April 1921 Needlecraft Magazine recipes

I always have loved to read cooking books. I do not cook much but I like to read recipes as if they were short stories. Now, that I have a good selection of old magazines, I love to see what women used to prepare for their families. It surprises me how simple many of these recipes are. Here are a couple of them.
Egg-and-tomato Entree
Heat to the boiling point one cupful of canned tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and add a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a saltspoonful of bicarbonate of soda (cooking-soda). Two cupfuls of grated cheese and three-fourths of a cupful of milk and cream. Stir until the cheese is melted, take from the fire, add two well beaten eggs, pour into individual casseroles or into one large baking dish. cover the top with bread-crumbs and brown in a hot oven.
Celeried Oysters
Cook one pint of oysters in their own liquor until their are plump. Drain and then strain the oyster-liquor and to it add enough cream to make one and a half cupfuls. Melt six tablespoonfuls of butter, add five tablespoonfuls of flour and stir to a paste. Pour in the liquor gradually and beat until creamy. Season with salt, pepper and celery-salt. Add the parboiled oysters and cook until just at the boiling-point. Season with salt and pepper. Pour this over slices of hot buttered toast and sprinkle with finely chopped celery.

Old time recipe

Last year I bought about 50 Needlecraft magazines ranging from the 1920s and 30s. I love them they are full of crochet, tatting, embroidery and old time recipes. My only frustration is that many of the sewing and embroidering patterns are only advertised and not explained. Still they are pretty to look at.
Here are a couple of recipes from the March 1920 issue.

On Cooking for the Sick.



Ordinary Beef-Tea



Take one pound of rump-steak and remove all fat and gristle, cut into strips and shred it by scraping on a board with a knife until all the pulp is removed, and there is only a stringy white mass left in the hand. Put the pulp into a bowl and pour on it one pint of cold water and allow it to soak for twenty minutes or half an hour; then pour it into a jar and cover it securely, first with the lid, then with strong paper. If there is no lid to the jar, then with strong, greased paper. Stand this in a saucepan of boiling water for three hours (by cooking in this way it never boils). When done, stir it once or twice, then pour it off against the lid, not strain it, which would remove the brown particles. Remove the fat by drawing soft paper over the surface, or if it is left until cold it will come off in a cake. Serve in a cup with toast on a side.

My grandmother would make us chicken soup when we were sick but I had never heard of beef tea until now. I found very similar recipes called English beef-tea, no wonder I never heard about it growing up. I think I would love it on those days after a stomach flu. Or even now when I get bad nausea, I will add my Mexican taste to it and squeeze a few drops of lemon and maybe a slice of jalapeno, just for a bit of fresh spiciness.



Peach-Foam

Peel and cut in small pieces three or four choice and very ripe peaches; or you can substitute canned ones of the best grade. Put one cupful of this into a bowl, with a half cupful of powdered sugar, and the white of one egg. Beat with a fork for half an hour, when it will be a thick, perfectly smooth, velvety cream, with a delightful peach flavor.

I am not sure I would like this if sick. But I know I will not like to prepare it if it takes half an hour of beating.