Ridley Creek 2010 and Period Recipes for Pumpkin Bread

The Ridley Creek event went very well. The weather was great! No one was hit by pummeling walnuts and the Confederates won both battles (once by accident.)

See more photos here: World Turn'd Upside Down.

October Receipts for Pumpkin Bread:

PUMPKIN BREAD.--

        "Boil a good pumpkin in water till it is quite thick, pass it through a sieve, and mix flour so as to make a good dough. This makes an excellent bread."

Receipt from the Confederate Receipt Book (1863.)

Pumpkin Bread

"The pumpkin is first deprived of the rind, and afterward cut up into slices and boiled; when soft enough it is strained in a colander and mashed up very fine. In this state it may be used in pies, or mixed with flourfor pudding, cake, &c. If it be intended for bread, you may add a third or half-as much wheat wheat flour as pumpkins. The sponge must be first set in the ordinary way with yeast in the flour, and the pumpkin worked in as it begins to rise: use as much pumpkin as will bring the dough to a proper degree of stiffness without water. Care should be taken that the pumpkin is not as hot as to scald the leaven. It requires more baking than bread made entirely of wheat."

Receipt from the Southern Gardener and Receipt-Book (1860.)

Pumpkin Bread.— 

"Contributed to the American Agriculturist, by Mrs. S. Washburn, Westchester Co., N. Y. Stew one small pumpkin, iu the same manner as for pies ; while boiling, stir in Indian meal until it becomes of the consistence ol mush, adding a teacup of molasses and a little salt. Then lake it out in some wheat, flour—have your sponge light—and when sufficiently cool, mix, mould and bake."

Receipt from the American Agriculturist, Vol. 21, (1862.)