Historical American Recipes

American Cakes – Washington Cake

A traditional recipe for patriotic Washington Cake and the history behind the recipe from culinary historian Gil Marks.

Chef Louise Mellor shares how to make simple, vintage fancy sandwiches for your next soiree. From wartime American Home Magazine.

While in Havana, Cuba Ernest Hemingway was a regular at El Floridita bar. Learn how to make one of his favorite daiquiris, The Hemingway Special.

Read about the history of Thanksgiving becoming an official holiday and a historical recipe for Pumpkin Pudding.

Learn about the life of Sarah Josepha Hale, the Mother of Thanksgiving in America, and try her historical recipe for Apple Pudding.

Learn a recipe from World War II, when war rationing prevented cooks from using normal everyday ingredients.

Learn what Union Soldiers ate during the Civil War, and try a historical recipe for Commissary Beef Stew from Captain James M. Sanderson.

Learn a traditional Southern recipe from the Oscar nominated movie The Help – Cucumber Rye Tea Sandwiches.

Historical recipe from the City Tavern Cookbook. Asparagus dressed the French way- olive oil, red wine vinegar, hard cooked egg, capers, herbs.

Learn a colonial recipe from Thomas Jefferson’s family at Monticello for White Bean Soup. Vegetarian, healthy, delicious historical recipe.

Apple Bread Pudding with Cream Sauce from Mary Todd Lincoln’s favorite cookbook, Miss Leslie’s Complete Cookery. Simple baked dessert.

A delicious old-fashioned recipe for Molasses Cookies with coconut and oatmeal from Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House book series.

Learn to make Rosa Parks’ Featherlite Peanut Butter Pancakes with this vintage recipe and step-by-step photos.

Make Elvis Presley’s Sunday Meatloaf, a recipe from the Presley Family Cookbook, and learn about the Jewish ancestry of Elvis and his mother.