Blueberry Muffins
Last night I made some blueberry muffins from a receipt in “When Mother Lets Us Cook,” by Constance Johnson, which is embedded at my Vintage Cookbooks site. This children’s cookbook, now in public domain, was copyrighted in 1908. The images at the links given are for the 1919 printing, although Archive.org additionally has a 1916 printing of the same title.
The muffins (one of them pictured above) came out really good. This is the second time I’ve used this receipt. The first time, I made them in paper cupcake cups and used two eggs. This time, I baked them right in the muffin pan without the paper cups (to make better blog photo), and used only one egg. The receipt has a typo error, which was never changed from the original 1908 printing to the 1916 and 1919 printings. The ingredient list calls for 1 egg. But mixing directions call for two eggs. Most modern recipes only call for 1 egg in muffins. I discovered either amount comes out fine.
As with most receipts published before the 1920s, no oven temperature is given. That’s because wood-burning stoves in use at the time were unable to give a precise temperature. Temperatures were gauged, not by a dial, but by how much fuel was added. Even when I was taking Home Ec in the late 70s, we still had to learn these oven types. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten the Fahrenheit equivalents over the years. The following is from my copy of The Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery (1948). Very Slow Oven=250° F., Slow Oven=300° F., Moderately Slow Oven=325° F., Moderate Oven=350° F., Moderately Hot Oven=375° F., Hot Oven=400° to 450° F., and Very Hot Oven=450° to 500° F. Although it wasn’t in this list, a “Quick Oven,” is between 375° to 400° F. Another source gave a Hot Oven as 400° to 425° F. with a Very Hot Oven being 425° to 475° F. and an Extremely Hot Oven as 500° F. or more.
