Meat From The Jungle.

Today, September 20^th

The Pulitzer-prize winning author Upton Sinclair was born on this day in 1878. Twenty-eight years later to the day his book The Jungle was published – and what a stir it caused! Sinclair was a passionate socialist and intended his book to expose the awful working conditions of ordinary wage-earners - the victims of expoitation by greedy capitalist bosses in the meat-packing industry. His novel also described the appalling public health problems posed by the slaughterhouses - and as it turned out, this was the issue picked up by the reading public, who were outraged and vocal. A couple of sentences will suffice as examples of the situation described by Sinclair:

“ … the first cattle of the morning were just making their appearance; and so, with scarcely time to look about him, and none to speak to any one, he fell to work. It was a sweltering day in July, and the place ran with steaming hot blood - one waded in it on the floor. The stench was almost overpowering …. ”

“ … In summer the stench of the warm lard would be nauseating …”

Animal activists got plenty of ammunition too from the book too:

“The shriek was followed by another, louder and yet more agonizing - for once started upon that journey, the hog never came back; at the top of the wheel he was shunted off upon a trolley, and went sailing down the room. And meantime another was swung up, and then another, and another, until there was a double line of them, each dangling by a foot and kicking in frenzy - and squealing. The uproar was appalling, perilous to the eardrums; one feared there was too much sound for the room to hold - that the walls must give way or the ceiling crack. There were high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony; there would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax. It was too much for some of the visitors - the men would look at each other, laughing nervously, and the women would stand with hands clenched, and the blood rushing to their faces, and the tears starting in their eyes.”

There is no doubt that the public uproar over the public health issues exposed in The Jungle that contributed significantly to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. It is good to know that novelists can influence politics.

The book also did no harm to the vegetarian cause either – and after all that blood and squealing, the only suitable recipe for today is something gentle and vegetarian, don’t you think? From Mrs. Mills’ Reform Cookery (1909), here is an “instead of sausages” recipe, and it fits nicely into the Variations on a Theme of Yorkshire Pudding suggested by a recent post.

Toad-in-a-Hole.
Make the sausages the same as in previous recipe*, only using brown lentils instead of German lentils. Put in a buttered pie-dish and pour over the following

Batter.
Beat up one or two eggs. Add 3 tablespoonfuls flour, and by degrees two gills milk, also seasoning of grated onion, chopped parsley, white pepper, "Extract," &c.

*Sausages.
are made of the same ingredients as savoury brick**. Pound well in a basin, so as to have all the materials nicely blended, or put in a saucepan over gentle heat, and mash well with a wooden spoon. See that the seasoning is right. Some chopped tomatoes and mushrooms are an improvement, also some grated onion, ketchup, and "Extract." These should be put in saucepan with a little butter until lightly cooked, then the lentils, &c., should be added, the whole well mixed and turned out to cool. When quite cold, flour the hands and form into small sausages. Brush over with beaten egg and fry, or put on greased baking tin and bake till a crisp brown. They may need a little basting, or to be turned over to brown equally.

**Savoury Brick
Take about 2 teacupfuls cooked German lentils - not too moist. Put in a basin and add a cupful fine bread crumbs, and a cupful cold boiled rice or about half as much mashed potatoes. Add any extra seasoning--a little ketchup, Worcester sauce, Marmite or Carnos Extract, &c. - also a spoonful of melted butter. Mix well with a fork and bind with one or two beaten eggs, reserving a little for brushing. Shape into a brick or oval, and press together as firmly as possible. Brush over with beaten egg, put in buttered tin, and bake for half-an-hour. Or it may be put in saucepan with 1 oz. butter or Nut Butter that has been made very hot. Cover and braize for 10
minutes. Turn and cook for another 10 minutes. Add a little flour and seasoning to the butter, and then a cupful boiling water, stock, or diluted "Extract," and allow to simmer a little longer. Serve with garnish of beetroot or tomatoes.

Tomorrow’s Story …

Crime and Punishment in the Kitchen.

Quotation for the Day …

Veal is the quintessential Lonely Guy meat. There's something pale and lonely about it, especially if it doesn't have any veins. It's so wan and Kierkegaardian. You just know it's not going to hurt you. Bruce Jay Friedman, The Lonely Guy Cookbook.

Yorkshire Pudding at last!

Today, September 4^th …

I am heading off for a very brief trip down memory lane today. A flying (well, driving) visit to Yorkshire, where I spent my first 15 years, then on to Oxford by Thursday. Today’s topic is the suggestion of the most prolific commenter on this blog, the slightly mysterious and very knowledgeable lapinbizarre. The topic is very dear to my heart – Yorkshire Puddding.

Yorkshire pudding is a batter pudding traditionally served before the meat - a variation on the age-old theme of fill ‘em up with stodge before you let ‘em at the expensive stuff. The first known recipe for ‘Yorkshire Pudding’ is in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy (1747). Hannah did not invent the recipe, the concept had been around for a long time, presumably too well known for any housewife to need a written recipe and too humble to justify its own name. An earlier name for the same thing was ‘Dripping Pudding’ – a name that suggests its history, for it was originally cooked by being placed under the roasting meat (on its spit, in front of an open fire), where it absorbed the dripping fat and meat juices. When we use the term ‘roast’ now, we almost always mean ‘baked’ (in an oven), and Yorkshire Pudding is now cooked by baking – often in individual size portions.

There are two schools of thought on the modern version of baked Yorkshire Pud. One is that it should be light and puffy – and made in small tins they are the same as ‘popovers’. Heretics eat these with butter and jam. You know what they used to do with heretics, don’t you? The other traditionalists say it should be a dense batter, closer to the original thing - although without the enrichment of the constantly dripping meat juices and fat it must be a pale immitation of its former self.

A third school says that the best thing to do with Yorkshire pudding batter is to make ‘Toad in the Hole’ It is more usually made with sausages nowadays, but here is a late 18^th C version.

Toad in a Hole.
Mix a pound of flour with a pint and a half of milk and four eggs into a batter, put in a little salt, beaten ginger, and a little grated nutmeg, put it into a deep dish that you intend to send it to table in, take the veiney piece of beef, sprinkle it with salt, put it into the batter, bake it two hours, and send it up hot.
[The new art of cookery, Richard Briggs; 1792].

This minimalist old recipe does not mention the crucial thing if you want good Yorkshires – the pan must have a goodly layer of fat in it (preferably meat dripping) and it must be very hot before you put in the batter. Also – if you use sausages, it wont take 2 hours!

Tomorrow’s Story …

Going Colonial.

Quotation for the Day …

Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time. Hannah Arendt: