Pinkerton family in their touring car. The following recipes come straight from my grandmother Hazel Pinkerton’s recipe box! Hazel and my grandfather Clarence “Pop” Williams were born just after the turn of the century in Berkeley, California; Hazel in a house built by her father and his construction crew and Pop in an old water tower at the edge of the Bay, which before landfill reached up to Sacramento Street, a mile closer to the hills.
Hazel and Pop were exceptionally kind, patient, and quietly independent-thinking people. Hazel worked as a telephone operator at the local newspaper, the Berkeley Daily Gazette. Sometime around 1980, I bought a dome-shaped, gold embroidered man’s hat in Afghanistan, looked inside and saw it was lined with a copy of the paper advertising the travelling Ice Follies of 1951, when Hazel was still plugging a mass of cords into jacks, connecting callers to editors and reporters at her switchboard. I can’t even imagine how that newspaper traveled 12,000 miles from Berkeley to Afghanistan, but I’ve still got the hat.
Strawberries for topping sponge cake, photo Kyle McDonald, 14 April 2009, CCA 2.0 Generic.
Mabel Van Vleck’s Sponge Cake.
Mabel Van Vleck was a friend of my great-grandmother. No one living remembers how our families originally linked up. The friendship lasted over several generations. The Van Vlecks had run cattle in the foothills of the Sierras since the mid-nineteenth century – they still do. My grandfather told me about a cattle drive he’d seen that brought big herds up to Tellis Peak near Lake Tahoe. When I was little, he took me up to Van Vleck lands that were still preserved and conserved by the family – thousands of acres, with huge tracts of trees and mountain pastureland. I remember how awed we were by it all. My grandmother made this simple Van Vleck sponge cake as a special treat for decades of birthdays and holidays.
- 1 c sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1 Tbsp cold water
- 1 c white flour
- 1 Tbsp
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract and/or ½ tsp. almond extract.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Separate eggs whites and yolks. Add 6 unbeaten yolks to 1 cup sugar and beat well. Add 1 Tbsp. cold water. Sift in 1 cup flour (scant) and 1 Tbsp. baking powder. Beat egg whites and fold in. Optional, add vanilla extract and/or almond extract. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan with a hollow center and bake at 300 degrees, until you can insert a fork and it comes out clean. Hazel liked to whip fresh cream as a simple icing and serve it covered with sliced strawberries.
Sour milk biscuits, photo by jeffreyw, 13 November 2011, CCA 2.0 Generic license.
Hazel’s Sour Milk Biscuits
- 2 cups flour
- 3 heaping tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- about ¼ to 1/3 cup shortening
- 1 cup buttermilk
Sift together Flour, Baking Powder, Soda and Salt. Add Shortening and beat in buttermilk. Mix, knead a bit, spoon into biscuit or cupcake pan and bake in a hot oven at about 400 degrees.
Pearl’s Green Tomato Pie
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup water
- 6 cut up green tomatoes
- cornstarch
- butter to taste
- juice of a lemon
Boil sugar and water until it spins a thread from a spoon. add cut up green tomatoes, and boil these until soft. Thicken with a little cornstarch while stirring. Take off the heat and add a good lump of butter, and juice of a lemon. Put in a pie shell and bake.
Pinkerton family out with the buggy used for hauling building lumber.
Apple Butter
- 4 qts. cut and peeled Apple pieces
- 1 qt. Cider
- 2 cups Sugar
- 2 cups dark Karo Syrup
- 1 tsp. Cinnamon
- 1 tsp. Allspice
Reduce cider to 2 cups over medium heat. Add apple pieces. Cook to mush. Add other ingredients and cook until thick, stirring to prevent sticking.
Miss Lombard’s Jam Cake
Jam cake with additional jam filling folded in before baking. Photo by AlekhyaDas. CCA-SA 4.0 Int’l. license.
Miss Lombard founded an early school for children with Down’s syndrome and intellectual disabilities in the nineteen thirties in Albany, California. My great-aunt Grace taught there; my mother remembers that there was a sandbox in her classroom. Miss Lombard was way ahead of her time. She believed strongly that her students should be educated and active in their communities and she developed vocational training programs for all the children along with reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic. The older children in the school did wonderful carpentry, and long ago my grandmother rocked my mother and then me in a cradle made by one of Miss Lombard’s students.
- ¾ cups butter
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup jam
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 3 cups flour
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. clove, ½ tsp. allspice
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ¾ cups buttermilk
ream butter and sugar, then add jam and eggs. Sift dry ingredients together. Stir soda into buttermilk and add alternately with flour to butter and egg mixture. Beat well. Bake in preheated oven at 350 to 375 degrees about 45-50 minutes until top of cake springs back when. Sift finished cake with powdered confectioner’s sugar or frost with brown sugar glaze.
Glaze for Jam Cake
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
Combine butter and brown sugar in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove and let cool 5 minutes. Stir in milk, then powdered sugar. Drizzle over cake.
Pinkerton family at the beach in San Francisco.
Miss Lombard’s Gingerbread
All there is to say about this recipe is that Hazel made gingerbread often, but never often enough for me.
- ½ cups butter/shortening
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup dark molasses
- 2 tsp. ginger, 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 ½ cups white flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 cup boiling water
Cream butter and sugar, stir in molasses and spices, add flour and mix. Add soda to boiling water, add to mix and beat, then add egg. Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees, preferably in loaf or other deep pan.
Hazel’s Cold Pumpkin Soufflé
- 1 envelope gelatin
- ¼ cup dark rum
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 cup cooked pumpkin
- ½ tsp. each cinnamon and ginger
- ¼ tsp. each of mace and ground cloves
- Whipping cream
Lemon curd, photo Steve Pavlov, 18 May 2024, CCA-SA 4.0 Int’l. license.
Sprinkle 1 envelope gelatin over ¼ cup rum to soften. Stand the container in a pan of simmering water and heat it, shaking it occasionally, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. In a bowl beat 4 eggs thoroughly. Gradually add 2/3 cup sugar and continue to beat the mixture until it is smooth and very thick. Stir in 1 cup cooked Pumpkin seasoned with ½ tsp. each cinnamon and ginger and ¼ tsp. each of mace and ground cloves. Mix in the gelatin well, and fold in cup heavy whipped cream until the mix holds a definite shape. Oil a 6-inch band of wax paper and tie it around a 1 qt. soufflé dish or cheesecake pan, oiled side in, to form a standing collar. Fill the dish with the soufflé mixture and chill it until it is set. Carefully remove the paper collar and decorate the top.
Hazel’s Lemon Curd for Tarts
- 4 lemons
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cube unsalted butter
- 6 egg yolks
- 2 whole eggs
- 1/8 tsp. salt
Grate, rind and juice the four lemons to make 1/3 -1/2 cup lemon juice and 1 full tbsp. lemon zest. In a double boiler, reduce heat to make water in bottom at simmer. Place lemon rind and juice, ½ cup sugar, ½ cube butter, 6 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs in in the top pan. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly. Blend 4 eggs and add to saucepan. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. Pour into pre-cooked pie/tart shells. Cool and top with whipped cream or meringue.
Our homes and their adornments; Year: 1884, Internet Archive Book Images, public domain.
Hazel’s Zucchini Bread
Beat together:
- 1 cup Oil or Butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 Eggs
Sift the following dry ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 3 tsp. cinnamon
- 1¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. baking powder
Add:
- 3 tsp. vanilla 2 cups shredded zucchini
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or raisins
Grease and flour 2 large bread pans. Bake about one hour at 325 degrees.
Mrs. Gaebler’s Apple Sauce Cake
My mother used to play with Mrs. Gaebler’s daughter. The Gaebler’s lived near Live Oak Park in Berkeley. My mother said they had big bay trees and a real creek in their back yard.
- 1 ½ cup thick unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup butter
- 1 ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups cake flour – do not sift before measuring
- 1 ½ tsp. soda
- ¾ tsp. salt
- 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon, ¾ tsp. cloves, ¾ tsp. nutmeg
- ¾ cup walnuts
Plump raisins in boiling water and drain. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Add apple sauce. Sift dry ingredients and add. Add drained raisins and nuts. Place paper on bottom and sides of baking pan, as cake will stick and pull apart. Bake at 350 degrees for about one hour.
The Boston Cooking School magazine of culinary science and domestic economics, Hill, Janet McKenzie, 1852-1933, 1913 issue, public domain.
Hazel’s Indian Pudding
Hazel received Fanny Farmer’s Boston Cookbook as a wedding gift in 1925, and many of her early American recipes came from the Boston school. She made her own versions of its Yorkshire Pudding and a delicious Salt Pork and Baked Beans with Brown Bread. This kind of food is fashionable again, and though this desert takes a long time to cook, it is worth it.
- 3 cups milk
- ¼ cup corn meal
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ tsp. salt
- pinch of soda
- ½ tsp. ginger
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- 2 eggs, well beaten
- ¼ cup molasses
Heat 2 cups of the milk in a double boiler. When hot, add corn meal slowly, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Mix sugar, salt, soda, ginger and cinnamon. Add beaten eggs and stir all into corn meal mix. Combine molasses and 1 cup milk. Mix all together. Bake in buttered casserole 2 ½ to 3 hours at 275 degrees. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.
Women workers in a Lancashire Oil and Cake Factory having tea, September 1918, public domain.
Hazel’s Currant Cake or Pound Cake
- ½ lb. butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbsp. brandy or rum
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- 2 cups cake flour
- ¼ tsp. cream of tartar
- ¼ tsp. mace
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 ½ – 3 cups currants or white raisins, moistened if dry. (Pour enough hot water over the raisins/currants to cover them and let them sit for just 10-15 minutes, then drain and use. Hazel notes that the original amount, 3 cups, is too many, and they all sink. Try the lower amount, then add more if you are unhappy with the lighter density.)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter, adding sugar gradually while creaming, then vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, mace, and salt. Add this mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until just mixed together. Fold currants into the mixture. Bake about 1 hour, until toothpick inserted comes pretty clean.
Double Fudge Cake.
Hazel thought her Double Fudge Cake was her best desert recipe.
- 4 squares baking chocolate
- 1 ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup brown sugar firmly packed
- 2/3 cup shortening
- ¾ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp. soda
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 ¼ cup sifted flour
Melt the chocolate in the milk in a double boiler. Blend the two together with an eggbeater. Add the brown sugar and cool. Combine the shortening, salt, vanilla and soda. Add sugar gradually and cream until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then add small amounts of flour alternately with the chocolate mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until done. Hazel doesn’t specify, but we know that this cake was frosted with chocolate buttercream.
Childs’ rare flowers, vegetables & fruits, Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, 1915, public domain.
Hazel’s Rhubarb Crisp
The double fudge layer cake above is terrific, but this simple Rhubarb Crisp beats all the rest. I’ve saved the best for last. This recipe card was written in a childish hand that I recognize as my own. Hazel must have needed a fresh copy, and I must have volunteered!
- 3 cups cut-up rhubarb, trimmed, strings removed(approx. 1 pound plus some more)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tbsp. flour
- 1 beaten egg
- ¼ cup butter
- 2/3 cup flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
Sift together sugar and 2 tbsp. flour. combine with rhubarb and beaten egg and put in a baking dish. mix together butter, 2/3 cup flour and brown sugar and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 degrees 45-50 minutes until done.
