{"id":9866,"date":"2020-12-16T13:03:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T18:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/?p=9866"},"modified":"2020-12-16T13:08:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T18:08:11","slug":"cookbooks-history-dutch-chocolate-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/2020\/12\/16\/cookbooks-history-dutch-chocolate-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Cookbooks & History: Dutch Chocolate Cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students in Cookbooks and History (MET ML 630), directed by Dr. Karen Metheny, researched and recreated a historical recipe to share with the class. They were instructed to note the challenges they faced, as well as define why they selected their recipe and why it appealed to them. Here is the next essay in this series, written by Adrian Bresler.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"We were asked to recreate an historical recipe that was over 100 years old for our Cookbooks and History<\/em> class assignment; I soon discovered that the alternatives were endless. But the Dutch Chocolate Cake recipe in \u201cThe Neighborhood Cookbook\u201d seemed to be the right choice for me. With over 42 cake recipes (14 were variations of chocolate cake), this community cookbook, compiled and issued by The Council of Jewish Women of Portland Oregon in 1914 to fundraise for their organization, was filled with recipes written by women whose concise directions communicated to me their expertise and confidence.\u00a0 How could I go wrong with my choice?\u00a0 Their first edition, printed in 1912, sold out in ten months.\u00a0 And since my last attempt at baking a chocolate cake ended in a lumpy mess, now was the opportunity for redemption using a recipe written long ago by women who really knew how to cook.<\/p>\n

The Cake section of the cookbook began with a set of general instructions.\u00a0 Here, the editor reminded readers to measure carefully, to use an earthen dish and a wooden spoon, to never remove a cake from the oven until it is done, and<\/u> to use a clean broom straw to test the cake.\u00a0 (Lacking a clean broom straw, I substituted a wooden toothpick).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With the introduction over, I was ready to begin to bake.\u00a0 The recipe I chose consisted of a mere five sentences from start to finish, including a list of ingredients embedded in the short paragraph.\u00a0 The brevity of the directions gave the appearance of simplicity, a notion that was quickly dispelled when the baking began.<\/p>\n

Creaming the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon, rather than using my KitchenAid mixer, took more time and muscle energy but it worked.\u00a0 No problem so far. The addition of egg yolks, milk, flour, and baking powder was fairly simple, too.\u00a0 Interrupting the action to fill the tea kettle to boil water, instead of zapping the water in the microwave, was a distraction but not really a problem.\u00a0 However, grating the Baker\u2019s chocolate squares triggered an unexpected complication.\u00a0 The friction from the scraping caused the chocolate shavings to go airborne when the particles became statically charged.\u00a0 Chocolate bits flew through the air and landed everywhere including into the bowl of egg whites, which according to sentence number three, still needed to be \u2018stiffly beaten\u2019.\u00a0 The sight of chocolate flecks floating in the egg whites caused me some grief but just then the tea kettle whistled, announcing that it was time to melt the remaining chocolate with the boiling water.\u00a0 Here, the brief instructions gave me only vague guidance; I hesitated a moment before pouring the boiling water into the chocolate, rather than adding the chocolate to the water.\u00a0 It melted.\u00a0 So far, so good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Although electric hand mixers were invented in the late 1800s, they did not become available for home use until the 1920s.\u00a0 To beat the (already contaminated with chocolate shavings) egg whites into a stiff froth, I turned to my mother\u2019s old manual egg beater.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Compared to the way my grandmother whipped egg whites– with a fork– this seemed fairly easy.\u00a0 As the recipe gave no further instruction, I simply folded the egg whites, now a bowl of white fluff in spite of the floating chocolate, into the rest of the batter.<\/p>\n

With no directions regarding the type or size of the baking pan, I selected an angel food cake pan that seemed large enough to accommodate the batter.\u00a0 I buttered the pan to prevent sticking since cooking spray was not available to the public until the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Remembering to return to the Cake introduction for guidance regarding oven temperature, I found that Layer cake required a \u2018quick fire\u2019, Sponge cake a \u2018slow fire\u2019, and Loaf cake with butter a \u2018moderate fire\u2019. My electric oven generates no fire.\u00a0 I assumed I was making a loaf cake but I was mistaken.\u00a0 Setting the oven at 325 degrees, I followed the fourth sentence of the directions (\u201c\u2026bake 40 minutes\u2026\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Luckily for me the fifth and last line of the instructions told the readers to sprinkle pulverized sugar on top of the cake as a finishing touch.\u00a0 Using confectioners\u2019 sugar, I covered up the burned spots.\u00a0 The cake was a bit dry and crumbly as a result of overbaking.\u00a0 And the chocolate flavor was muted\u2014perhaps too many chocolate particles flew up into the air instead of into the cake.<\/p>\n

But at least it did not turn out to be another lumpy mess.\u00a0 And my family liked it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made progress.<\/p>\n

Therefore, I owe a debt of gratitude to the now defunct Council of Jewish Women of Portland.\u00a0 More importantly, their cookbook helped fund the organization\u2019s mission, which was to help new immigrants, promote women\u2019s suffrage, provide vocational classes, and support other social issues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/p>\n

Conagra. 2020. \u201cWhen you pick up a pan, spray it with PAM.\u201d Pam: Our Story.<\/em> Accessed November 14, 2020. https:\/\/pam.conagrafoods.ca\/our-story\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Council of Jewish Women of Portland, OR. 1914. The Neighborhood Cookbook<\/em>. Portland, OR: Bushong & Co. https:\/\/n2t.net\/ark:\/85335\/m5dh3z<\/p>\n

Kitchen Tool Reviews. 2016. \u201cWhat you didn\u2019t know about your hand mixer.\u201d Kitchen Tool Reviews<\/em>. Accessed November 14, 2020. https:\/\/www.kitchentoolreviews.com\/2016\/08\/01\/what-you-didnt-know-about-your-hand-mixer\/<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Moon, Deborah. 2015. \u201cPortland NCJW Dissolves, but Legacy Lives on.\u201d Oregon Jewish Life. <\/em>\u00a0May 27, 2015. https:\/\/orjewishlife.com\/portland-ncjw-dissolves-but-legacy-lives-on\/<\/p>\n

Scholerman, Antonia. 2018. \u201cPortland\u2019s Neighborhood House and The National Council of Jewish Women.\u201d The Oregon Women\u2019s History Consortium<\/em>. http:\/\/www.oregonwomenshistory.org\/portlands-neighborhood-house-and-the-national-council-of-jewish-women-by-antonia-scholerman\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students in Cookbooks and History (MET ML 630), directed by Dr. Karen Metheny, researched and recreated a historical recipe to share with the class. They were instructed to note the challenges they faced, as well as define why they selected their recipe and why it appealed to them. Here is the next essay in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17971,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,10,15,24,27],"tags":[209],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17971"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9866"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9937,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9866\/revisions\/9937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}