It would do well for our current generation to realize what women had to endure not so many years ago. For instance, back then cooking for a turn-of-the-century woman was definitely an art form! Their stoves sported a capacious oven with neither a thermometer nor timer. Recipes of the times were lackadaisically written as “bake in a hot oven until done,” which would be useless to a modern woman, but made complete sense to the women of the day. In fact, a statement in a 1903 cookbook said, “so near perfection have the makers of stoves and ranges come that it would be difficult to speak of possible improvements.” The maw of a 1900 kitchen range was insatiable, calling constantly for fresh sacrifice, which became the children’s never-ending job. Since most of the stoves of the time were of the wood burning variety, the baking of the family’s bread was no easy matter. And hot biscuits were required for all three meals a day, seven days a week, all year long!
To make this happen they would first stir up the yeast culture and pour most of it into a big bowl adding warm water until the two together equaled about 2½ quarts. They had to use warm water because yeast dies at 109 degrees F. They would then add about 1½ cups of sugar into the water and wait for the bubbles to start forming on top of the mixture. After it started bubbling, they added about two quarts of flour to start with, then would beat it until the batter was smooth. They then added two tablespoons of salt and about 1½ cups of melted lard and mixed it all together. At this point the dough was sloppy, like a very thick pancake batter. They whipped this with a spoon for about ten minutes to bring out the gluten then started adding flour, two cups at a time, working it in with a spoon, until it became so stiff that a spoon didn't work any longer. Using their hands, they continued to knead the flour into the dough until it became rather stiff. The consistency was right when it had an elastic feeling when you kneaded it.
Another way to tell, was to see if it stuck to their ungreased hands and if it didn't, it had too much flour in it, and the bread would be too dry after baking. After another ten minutes of kneading, lard was rubbed on the dough on both sides so it wouldn’t dry out and stick to the bowl. It was then set aside until it had doubled in size and then punched down till it rose again. After rising the second time, the ladies placed flour on the tabletop so the dough wouldn’t stick when they spread it out and divided it into equal portions. They took each portion and kneaded it until all the air was worked out and then formed it into the shape of a loaf and put it into the pan. Getting the stoves’ oven to the right temperature was the real skill. There were no dials or controls to tell them when it was exactly 325 degrees so they had to learn a couple of other tricks instead. If it wasn't hot enough, more wood had to be added to the fire. If it was too hot, they opened the door a little until it cooled down to about the right temperature. And the oven had to be ready as soon as the bread had finally risen. When they opened the door, they could tell how hot it was by how much heat hit them in the face. It's one of those skills one acquires only through experience. After the bread was put in, they kept a close watch on it, making sure the oven stayed the same temperature.
The bread usually baked in an hour, but if they were in separate pans it cooked in less time, perhaps 35-45 minutes. The ladies could tell it was done just by looking at it and if it was then the bread was taken out of the oven and separated. If they pushed in lightly on the sides, and it sprang back out, the bread was done. To finish the process, butter was rubbed on top of each loaf to give it a nice golden look and helped prevent the crust from drying out. Like all the women of the day, the lady of the house reigned supreme over her domain and wielded her scepter with callused hands. Her day began long before sunup because she had to see to the cooking of a hearty breakfast to sustain her family until the noon meal. In her early years, those meals had to be prepared over an open fire in the hearth, which was an even more complicated affair. By the turn of the century, most households were able to obtain a cast iron stove, making the chore a little easier, but nonetheless arduous by today’s standards. This was an "everyday" chore, but sadly was only one of many that had to be done by hand with no automation! No microwave ovens, no refrigerators, no convection ovens, and no cell phones to look up recipes or call and ask your mother. These homemakers of yesteryear were truly of a pioneer spirit!
One of the earlier, less expensive Franklin stoves
The next step up in luxury
The deluxe model stove of its day
Note the pan of biscuits ready and waiting
A typical kitchen in turn of century America
Baths were taken in the warmth of the kitchen in a washtub
A typical turn of the century pantry. Its smell was so unique that I can still smell my grandmother's to this day!
A kitchen of the 1930's and note the icebox. This is not
electric and cooled by a block of ice delivered bi-weekly.
Note also, no safety railing for the baby, yet we survived!
Weekly ice delivery for your icebox, later delivered by a motor vehicle