corned beef and root vegetables ! Let me know if your really interested in some great New England recipes!!
I’m certainly interested in all recipes that connect my family to the culinary history of Maine. I imagine there’s quite the variety given what part of Maine you hail from.
Look up Sandy Oliver. She does a weekly recipe in the Bangor Daily News, not from the 1800s but based in traditional Maine cooking. She's a food historian and I believe she wrote a book on New England food ways that would be authentic to your house's age.
Great! Thank you 🙏🏻
Indian pudding on a cold day! Fish chowder w canned milk, baked beans and if you want to go extra dig a bean hole in the back yard and play horseshoes while they cook ALL DAY!
And I’ll definitely be trying a bean hole. Just need to find the right bean recipe first. I’ve see a lot of different variations.
Have one that’s your favorite?
Navy or soldier beans from a local place, a hunk of bacon fried in a pan with the par cooked beans, enough water to cover them by about 2 or 3 inches, a big dollop of ketchup, molasses, couple heaping tsps of dry mustard, plenty of S&P a sprinkle of nutmeg and a whole peeled onion with the root cleaned but still on. Let her bake in the hole (or the oven all day) stirring occasionally (in the oven) and simmering a can of steamed brown bread in a water bath on the wood-stove (or the stove top). Look up the King Arthur Flour recipe, and steam a few red hot dogs for your protein! Voila! Its a good meal! A 1lb bag of beans will make a 8qt dutch oven full. Following day I like then reheated w a sunny side egg and a slice of pan fried brown bread w butter.
Sounds delicious! Thank you 🙏🏻
Send pics!!
Indian pudding sounds divine!
How has no one on this thread yet mentioned anadama bread? That's a ME thing and a great hearth bread, it has roots that go way back too.
I haven’t seen it yet. Will check it out! Thanks!
Can't go wrong with moss soup
If you go to Blue Hill library, you’re guaranteed to find historic recipes from Maine.
Someone already suggested Sunday beans, so I’ll throw in slack-salted cod. My dad used to buy the stuff from people’s yards when we would drive through rural Maine. It’s done when it’s the consistency and texture of beef jerky.
They used to dry it on the clothesline! I used to love it as a kid. Can’t manage it now.
Check Bud Leavitt’s 12 Months in Maine. It’s a grab bag of a book and all of it interesting, but a big chunk of it is traditional Maine recipes.
This lady lives in a 200 year old house on an island and writes articles & has books. She is legit. There are a few others like her around
Yes, Sandy Oliver.
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Brown bread and baked beans.
Check out the Townsends on YouTube. Lots of historical American recipes.
Blueberry gingerbread, with home made whip cream. Fish cakes with corn and potatoes. And as many have already mentioned baked beans, with bacon or syrup. Soups that are hearty with squash, pumpkin or potatoes were the given at my grams house on the Woodstove. She would always wrap potatoes filled with onions and butter in foil and throw them on the edge of the fire. This is the same lady that made seaweed cassarole.( I don't recommend).
When I think of food that’s traditional, been tried and tested, and is Maine-y, I think about vegetable hash and baked beans. You can find a good vegetable hash recipe on the Maine.gov website. Congratulations on your home and welcome to Maine!
Thank you!
I have two books full of traditional Maine recipes from that period. Dm me and I can find a way to send some pictures. They are thick books full of raccoon pie.
Ok! Will do. Thanks!
Would you mind sharing the titles? that sounds interesting!
Ok so it turned out the recipes are a little more eclectic and recent than the 1800s. Here’s some grabs I took for OP: https://imgur.com/a/avjsd0P
that's amazing thank you - porcupine livers? good stuff! (I mean, not like to eat of course)
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The Story Behind New England Spider Cake
Recipe in link. Called "spider" cake because it was originally baked in a cast iron "spider," a legged cast iron skillet used throughout the 1700s.
How cool! Thank you
While I don't have a recipe, this is a great idea!
The recipes are a bit older than you requested, but check out Mrs. Gardiner's Receipts From 1763
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015014623741&view=1up&seq=5
Perfect! Thank you!!
I have some older recipes I can share with you! I’ll find them in the morning!
My family came from Miane and we always ate pork pie on Christmas eve. Going on 6 generations, boil ground pork with diced onions strain it and put it in a pie crust. You will probably want some ketchup to go with it.
One of Americas first celebrity chefs was a woman who worked on an island off the coast of Maine, cooking for rich people. You can find some of her recipes online, her name was Maria Parlova.
Meat Pie
Call York Historical Society. They know.
Check out antique stores along with gift shops of local museums/historic societies - they almost always have old recipe books. I have an old 19th-century Shaker cookbook which is fun. I also have a copy of “Early American Cookery” by Sarah Josepha Hale. Lastly, I have a copy of “What Salem Dames Cooked” which is an old New England cookbook. All of these I got at antique stores or gift shops for museums/historical societies.
Not sure how old beer bread is, but I grew up with it after my parents bought a community cook book. Lots of Mainers seem to make beer bread but nobody I know from out of state has heard of it. You might also want to look into Marge Standish and her books. Again, I’m not sure if it’s 200 years old, but her stuff is very Maine.
Great stuff! Thank you 🙏🏻
Caribou steak
Try some of the recipes from The Yankee Chef by Jim Bailey. He included some traditional old recipes from the time period you’re looking for in the margins. There are some really solid recipes in here, you won’t be disappointed!!!
Thanks!
Sugar, Purple, Water.
DeceptivelyBreezy t1_it9kulw wrote
When snow arrives, you can make “wax-on-snow” — scoop up a bowl of freshly fallen snow and drizzle maple syrup over it, then eat the frozen syrup like taffy. (I don’t know if it’s a Maine thing, but I think it’s at least a New England thing!)