A Curious Peanut Menu.

I often wonder how often people really, truly, follow to the letter the menu suggestions that sometimes feature in magazines and cookbooks. They often seem unrealistic and unattainable for an ordinary cook in an ordinary kitchen with not enough time or money or domestic help, and more than enough in the way of food intolerances or prejudices or preferences to work around.

From time to time, for various reasons, meals are arranged around a particular theme, and sometimes this is a single food. There are a few examples of this sort of dinner in my book Menus From History: Historic Meals and Recipes for Every Day of the Year. One example was the ‘remarkable fish banquet’ held by the American Fish Culturists’ Association during the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, which featured 58 varieties of fish and seafood from around the world. Another was ‘The American Maize Banquet’ held by American diplomats in Copenhagen in 1893 as advance publicity for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Yet another was an ‘All Soy’ meal, held by the automobile pioneer Henry Ford (who was mildly obsessed with the soy bean) at the Ford exhibit at the Century of Progress International Exposition (‘The Chicago World Fair) in 1934.

For sheer creativity, a menu of dishes made primarily from peanuts that featured in the regular column ‘Hints for the Household’ in the New York Times edition of April 16, 1882 is hard to beat. The article began with a general discussion of the peanut, the writer noting that ‘twenty or thirty years ago our pea-nuts came chiefly from Africa’, and that ‘the bulk of the African product goes to France, whence the oil is exported as “pure olive.” He also commented on the enormous economic value of the domestic crop (specifically from Virginia) – nothing being wasted, as the residual ‘cake’ from the oil pressing was a valuable animal feed, and even the shells were used for horse bedding. Naturally, he also felt that the local peanut was superior to the African.

The ‘curious menu’ was not an actual meal eaten, it was simply a device for demonstrating the remarkable culinary versatility of the peanut. The article included recipes for every dish on the menu, and these were provided by the well-known cookbook writer of the time, Juliet Corson.

A Curious Pea-Nut Menu.

Pea-nut Soup.

Pea-nut Soup with Oysters.

Breaded Chops,with pea-nut croquettes.

Pea-nut salad.

Pea-nut souffle.

Pea-nut patties. Pea-nut cakes.

San Domingo ground-nut cakes.

Pea-nut candy Roasted pea-nuts

Pea-nut coffee.

Pea-nut Soup.
To make this dish shell three pounds of roasted nuts, rub off the dry, brown skin carefully, pound the nuts to a smooth paste in a mortar, gradually adding a tablespoonful of brandy to prevent oiling; put this paste into a saucepan, set it over the fire, and gradually stir into it two quarts of boiling water; season it palatably with salt and cayenne pepper; let it simmer gently until it thickens, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, and then serve it hot.

Pea-nut Souffle.
Line a two-quart tin mold with buttered paper, letting the paper rise two inches above the top of the mold; mix together in a saucepan three ounces of the purée of peanuts prepared as directed above [soup recipe], six ounces of flour, a saltspoonful of salt, and gradually stir in a pint and a half of milk: set the saucepan over the fire and stir its contents until they have boiled two minutes: then remove it to the side of the stove, where they will not boil, and stir for one minute: separate the yolks of seven eggs from the whites, and stir the yolks one at a time into the soufflé mixure, taking care that it does not boil; add the whites, beaten to a stiff froth, stirring them very lightly; put the soufflé quickly into the mold and bake it 20 minutes in a moderate oven. Serve it hot in the mold as soon as it is done.

Pea-nut Coffee.
The nuts must be shelled, the brown skins removed, and the kernels roasted the second time very dark brown; then, by crushing or coarsely grinding them, they can be boiled with water, affording a pleasant beverage when used with hot milk and sugar. The quantity of nuts required to make coffee of the desired strength must be decided by individual taste, but a first experiment might be made with a cupful of nuts to a quart of water.

Quotation for the Day.

No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after eating one peanut.
Channing Pollock.

A Nut by Any Other Name

October 19^th

It seems terrible that “the finest nut in the world” has all but lost its association with its country of origin. The success of Hawaii in its commercial exploitation of the macadamia has led to many people around the world believing that that it originated there. Even the linguistic association was lost when the 1932 marketing name of “Australian Nut” officially gave way to the “Macadamia Nut” in 1958 – thanks to the Queensland Department of Primary Industries.

The two edible species of the Genus Macadamia are native to a mere 600km stretch of coastal land from Grafton to Marybororough. Long before colonisation the nuts were prized by local Aboriginal people (who called it ‘Kindal-Kindal’), who also traded them and extracted the oil for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. It is the only Australian native food to be grown commercially on any significant scale.

Ludwig Leichardt (who we have met before in previous stories) is credited with collecting the first botanical specimen from near present-day Kilcoy, on September 18th 1843. That specimen is still in the Melbourne National Herbarium. At a scientific meeting in 1857 it was given its botanical name by Dr. Ferdinand von Mueller, who dedicated it to “John Macadam Esq. M.D. the talented and deserving Secretary of our Institute". Unfortunately the accompanying drawing was of the wrong plant, there was no mention of the fruit, and John Macadam (who became Post Master General in 1861) almost certainly had never eaten the nuts.

The first cultivated Macadamia was planted in 1858 in what is now the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. It was another three decades before the first orchard was established near Lismore, at about the same time as seeds were taken to California and Hawaii. By the 1920’s the industry looked promising in Australia, but it fell into a decline by the 1940’s, allowing it to be overtaken by production in Hawaii where it was better supported financially and scientifically. I

In 1998 Australia once again became the worlds biggest producer of macadamias. In view of the fact that macadamias are high in mono-unsaturated oils, perhaps we should lobby for another name change to “The Australian Health Nut” as it seems unlikely – even in these locavore days – that the name “Queensland Nut” will ever be re-instated.

As everyone with a back-yard tree knows, the incredibly hard shell is a barrier to entry to the delicious nut: it is all too easy to end up with muscle fatigue and a pile of mashed nuts+shells. Perhaps this accounts for the dearth of macadamia nut recipes in early Australian cookbooks. This recipe, from the 1930’s Australian Cookery for Today, would adapt pretty well, I think.

Nut Salad.
2 hard-boiled eggs
¼ lb shelled walnuts
1 young lettuce
¼ lb cream cheese
mayonnaise
slice onion.
Take the yolk from one egg and reserve it. Chop the remainder of the eggs finely. Wash and dry the lettuce. Rub the inside of a salad bowl with a cut onion, and put in the lettuce. Add a layer of chopped egg sprinkled with mayonnaise, then a layer of chopped nuts, and then another sprinkling of egg. Continue the layers and finish with a liberal lay of mayonnaise. Rub the egg yolk through a sieve, sprinkle it over the salad, and surround with cream cheese in small balls.

On this Topic …

The Australian Macadamia Society has an impressive archive of recipes.

Monday’s Story …

Stocking the Shelter.

Quotation for the Day …

He that eateth well, drinketh well;
he that drinketh well, sleepeth well;
he that sleepeth well, sinneth not;
he that sinneth not goeth straight through Purgatory to Paradise
William Lithgow, Rare Adventures (1614)

Hazelnut Day.

Today, January 4th …

For some reason best understood by themselves, mediaeval monks assigned a plant to each day of the year, dedicating it to the Saint of the day. The plant for today, dedicated to St. Titus was the common hazel (Corylus avellana) from which we get the common hazelnut, which is uncommonly good.

As with so many foods from the Plant Kingdom, a true understanding of the hazelnut is as confused by the language as it is revealed by it. The ‘hazelnut’ is also called the cob, cobnut, or filbert and there are both definitive statements or vague insinuations on the part of botanists, horticulturalists and cooks in various geographical locations that one or other provides better eating. Unfortunately there is no consistency in the descriptions and definitions between the various experts in various hazel-growing localities to assist those of us who simply want to ensure that we buy and eat the best variety.

Here are the opinions of two supposed experts of the Victorian era:

From ‘The Market Assistant’ (America, 1867):

Filberts: These nuts are said to be an improved variety of the common hazel-nut, but a great deal larger. The best kind is called the red filbert, known by its crimson skin; another kind, called white filbert, with a yellow white skin; and also another, called the large Spanish filbert. They are found throughout the year; but the new nuts are received only from November to February.

Hazel-nuts, or wild filberts: These are much the shape, form and color of the filbert, but are smaller, thicker shell, and better flavored. They grow on bushes, alongside the borders of the woods and fences, into a cluster of frizzled husks; and when they begin to open, or show the end of the nut, they are fit to eat. They usually appear in August and September.

From Isabella Beeton’s Household Manual (England, 1861):

HAZEL NUT AND FILBERT.--The common Hazel is the wild, and the Filbert the cultivated state of the same tree. The hazel is found wild, not only in forests and hedges, in dingles and ravines, but occurs in extensive tracts in the more northern and mountainous parts of the country. It was formerly one of the most abundant of those trees which are indigenous in this island. It is seldom cultivated as a fruit-tree, though perhaps its nuts are superior in flavour to the others. The Spanish nuts imported are a superior kind, but they are somewhat oily and rather indigestible. Filberts, both the red and the white, and the cob-nut, are supposed to be merely varieties of the common hazel, which have been produced, partly by the superiority of soil and climate, and partly by culture. They were originally brought out of Greece to Italy, whence they have found their way to Holland, and from that country to England. It is supposed that, within a few miles of Maidstone, in Kent, there are more filberts grown than in all England besides; and it is from that place that the London market is supplied. The filbert is longer than the common nut, though of the same thickness, and has a larger kernel. The cob-nut is a still larger variety, and is roundish. Filberts are more esteemed at the dessert than common nuts, and are generally eaten with salt. They are very free from oil, and disagree with few persons.

Whatever they have called them, it seems that humans have been eating hazels for millennia, and cultivating them at least since Classical times, so the relative dearth of recipes for them in historic cookbooks is surprising. John Nott does not use them in ‘The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary’ (1724), and Isabella Beeton’s only reference is to them is in “a dish of nuts”.

The ever-reliable Cassells’ Dictionary of Cookery (1870’s) comes to the rescue with a single recipe:

Hazel-nut cakes.
Mince two ounces of hazel-nuts and half an ounce of sweet almonds very finely. Add three ounces of pounded and sifted sugar, the white of an egg, beaten to a firm froth, and as much flour as will bind them together. Roll the paste out till it is a quarter of an inch thick, stamp it out in small round cakes, place these on well-buttered tins, and bake in a slow oven.

And from a very elegant era, we have this elegant cake from ‘The Gentle Art of Cookery’ (1920's) by the inimitable Mrs Leyel and Miss Hartley.

Hazel Nut Cake.
A quarter of a pound of finely ground hazel nuts, three and a half ounces of sugar, three eggs, two tablespoonfuls of dry breadcrumbs, and a quarter of a teaspoonful of baking powder.
Beat the yolks of eggs and the sugar for twenty minutes, add the nuts, the breadcrumbs , the baking-powder and the whites of the eggs whipped to a stiff snow.
Fill a buttered cake tin with the mixture and bake for half an hour (or more) in a slow oven.
When cold the cake can be iced over with coffee icing.

Tomorrow’s Story …

The Hired Help.

A Previous Story for this Day …

The iconic Australian cake, the Lamington was the feature of this day's story in 2006.

Quotation for the Day …

New Scientist magazine reported that in the future, cars could be powered by hazelnuts. That's encouraging, considering an eight-ounce jar of hazelnuts costs about nine dollars. Yeah, I've got an idea for a car that runs on bald eagle heads and Faberge eggs. Jimmy Fallon.