Roast Chicken, Different.

Roast chicken. Almost no-one actually dislikes it. Universally liked, however, commonly equates with rather uninspiring. For your next roast chicken party, you could do worse than take inspiration from a cookery book written in Germany in 1553, by a woman called Sabina Welserin. Your dinner will be colourful as well as being sixteenth-century in concept – and a pretty good conversation topic too!

A dish in various colors.

A dish, in which each part has a different color, is made like so: Roast chickens on a spit, but do not put them too close together. And when they are roasted, make six colors, the white is made like so: Take an egg white, put a little flour into it, make a thin batter. Brown is made like so: Take sour cherry jam, make a brown batter with eggs and flour. The yellow make like so: Take egg yolks, some wheat flour, saffron and three or four eggs, out of which make a batter. Green is made as follows: Take parsley, and strain it together with eggs through a cloth, put flour with it and make a batter. Black, take flour and eggs, make a paste out of it, put powdered cloves therein which have steeped overnight in beaten eggs, put enough into it, so that it becomes truly black. When you have made the five colors after this fashion, then baste each chicken with its color and take care that it is no longer too hot. And when the color is dry and adheres, then draw the chickens off the spit and lay them next to the other roasted meats on a dish.

Welserin initially suggests she is going to give recipes for six colours, but only gives five. Perhaps the sixth colour is the plain roast brown?  Other than the white colour, the food ‘paints’ sound pretty tasty too, I think.

There are other good-old ideas in this medieval cookery book, so we will visit it again tomorrow.

Quotation for the Day.

I love chicken. I would eat chicken fingers on Thanksgiving if it were socially acceptable

Todd Barry.

Making Moonshine.

There are a number of ways of putting moonshine on your dinner table, and today I want to suggest some recipes so you can do just that.

The Oxford English Dictionary must be our starting point if we are to understand how a celestial event and a dinner dish share the same name. Moonshine - the light of the moon - is only reflected light after all, so perhaps this is the explanation for one of the other uses of the word – to mean something ‘unsubstantial or unreal’. Gazing at the moon is also, perhaps, a ‘pleasant distraction’, which, according to the OED is also ‘moonshine.’

Sometimes we only glimpse the moon as pale yellow fragments hidden behind clouds – hence, perhaps the well-known dish ‘Eggs in Moonshine.’ The OED tells us this is ‘a dish consisting of egg yolks on a sweet base, popular in the 16th and 17th centuries.’ Such a dish is surely also a pleasant distraction?

In a post some long time ago, I gave you a sixteenth century recipe for this dish: I repeat it here to set the scene for the remainder of the interpretations of the idea.

To make egges in moneshyne.

Take a dyche of rosewater and a dyshe full of suger, and set them upon a chaffyngdysh, and let them boyle, than take the yolkes of viii [8] or ix [9] egges newe layde and putte them therto everyone from other, and so lette them harden a lyttle, and so after this maner serve them forthe and cast a lyttle synamon and sugar upon them.

Proper New Booke of Cokerye (1545)

The following version, from a century later, is not sweetened. I do love the phrase ‘on a bed of butter’ because it is surely not to be found anywhere in modern cookery books.

Egs in the moon shine with creame.

Make a bed of butter in your dish, and break your eggs over it, after they are broken, season them with salt, then put some creame to them until they be hidden, or some milk, so that it be good, seeth them, and give them colour with the fire-shovel red, then serve.

The French Cook (1653), by la Varenne

And a different version from the same century, but from England this time, with onions

Eggs in Moonshine.

Break them in a dish upon some butter and oyl, melted or cold, strow on them a little salt, a set them on a chafing dish of coals, make not the yolks two [sic] hard, and in the doing cover them, and make a sauce for them of an onion cut into round slices, and fryed in sweet oyl or butter, then put to them veryjuyce, grated nutmeg, a little salt, and so serve them.

The Accomplish’t Cook (1660) Robert May.

May has several versions of Eggs in Moonshine: this one is quite different – it is very sweet and would have been fragrant from the ambergris and cinnamon – almost an egg candy, perhaps.

Otherwayes.

Make a sirrup of rosewater, sugar, sack or white wine, make it in a dish and break the yolks of the eggs as whole as you can, put them in the boiling sirrup with some ambergreece, turn them and keep them one from the other, make them hard, and serve them in a little dish with sugar and cinnamon.

As time went on, the style of the dish changed, as is wont to happen, and by the eighteenth century. Moonshine also applied to ‘any of various sweet, usually light puddings, often made of blancmange, meringue, etc., originally sometimes formed in a moon-shaped mould.’

Moon-shine.

First have a Piece of Tin made in the Shape of a Half-Moon as deep as a Half-pint Bason, and one in the shape of a large Star, and two or three lesser ones. Boil two Calf’s Fee in a Gallon of Water till it comes to a Quart, then strain it off, and when cold skin off all the Fat, take Half the Jelly and sweeten it with Sugar to your Palate, beat up the Whites of four Eggs, stir all together over a slow Fire till it boils, then run it through a Flannel Bag till clear, put it in a clean Sauce-pan, and take an Ounce of sweet Almonds blanched and beat very fine in a Marble Mortar, with two Spoonfuls of Rose Water and two of Orange-Flower Water; then strain through a coarse Cloth, mix it with the Jelly, stir in four large Spoonfuls of thick Cream, stir it all together till it boils, then have ready the dish you intend it for, lay the Tin in the Shape of a Half-Moon in the Middle, and the Stars round it; lay little Weights on the Tin to keep them in the Places you would have them lye, then pour in the above Blanc Manger into the dish, and when it is quite cold take out the Tin Things, and mix the other Half of the Jelly with Half a Pint of good White Wine and the Juice of two or three Lemons, with Loaf-sugar enough to make it sweet, and the Whites of eight Eggs beat fine; stir all together over a low fire till it boils, then run it through a Flannel Bag till it is quite clear into a China Bason, and very carefully fill up the places where you took the Tin out; let it stand till cold, and send it up to table.

Note, You may for a Change fill the Dish with a fine thick Almond Custard, and when it is cold fill up the Half-Moon and Stars with the clear Jelly.

The rather odd-sounding step of laying ‘little weights on the tin to keep them in the Places you would have them lye’ is necessary because the tins would have been the bare outlines, without bases – much like large cookie cutters. These would have needed to sit firmly on the dish so that the blancmange mixture did not run out. Once the mixture was set, the tins were carefully lifted off, and the sauce (the second step) carefully poured around the shapes. Metal moulds or cake tins as we know them today were only made possible with the improvements in metal technology which took place during the Industrial Revolution.

Here is a much easier version (especially with the aid of electric beaters) which is indeed a light pudding, but which also hints at the moon shining through clouds. If you are unafraid of uncooked meringue, this may be for you.

Moonshine.

This dessert combines a pretty appearance with palatable flavour, and is a convenient substitute for ice cream. Beat the whites of six eggs in a broad plate to a very stiff froth, then add gradually six tablespoons of powdered sugar (to make it thicker use more sugar up to a pint), beating for not less than thirty minutes, and then beat in about one heaping tablespoon of preserved peaches, cut in tiny bits and put on ice until thoroughly chilled. In serving, pour in each saucer some rich cream sweetened and flavored with extract of vanilla, and on the cream place a liberal portion of moonshine. This quantity is enough for seven or eight persons.

Progressive Cookery, (San Francisco,1892) E. Hinckley

There is another type of ‘moonshine’ of course, though strangely, it is not included in the Oxford English Dictionary. Moonshine also refers to illegally distilled spirits. The name comes from the necessity for secrecy in its production and distribution – night-time being giving the best chance of success. I do not include a recipe for this type of moonshine, as I have no wish to assist the disintegration of your liver, or get you a jail sentence.

Quotation for the Day.

Oh, God above, if heaven has a taste it must be an egg with butter and salt, and after the egg is there anything in the world lovelier than fresh warm bread and a mug of sweet golden tea?

Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes (1996)

Hog Killing Time.

Today I give you in its entirety, an article from a ‘lady correspondent’ to Dr. Cloud’s Southern Rural Magazine: The American Cotton Planter and the Soil of the South, (Montgomery, ALA, 1859.) 

Merely reading this made me very exhausted but exceedingly grateful for modern labour-saving devices, refrigerators, and local butchers.

Valuable Domestic Recipes.

Dear Sir: - I notice with delight your encouragement to lady correspondents, and wishing some information, hasten to do my part towards filling the columns of that department. During the long silence which has ensued since my appearance in your magazine, I have been from home, (which, by the by, is something unusual for Betty, but nevertheless true) and have, as usual, been a silent observer of what has transpired around me. I acknowledge myself surprised and grieved at the ignorance of young house-keepers of common every day affairs; I find they know a little front door management, but lack sadly a knowledge of domestic duties.

Now I hope they will not think me an unpleasant, grumbling, faultfinder, but will understand that what I say is from a desire of aiding them. With this in view, I offer for their benefit a few practical receipts, hoping they will give them a trial. Before proceeding to give them, I have several enquiries to make. I notice that Mrs. Linn obtained a prize for honey; will she not give your readers her management of bees? I attempted it last year, but failed, as the moths destroyed them. My next is to up country subscribers. Do they succeed in raising okra? I succeeded admirably in the southern part of the State, but fail to make enough here for family use, and am scarcely able to keep seed. Will any lady furnish me with a good receipt for wafers?

As hog killing time is at hand, I must give you a peep into the yard where Betty presides. Just imagine me, with a long wide apron, almost covering a dark warm dress, as I strive to be a great economist. I think I can recommend my apron - its size would put to shame the scraps worn by fashionables; a bonnet, and a pair of buckskin gloves, minus half of the fingers, complete my costume. You will find me seated near a large bucket, with a limb cut with prongs in my hands, stirring the blood as it is brought from the pen and emptied into the bucket, I stir until it is cold, add a little salt and set aside for use. Then Betty goes nearer the scene of slaughter, superintending the cutting, cleaning, &c, aforesaid lady goes rapidly from place to place, as her progress is not impeded by traveling skirts, and hoops. As all are familiar with the cutting up of hogs, I pass on to separating this fat from the entrails, this is cut off, dropped into a vessel of clean fresh water, washed out and laid on a clean cloth to drain; this mode prevents any unpleasant odor. The entrails are then cleaned and put into clean water, which is repeatedly changed for several days. The back-bones spare ribs, &c, are cut up, the skins from the back bones arc cut off, scraped, soaked and put on to boil the fat from them is cut up into nice bits of sausage meat, the feet and ears are scraped soaked all night and put on to boil.

Leaving the slaughter pen, I proceed to the kitchen superintending the numerous dishes that appear on the table in this feasting season. The heads are well and thoroughly boiled, then trimmed of nice lean bits as will make mince pies, which are superior to those made of other meats - the grissly portions are well mashed and seasoned, put into a pan or bowl, and a weight placed on it for hogshead cheese. The ears and feet, after hard boiling, are set aside until cold, then fried in a batter of eggs, flour, milk, pepper and salt. The brains are scalded, an egg or so stirred with them, making an excellent breakfast dish. The back-bones are either nicely browned, with gravy, or made into a back-bone pie. Spare-ribs arc barbecued brown and savory with vinegar, pepper, &c. Lights, hearts, and as many of the livers as are not wanted for immediate use, are put on, boiled all day, mashed together and seasoned for liver puddings. Chitterlings are after long soaking, cleansing and boiling all day, allowed to get cold, then shred up and served hot, with butter, vinegar, pepper and salt; this is a dish that cannot be excelled but by oysters. Windpipes are, after boiling until tender, served up same way. After the skins from the back-bones are boiled until they can be torn to pieces with a fork, they are mixed with boiled rice, well-seasoned, then thinned with the blood; the entrails, after due preparation are filled with the mixture and dropped into boiling water, boil them until when you stick a fork into them, grease will ooze out instead of blood, the links are then placed on clean sticks in the smoke house over a slow smoke, these are black puddings.

I find that I manage ray sausage meat differently from most persons. On a clean table is placed the stuffer and grinder, seasoning of sage, thyme, cloves, pepper, salt, &c, the meat, composed of nice lean bits and the fat from the back-bones, is placed off into small groups of about a quart in each, and seasoned before grinding, it is so well blended in this way, that nothing predominates, and has the advantage of not being so tiresome; then with the stuffer fill the entrails, tie in links and place them with the black puddings over a smoke, or make the meat out into patties and fry immediately. Take from the fit which has been dried up a few nice cracklings, mix with grated potatoes, a little sugar and eggs, bake in a pone, when cold slice and fry.

Last of all I collect the hair from the pen, and place on my Irish potatoes before evening. I venture to say not many of your readers put the hog to so many different purposes. Now comes the utility of my huge apron, dropping it at the wash tub, I appear in the family circle in a clean dress.

Do your readers have many dishes from the potatoe. I have already mentioned potatoe pone. Potatoe cakes are quite a delicacy. Grate the potatoes, mix with them several eggs, milk, and a lump of butter, grease tho oven, place them in with a spoon, bake with a lid, serve hot with butter.

Potatoe biscuit are also great favorites. Boil the potatoes, mix with lard and very little flour, make out and bake as usual.

Mackerel and potatoes: Mix boiled mackerel and Irish potatoes in equal proportions, make out into patties and fry.

Have you ever eaten an imitation of Macaroni called nodles [sic]? Break the yolks of three eggs into a tray, knead flour into them until you have a stiff dough, roll out in a thin sheet, rub flour over it and roll it over on itself like a roll of paper, cut it across in strips about one half inch wide, throw them about in flour until they will not slick together, put them in a vessel containing about one quart and a half of boiling water, when boiled done, add cream, butter, pepper and salt, or cheese, butter and cream. If you try this last dish, I think you will find it to equal Italian macaroni. Another imitation is to take a plate of cold hominy, a couple of eggs and a fourth of a pound of cheese, mix hominy and eggs well, then add the crumbled cheese, smooth over with butter, sprinkle flour and bake brown.

An Excellent Cake. - One pound of flour, one of sugar, one half pound of butter, six eggs, one teaspoonfull of soda, two of cream of tartar dissolved in a cup of buttermilk. Beat the yolks and whites separately, adding the sugar to the yolks.

I have already been too lengthy for one communication, but you can select what you think worthy of a place in your excellent magazine. Wishing you a prosperous ending of the old year and a brighter prospect for the new, I am, 

Yours respectfully,

                        Betty Taylor
 

Quotation for the Day.

`Hog's my feed,' said Andrew Hedger . . .`Ah could eat hog a solid hower.'

George Meredith.

Gammon-Bread.

I have a good old idea for you today – an old idea begging to be rediscovered. Or did the idea really go away? The idea of a stuffed bread roll or small loaf can be interpreted in many ways - as a hamburger for example, or the now perhaps slightly passé picnic muffuletta. I don’t believe however that I have seen today’s idea of a loaf stuffed with ham to be served in a ragoo or potage, in any recent cookery magazines. There is no such thing as a new recipe of course, so perhaps it the following recipe is merely the elegant, labour- and ingredient-intensive ancestor of the modern ‘soup and sandwich’ meal?

The idea comes from the Court and Country Cook (1702) by Frances Massialot (translated from the French by J.K.)

There are several Side-dishes call’d Pains, i.e. Loaves, as being made of Bread stuff’d with different sorts of Farces; such are the Pains of Gammon, Partridge, Veal, and the Spanish Pain.

To make a Gammon-Pain.

Let some Slices of Gammon be dress’d in the same manner as for Gammon-esssence, already described in the first Article of Gammon, under the Letter G; except that you must not put any Mushrooms to them, nor strain them thro’ a Sieve. If your Slices, when dress’d, are not sufficiently thicken’d, a little Bread-cullis may be added to bring them to a due Consistence: Then, having provided a Potage-loaf, cut thro’ the middle, so as both the upper and under Crusts may remain entire; take away the Crum from the inside, and let the rest of the Loaf be toasted and brought to a colour at the Fire, or in an Oven, till it become brown. When it is ready, joyn the two Crusts together in a little Dish, after having soak’d them a little in the Sauce; and put your Ragoo into it with the Sauce. It may be garnish’d with Capon-livers dress’d in a Veal-caul, and serv’d up amongst the Intermesses.

And here are the author’s instructions for the gammon-essence referred to in the above recipe.

Gammon.

Take small Slices of raw Gammon; let them be well beaten and toss’d up in a Stew-pan, with a little Lard:Then set them over a Chafing-dish, and by the means of a Spoon, bring them to a brown colour, with a little Flower. As soon as they are colour’d put to them a good Gravy, a bunch of Chibbols and fine Herbs, a few Cloves, a clove of Garlick, some Slices of Lemmon, a Handful of chopt Mushrooms, Truffles likewise minc’d, some Crusts of Bread and a little Vinegar: When they are all sufficiently boil’d, strain them thro’ a Sieve, and put this Liquor or Gravy into a convenient Place, without suffering it to boil any longer. It will be of use for the dressing of all sorts of Dishes in which Gammon is us’d.

Quotation for the Day.

Nouvelle Cuisine, roughly translated, means: I can't believe I paid ninety-six dollars and I'm still hungry.

Mike Kalin

Things to do with Leaves.

I recently posted a story about the use of blackcurrant leaves in cooking, and my interest in the use of leaves in this way has been really piqued. The fruit from the tree or the vine is usually our focus, and most of us, if we think at all about the leaves from these plants, might pause and acknowledge them as a convenient, bio-degradable and edible wrapper for some ‘real’ food – such as dolmas (dolmades,) but that is about all.

Here is an idea in which the leaves have the sole starring role – even if they do get into the act only when the fruit harvest is not a reality for some reason. Why waste a growing season? If you cant make grape wine, make grape-leaf wine.

Vine Leaves, Wine from.

Gather the leaves when young, weigh them, wash them, and drain them. As the stems are full of flavour, they must on no account be picked from the leaves. Place them in a large tub, and pour upon them boiling water in the proportion of two gallons of water to ten pounds of leaves. Let them infuse for twenty-four hours. Drain them, and press the leaves strongly to extract all the juice from them. Pour an additional gallon of water upon them, and again press them. Dissolve in the mixed liquor sugar and tartar, allowing seven pounds of sugar and one ounce of tartar for every ten pounds of leaves. Cover the tub with a blanket, place a board upon that, and leave the liquor in a warm situation for some hours. Draw it off into the small cask in which it is to ferment, and each day add a little of the superfluous juice, so as to keep the liquor near the bung-hole. When the fermentation ceases, which will be when the hissing sound grows less, drive in the bung, and, and bore a hole by its side for the vent-peg. This peg may be loosened a little every two days for ten days, to keep the wine in a cool cellar till December. Rack it into a fresh cask, and bottle during March. The leaves of vines from which no fruit is expected may be utilised in this way.

Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery (London, 1870s).

There are other interesting ways to use vine leaves too. Here is an idea from The Experienced English Housekeeper (1747), by Elizabeth Raffald.

To Preserve Gooseberries Green.

Take green walnut gooseberries when they are full grown, and take out the seeds, put them in cold water, cover them close with vine leaves, and set them over a slow fire; when they are hot take them off, and let them stand and when they are cold set them on again until they are pretty green, then put them on a sieve to drain, and have ready a syrup made of a pound of double refined sugar, and half a pint of spring water; the syrup is to be cold when the gooseberries are put in, and boil them till they are clear, then set them by a day or two, then give them two or three scalds, and put them into pots or glasses for use.

Mrs Raffald also uses vine leaves in her recipes for preserves of codlings, apricots, grapes, pineapples, mustard sprigs, mangoes, cucumbers, and green-gages. Initially I assumed this was to add flavour, but it appears that their use helped develop the preferred green colour of pickles. It would certainly have been safer than the old advice to make pickles in a pot made of copper, which, in the presence of the acid from the fruit or vinegar, created a beautiful deep green colour due to highly poisonous copper sulphate. In her recipe for preserved green-gages, Mrs Raffald says ‘‘If you would have them green, scald them with vine leaves …’

In the following recipe, Mrs Raffald wraps each walnut in a vine leaf, and also uses the leaves in the brining process.

To Preserve Walnuts Green.

Take large French Walnuts when they are a little larger than a good nutmeg, wrap every walnut in vine leaves, tie it round with a string, then put them into a large quantity of salt and water, let them lie in it for three days, then put them in fresh salt and water, and let them lie in that for three days longer, then take them out, and lay a large quantity 'of vine leaves in the bottom of your pan, then a layer of Walnuts, then vine leaves; do so till the pan is full, but take great care the Walnuts do not touch one another; fill your pan with hard water, with a little bit of roach allum, set it over the fire till the pan is very hot, but do not let it boil, take it off, let them stand in the water till it is quite cold, then set them over the fire again: when they are green take the pan off the fire, and when the water is quite cold take out the walnuts, lay them on a sieve a good distance from each other, have ready a thin syrup boiled and skimmed; when it is pretty cool put in your walnuts, let them stand all night; the next day give them several scalds, but do not let them boil, keep your preserving pan close covered, and when you see that they look bright, and, a pretty colour, have ready made a rich syrup of fine loaf sugar with a few slices of ginger, and two or three blades of mace, scald your Walnuts in it, put them in small jars, with paper dipped in brandy over them, tie them down with bladders, and keep them for use.

Quotation for the Day.

Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress.

Charles Pierre Monselet

Kitchen DIY: Vinegar.

Flavoured vinegars are expensive to buy but easy to make – at least, they are easy to make if you start with plain vinegar and simply infuse your chosen flavouring ingredient.  Of course, if you really get a buzz out of ‘doing it yourself’ in the kitchen, and you take the phrase ‘from scratch’ very seriously, you can start by making your vinegar plant. The principle is exactly the same as that of using a sourdough starter for your bread. Here is one version:

Vinegar made with a Vinegar Plant.

The vinegar plant itself may be made thus produced: - Take a solution of quarter of a pound of sugar and half a pound of treacle in three quarts of water, simmer it, then pour it into a jar, cover it up, and keep it in a warm place for six weeks. The liquid will become vinegar, and on the top will form a scum-like fungus, which is the vinegar plant. By adding a piece of this to a similar solution, the process of conversion into vinegar will now take place in much less time. During the process, the plant thickens by the formation of a new layer on its under surface, and by peeling off this layer and using it on a fresh operation, the plant may be propagated indefinitely. The vinegar plant is a fungus somewhat resembling known by the name of mould. It forms a flocculent mass or web, which is tough and crust-like, or leathery. It is found on decaying bodies, and in fluids undergoing the acetouis fermentation, which it greatly promotes, and which, indeed, it very readily occasions – a small piece placed in sugar and water soon changing it into vinegar.

Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery (London, 1870s).

Here are a couple more methods, from Godey’s Magazine (Philadelphia, 1840)

Household Vinegars.- Vinegar is an article perpetually wanted in a family, and to buy it is expensive. The good housekeeper should prepare her own.

Sugar Vinegar. -To every gallon of water put two pounds of coarse brown sugar. Boil and skim urn. Put it to cool in a clean tub; when about lukewarm, add a slice of bread soaked in fresh yeast. Barrel it in a week, and set it in the sun in summer or by the fire in winter, for six months, without stopping the bung-hole; but cover it with thin canvas or an inverted bottle to keep out the flies.

Cider Vinegar.- Put a pound of white sugar to a gallon of cider, and, shaking them well together, let them ferment for four months; a strong and well coloured vinegar will be the result.

Now you have your basic vinegar, you can flavour as you wish, and increase the variety of your salads and pickles. Also from Godey’s Magazine, here are a few ideas to inspire you:

Flavoured Vinegars.- These are cheap and agreeable additions to sauces, hashes, &c. Infuse a hundred red chilies, fresh gathered, into a quart of good vinegar; let them stand ten days, shaking the bottle every day. A half ounce of cayenne will answer the same purpose. This is good in melted butter for fish sauce, &c.

Celery Vinegar. - Pound a half ounce of celery seed, and steep it for ten days in a quart of vinegar; strain and bottle it.

Horse-radish Vinegar.- Pour a quart of strong vinegar, boiling hot, on three ounces of scraped horse-radish and a teaspoonful of pounded black Pepper, and half the quantity of cayenne. Let it stand four days, tightly covered, then strain, and put it in the cruet for use. It is good on cold roast beef, and  excellent in the gravy for chops, steaks, &c.

Cucumber Vinegar.- Pare and slice ten large cucumbers, and steep them in three pints of the best vinegar for a few days. Strain and bottle it.

Previous Kitchen DIY posts:

DIY condensed milk.

DIY: margarine.

Quotation for the Day.

Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks.

Marilyn Wann