A Baker Resurrects a Diabetic Cookbook From 1917 (Sort of?)

[Northerner]

What would you think if I presented you with one of my recipes but gave you very little instruction on how to actually make it? Say I just gave you the ingredient list and told you to put it together and stick it in the oven? Or if I wasn?t even particularly clear about the ingredients list, if I mentioned using separated eggs, but I really only meant that you should use just the egg whites? What if I didn?t even tell you an oven temperature at which to bake the item? I am going to take a wild stab here and say you wouldn?t think much of me as a recipe writer. In fact, you?d probably never visit my food blog again. I know that I sometimes make a typo or forget to list a step in the instructions. But on the whole, I try to write my recipes the way I would want to read them: clearly, concisely and carefully.
So imagine my confusion, not to mention my frustration, when trying to recreate recipes from a cookbook that made all of the aforementioned transgressions. Let me give you a little background here. My friend, Jessica Apple, editor of A Sweet Life Diabetes Magazine, came across an old diabetic cookbook and thought it might make good story material. And by old cookbook, I mean really old. As in written almost 100 years ago.

http://asweetlife.org/a-sweet-life-staff/featured/resurrecting-a-diabetic-cookbook-from-1917/26363/

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Here you go, this is the original recipe book. 🙂 http://www.archive.org/stream/diabeticcookeryr00oppeiala#page/n7/mode/2up

I think the baker of today having a moan about no oven temps has forgotten it was all solid fuel/woodburning stoves cooking then.

 

[Northerner]

Thanks for the link Sue, I'll have a browse of that! 🙂

 

[Vicsetter]

And you can download it here: http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7095821M/Diabetic_cookery
for your Kindle or calibre program.
Very interesting, difficulty will be it's also American so some of the ingredients will not be obtainable, be interesting to hear what substitute there is for the flour, any ideas?

 

[trophywench]

Ground almonds is favourite, Vic. makes brill cakes, but you need a wetter mix than a flour cake, a lot of us use yoghurt, oh and you have to add baking powder of course otherwise the result will be 'sad' (ie sunken in the middle) You actually get a sort of thick batter type mix rather than a stiff mixture, so you pour it into the baking tin rather than scrape or 'dollop' it in with a spoon.

 

[Vicsetter]

Aleuronat Flour, used in the book. I just wondered if White Flour Substitute - Carbalose was a modern day substitute. There are also gluten flours which you add to normal flour to reduce the percent carb.
Almond flour is used in the book, haven't tried it though.