R. D. #1, Box 110, Hookstown, Pennsylvania 15050
Enclosed find a menu for a threshing dinner and recipe for
homemade bread. My sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Cain, R. D. #1,
Hookstown, Pennsylvania 15050 wrote it out for me.
Threshing dinners were high points in summer. There were many
extra things layed away in readiness for the day, such as extra
dishes, tablecloths, silverware, extra boards for the tables, large
kettles, extra towels, wash basins and wash benches to be put in
the yard.
Meat was a big item, some farms were near enough to a butcher
shop to get fresh beef from their ice house early in the morning
and put it on to cook. Other farmers would butcher a sheep or a
calf at dark, the night before, and let it season in cold salt
water in the springhouse all night and put it on to cook soon after
daylight before flies were on the wing. Some had a ham saved in the
smokehouse for the big day. A few would have sausage from winter
butchering canned in lard. Chicken was seldom served, as men
didn’t have time to pick bones and it was a Sunday dish. Corn
was never served on the cob, as men did not have time for them
either or like to handle hot ears. Large bowls of creamed corn were
served at each end of the table as well as beans, usually Kentucky
wonders, picked from the plants vining on the corn stalks. They
also prepared a bushel of potatoes for a meal either mashed or
boiled in meat broth. Salads were cole slaw, sliced tomatoes and
pickled beets. Desserts were pies one meal and cake and fruit the
next. One farm wife always served tapioca pudding. Many farm women
served the same meal each year. It usually took more food to fill
men on the first days of threshing, and always more food for noon
meal than evening.
Men often talked about special dishes and knew just the treats
they were going to enjoy. Always plenty of coffee, buttermilk and
water. Anything stronger was served under the barn. The threshing
crew was often 20 men, and 2 men with threshing machine would stay
all night wherever the machine was at dark. Farmers furnished coal
and water for steam engines. The whistle was blown when they
started to work and again when they quit for meals etc. Threshing
was a social event with the hard work of preparing for winter.
Hop Starter Bread
1 cup mashed potatoes
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
Potato water and luke warm water to make 2 quarts.
1 quart starter saved from last baking.
Mix all in one gallon crock the night before baking and keep in
a warm place. In the morning save out a quart of starter for next
baking. Then add starter to some flour to make a sponge in a bowl,
after it sets for a bit and bubbles, add it to more flour in a big
bread mixing pan till enough flour is worked in to make the bread
dough. Keep in warm place such as a bread raiser. When raised make
out in to loaves and-let them raise to double size and bake.
Starter is renewed by adding hop tea once in a while. If starter
spoils, a new quart has to be borrowed from a neighbor.
I want to add this bit of my own experience. When I was about 8
or 9 years old, my cousins and I thought it was great sport to go
with the tank wagon to get water from an old watering trough. It
was great fun pulling that pump handle. Later it was pure work
pitching sheaves, measuring grain and the worst of all was building
the straw stack. Now it is fun to go to a show and do it all over
again.
