Postum Made With Milk

I found this recipe intriguing for multiple reasons.


First, I have no idea what postum is. However the wonderful internet tells me it is a "wheat/grain coffee substitute" invented by C.W. Post and made with chicory and grains, which was discontinued by Kraft in 2008. I have had chicory coffee and that isn't so bad. I kind of liked it. But a grain substitute for coffee? Just why?


Ok, the second thing is this recipe seems pretty simple. Instant postum, water and then as needed mix with warm milk.

This recipe came from a metal box that I think likely my great grandmothers. My grandmother didn't type her recipes. She chicken scratched them with as few words as possible. (And we wondered why her food tasted bad... she likely couldn't read her own writing!)

Anyways, here it is, the very complicated recipe for Postum Made With Milk

Postum Made With Milk

1/3 c. instant postum
1 1/2 c. water

Boil the postum and water together for two or three min. Cool and store in refrigerator. Use one T of this liquid to one c. warm milk.

Bonka's Spaghetti Sauce

When I was a young child, I named my grandmother "Bonka". It stuck. And when I met my great grandmother I termed her, "Big Bonka".

My grandmother, as I have stated previously was not a cook at all. She cooked because she had to. However, there is one single recipe that endures in our family. At least it endured with my mom and while I haven't made it myself because I love my husband's sauce and I fear the ridicule it I pulled out these ingredients intent on making spaghetti sauce.

Truly, it is good. And if it is what you grew up eating as "homemade spaghetti sauce", trust me, it would hold a special place in your heart as well.

"Bonka's Spaghetti Sauce"

20-24 1 cup servings

2-3 lbs ground been
1 lg onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic

(Cook the above in olive oil until the beed is cooked through.)

2 quarts canned tomatoes
1 lg can tomato paste
1 lg can tomato sauce
2 cans tomato soup
5 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can pitted sliced olives
1, 4 oz can mushrooms
1 t sugar
1 t salt
2 pinches rosemary

Combined with above in a large kettle and cook slowly for about 30 minutes.

Sweet Pickles

I actually can't stand pickles. I have no interest in pickles. But this recipe, on another very friable piece of paper, caught my attention. I haven't ever made pickles, though my husband usually attempts each year. He doesn't care for sweet pickles and prefers them to be spicy instead. This just seemed like a unique recipe. Then again, someone might post and say, "yes, this is exactly how you would make sweet pickles".

Sweet Pickles

75 small pickles (must be cucumbers... right?) with water and one cup salt and let stand 1 week. Drain and pour on boiling water for 3 mornings. On third morning split the pickled and add 1 Tablspoon alum. On 4th morning heat the following mixture boiling hot.

5 cups vinegar
5 cups sugar
1/2 oz celery seed
1 oz mixed spices
1 oz cinnamon sticks.

Pour over pickles and heat for 3 mornings.

Pickles need not be sealed to keep for at least a year. These pickles are perfect sweet pickles.

**Editorial note - I am so not sure about the statement that these don't need to be sealed to keep for a year. Food safety warning!!

Peanut Cookies

On the backside of the little slip of paper containing "Berneice's Doughnuts" is my grandmother's chicken scratch. I love how her recipes are so characteristically her. It's like the wrote the important things - the ingredients and then completely forgot about directions. I suspect she got busy and didn't finish writing it.

I always think of peanut butter cookies, but this has no peanut butter. Looks kind of interesting.

Peanut Cookies

2 c brown sugar
1 c butter
2 eggs
2 1/2 c flour
1 t soda
1 t baking powder
3 c oatmeal
1 c corn flakes ground
1 c salted peanuts chopped

Berneice's doughnuts

I met my 3rd (I think, I am not good with naming cousin relations) cousin Berneice when I was in 4th grade. My sister and I flew to North Dakota with my grandmother to meet her farm family. Berneice Turnquist was my grandmother's cousin (I believe) and lived (lives?) in a small eastern North Dakota community. I believe she is still alive. I thought she was a very nice woman and I remember sitting in an apartment that I believe was hers playing that triangle solitaire game with the pegs. Bound and determined to beat it. I did eventually.

This recipe is not written in my grandmother's chicken scratch, but it was in her box. I suspect that someone wrote it out and sent it to my grandmother.

I have been wanting to make doughnuts lately. My sister bought me a doughnut pan recently. Maybe this recipe is reason to try making doughnuts.

Berneice's Doughnuts

1 1/2c sugar
2 1/2 T melted fat
3 eggs
1 c sour milk
3/4 t soda
1 t baking powder
3/4 t nutmeg
1 t salt
Flour to roll

Beat eggs, add sugar and fat. Sift 3 cups flour with dry ingredients, add alternately with milk. Add more flour to roll. Roll 1/3 of dough at a time. Fry in deep fat. Do not get dough too stiff.

Twenty Four Hr. Salad

This is one of my great grandmother's recipes. It is written on a friable piece of paper that scares me to handle it. But the recipe is very intriguing to me. Intriguing maybe enough to actually make.

One of the things that I like about this recipe is the commentary. It is written on this folded piece of paper and in the margins are: "Very good", "Best of its kind", "Very Special", "Do not loose kuz can't be beaten", "a large amount of tart-sweet nutricious food, also very good at pot luck". And then she signed her name, Hannah Perchert and given the signature, I would guess this was from early in her life, likely pre-1920.

Twenty Four Hr. Salad (Very good)

• 2 cups spaghetti boiled, blanched and cooked.
• 6 apples cut up
• 1 no.2 can crushed or diced pineapple drained.
• Boil a dressing of 1/2 cup lemon juice, 4 eggs, 1 cup powdered sugar (no other kind). Beat or stir well while boiling, only takes a few minutes of cooking. If too thick, thin with pineapple juice. Cool.
• Mix in diced pineapple, apples. Blend well.
• Add cooked spaghetti.
• Let stand overnight in a cool place.
• Whip one cup of cream and add a little sugar.
• Add 2 bananas and fold into salad and its ready to serve.
• Keep in a cool place. Red or green cherries may be added for color, also a few marshmallows.
• I omitted the cream and used all the pineapple juice, (not so rich.
• From Mrs. Fred (Ida) Nierenberg
• This makes a lot.
• Extra good

Blushing Apples

Peel and core the desired number of apples.
Make a medium syrup of sugar and water, adding 1 tsp fruit coloring.
Bring to a slow boil and add apples.
Cool slowly until apples are tender.
Remove from syrup.
Chill and serve with cream.

Also written in my grandmother's hand and something I have never tasted. I posted this recipe because it raised questions to me - what is a "medium syrup"? Medium hot? Medium consistency? And what is fruit coloring? Did she mean food coloring?