Generations of United Methodist families have shared their recipes in church cookbooks, often sold as church fundraisers. We asked our friends at the General Commission on Archives and History to name the oldest church cookbook in their collection. Archivists shared a worn copy of the Ware Cookbook, published in 1898 by the Ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ware, Massachusetts. In cookbooks of this vintage, the recipes tend to be simple, with few ingredients and cooked over the flames of a kitchen fire. Lilla Marigza, Multimedia Producer with United Methodist Communications has been trying out some church cookbook recipes. In this video, Lilla whips up a batch of Potato Puffs from the 1898 Ware Cookbook.
Recipe: Potato Puffs
2 cupfuls mashed potatoes, put into a sauce pan. Add to this the yolks of two eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls cream, 1 of butter, salt and pepper to taste. Stir constantly until the potatoes are hot and light. Remove from fire, stir in carefully the well beaten whites of the eggs and bake in gem pans or in one dish, in a quick oven until brown. -(Mrs. Geo. S. Marsh)
For more recipes and stories about food and fellowship visit UMC.org/OurUMTable.
This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tennessee.
Media contact is Lilla Marigza.
This video was first posted on June 4, 2020.
