I can remember quite distinctly the time I heard about the American delight called ‘popovers’, and looked up a recipe – to find that my mother used to make them when I was growing up in the North of England. They were small Yorkshire Puddings, eaten cold with butter and jam or golden syrup. They did not have a special name, and they were never made especially to eat in this way, we only got them if there were any left over from serving with the roast beef.
Plain batter and suet puddings were a common accompaniment to meat dishes in previous times, the starchy bulk helping fill to out the meal and reduce the amount of expensive protein needed to go around. There is no doubt that early English settlers in the American colonies took their recipes with them, and adapted them - and renamed them – in their new home. The everyday batter pudding which was usually put in a dish under the joint of meat cooking on a spit in front of the fire was placed in small cups one day, presumably for some reason of necessity, and in the baking the batter rose and ‘popped’ over the top of the cups – and Voila! Popovers were born.
The name ‘popovers’ first appeared in print in 1850, but this was in a piece of correspondence, not a cookery book. Actual cooking practices, especially of ordinary everyday items of food, usually pre-date the first mention, sometimes by a considerable period of time, so it is reasonable to assume that popovers were known well before this date. For the first known recipe, we have to wait until 1876, for the publication of Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving (1876) by Mary Newton Henderson. Here is the recipe:
Breakfast Puffs, or Pop-overs (Mrs. Hopkins)
Ingredients: Two cupfuls of milk, two cupfuls of flour, two eggs, and an even tea-spoonful of salt.
Beat the eggs separately and well, and the whites last, and then beat well together. They may be baked in roll-pans, or deep gem-pans, which should be heated on the range, and greased before the batter is put in: they should be filled half full with the batter. Or they may be baked in tea-cups, of which eight would be required for this quantity of batter. When baked, serve immediately. For Graham gems use half Graham flour.
The recipe for batter has remained the same for centuries, and this is essentially Yorkshire Pudding batter. No-one would have considered fiddling with the recipe when I was growing up – where was the need? Not all cooks in all places felt the same way, however, and the lily has ultimately been gilded in various ways. I give you several versions from The 3-6-5 cook book, for use 365 days in the year (1899), by Mary Shelley Pechin.
POPOVERS - 1.
Pastry flour is the most desirable, but the best bread flour will do. Sift two cups of flour with half a teaspoonful of salt. Add gradually two cups of milk, and when a smooth batter has been obtained mix in two eggs without separating the whites and yolks. Add a teaspoonful of butter, melted. Beat the batter thoroughly; pour it at once into the cups of stoneware, well-buttered. Do not fill the cups more than half full. Bake the cakes in a quick oven until, true to their name, they rise far above the edges of the cups and hang over them in a rich, brown crust. These cakes are nice for breakfast when served with either maple syrup or cream sauce ; or may be eaten like a muffin, with butter. They are often served as a plain dessert with sweetened cream.
POPOVERS - 3.
One pint of milk, one pint of flour, two eggs. Beat eggs separately and add milk and flour ; mix thoroughly and add one saltspoonful of salt. Bake in small pans, and fill half full ; the pans must be hot when the mixture is put in.
GRAHAM POPOVERS.
Half a pint of sifted Graham flour, half a pint of sifted wheat flour, one tablespoonful of sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a teaspoonful of butter, melted. Beat the whites and yolks together and beat the batter vigorously with a patent egg-beater. Pour the batter into buttered cups of stoneware. They should rise, like all popovers, to four times their original size. If they are baked in an ordinary muffin pan or even in a heated iron gem pan, they will not rise in this way. Wheat popovers are light and about double in
bulk baked in gem pans ; in stone cups they are four times the bulk.
RYE POPOVERS.
Rye meal from which Boston brown bread is made, is used, not rye Hour. Mix an even cup and a half of rye meal with an even cup of wheat flour; add a tablespoonful of sugar and half a teaspoonful of salt. Pour over these dry ingredients a pint of milk, mixing it to a smooth batter. Add three eggs, whites and yolks together. Beat the batter thoroughly and pour into a dozen stoneware cups well buttered. Bake the cakes in an oven that is very hot for the first twenty minutes; then reduce the heat and bake them from twenty to thirty minutes longer.
The same book also has this interesting variation. I assume the name is intended to reflect the white, snowy appearance.
LAPLAND CAKES.
Lapland cakes are a peculiar, delicate, delicious cake of the popover kind. They are made with a much larger quantity of eggs than the ordinary wheat popovers. Beat the yolks of five eggs thoroughly with the patent egg-beater and stir them into a pint of sweet cream. Do not use a heavy cream for this purpose, but a light quality. Pour the mixture on a pint and a quarter of pastry flour sifted with half a teaspoonful of salt ; beat the batter well with a patent egg-beater and fold in carefully the whites of five eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Fill buttered cups of stoneware half full and bake the cakes three-quarters of an hour in a quick oven.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
A Classical Dinner, 1904.
There were many events, held at
many restaurants, during the Louisiana Fair in 1904. On this day, in that year,
at that great event, a group of doctors - perhaps from a local medical society –
sat down to dinner. This is the menu for their meal:
Caviar
on Toast
Celery
----
Consomme
en Tasse
Olives Radishes
---
Baked
Fillet of Halibut Italienne
Cucumbers Potatoes Noisette
---
Sweetbreads
Larded Toulouse
French
Peas Moet
et Chandon White Seal
---
Punch
---
Filet of
Beef Richelieu
Brussels
Sprouts
---
Salad
---
Ice
Cream
Assorted
Cakes
---
Cheese
and Crackers
---
Mocha
In the tradition of such dinners
in that era, there was nothing disturbingly innovative or fancily foreign on
the menu. A fine meal was one of classical dishes, cooked well, served in the
usual sequence with the expected side dishes, garnishes, and sauces. If the
diners got bored with the same old, same old dinners, no-one seemed to
complain. I wonder how chefs maintained their enthusiasm?
I have chosen the Filet of Beef
Richelieu as the dish of the day. The filet of beef would have been served with
a ‘Richelieu’ garnish. According to La
Cuisine Française. French Cooking for Every Home. Adapted to American
Requirements (Chicago, 1893) this was a vegetable variation of the ‘Jardiniere’ garnish.
JARDINIERE.
GARNISH FOR A TENDERLOIN, A VEAL
LOIN, OR SADDLE OF MUTTON.
PROPORTIONS.
Potatoes 1 cupful
Green peas 1 cupful
Green beans 1
cupful
Small carrots. 1
cupful.
Cauliflowers carved 1 cupful
Butter 4 tablespoonsful.
PREPARATION.--We call
"jardiniere" a garnish made out of 2 or 4 potatoes fried in butter
and several kinds of vegetables, as: green peas, green beans, small carrots,
cauliflower cut in pieces of the size of a hazelnut, etc., each of them having
been cooked apart in some boiling water and then fried in butter. When the
tenderloin, or loin, etc., is placed in a long dish, place a fried potato at
each end and in the middle of the dish, then arrange the other vegetables with
taste in small cakes around the meat.
RICHELIEU.
PROPORTIONS AND PREPARATION.--As
for the above, No. 324, but add to the jardiniere 4 tomatoes and 4 mushrooms,
stuffed.
I don’t know about you, but too
many meals like that in a row and I would be screaming for chilli or ginger or fresh
herbs.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Improved Pepper-Sauce.
It is said that the formula for Tabasco Sauce is a secret, and that the ingredients remain “virtually unchanged” since it was first made in 1868. This is of course a challenge for curious hot-pepper sauce-lovers, and I understand that many attempts have been made to reproduce this famous condiment.
The original recipe was certainly not a secret. Edmund McIlhenny received a patent for an ‘improvement in pepper-sauce’ in September 1870, and it seems reasonable to assume this was the condiment under discussion, it being unlikely that McIlhenny was simultaneously working on two sauces made from Tabasco peppers. We don’t know the extent of the tweaking that may or may not have gone on, but this original recipe seems like a good place to start for anyone wanting to make Mock Tabasco, does it not?
It is not possible to patent a recipe nowadays, and one wonders how the law could have been policed in 1870 – particularly since McIlhenny makes it clear in the patent document that the instructions are for others to use. I wonder when the secrecy started?
Here it is, the recipe for pepper-sauce made from Tabasco peppers, from U.S Patent Number 107,701 (September 1870.)
Be it known that I, Edmund McIlhenny, of New Iberia, in the parish of Iberia, and the State of Louisiana, have invented a new and improved Pepper-Sauce; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same.
This invention relates to a new process of preparing an aromatic and strong sauce from the pepper known to the market as Tabasco pepper. This pepper is as strong as Cayenne pepper but of finer flavor.
My method of preparing the sauce is as follows:
The ripe fruit is mashed to a pulp and mixed with fine vinegar and rock salt, in the proportion of one pint of vinegar and one handful of salt to every gallon of pulp.
The receptacle containing this mixture is closely covered, and the latter macerated for about six weeks, when the pulp is worked through a sieve that is just fine enough to not permit the seeds to pass. About one drop of bisulphate of lime is then added to every ounce of mixture, for preventing fermentation.
The skin and seeds not passed through the sieve are potted for about twenty-four hours, with an ounce of alcohol to each pound of the residue.
This mixture is thoroughly agitated and then placed under a press, by which the remaining pulp and juice are forced out.
A drop of bisulphate of lime is added to every ounce received from the press. The two mixtures thus prepared are now put together, and the whole compound worked through a fine flour sieve. The sauce is thus completely prepared and ready for use.
One or two drops of it will be sufficient for any dish.
Having thus described my invention,
I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent –
1. The pepper-sauce prepared of the ingredients herein set forth, substantially in the manner specified.
2. The herein-described process of preparing pepper-sauce from the ingredients, in about the proportions set forth.
Now, off you go and make your own Tabasco!
The original recipe was certainly not a secret. Edmund McIlhenny received a patent for an ‘improvement in pepper-sauce’ in September 1870, and it seems reasonable to assume this was the condiment under discussion, it being unlikely that McIlhenny was simultaneously working on two sauces made from Tabasco peppers. We don’t know the extent of the tweaking that may or may not have gone on, but this original recipe seems like a good place to start for anyone wanting to make Mock Tabasco, does it not?
It is not possible to patent a recipe nowadays, and one wonders how the law could have been policed in 1870 – particularly since McIlhenny makes it clear in the patent document that the instructions are for others to use. I wonder when the secrecy started?
Here it is, the recipe for pepper-sauce made from Tabasco peppers, from U.S Patent Number 107,701 (September 1870.)
Be it known that I, Edmund McIlhenny, of New Iberia, in the parish of Iberia, and the State of Louisiana, have invented a new and improved Pepper-Sauce; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same.
This invention relates to a new process of preparing an aromatic and strong sauce from the pepper known to the market as Tabasco pepper. This pepper is as strong as Cayenne pepper but of finer flavor.
My method of preparing the sauce is as follows:
The ripe fruit is mashed to a pulp and mixed with fine vinegar and rock salt, in the proportion of one pint of vinegar and one handful of salt to every gallon of pulp.
The receptacle containing this mixture is closely covered, and the latter macerated for about six weeks, when the pulp is worked through a sieve that is just fine enough to not permit the seeds to pass. About one drop of bisulphate of lime is then added to every ounce of mixture, for preventing fermentation.
The skin and seeds not passed through the sieve are potted for about twenty-four hours, with an ounce of alcohol to each pound of the residue.
This mixture is thoroughly agitated and then placed under a press, by which the remaining pulp and juice are forced out.
A drop of bisulphate of lime is added to every ounce received from the press. The two mixtures thus prepared are now put together, and the whole compound worked through a fine flour sieve. The sauce is thus completely prepared and ready for use.
One or two drops of it will be sufficient for any dish.
Having thus described my invention,
I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent –
1. The pepper-sauce prepared of the ingredients herein set forth, substantially in the manner specified.
2. The herein-described process of preparing pepper-sauce from the ingredients, in about the proportions set forth.
Now, off you go and make your own Tabasco!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
An Apple by Another Name.
With over 1,800 posts under my
belt, I cannot always remember if I have covered a particular topic or not, so
sometimes I perform a word search of my own archives. I did this a few days
ago, when I was preparing yesterday’s post and wanted to check if I had previously
written about rennet. I was briefly confused when the following recipe
containing the word ‘rennet’ came up:
Pickled Herrings: a French way
for a rere-supper.
Wash the herrings; cut off the
heads and tips of the tails; skin them; steep them in lukewarm milk and water,
and dry and broil them; dish with slices of raw onions and rennets, and serve
with oil.
The
Cook and Housewife’s Manual
(1826)
This recipe does not intend that
slices of salted calf stomach be used as a garnish for the herrings. In this
dish, the ‘rennets’ are a variety of apple. The variety is said to be French in
origin, and the name a corruption of reinette,
which presumably is a diminutive of reine,
so means ‘little queen.’ French scholars please comment!
Cassell’s
Dictionary of Cookery
(London, 1870’s) which was the source of yesterday’s information on
rennet-the-milk-coagulator has the following as its next entry:
Rennett.
- "This is the common name, not only in English, but, with slight
modifications, in French, German, and other languages, of a class of apple,
including many of the most beautiful and pleasant varieties. They are of a very
regular and nearly globose shape; their skin has generally a rusty tinge, and
often a kind of unctuousness to the touch; their flesh is finely granular, and
besides being sweet and
agreeably
acid, they have a peculiar aromatic flavor. They do not keep well."
In times past, a great deal of
consideration was given to the specific variety of fruit suitable for various
purposes. It is less of an issue these days because the keeping qualities of
fruit are irrelevant, thanks to climate controlled storage, and the suitability
for preserving by other methods is obviated by the ease of buying them ready
canned. Most of us would chose green Granny Smiths for pies, and a red and
crunchy type for the lunchbox, but that is about the extent of our concern over
apple varieties.
Should you come across some
rennet apples but don’t want pickled herrings for dinner, you could try the
following recipe, which is also from Cassell’s
Dictionary of Cookery.
Indian Salad.
Cut the meat of a lobster, or of
a crab's claws, into pieces, and slice a couple of cucumbers, with two chilies,
a Spanish onion, if liked, and two rennets. The seeds of the fruit should be
removed, and the whole seasoned with pepper and salt. Put into the bowl two
spoonfuls of vinegar, a little cayenne, and three spoonfuls of the best Lucca oil.
Here is another recipe which sounds
absolutely delicious. I don’t believe I have ever gently fried minced apples in
butter, but it sounds a fine way to start cooking dessert.
Charlotte des Pommes.
Pare, core, and mince fourteen or
fifteen French rennet apples; put them into a frying-pan, with some pounded
loaf sugar, a little powdered cinnamon, grated lemon-peel, and two ounces and a
half of fresh butter; fry them a quarter of an hour over a quick fire, stirring
them constantly. Butter a shape of the size the charlotte is intended to be;
cut strips of bread about the width of two fingers, and long enough to reach
from the bottom to the rim of the shape, so that the whole be lined with bread;
dip each bit into melted butter, and then put a layer of the fried apples, and
one of apricot jam or marmalade, then one of bread dipped into butte; begin and
finish with it. Bake it in an oven for nearly an hour; turn it out to serve it.
It may be boiled, and serve with a sweet sauce.
The
Cook's Own Book, and Housekeeper's Register (1840), by Mrs. N. K. M. Lee
Or this:
Jelly of Apples
Cut six dozen of sound rennet
apples in quarters, take out all the pips, put them into a sugar-pan, just
cover them with cold water, and place over the fire, let boil until the apples
become quite pulpy, when drain them upon a sieve, catching the liquor in a
basin, which afterwards pass through a new and very clean jelly-bag; to every
pint of liquor have one pound of sugar, which boil to the sixth degree as
directed (831); when, whilst hot, mix in the liquor from the apple with a very
clean skimmer; to prevent it boiling over keep it skimmed, lift the skimmer
occasionally from the pan, and when the jelly falls from it in thin sheets,
take it up and fill the points as before; the smaller pots are the best adapted
for jellies.
The
Modern Housewife,
(1850) by Alexis Soyer
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Extreme Kitchen DIY: Rennet
We have had a couple of soft and easy stories this week – it is time to get back to serious kitchen basics. I sincerely hope that you and I never have to make the choice between making our own rennet or doing without cheese, but just in case the worst scenario happens, today we will learn how to do just that.
‘Rennet’ is the coagulating agent added to milk in the first stage of making cheese. Numerous substances will perform this function, including some vegetable materials (nettle rennet is here), but the most important is made from the stomach of a calf.
The marvelous Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery (1870’s) gives some detailed instructions for the preparation and use of rennet.
Rennet. - Rennet is the name given to the prepared inner membrane of a calf's, pig's, hare's, fowl's, or turkey's stomach, which is used for turning milk. It may frequently be bought ready dried of the butcher, and then may be kept a long time, if hung in a cool place, and covered to preserve it from dust. When wanted for use, a little piece about two inches square should be soaked in a quarter of a pint of hot water for four hours, and the liquor thus obtained should be stirred into lukewarm milk.
Rennet varies so much in strength that it is not easy to say how much will be required. Ordinarily, a table-spoonful of the liquor in which the dried rennet has been soaked will turn two quarts of milk. For people living in towns the easiest way of procuring rennet is to buy a bottle of the liquor, which is sold by almost all chemists ready for use. Rennet, however, may be prepared at home, as follows : - Take the stomachs of two or more freshly- killed calves. Cleanse them thoroughly from all impurities, and rub them inside and out with salt. Pack them closely in a stone jar, strew salt between and over them, and cover them up.
A month or more before they are to be used let them drain a few hours, and dry them by stretching them on sticks. Some farmers prepare the rennet as follows : - Empty the stomach of a freshly-killed calf, and carefully preserve the coagulated milk it contains. Wash it carefully, and put the milk into it again with some salt. Tie the openings of the stomach with string to prevent the contents escaping, and place it in an earthenware jar with half a pint of brandy mixed with six ounces of water. Cover the jar closely, place it in a cool situation, and let it remain for one month. At the end of that time filter the liquor through un-sized paper, and preserve it in small well- stoppered bottles. Half a tea-spoonful of this fluid will coagulate a pint of milk.
Rennet (other ways). - For the preparation of rennet there are many recipes ; the following will be found one of the best: - Take a calf's stomach-bag or maw, wash it clean, salt it thoroughly inside and out, and let it lie for two or three days. Hang it up to drain for another two or three days, then re-salt it, and put it into a jar covered with paper, pricked with pinholes. It may be used in a few days, but keeping improves it. When prepared for use, a handful of sweetbriar leaves, of dog-rose leaves, and of bramble-leaves, together with three or four handfuls of salt, are boiled in a gallon of water for a quarter of an hour, and when quite cold the salted maw is added, together with a lemon
stuck round with a quarter of an ounce of cloves. There must be enough salt to admit of some remaining always at the bottom undisturbed, and the steep must be scummed as often as is necessary. “In Essex they practice another plan, which is to take the fourth or last ventricle of a calf, commonly called the bag, and opening it, they take out the curd, picking it well of hairs, which are mixed plentifully with it ; then they wash it and put it into the bag again, with a good quantity of salt, and keep it in a well-glazed earthen vessel till they use it, as follows : - If they first make cheese in the beginning of the spring, they boil salt and water together till the water is saturated with salt, and will dissolve no more, and steep the bag, having been first prepared as before, in it; but when they have made cheese (by rennet previously prepared) they steep it altogether in whey well salted by boiling salt in it, and sometimes, to give it a high flavour, they boil spices with it. The aromatics are matters of fancy, and may either be used or omitted; some only prepare a quart of rennet from one stomach, and others a gallon, but the stronger the rennet the less will be required to the milk."
Gallino Rennet. - A rennet may be made from the rough skin which lines the gizzards of fowls or turkeys, and the curd obtained by its means is more delicate than that made from calf's rennet. The skin should be well-washed, salted, and covered to protect it from dust, and hung in a cool place to dry. A little piece soaked in a cupful of boiling water for eight hours produces the rennet.
Now, should you have a mind, there is no excuse for you to avoid making your own cheese truly from scratch.
‘Rennet’ is the coagulating agent added to milk in the first stage of making cheese. Numerous substances will perform this function, including some vegetable materials (nettle rennet is here), but the most important is made from the stomach of a calf.
The marvelous Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery (1870’s) gives some detailed instructions for the preparation and use of rennet.
Rennet. - Rennet is the name given to the prepared inner membrane of a calf's, pig's, hare's, fowl's, or turkey's stomach, which is used for turning milk. It may frequently be bought ready dried of the butcher, and then may be kept a long time, if hung in a cool place, and covered to preserve it from dust. When wanted for use, a little piece about two inches square should be soaked in a quarter of a pint of hot water for four hours, and the liquor thus obtained should be stirred into lukewarm milk.
Rennet varies so much in strength that it is not easy to say how much will be required. Ordinarily, a table-spoonful of the liquor in which the dried rennet has been soaked will turn two quarts of milk. For people living in towns the easiest way of procuring rennet is to buy a bottle of the liquor, which is sold by almost all chemists ready for use. Rennet, however, may be prepared at home, as follows : - Take the stomachs of two or more freshly- killed calves. Cleanse them thoroughly from all impurities, and rub them inside and out with salt. Pack them closely in a stone jar, strew salt between and over them, and cover them up.
A month or more before they are to be used let them drain a few hours, and dry them by stretching them on sticks. Some farmers prepare the rennet as follows : - Empty the stomach of a freshly-killed calf, and carefully preserve the coagulated milk it contains. Wash it carefully, and put the milk into it again with some salt. Tie the openings of the stomach with string to prevent the contents escaping, and place it in an earthenware jar with half a pint of brandy mixed with six ounces of water. Cover the jar closely, place it in a cool situation, and let it remain for one month. At the end of that time filter the liquor through un-sized paper, and preserve it in small well- stoppered bottles. Half a tea-spoonful of this fluid will coagulate a pint of milk.
Rennet (other ways). - For the preparation of rennet there are many recipes ; the following will be found one of the best: - Take a calf's stomach-bag or maw, wash it clean, salt it thoroughly inside and out, and let it lie for two or three days. Hang it up to drain for another two or three days, then re-salt it, and put it into a jar covered with paper, pricked with pinholes. It may be used in a few days, but keeping improves it. When prepared for use, a handful of sweetbriar leaves, of dog-rose leaves, and of bramble-leaves, together with three or four handfuls of salt, are boiled in a gallon of water for a quarter of an hour, and when quite cold the salted maw is added, together with a lemon
stuck round with a quarter of an ounce of cloves. There must be enough salt to admit of some remaining always at the bottom undisturbed, and the steep must be scummed as often as is necessary. “In Essex they practice another plan, which is to take the fourth or last ventricle of a calf, commonly called the bag, and opening it, they take out the curd, picking it well of hairs, which are mixed plentifully with it ; then they wash it and put it into the bag again, with a good quantity of salt, and keep it in a well-glazed earthen vessel till they use it, as follows : - If they first make cheese in the beginning of the spring, they boil salt and water together till the water is saturated with salt, and will dissolve no more, and steep the bag, having been first prepared as before, in it; but when they have made cheese (by rennet previously prepared) they steep it altogether in whey well salted by boiling salt in it, and sometimes, to give it a high flavour, they boil spices with it. The aromatics are matters of fancy, and may either be used or omitted; some only prepare a quart of rennet from one stomach, and others a gallon, but the stronger the rennet the less will be required to the milk."
Gallino Rennet. - A rennet may be made from the rough skin which lines the gizzards of fowls or turkeys, and the curd obtained by its means is more delicate than that made from calf's rennet. The skin should be well-washed, salted, and covered to protect it from dust, and hung in a cool place to dry. A little piece soaked in a cupful of boiling water for eight hours produces the rennet.
Now, should you have a mind, there is no excuse for you to avoid making your own cheese truly from scratch.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Variations on a theme of War Cake.
I have a short and simple post for you today – I was having so much fun in Sydney at the weekend that I forgot that I had forgotten to write anything for Monday.
Today’s gleanings are from several WW I recipe sources. All are for ‘war cake’ – the way that patriotic Americans to satisfy the sweet tooth while abiding by the government’s request to reduce wheat and sugar consumption.
WAR CAKE
1 cup molasses
1 cup corn sirup
1½ cups water
1 package raisins
2 tablespoons fat
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Boil together for 5 minutes the first nine ingredients. Cool, add the sifted dry ingredients and bake in two loaves for 45 minutes in a moderate oven.
This cake should be kept several days before using. It makes about 20-25 servings. If desired 1 cup of oatmeal may be used in place of ⅞ cup of flour.
U.S Food Administration; in Daily Menus for War Service (1918), by Thetta Quay Franks.
WAR CAKE
Brown sugar, 1 cup
Water, 1 ⅓ cups
Fat, 2 tablespoons
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
Cloves, ½ teaspoon
Raisins, 1 cup
Citron, ¼ cup
Barley flour, 1 cup
Rye flour, 1 cup
Soda ½ teaspoon
Boil all of the ingredients, except the flour and soda, five minutes after they begin to bubble. When cold add soda and flour sifted together. Bake slowly one hour and fifteen minutes.
2 cups barley may be used instead of 1 cup barley flour and 1 cup rye flour.
Yield: 1 loaf, 8″x 5″ x 2″
United States Food Administration; pamphlet on wheatless cooking, issued May 23, 1918
WAR CAKE
2 c sugar (white or brown)
2 tbsp fat
2 c water
Boil 5 minutes. Cool and add.
3 c flour
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp clove
1 tsp salt
½ tsp soda.
Bake one hour. Two loaves.
Two hundred and seventy-five war-time recipes (1918)
Today’s gleanings are from several WW I recipe sources. All are for ‘war cake’ – the way that patriotic Americans to satisfy the sweet tooth while abiding by the government’s request to reduce wheat and sugar consumption.
WAR CAKE
1 cup molasses
1 cup corn sirup
1½ cups water
1 package raisins
2 tablespoons fat
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Boil together for 5 minutes the first nine ingredients. Cool, add the sifted dry ingredients and bake in two loaves for 45 minutes in a moderate oven.
This cake should be kept several days before using. It makes about 20-25 servings. If desired 1 cup of oatmeal may be used in place of ⅞ cup of flour.
U.S Food Administration; in Daily Menus for War Service (1918), by Thetta Quay Franks.
WAR CAKE
Brown sugar, 1 cup
Water, 1 ⅓ cups
Fat, 2 tablespoons
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
Cloves, ½ teaspoon
Raisins, 1 cup
Citron, ¼ cup
Barley flour, 1 cup
Rye flour, 1 cup
Soda ½ teaspoon
Boil all of the ingredients, except the flour and soda, five minutes after they begin to bubble. When cold add soda and flour sifted together. Bake slowly one hour and fifteen minutes.
2 cups barley may be used instead of 1 cup barley flour and 1 cup rye flour.
Yield: 1 loaf, 8″x 5″ x 2″
United States Food Administration; pamphlet on wheatless cooking, issued May 23, 1918
WAR CAKE
2 c sugar (white or brown)
2 tbsp fat
2 c water
Boil 5 minutes. Cool and add.
3 c flour
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp clove
1 tsp salt
½ tsp soda.
Bake one hour. Two loaves.
Two hundred and seventy-five war-time recipes (1918)
Friday, September 14, 2012
Peanuts and Potatoes.
Today I want to pay homage to two of the wonderful gifts of the New World to the Old. In particular, I want to explore the special joy they may bring when they work together in the same dish.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you wisdom from almost a century ago, in the form of recipes for potatoes and peanuts:
Potato and Peanuts.
6 medium sized cold boiled potatoes.
2 cups white sauce.
1 cup chopped roasted peanuts, or ½ cup peanut butter may be used.
White Sauce.
4 tablespoons butter.
4 tablespoons flour.
2 cups milk.
Put cold potatoes into cubes and mix with white sauce, to which the peanuts have been added. Put in a buttered baking dish, cover with bread crumbs, heat in oven until crumbs are light brown. Serve in baking dish.
Uses of the Peanut on the Home Table (Univ. of Texas Bulletin, 1917)
Potatoes with Peanut Butter.
2 cups cold boiled or baked potato
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons peanut butter
½ tablespoon butter or margarine
¼ teaspoon pepper
Milk [no quantity specified in the recipe]
Yolks 2 hardboiled eggs
Cut the potatoes into dice. Melt butter in saucepan. Put potatoes in. Season with salt and pepper. Add the milk, and simmer until most of the milk is absorbed. Blend the peanut butter and yolks of eggs together and stir in the potato. Serve when hot.
The Book of Potato Cookery (A.C.McClurg and Co., Chicago, 1918)
Potato Peanut Loaf
1 pint mashed potato
1 cup ground peanuts or ½ cup peanut butter
2 teaspoonfuls salt
½ teaspoonful pepper
½ cup milk
2 tablespoonfuls fat
2 eggs
Beat the entire mixture together and place in greased baking dish; set in a second pan containing hot water and bake in the oven until firm. Serve with tomato sauce.
American Cookery: formerly the Boston Cooking School Magazine (New York, 1918)
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you wisdom from almost a century ago, in the form of recipes for potatoes and peanuts:
Potato and Peanuts.
6 medium sized cold boiled potatoes.
2 cups white sauce.
1 cup chopped roasted peanuts, or ½ cup peanut butter may be used.
White Sauce.
4 tablespoons butter.
4 tablespoons flour.
2 cups milk.
Put cold potatoes into cubes and mix with white sauce, to which the peanuts have been added. Put in a buttered baking dish, cover with bread crumbs, heat in oven until crumbs are light brown. Serve in baking dish.
Uses of the Peanut on the Home Table (Univ. of Texas Bulletin, 1917)
Potatoes with Peanut Butter.
2 cups cold boiled or baked potato
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons peanut butter
½ tablespoon butter or margarine
¼ teaspoon pepper
Milk [no quantity specified in the recipe]
Yolks 2 hardboiled eggs
Cut the potatoes into dice. Melt butter in saucepan. Put potatoes in. Season with salt and pepper. Add the milk, and simmer until most of the milk is absorbed. Blend the peanut butter and yolks of eggs together and stir in the potato. Serve when hot.
The Book of Potato Cookery (A.C.McClurg and Co., Chicago, 1918)
Potato Peanut Loaf
1 pint mashed potato
1 cup ground peanuts or ½ cup peanut butter
2 teaspoonfuls salt
½ teaspoonful pepper
½ cup milk
2 tablespoonfuls fat
2 eggs
Beat the entire mixture together and place in greased baking dish; set in a second pan containing hot water and bake in the oven until firm. Serve with tomato sauce.
American Cookery: formerly the Boston Cooking School Magazine (New York, 1918)
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Chocolate Corn.
I came across the phrase ‘chocolate corn’ the other day, and anything with ‘chocolate’ in its name immediately engages my attention. I thought of chocolate-coated popcorn, corn-bread with choc chips, chocolate polenta, and several other things before I took pause and read further. The phrase appeared in the Scientific American of February 21, 1863, so it was more likely to refer to an agricultural product than a culinary treat – although the article does include a ‘recipe.’ Here it is:
little cinnamon, are then added to the decoction. It is now boiled once more, and a most delicious beverage, which is scarcely distinguishable from light chocolate, is ready for use. If you wish to improve it still further, you may add an egg and a little nutmeg.
It seems that the writer to the Scientific American was mistaken – ‘chocolate corn’ is not millet. Nor is ‘corn’ in the sense of maize. ‘Corn’ used to be the generic name for the predominant grain in an area, so in the nineteenth century in England, for example, it meant wheat. As with the citrus confusion outlined in the story a few days ago about ‘Adam’s Apple,’ the common names of many grains and cereals are confusing, but as far as I can gather, chocolate corn is a variety of Sorghum (S. bicolor.)
A short comment in another article, from 1826, is illuminating:
S. Bicolor, commonly called Chocolate-corn, is sometimes cultivated, as a matter of curiosity, and has been used as a sort of substitute for chocolate,—which, like rye-coffee, may answer for those who cannot obtain better; but it is not likely to come into general use.
‘Coffee-corn’ turns out to be another common name for this type of sorghum, indicating that for some nineteenth century consumers it might with proper preparation taste precisely like weak coffee as well as weak chocolate. Or is this a triumph of wishful thinking over actual sensory experience?
Some of the other common names for the plant are illuminating in other ways, so I give you a selection of them for your interest:
Chinese sugarcane
Egyptian corn
Indian millet
Kaffir corn
Milo
Negro corn
Rice corn
Tennessee rice.
Chocolate Corn.
In Illinois a species of millet is grown under this name, which serves as a substitute for coffee, and tastes precisely like weak chocolate, and even resembles it in color. The preparation of a beverage from it is thus described: If we want for our table four pints of chocolate, we take one and a half head of grain, nearly filling the funnel of our coffee-mill, which is about 4 inches wide, and 1 inches high, and grind the kernels a little fine. Having proceeded thus far, we mix the ground substance with two pints of water, and boil it until the starch contained in it forms into a lump the liquid is then passed, to separate it from the grains, through a fine wire sieve or tin colander two pints of sweet milk, from which the cream has been skimmed, and a good table-spoonful of common powdered sugar, and alittle cinnamon, are then added to the decoction. It is now boiled once more, and a most delicious beverage, which is scarcely distinguishable from light chocolate, is ready for use. If you wish to improve it still further, you may add an egg and a little nutmeg.
It seems that the writer to the Scientific American was mistaken – ‘chocolate corn’ is not millet. Nor is ‘corn’ in the sense of maize. ‘Corn’ used to be the generic name for the predominant grain in an area, so in the nineteenth century in England, for example, it meant wheat. As with the citrus confusion outlined in the story a few days ago about ‘Adam’s Apple,’ the common names of many grains and cereals are confusing, but as far as I can gather, chocolate corn is a variety of Sorghum (S. bicolor.)
A short comment in another article, from 1826, is illuminating:
S. Bicolor, commonly called Chocolate-corn, is sometimes cultivated, as a matter of curiosity, and has been used as a sort of substitute for chocolate,—which, like rye-coffee, may answer for those who cannot obtain better; but it is not likely to come into general use.
‘Coffee-corn’ turns out to be another common name for this type of sorghum, indicating that for some nineteenth century consumers it might with proper preparation taste precisely like weak coffee as well as weak chocolate. Or is this a triumph of wishful thinking over actual sensory experience?
Some of the other common names for the plant are illuminating in other ways, so I give you a selection of them for your interest:
Chinese sugarcane
Egyptian corn
Indian millet
Kaffir corn
Milo
Negro corn
Rice corn
Tennessee rice.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Neenish Tarts.
Neenish tarts are, as far as I am aware, an Aussie and New Zealand delicacy. We are not just about Lamingtons, Anzac Biscuits, and Pavlova in this part of the world, you know. It is time that those of you not lucky enough to live down here are given the chance to feel what you may be missing.
Neenish tarts are individual sized pastry shells with a sweet custard-like filling and – this is the clincher – the top is decorated with thin dry icing, each half in a different colour. Typically the colours are white and brown, or white and pink, or pink and brown. If you want to see what they look like, just Google the name and you will be offered a large number of images.
The name of the tart is somewhat of a mystery, and has various spellings, including nenische and nienich, which suggest a German origin. The most popular theory is that they are named for a Mrs. Ruby Neenish, but I don’t believe she has ever been tracked down. If the name rings any bells for you, Germanic or otherwise, please do let us all know via the comments.
One thing food historians really love to do is to track down the earliest known published recipe for whatever it is that is under discussion. The actual cooking of the dish always pre-dates the publishing of a recipe of course, sometimes by a very long interval. Recipes are never actually ‘invented’ from scratch anyhow – they always evolve from an earlier idea. Sometimes what is actually being debated is a new name for an existing dish, or a variation or presentation of an existing idea, as in the case of pavlova, for example.
In the case of Neenish tarts, their earliest known mention is in a Western Australian newspaper, The Bunbury Herald of 12th June 1913, and here it is:
Neenish Tarts.
The little brown-and-white Neenish tarts which are so much liked, and which I have never yet seen an amateur attempt, are well worth trying, and are not nearly so difficult to make as might be imagined. The directions which were given to me were a trifle vague, and discretion must be used, so far as the filling is concerned; but in the first place you must make the shell of the tart from 1 lb.of ground almonds, ¾ lb. of icing sugar, the whites of four eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and one handful of flour. If the ingredients are thought too large and you intend only making a few tarts for a beginning, they can easily be halved. Make into a stiff paste, and then get your plain, rather shallow patty-pans, and press the mixture in with your fingers lining the tins evenly to the depth of about one-quarter of an inch. Place in a moderate oven, and bake until the tarts are firm and brown. For the filling you must begin by making a very thick custard of eggs and milk thickened with cornflour. This must allowed to cool until it sets almost like blancmange; then put some on a plate, and beat in sufficient fresh butter to make it light and frothy with plenty of vanilla flavoring. Fill the little tarts nearly to the top, and then run over a thin layer of white icing. Now you will need a little coffee glaze for the one-half of the tarts. This is made with ¾ lb. icing sugar and three tablespoonfuls of strong liquid coffee. Stir the ingredients over the fire until just warm, when use at once. This is the way in which professionals put the icing onto the tarts. Dip a rather long knife into the mixture, and then lay the back of it exactly in the centre of the tart, and draw the knife quickly off, keeping the blade perfectly flat all the time. This, will give the right proportion of coffee, and will ensure the centre having a perfectly straight line, almost impossible to obtain in any other manner. Practice will soon make perfect, and after a time you will know exactly how much liquid to allow the blade of the knife to hold.
Naturally, many variations of this concept have evolved over the last century: most have plain shortcrust pastry, many have a tasteless, eggless, gelatin-thickened filling, and occasionally other colours than white, pink , and brown are used for the topping (but there must always be two colours.) I cannot help but feel however, that variations subsequent to this ‘original’ are not improvements.
The ‘original’ recipe, you will note, has almond pastry, a filling of thick custard made with real eggs and enriched with plenty of butter, one half being topped with a carefully applied coffee-flavoured icing which contrasts nicely with the plain white coating on the other half. Does it not sound wonderful? No doubt there are artisan bakers producing magnificent Neenish Tarts like the ones described here, but I do not know their whereabouts. Sadly, the modern commercial version more often than not consists of a cardboard-like shells filled with nondescript flavourless sweet goo, topped with untidy semi-circles of frighteningly pink and chocolate-coloured (but barely flavoured) icing.
Neenish tarts are individual sized pastry shells with a sweet custard-like filling and – this is the clincher – the top is decorated with thin dry icing, each half in a different colour. Typically the colours are white and brown, or white and pink, or pink and brown. If you want to see what they look like, just Google the name and you will be offered a large number of images.
The name of the tart is somewhat of a mystery, and has various spellings, including nenische and nienich, which suggest a German origin. The most popular theory is that they are named for a Mrs. Ruby Neenish, but I don’t believe she has ever been tracked down. If the name rings any bells for you, Germanic or otherwise, please do let us all know via the comments.
One thing food historians really love to do is to track down the earliest known published recipe for whatever it is that is under discussion. The actual cooking of the dish always pre-dates the publishing of a recipe of course, sometimes by a very long interval. Recipes are never actually ‘invented’ from scratch anyhow – they always evolve from an earlier idea. Sometimes what is actually being debated is a new name for an existing dish, or a variation or presentation of an existing idea, as in the case of pavlova, for example.
In the case of Neenish tarts, their earliest known mention is in a Western Australian newspaper, The Bunbury Herald of 12th June 1913, and here it is:
Neenish Tarts.
The little brown-and-white Neenish tarts which are so much liked, and which I have never yet seen an amateur attempt, are well worth trying, and are not nearly so difficult to make as might be imagined. The directions which were given to me were a trifle vague, and discretion must be used, so far as the filling is concerned; but in the first place you must make the shell of the tart from 1 lb.of ground almonds, ¾ lb. of icing sugar, the whites of four eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and one handful of flour. If the ingredients are thought too large and you intend only making a few tarts for a beginning, they can easily be halved. Make into a stiff paste, and then get your plain, rather shallow patty-pans, and press the mixture in with your fingers lining the tins evenly to the depth of about one-quarter of an inch. Place in a moderate oven, and bake until the tarts are firm and brown. For the filling you must begin by making a very thick custard of eggs and milk thickened with cornflour. This must allowed to cool until it sets almost like blancmange; then put some on a plate, and beat in sufficient fresh butter to make it light and frothy with plenty of vanilla flavoring. Fill the little tarts nearly to the top, and then run over a thin layer of white icing. Now you will need a little coffee glaze for the one-half of the tarts. This is made with ¾ lb. icing sugar and three tablespoonfuls of strong liquid coffee. Stir the ingredients over the fire until just warm, when use at once. This is the way in which professionals put the icing onto the tarts. Dip a rather long knife into the mixture, and then lay the back of it exactly in the centre of the tart, and draw the knife quickly off, keeping the blade perfectly flat all the time. This, will give the right proportion of coffee, and will ensure the centre having a perfectly straight line, almost impossible to obtain in any other manner. Practice will soon make perfect, and after a time you will know exactly how much liquid to allow the blade of the knife to hold.
Naturally, many variations of this concept have evolved over the last century: most have plain shortcrust pastry, many have a tasteless, eggless, gelatin-thickened filling, and occasionally other colours than white, pink , and brown are used for the topping (but there must always be two colours.) I cannot help but feel however, that variations subsequent to this ‘original’ are not improvements.
The ‘original’ recipe, you will note, has almond pastry, a filling of thick custard made with real eggs and enriched with plenty of butter, one half being topped with a carefully applied coffee-flavoured icing which contrasts nicely with the plain white coating on the other half. Does it not sound wonderful? No doubt there are artisan bakers producing magnificent Neenish Tarts like the ones described here, but I do not know their whereabouts. Sadly, the modern commercial version more often than not consists of a cardboard-like shells filled with nondescript flavourless sweet goo, topped with untidy semi-circles of frighteningly pink and chocolate-coloured (but barely flavoured) icing.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Hard Times, Interesting Ideas.
The government’s call to the women of America to reduce the use of wheat, sugar, and meat during WW I was supported by the publication of numerous pamphlets and booklets advising on how to cope with the restrictions. Community organisations, church groups, and newspaper editors took up cause with great enthusiasm, and added their own cookery books and recipe columns to the expanding pile.
Many of the recipes, it must be said, are not particularly innovative or exciting. Most are simple substitutions of oat, barley, soy or other flours for wheat, and syrup, molasses or honey for sugar in familiar, everyday recipes. The average American male probably found the substitution of cheese, eggs, and beans for beef and pork a slightly greater challenge to patriotic sentiment, but given that the restrictions were voluntary, not expected every day, and not too harsh, the whole experience cannot have been too painful.
I suspect that for some women - at least, the ones who liked cooking – the exercise might well have provided an interesting challenge. Some of the recipes that appear in wartime cookery books show a very creative edge indeed, with some interesting combinations of ingredients. Necessity, after all, is the Mother of Invention.
I give you a random selection from Two hundred and seventy-five war-time recipes (1918)
Cheese Gingerbread.
1 c molasses
⅓ c cheese cut in small pieces
½ c water
2 c barley flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp soda
½ tsp ginger
Heat molasses and cheese in a double boiler. When cheese is melted remove from fire. Add other ingredients. Bake 15 minutes in muffin tins.
Peanut Butter and Spaghetti.
3 c hot boiled spaghetti
¾ c breadcrumbs
¾ c peanut butter
1 ½ c milk
Mix and fill baking dish, cover with crumbs and brown. Serve with tomato sauce. Very the milk according to the dryness of the crumbs. Season.
Bean and Turnip Puffs.
1 medium yellow turnip, cook and mash, add
1 c. cooked lima beans
1 egg
1 tsp salt
¼ c. double milk sauce
Pepper
2 tbsp fat
Bake in greased cups.
Many of the recipes, it must be said, are not particularly innovative or exciting. Most are simple substitutions of oat, barley, soy or other flours for wheat, and syrup, molasses or honey for sugar in familiar, everyday recipes. The average American male probably found the substitution of cheese, eggs, and beans for beef and pork a slightly greater challenge to patriotic sentiment, but given that the restrictions were voluntary, not expected every day, and not too harsh, the whole experience cannot have been too painful.
I suspect that for some women - at least, the ones who liked cooking – the exercise might well have provided an interesting challenge. Some of the recipes that appear in wartime cookery books show a very creative edge indeed, with some interesting combinations of ingredients. Necessity, after all, is the Mother of Invention.
I give you a random selection from Two hundred and seventy-five war-time recipes (1918)
Cheese Gingerbread.
1 c molasses
⅓ c cheese cut in small pieces
½ c water
2 c barley flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp soda
½ tsp ginger
Heat molasses and cheese in a double boiler. When cheese is melted remove from fire. Add other ingredients. Bake 15 minutes in muffin tins.
Peanut Butter and Spaghetti.
3 c hot boiled spaghetti
¾ c breadcrumbs
¾ c peanut butter
1 ½ c milk
Mix and fill baking dish, cover with crumbs and brown. Serve with tomato sauce. Very the milk according to the dryness of the crumbs. Season.
Bean and Turnip Puffs.
1 medium yellow turnip, cook and mash, add
1 c. cooked lima beans
1 egg
1 tsp salt
¼ c. double milk sauce
Pepper
2 tbsp fat
Bake in greased cups.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Many from One.
After the puzzles of earthnuts and Adam’s Apples last week I feel the need for a little rest. The puzzles take more time than I can comfortably manage at times, so rather than fall from my resolution to post five times a week, I think I might take the easy option today, and give you something requiring a little less research.
Serendipitously, as I was pondering on saving time, I came across a fine idea in Wartime Breads and Cakes, (Boston & New York, 1918) Amy L. Handy – an interesting book which I am sure I will use again. Ms. Handy gives instructions for ‘Four Varieties of Bread from one Potato Sponge,’ which seems like a fine principle to follow.
First, the author’s general comments on ‘sponges’:
All foreign bakers use the sponge method for their best breads and rolls and refer to that made from the straight dough as ‘off-hand bread.’ They reasonably claim that it has many advantages; that the bread made from a sponge has a better flavor, requires less shortening and less yeast, keeps moist longer, and is more velvety in texture.
It is a more convenient method, for although the sponge will rise in four hours it can stand longer than the straight dough without deterioration, and many kinds of bread, coffee cake, and rolls can be made from one sponge.
All dark breads have a more attractive color if one tablespoonful of dark molasses is added to the sponge, but this hastens the rising; so, if the sponge is to stand overnight, do not add it till morning when the bread is mixed.
Salt retards the rising, so it is better in cold weather to add that when the bread is made up.
The author then gives specific instructions for sponges made from wholewheat flour, potatoes, cornmeal, oat flour, and rolled oats. She demonstrates her point that ‘many kinds of bread can be made with one sponge’, using potato sponge as her example.
To start your four-from-one recipe, you must first make your sponge:
Potato Sponge.
Mash or put through a ricer enough hot boiled potatoes to make two cupfuls. Add two cups of whole wheat flour and mix well. Pour over this two cups of the water in which the potatoes were boiled; this should be hot enough to thoroughly scald the mixture. Add one tablespoonful of molasses and two teaspoonfuls of salt. Stir till it is a smooth batter. If this is to be made into a sponge at once, add one cup of cold water, and when the batter is lukewarm add one yeast cake that has been dissolved in one cup of lukewarm water. Set it to rise four hours.
The potato and flour mixture may be made and scalded at any time that it is convenient to cook the potatoes and can stand until it is wanted for the sponge. If it has become cold, add one cup of water hot enough to make the mixture lukewarm and proceed as directed with the yeast.
Four Varieties of Bread from one Potato Sponge.
When the potato sponge is light and foamy, put one third of it aside. To the other two thirds add enough whole wheat flour to make a soft dough, but one that can be handled. Knead till it is smooth and velvety. Set it to rise. When it has doubled its bulk knead a little and divide it in two. Make a loaf of one party and when it has half doubled its bulk bake in a moderate oven for an hour. Roll the remaining dough into a strip half an inch thick. Spread with brown or white sugar, using a half cupful. Sprinkle one teaspoonful of cinnamon over the sugar and lay on a few raisins. Roll up carefully and put into a bread pan to rise till it has half doubled its bulk. Bake in a moderate oven. If the sheet of dough is kept as wide as the bread pan is long, this will fit in and when it is cut the spiral of sugar and cinnamon will show to perfection.
To the remaining sponge add rye flour till it is stiff enough to handle, rather a stiff dough. Set it to rise, and when doubled its bulk make all but one and one half cups of the dough into a small loaf and let it rise till it has half doubled its bulk. Bake an hour in a moderate oven.
To make coffee cake from the remaining doughy first cream together one tablespoonful of shortening with two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Cut this into the dough with a knife and beat till it is smooth. Add one well-beaten egg and beat to a smooth batter. Spread in a cake pan and let it stand twenty minutes. Pour over it a mixture of two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Sprinkle a little flour or cake crumbs over it and bake in a hotter oven than for bread.
Maple sugar pounded till fine can be used and makes a delicious cake.
Look out for a future post on this concept of many dishes from one mix!
Serendipitously, as I was pondering on saving time, I came across a fine idea in Wartime Breads and Cakes, (Boston & New York, 1918) Amy L. Handy – an interesting book which I am sure I will use again. Ms. Handy gives instructions for ‘Four Varieties of Bread from one Potato Sponge,’ which seems like a fine principle to follow.
First, the author’s general comments on ‘sponges’:
All foreign bakers use the sponge method for their best breads and rolls and refer to that made from the straight dough as ‘off-hand bread.’ They reasonably claim that it has many advantages; that the bread made from a sponge has a better flavor, requires less shortening and less yeast, keeps moist longer, and is more velvety in texture.
It is a more convenient method, for although the sponge will rise in four hours it can stand longer than the straight dough without deterioration, and many kinds of bread, coffee cake, and rolls can be made from one sponge.
All dark breads have a more attractive color if one tablespoonful of dark molasses is added to the sponge, but this hastens the rising; so, if the sponge is to stand overnight, do not add it till morning when the bread is mixed.
Salt retards the rising, so it is better in cold weather to add that when the bread is made up.
The author then gives specific instructions for sponges made from wholewheat flour, potatoes, cornmeal, oat flour, and rolled oats. She demonstrates her point that ‘many kinds of bread can be made with one sponge’, using potato sponge as her example.
To start your four-from-one recipe, you must first make your sponge:
Potato Sponge.
Mash or put through a ricer enough hot boiled potatoes to make two cupfuls. Add two cups of whole wheat flour and mix well. Pour over this two cups of the water in which the potatoes were boiled; this should be hot enough to thoroughly scald the mixture. Add one tablespoonful of molasses and two teaspoonfuls of salt. Stir till it is a smooth batter. If this is to be made into a sponge at once, add one cup of cold water, and when the batter is lukewarm add one yeast cake that has been dissolved in one cup of lukewarm water. Set it to rise four hours.
The potato and flour mixture may be made and scalded at any time that it is convenient to cook the potatoes and can stand until it is wanted for the sponge. If it has become cold, add one cup of water hot enough to make the mixture lukewarm and proceed as directed with the yeast.
Four Varieties of Bread from one Potato Sponge.
When the potato sponge is light and foamy, put one third of it aside. To the other two thirds add enough whole wheat flour to make a soft dough, but one that can be handled. Knead till it is smooth and velvety. Set it to rise. When it has doubled its bulk knead a little and divide it in two. Make a loaf of one party and when it has half doubled its bulk bake in a moderate oven for an hour. Roll the remaining dough into a strip half an inch thick. Spread with brown or white sugar, using a half cupful. Sprinkle one teaspoonful of cinnamon over the sugar and lay on a few raisins. Roll up carefully and put into a bread pan to rise till it has half doubled its bulk. Bake in a moderate oven. If the sheet of dough is kept as wide as the bread pan is long, this will fit in and when it is cut the spiral of sugar and cinnamon will show to perfection.
To the remaining sponge add rye flour till it is stiff enough to handle, rather a stiff dough. Set it to rise, and when doubled its bulk make all but one and one half cups of the dough into a small loaf and let it rise till it has half doubled its bulk. Bake an hour in a moderate oven.
To make coffee cake from the remaining doughy first cream together one tablespoonful of shortening with two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Cut this into the dough with a knife and beat till it is smooth. Add one well-beaten egg and beat to a smooth batter. Spread in a cake pan and let it stand twenty minutes. Pour over it a mixture of two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Sprinkle a little flour or cake crumbs over it and bake in a hotter oven than for bread.
Maple sugar pounded till fine can be used and makes a delicious cake.
Look out for a future post on this concept of many dishes from one mix!
Friday, September 07, 2012
Adam's Apple.
[with apologies for the formatting - Blogger wont do as asked today]
I hope you enjoyed the post yesterday on the true identity of the Earth Nut, because I have another little bit of confusion for your puzzle-pleasure today.
As the final snippet (for the time being) from the Dictionaire Œconomique, or, The Family Dictionary (1725), I give you the entry for ‘Adam’s Apple.’
ADAM’S APPLE: in Latin, Pomum adami, a Fruit but little different from Lemons; for tho’ the Tree that bears them has larger and bigger leaves than those of the Lemon-Tree, yet the Branches are very like: it produces a Flower like that of the Citron-tree, and a Fruit twice or thrice bigger than that of the Orange Tree. It’s round, has a pale rind, nervous and uneven. It is found much in Italy.
Adam’s Apples yield much Juice, and they have a Pulp little different from Lemons: in the mean time they are neither so delicious nor so well tasted. The Juice of these Apples has the same Properties as Lemons, but with less Efficacy: if you cut them into two parts, strew them with Frankincense reduc’d into a fine Powder, and heat them on hot Embers, you may apply them to Scurfs and the Itch, and you will be much relieved thereby.
So, Adam’s Apple is a citrus fruit, not an apple? This particular confusion can probably be explained away by the fact that in times past, ‘apple’ (or ‘pome’) was sometimes used as a generic name for the fruit of any tree.
Before I discuss the fruit itself any further, I want to point out, in case you didn’t already know, that the more prominent larynx in the human male is called the ‘Adam’s Apple’ because it supposedly demonstrates the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden stuck guiltily in Adam’s throat. This explanation will become relevant shortly – trust me.
There have been a number of contenders for the ‘true’ nature of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (which assumes a belief in a ‘real,’ not an allegorical tree,) and we have considered several of these in previous posts. Some of the most popular are the quince, the date, the peach, the pomegranate, and the banana – all more likely for a Middle Eastern Garden of Eden than the temperate-climate apple, methinks, if you are going for reality rather than symbolism. But I digress.
Some admittedly superficial research shows that, as in the case of the earthnut, a number of citrus fruits have been known by the name of Adam’s Apple, including the shaddock or pomelo (Citrus grandis,) the grapefruit (Citrus paradisi,) the citron (Citrus medica, ) the bitter orange (Citrus aurantium,) and the lime (Citrus aurantium var. limetta, or Citrus aurantifolia?.) Citrus history is long, and nomenclature is complicated and dynamic, so I am by no means certain I have gotten these varietal names correct. The point is, however, that I do not know what the author of our source of the week had in mind when he referred to the ‘Adam’s Apple.’ The ‘nervous and uneven’ rind, and the connection with Italy suggested the citron to me, but the author of the week has a separate entry for Citrons, and it does not seem to overlap.
Several sources suggest that is indeed a cultivar of Citrus aurantifolia (Citrus lumia var. pomum adami ?) which is also sometimes called ‘Adam’s bite’. The fruit has a deep groove at one end – just as if someone (Adam) had sunk his teeth into it. I know I have seen an image of this particular fruit, and it does indeed have a bite-shaped groove at one end of the mature fruit – but now I cant find the picture. Keeping up with five posts a week sometimes (often?) means insufficient research folks, that’s just the way it is.
Just to confuse things further, the banana (Musa paradisiaca) was also sometimes known as Adam’s Apple, but at least the ‘Paradise Apple’ (Malus pumila paradisiaca) is a real, if tiny, apple.
Whatever the citrus you have at hand, I am sure it will make a refreshing beverage. Here are the early eighteenth century instructions from our source of the week.
Lemonade.
A Liquor prepar’d in the following Manner: To a Paris Pint of Water put the juice of three Lemons, and seven or eight Slices, but if the Lemons are large, and very juicy, you may need but of two, with a Quarter of a Pound of Sugar, or at most but five Ounces: when the Sugar is melted, and the whole well incorporated, strain it through a Bag; let it cool and drink it: There are other Ways of preparing Lemonade, but this shall [?] suffice.
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