By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
LITTLE SILVER – A slim little wisp of a book filled with local history and recipes may be the perfect antidote for this not-so-normal holiday season.
“Recipes from the Ladies of Parkerville: History from the Hearth” is ostensibly a cookbook in that it is filled with nearly 50 recipes for everything from Christmas punch to lemon pie. But it is almost more importantly a look back at one of the most prominent families in the Two River area – the Parkers – through food.
The idea for the book began with a former trustee of The Parker Homestead-1665, a nonprofit organization that oversees The Parker Homestead, a national historic site at 235 Rumson Road. Generations of Parkers lived on the homestead until the last to live there, Julia Parker, died in 1995 and bequeathed the 10-acre estate, which includes barns and greenhouses, among other structures, to the borough to be used for educational, historical and cultural endeavors. Volunteers began going through “boxes and boxes and boxes full of Parker family papers and books and possessions,” said Keith Wells, current president of The Parker Homestead-1665. The papers included diaries, reams of notes, correspondence and even little scraps tucked into other books, many of which contained recipes shared between family and friends.
Liz Hanson, an original trustee who died in March 2019, along with volunteers Joann Westgate and Joanne Ferguson, began compiling the recipes into a collection. As they collected, they realized they were also learning a lot about the history surrounding the dishes.
“In doing that, it kind of transformed into a combination of recipes and history,” said Wells. Because a lot of the dishes were for specific holidays or events, with good records showing where the recipe came from, the people working on the book were able comb through the materials to piece together stories to accompany the recipes.
“It starts with the recipes,” said Wells, “but then goes into… the history associated with it.”
A recipe for the aforementioned lemon pie (Susie’s Lemon Pie) comes from Julia’s grandmother who married into the Parker family. According to the book, Susie didn’t like the lemon pie served at the time by the Parker family cook, so she went outside the family and turned to her own aunt’s recipe for a “delicious” lemon pie. While neither the cook nor Susie’s mother-in-law were thrilled with Susie or her “new” lemon pie recipe, the “pie must truly have been better” because Susie’s recipe was used at the Homestead from that point on.
Hanson, Westgate and Ferguson embraced the history, even using a replica of wallpaper from the house as the cover of the book. “You’ll see that the cover is kind of this pinkish pattern,” said Wells. “And that’s literally wallpaper that was on the walls in Julia’s bedroom. They took a sample of the wallpaper and had it reproduced and that became the cover of the book.”
The recipes are not the most useful for today’s home cook, since the compilers have stayed true to history and transcribed them “exactly as they appear in the original source,” according to the book’s introduction. This makes for some interesting ingredients and often confounding directions. “Some of it starts out with, you know, ‘Take a scoop of lard,’ ” Wells said jokingly. “It’s not necessarily the most healthy recipes.”
The lemon pie directions ask bakers to “Wet cornstarch in bowl” and “Stop the boiling,” not the exacting instructions used today in most recipes. But upon closer reading, experienced bakers will realize Susie was just making a curd and using that knowledge could help one try to make what Julia called “the best lemon pie ever.”
But for those less inclined to make something from the early 1920s that calls for “3 qt. yellow blossoms” (Dandelion Wine) or specifies Snowdrift vegetable shortening (Carrie’s Cake (Layer)), the stories and photos are worth the time spent. Sprinkled throughout the book are old photographs of Julia, the homestead and Little Silver, along with wonderful reproductions of old adver tisements and newspaper clippings that relate to the recipes. And for sheer entertainment value, the directions in the recipe for Turkey Stuffing are priceless.
Copies of the book are usually available at the Homestead, but the house is currently closed to visitors due to COVID-19. If you’d like to support The Parker Homestead-1665 by purchasing a book for yourself or to give as a gift, visit parkerhomestead-1665.org and click the donate button. Wells said enter your name and address and “if they donate $20, I will mail them a copy.” Anyone looking to purchase more than one copy can email Wells at keithbwells@gamil.com.
This article originally appeared in the Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
