Historical Food Fortnightly 2016, Challenge No. 4: Sweets for the Sweet

The Challenge:
4. Sweets for the Sweet (February 12 - February 25) It’s sugar, and maybe spice, and definitely everything nice. Test out a historic recipe for sweets, sweetmeats and candies - but don’t let them spoil your appetite!

Intro
If the fellow foodies will remember, I've set an additional challenge to interpret dishes that are listed as served at the 80th Anniversary Dinner of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. The "Sucres" Course had many choices. Puddings are the staple sweet of the British household and would have brought to mind sweethearts and home to the Irish-Americans. So the first I will try from the "Sweets" course is Pouding Aux Amandes or Almond Pudding.

The Recipe:
From: Hotel Keeper's, Head Waiters', and House Keeper's  Guide by Tunis Gulic Campbell, 1848

To make a boiled Almond Pudding. --Beat a pound of sweet almonds as small as possible, with three spoonfuls of rose-water, and a gill of sack or white wine; mix in half a pound of fresh butter melted, with five yolks of eggs, and two whites, a quart of cream, a quarter of a pound of sugar, half a nutmeg grated, one spoonful of flour, and three spoonfuls of crumbs of white bread; mix all well together, and boil it. It will take half an hour boiling.

The Date/Year and Region: 
1800-1870, America

How Did You Make It:
  3.5 cups Almond Flour
  3 spoonfuls of rosewater
  0.5 cups cooking sherry
  2 sticks butter
  5 egg yolks
  2 egg whites
1 pint of cream
   0.5 cups of sugar
1/2 nutmeg
1 spoonful of flour**
3 spoonfuls breadcrumbs**

Combine wet to dry ingredients to make the batter.
**It's meant to be the consistency of "biscuit dough" and mine is definitely too wet, so I added a 1/2 cup of flour and a cup of breadcrumbs to bring it to the right consistency.**

Prepare cloth.
     Boil the cloth.
     Flour the cloth.
     Place the pudding batter in the cloth.
     Tie off tightly.

Boil the pudding.

Time to Complete: 
About 15 minutes to prepare and boiling for about an hour.

Total Cost: 
About $10.00

How Successful Was It: 
The last I made was a sloppy mess and this at least set up. It is tasty, very dense.
I used less cream and more flour and breadcrumbs. I started with almond meal rather than processing the almonds myself.

How Accurate Was It: 
I would say it's close.

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge 2016: No. 3: History Detective

The Challenge:
3. History Detective (January 29 - February 11) For this challenge, you get to be the detective! Either use clues from multiple recipes to make a composite recipe, or choose a very vague recipe and investigate how it was made.

Intro
If the fellow foodies will remember, I've set an additional challenge to interpret dishes that are listed as served at the 80th Anniversary Dinner of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. The Hors d'Oeuvre course begins with "Varies" in addition to Bouchees de gibier.

So my search begins with what was served in an hors d'oeuvre course and perhaps what might have appealed for this particular special meal.

From: The French Cook; Or, The Art of Cookery: Developed in all it's branches by Louis Eustache Ude, 1815

In France, between the dormant (centre stationary dish) and the entries, it is customary to place hors-d'oeuvres, viz. sallads of anchovies, canapes, sallad dishes filled with lemons, bitter oranges, butter, radishes, turnip radishes, of figs in autumn, what we call hors-d'oeuvres de cuisine, such as saucisses, houdins, kc. &c. which indeed give a good appearance to a table. In England it is not customary to serve hors d'oeuvres, as in very few houses, they keep a confectioner, and that the hors-d'oeuvres belong to his department.

Here's an early clue, hors d'oeuvres are a French custom not much seen in England. By extension, the United States may have been likewise slow to adopt the tradition.
It is also stated that hors d'oeuvres are made by a confectioner. So, if we'd like appropriate recipes, we should look in books for confectioners.

From: The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper's Manual by Merle & Reitch, 1842

Hors D'Oeuvres Cold
Roll
Oysters
Lemon
Butter
Radishes
Thunny
Anchovy Salad
Sardines
Pate de foie gras with truffles
Melon slice
3 Figs
Cold Artichokes with vinegar and pepper
Olives
Cornichons (cucumber)
Ham
Sausage de Lyon or d'Arles
Tongue
Hors d'Oeuvres Hot
2 Fresh Eggs
Fried Battered Oysters
Scolloped Oysters
2 Sausages broiled
2 Sausages with cabbage
2 Sausages with saurkraut
Sausage with truffles
Pig's Foot broiled
Pig's Foot dressed with truffles
Black Pudding
Ham and Spinach
Pork Chop
Pork Chop with sauce Robert
Pork Chop with tomato sauce
Pork Chop with acidic sauce
Andouillette Sausage
2 Patties

Here we have a listing of hors d'oeuvres served a la carte at the "finest" restaurants of Paris, France. Many seem to be smaller portions of entrees and made dishes, as we see today with some appetizers.

From: The household manager: being a practical treatise upon the various duties... by Charles Pierce, 1857

The ornaments, be they with or without a plateau, are, as usual, placed in the centre of the table, and the dessert is placed symmetrically around them; taste, at times, prefers that the hors-d'oeuvres be not placed upon the table, but be offered from the side table; and in such cases less of them in quantity are required.
Beautiful specimens of small china, or of glass dishes, can be brought into use to receive the hors-d'oeuvres, and impart at the same time increase of embellishment and ornament to the table.
The hors-d'oeuvres may be chosen from any of the following, or the like—as, fresh caviare, anchovies, pickled oysters, Dutch herrings, sardines, pickled tunny, prawns, lobsters, smoke-dried ham, and smoked salmon. The last two should be cut in very thin slices.

Our next clues of the emerging hors d'oeuvres tradition come from a book describing a new dining tradition, Dinner a la Russe. We learn the correct serving dish and a few dishes that were thought appropriate.


From: The Royal Cookery Book by Jules Gaffe, 1869, page 76

HORS-D'OEUVRE IN GENERAL USE
In this Chapter I give a selected list of the hors-d'oeuvre most in use in ordinary households ; it may be objected, that these belong rather to the maitre d'hotel's department, than to the cook's ; but this will not be the case in smaller establishments, where the plain cook will have to attend to these, in addition to her ordinary work; this list of hors-d'oeuvre has therefore appeared to me to have its proper place in domestic cookery.
It is customary to dish up hors-d'oeuvre in small oval dishes or flat boats.

This source goes on to list several dishes with recipes.


I'll continue my search with other published menus of the era that list hors d'oeuvres. In the focus of my quest, "Bouches de gibier" or "Bites of Game" are chosen in addition to "Varies".
From the Manhattan Club, a dinner menu from 1866 includes Petites Bouchees, A L'imperatrice or "little bites in the style of the Empress".
The next menus that include hors d'oeuvres listed in a similar manner come from the 1880s, which is 20 years later than I'd like to use.

So "bites of game" will be covered in a later post. For this one I'll do a few cold hors d'oeuvres that start the meal off well.


The Recipe:
From: The Royal Cookery Book (translated from the French) by Jules Gaffe, 1869, page 76

RADISHES
These are to be had the whole year; they should be chosen of a light red colour, small, and sound; hollow radishes are large and of a dark red. Radishes are prepared for table by cutting the leaves to a length of 1 1/2 inch; scraping off the outer skin; washing them in plenty of water, and dressing them, in a boat, with a little cold water.

OLIVES
Choose these firm and green,--the picholine are the best.
Should the olives be too salt, steep them in water for an hour; then serve them, in a boat, with cold water.
Olives that return from table should be put back in the bottle with salted water,-being careful that none remain uncovered, else they will turn black.

SARDINES
Take eight sardines out of the tin box; wipe them slightly, with a cloth; put them in a boat; garnish, with chopped parsley and capers; cover with oil,-—but on no account using that out of the box.

From: Directions for Cookery by Eliza Leslie, 1840
To Boil PRAWNS
Throw a handful of salt into a pot of boiling water. When it boils very hard, put in the prawns. Let them boil a quarter of an hour, and when you take them out lay them on a sieve to drain, and then wipe them on a dry cloth, and put them aside till quite cold.
Lay a handful of curled parsley in the middle of a dish. Put one prawn on the top of it, and lay the others all round, as close as you can, with the tails outside. Garnish with parsley.
Eat them with salt, cayenne, sweet oil, mustard and vinegar, mixed together as for lobsters.

CELERY.
Scrape and wash it well, and let it lie in cold water till shortly before it goes to table; then dry it in a cloth, trim it, and split down the stalks almost to the bottom, leaving on a few green leaves. Send it to table in a celery glass, and eat it with salt only; or chop it fine, and make a salad dressing for it.

The Date/Year and Region: 
Early to Middle 19th Century, English, French, and American use

How Did You Make It:
It was mostly plating and garnishing as directed.

Time to Complete: 
30 minutes

Total Cost: 
About $15.00

How Successful Was It: 
I think it went very well.

How Accurate Was It: 
Our tinned sardines and our shrimp/prawns are generally bought without heads, where in period the heads would have been included. Likewise the radishes were sold with the leaves already removed, where I should have used fresh cut ones. Otherwise, I think it's close.

Historical Food Fortnightly 2016, Challenge No. 1: Meat and Potatoes

The Challenge:
Meat and Potatoes
They’re a staple for the tables in the most rustic cottages as well as the fanciest banquet tables - and it’s also an idiom meaning a staple or the most basic parts of something. Make a historic “meat-and-potatoes” recipe - however you interpret it.

Intro
If the fellow foodies will remember, I've set an additional challenge to interpret dishes that are listed as served at the 80th Anniversary Dinner of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. One of the made dishes listed was Irish Stew.
Irish Stew included the "meat and potatoes" of the Irish-American diet. It would have been known (and loved) by the diners and a recognition of Old Country roots. It's inclusion in the menu was natural, though likely sending the chefs for a recipe book with a Gallic "BAF!"
Sheep were the primary meat stock of Ireland. In 1864, the meat from sheep was divided into categories based on the age of sheep at slaughter. Mutton were older sheep, over a year, and the tougher meat would benefit from a boiled and steamed preparation.
Potatoes were essential to the Irish diet and the blights of the potato crops in 1846-1848 brought many desperate emigres to America. One of the primary goals of the Friendly Sons was assistance to these early immigrants.
The rest of the Irish Stew recipe adds flavor with onions, spiced gravy, and ketchup.

So, without further ado, an Irish Stew.

The Recipe:
From: The Complete Cook by J.M.Sanderson, 1849 pub. 1864
345. Mr. Phillips's Irish Stew.
--Take five thick mutton chops, or two pounds off the neck or loin; two pounds of potatoes, peel them, and cut them in halves; six onions, or half a pound of onions, peel and slice them also. First, put a layer of potatoes at the bottom of your stew-pan, then a couple of chops and some of the onions; then again potatoes, and so on, till the pan is quite full; a small spoonful of white pepper, and about one and a half of salt, and three gills of broth or gravy, and two tea-spoonfuls of mushroom catsup; cover all very close in, so as to prevent the steam from getting out, and let them stew for an hour and a half on a very slow fire. A small slice of ham is a great addition to this dish. Great care should be taken not to let it burn.

The Date/Year and Region: 
1849-1870, Mid Atlantic United States

How Did You Make It:
Prepare the potatoes, onions, and meat.
Layer the potatoes.

Layer the meat and onions.

Prepare gravy.
Pour on the gravy, mushroom ketchup and spice.

Cover and bake at 300* for 90- 120 minutes.

Time to Complete: 
About two hours.

Total Cost: 
About $20.00, Lamb is not as cheap as it once was. :-p

How Successful Was It: 
Roomie and I think it tasted wonderful, though if I were making it again I would cook the potatoes a bit before the rest.

How Accurate Was It: 
The obvious modern equipment aside, I followed the directions fairly faithfully. I used a modern prepared gravy and my trusty bottle of Lea & Perrins for the mushroom ketchup... which may have given a more modern spice palette.

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge 2016

I couldn't just leave well enough alone in challenging myself.

This year, I dedicate my challenges to a military unit that welcomed me in, despite the times I've had them scratching their heads in confusion.
"Buck up Cupcake!"
"Well... actually "cup cake" IS period."

The 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Co. B was a member of the Irish Brigade. They were composed predominately of formerly Irish immigrants and by the end of the American Civil War were turning their recent publicity to fraternal endeavors to help fellow Irish in need. Many predominantly Irish communities founded their branches of the fraternal organization, The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, based on the organization started in Philadelphia.
  The Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland

As I was perusing a worthy transcription project, What's On the Menu, I came across a menu for the 80th anniversary dinner of the organization, given in March of 1864 at Delmonico of New York city.

This year I am using this menu for many of the challenges of the Historical Food Fortnightly. Step one was translating the French. Looks like some fun food here!

Potage (soup)
Brunoise Aux Quenelles (Brown Soup with Dumplings)

Hors D'oeuvres
Variés (A Variety)
Bouchées De Gibier ( Bites of Game)

Poisson (Fish)
Aloses Grillées, Au Vin Blanc ( Grilled Shad in White Sauce)

Releves (Removes)
Filet De Bœuf, à La Jardinière ( Filet of Beef  à La Jardinière)
Chapons, à La Reine, Aux Champignons (Capons a La Queen, with Mushrooms)

Entrees (Made Dishes)
Cailles, Sauce Périgneux (Quail with Périgneux Sauce)
Irish Stew

Rot (Roast)
Grouses

Countreflancs (On the table countering the Roast)
Galantine De Dinde Aux Truffes (Jellied Turkey with Truffles)
Salade à La Russe  (Salad in the Russian Style)
Jambon De Westphalie (Westphalia Ham)
Pâté De Gibier (Game Pate)

Entremets (Sides)
Petits Pois (New Peas)
Epinards à La Crème ( Creamed Spinach)
Haricot Verts (Green Beans)
Pommes Parisienne (Apples in the Parisian Style)

Sucres (Sweets)
Creme Au Fraises ( Strawberries and Cream)
Pouding Aux Amandes (Pudding with Almonds)
Gelee Madere (Madeira Jelly)
Macedoine De Fruits (Macedonian Fruits)
Glaces Gateaux (Ice Cream Cakes)
Pièces Montées (Confectionery Showpieces)

Fruits and Dessert

Countdown to Thanksgiving, Day 4: Breads, Rolls, and Biscuits

Today we discuss one of my late Mother's favorite bits of Thanksgiving dinner, the breads.

Breads, rolls, and biscuits are the place where family traditions carry on through the years. The smells remembered fondly. The burnt bemoaned for generations to come. Whether your tradition is yeast rolls, cornbread, loaf bread, rich buttermilk biscuits, or Pillsbury Crescents; chances are good you have a Thanksgiving memory of breads.

Breads in the 19th century went almost without comment in the Bills of Fare, but were a large portion of every recipe compilation.

Today, I will share three breads. First a twist for the 19th century palate, the French Twist. Then a nod to the cornbread that may have inspired the stuffing traditions of my friends on the Civil War Kitchen. Finally, yes, they really did make pumpkin bread and apple bread in the 19th century.

French Rolls by Martha Stewart 

From: Directions for Cookery by Eliza Leslie, 1840
French Rolls.
--Sift a pound of flour into a pan, and rub into it two ounces of butter; mix in the whites only of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and a table-spoonful of strong yeast; add sufficient milk to make a stiff dough, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Cover it and set it before the fire to rise. It should be light in an hour. Then put it on a paste-board, divide it into rolls, or round cakes; lay them in a floured square pan, and bake them about ten minutes in a quick oven.

From: Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book by Catharine Esther Beecher, 1846 pub. 1850
French Rolls, or Twists.
One quart of lukewarm milk.
One teaspoonful of salt.
A large tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast.
Flour enough to make a stiff batter.
Set it to rise, and when very light, work in one egg and two spoonfuls of butter, and knead in flour till stiff enough to roll.
Let it rise again, and when very light, roll out, cut in strips, and braid it. Bake thirty minutes on buttered tins.

Buttermilk Cornbread by Southern Living

From: Hotel Keepers, Head Waiters, and Housekeepers' Guide by Tunis Gulic Campbell, 1848
To Make Corn Bread.-- Four eggs to a quart of milk, a pound of butter to six pounds of meal. Stir well until it is about the thickness of good molasses. A tea-cupful of molasses to six pounds of meal--to which add a tea-spoonful of salaratus. Grease your pans well with butter. Put it in a good hot oven; bake three quarters of an hour.


From: The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph, 1838
Corn Meal Bread.
Rub a piece of butter the size of an egg, into a pint of corn meal--make it a batter with two eggs, and some new milk--add a spoonful of yeast, set it by the fire an hour to rise, butter little pans, and bake it.

Awesome Apple Bread by Kathy Wetzel of Food Geeks

From: The Great Western Cookbook by Angelina Maria Collins, 1851 pub. 1857
PUMPKIN BREAD.
Take two quarts of sweet pumpkin, stewed dry; two quarts of fine Indian meal, two tea-spoonsful of salt, a table-spoon heaping full of lard, and mix them up with sufficient hot water to make it of the consistence of common corn-meal dough. Set it in a warm place, two hours, to rise, and bake it in a pan, in a moderate oven. It will take an hour and a half to bake.

From: Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book by Catharine Esther Beecher, 1846 pub. 1850
Apple Bread.
Mix stewed and strained apple, or grated apple uncooked, with an equal quantity of wheat flour; add yeast enough to raise it, and mix sugar with the apple, enough to make it quite sweet. Make it in loaves, and bake it an hour and a half, like other bread.

Countdown to Thanksgiving, Day 5: Greens, Glorious Greens!

I will readily admit that the thought of vegetables at Thanksgiving left me cold when I was young. Green beans and brussels sprouts boiled to inedible mush, mushy broccoli and cauliflower with a salt lick of processed cheese food. Wilted salad greens with the dread White Dressing that reeked of fresh paint already applied liberally.
But then I grew up. I had vegetables prepared by gourmands, salad bars where I could use dressings I liked, and new and exciting preparations from foodies like me.
Now when the selections of Thanksgiving sides turns to vegetables, I'm inspired to try a few myself.

Many 19th century preparations for vegetables are very simplistic with a dressing of butter, salt, and pepper. We do see a few preparations that are more complex.

First we'll start with a dressing of green beans with a rich gravy and a savory topping that hints of the green bean casserole. A ragout is generally a gravy treatment meant to improve and impress.

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole
by Alton Brown of Good Eats

From: The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph, 1838
Ragout Of French Beans, Snaps, String Beans.
Let them be young and fresh gathered, string them, and cut them in long thin slices; throw them in boiling water for fifteen minutes; have ready some well seasoned brown gravy, drain the water from the beans, put them in the gravy, stew them a few minutes, and serve them garnished with forcemeat balls; there must not be gravy enough to float the beans.



Next we'll tackle the brussels sprouts, with a preparation with bacon and vinegar, a modern sounding recipe indeed.

Roasted Pictsweet Brussels Sprouts by Serious Eats

From: The Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan, 1839
Sprouts, And Other Young Greens,
Should be boiled in every respect like turnip sallad, served warm with bacon, and seasoned at table with salt, pepper, and vinegar. All kinds of sallad should be thouroughly washed in two waters, otherwise it will be gritty.



Finally we reach the promised Cauliflower Macaroni. Many modern cooks are looking for alternatives to pasta. Imagine my surprise to find a 19th century recipe that does too.

Cauliflower "Mac" and Cheese by George Stella,  Food Network

From: The Lady's Receipt Book by Eliza Leslie, 1848
Cauliflower Maccaroni
--Having removed the outside leaves, and cut off the stalk, wash the cauliflower, and examine it thoroughly to see if there are any insects about it. Next lay it for an hour in a pan of cold water. Then put it into a pot of boiling milk and water that has had a little fresh butter melted in it. Whatever scum may float on the top of the water must be removed before the cauliflower goes in. Boil it, steadily, half an hour, or till it is quite tender. Then take it out, drain it, and cut it into short sprigs. Have ready three ounces of rich, but not strong cheese, grated fine. Put into a stew-pan a quarter of a pound of fresh butter; nearly half of the grated cheese; two large table-spoonfuls of cream or rich milk; and a very little salt and cayenne. Toss or shake it over the fire, till it is well mixed, and has come to a boil. Then add the tufts of cauliflower; and let the whole stew together about five minutes. When done, put it into a deep dish; strew over the top the remaining half of the grated cheese, and brown it with a salamander or a red hot shovel held above the surface.
This will be found very superior to real maccaroni.

So no need to skip the veggies at Thanksgiving this year. Spice, sauce, and cooking times mean the mush is a thing of the past. Dig in! Delicious!

Countdown to Thanksgiving, Day 6: Spuds- the Mighty Meal Maker

The 19th century dinner was incomplete without potatoes. They enjoyed their rice heartily and every housewife and chef had a noodle recipe, but a meal without potatoes was just... well, it just isn't done, Dear!

Miss Leslie advises, in her 1848 work The Lady's Receipt Book,
*There is no necessity for repeating the mention of potatoes. It will of course be understood that potatoes should constitute a portion of every dinner.

 A look at the options for potatoes include so many of our classic preparations: baked, roasted, sliced and fried, grated and fried (recommended for breakfast), and mashed with butter and cream. The usual spices include butter, salt, and pepper.
They also include a few preparations that take the modern reader by surprise.

From: The Presbyterian Cookbook by First Presbyterian Church of Dayton Ohio, 1877
Potato Pie.
Mrs. Lucy Green.
Scald one quart of milk; grate in four large potatoes, and four ounces of butter, while the milk is hot. When cold, add four eggs well beaten; spice and sweeten to your taste; bake with under crust.

Chantilly Potatoes with Parmesan Crust by Maria Guarnaschelli 

If you prefer a savory pudding...
From: The Housekeeper's Assistant by Ann Allen, 1845
Baked Potato Pudding.
12 oz. of boiled potato skinned and mashed,
1 oz. of suet,
1 oz. of cheese grated fine,
1 gill of milk.
Mix the potatoes, suet, milk, cheese, and all together; if not of a proper consistence, add a little water. Bake it in an earthen pan.

...or if you prefer a sweet pudding...

From: Directions for Cookery by Eliza Leslie, 1840
Potato Pudding.
 --Boil a pound of fine potatoes, peel them, mash them, and rub them through a cullender. Stir together to a cream, three quarters of a pound of sugar and the same quantity of butter. Add to them gradually, a wine glass of rose water, a glass of wine, and a glass of brandy; a tea-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon, a grated nutmeg, and the juice and grated peel of a large lemon. Then beat six eggs very light, and add them by degrees to the mixture, alternately with the potato. Bake it three quarters of an hour in a buttered dish.

In one of the earliest cookbooks featuring uniquely American foods, the recipe for Potato Pudding will work equally well for Yams, Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin, Crookneck Squash, and Winter Squash.

From: American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, 1798
A Crookneck, or Winter Squash Pudding.
Core, boil and skin a good squash, and bruize it well; take 6 large apples, pared, cored, and stewed tender, mix together; add 6 or 7 spoonsful of dry bread or biscuit, rendered fine as meal, half pint milk or cream, 2 spoons of rose-water, 2 do. wine, 5 or 6 eggs, beaten and strained, nutmeg, salt and sugar to your taste, one spoon flour, beat all smartly together, bake.
The above is a good receipt for Pompkins, Potatoes or Yams, adding more moistening or milk and rose water, and to the two latter a few black or Lisbon currants, or dry whortleberries scattered in, will make it better.

*********************************
Potato's sweeter cousin, sweet potatoes and yams are returning to the historic preparations in the modern search for lighter preparations. Sweet Potatoes truly embody the "everything old is new again."

From: Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book by Catherine Esther Beecher, 1850
Sweet Potatoes.
The best way to cook sweet potatoes is to bake them with their skins on. When boiled, the largest should be put in first, so as to have all cook alike. Drain them and dry them, then peel them. They are excellent sliced and fried for breakfast next day; much better than at first.

Sweet Potato "Fries" by Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa