An historic recipe from The Art Institute of Chicago’s current exhibition: Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine…
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
Jane Cunningham Croly, Jennie June’s American Cookery Book, 1870
Mix dough as for a soda biscuit; that is to say 1 quart of sifted flour, piece of butter size of an egg, 2 teaspoonsful of cream of tartar, 1 of soda, a pinch of salt, and a sweet milk to form a soft dough. Put cream of tartar in the flour, and soda in dry also, and, when thoroughly mixed, roll out half an inch thick and bake in a shallow pan 15 or 20 minutes. Have ready 2 quarts of fresh, fine strawberries; split the cake, place half the strawberries between and cover thickly with white sugar and cream; put the other half on the top and cover in the same way; send to the table immediately. This is the method of making at the finest city restaurants.
I’, going to test this as soon as I can procure a “piece of butter the size of an egg”. To coincide with the exhibition, The Art Institute has also assembled an online cookbook with 50 food and drink recipes from local Chicago chefs and mixologists. The show runs until the 27th of January.