This is a short article from an 1895 issue of American Kitchen magazine; it’s about how you don’t need fancy meals all the time and would probably be better off eating simple things. And it includes a menu, which I always love seeing! (Related: “A Civilized Camping Party” (1896) with One Week’s Menu, Motor Picnic Menus from 1928 (Plus “Motor Rules”))
I transcribed this myself (no AI) from a PDF provided from HathiTrust. Enjoy!
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Simple Living
by Emily H. Leland, published 1895 in American Kitchen Magazine
WHEN I read of elaborate, many-coursed dinners a sympathetic weariness seizes me. I think of the toiling cook, of the poor stomachs laboring to digest the conglomeration, and a cheerful wave of thankfulness comes over me that my lot is cast with the independent, middle class of humans, from whom grand dinners and the eating of grand dinners are not expected. Between Thoreau’s austere bill of fare and the beguiling efforts of a lordly, untrammelled chef, lies a very comfortable interval which “our folks” gratefully occupy. We have good appetites, sound sleep, few headaches and fairly amiable nerves.
We began our primitive ways while stranded in the highlands of Tennessee— where the meat market was a fitful affair, a bakery unknown, but blessed fruit, eggs, and milk were plentiful. The native graham flour, when at rare intervals offered, was a dubious mixture; so we sent away into the world for a large hand-mill, the five-dollar sort, ground our own wheat, and proudly knew that we had bread in what Dr. Nichols calls its “integrity.” We were considered “cranks,” but we ground away, feeling that this epithet is the mild lash that usually descends on those who dare and do.
We used little tea or coffee except for company occasions, but made these, or chocolate, or beef-extract tea, whenever we “felt like it”— on a chilly morning, for instance, or in the “tumultuous privacy” of a stormy nightfall. Fruits and nuts were always made a good part of the meal and not a dessert to be nibbled at simply because it tasted good; a welcoming void awaited them. As a race we do not eat enough of fruits and nuts the clean, ready-at-hand food of our early ancestors— but sinfully and stupidly crowd them out with laborious puddings and pastries.
I venture to offer some samples of our daily fare, and to state that the meals were generally prepared with a most comfortable saving of time and labor, a white cloth, a blossoming plant or a bowl of wild flowers, our pretty cups and plates, a twinkle of silver, and there we were!
Breakfast. Boiled eggs, whole-wheat bread, butter, milk, fruit.
Dinner. Baked potatoes, cream gravy, smoked fish, bread, fruit, nuts.
Supper. Bread and milk, baked apples, cheese.
Breakfast. Omelet, lettuce, wheat gems, fruit.
Dinner. Vegetable stew, bread, boiled rice (correctly cooked) with cream, fruit, nuts.
Supper. Oatmeal porridge, milk, bread and jam, with cold meat and hashed potatoes for the hungry hunter or the work-man.
Breakfast. Scrambled eggs, broiled ham, toast, fruit.
Dinner. Beefsteak (rare in every sense!), baked potatoes, stewed onions, bread, fruit, nuts.
Supper. Corn muffins, stewed apples and cream, wafers, and smoked fish.
Breakfast. Potato omelet, hashed beef, lettuce, bread, and fruit.
Dinner. Broiled “mountain trout” (slices of bacon rolled in corn meal), potatoes, cabbage salad, bread and cheese. (A cold day dinner!)
Supper. Hashed potatoes, hot stewed tomatoes, bread and butter.
A holiday dinner. Roast wild turkey, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, stewed onions, bread, nuts, and fruit; or maybe fruit with whipped cream.
And so forth! And I see I have made no mention of the delicious cup custards which we had now and then; nor of our favorite dish of chipped beef cooked in cream which often comforted our supper table; nor of the good molasses cookies which the housemother kept in a brown jar on the pantry shelf and which Jack declared were “prime to skip with when a fellow’s in a hurry.”
Our house furnishing was also extremely simple– rugs, cot-beds, camp chairs, a home-made divan, plain window shades (with vines for “drapery”) a hanging lamp over the dining table, a shaded “student” for the reading table, two shelves for books, a few window plants, and unlimited sunshine and air— “but that is another story.” The point I wish to impress is that people might live so simply and beautifully if they only would! Who will join a Colony for Simple Living ?
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, June 1895.
Transcriber’s Notes
Slightly changed the menu’s formatting to make it a bit easier to read on the web.
Source
Leland, Emily H.. “Simple Living,” published in American Kitchen Magazine vol. 3 April-Sept 1895, pages 279-280. PDF from HathiTrust: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112047636466
