Galangal.

Galangal belongs to the ginger family, and is sometimes confused with it although the flavour is quite different. There are several plants called galangal, which is a nuisance, I think, but something over which I have no control, so I refuse to fuss about it. ‘Real’ galangal – the most common culinary form that is - is the root of  Alpinia galangal.  Because of its familiarity, popularity, and superiority, it is known as greater galangal. Alpinia officinarum is known as lesser galangal, and there is a third type called Kaempferia galangal about which I know nothing except that it does not appear to be called least galangal.

The root was well known for both its flavour and medicinal uses in the time of Chaucer (see the quote of the day), but it had virtually disappeared from the culinary scene in Britain a couple of hundred years later, as far as I can tell from some pretty hurried research. Odd, that at a time when travel and trade were exotic and hazardous occupations galangal was well known, but after these pursuits became every-day and large-scale activities it was essentially lost to the British culinary armamentarium, isn’t it?

I give you a recipe from a late fifteenth century manuscript (Harleain MS. 5401), in which galangal is used to flavour fritters.

Fruturs.

[Take] cromys of whyte brede, & swete apyls, & ȝokkis of eggis, & bray þam wele, & temper it with wyne, & make it to sethe; & when it is thyk, do þer-to gode spyces, gynger & galingay & canyll & clows, & serve it forthe.

Which means, more or less:

Take crumbs of white bread, and sweet apples, and yolkd of eggs, and beat them well, and mix with wine, and simmer it, and when it is thick, add good spices, ginger and galingal and cinnamon and cloves, and serve it forth.

The recipe appears to omit the frying of the batter. Cookery books at this time, and for centuries later, were aides-memoire for cooks, who would have understood what needed to be done with the batter. A number of you were frustrated with the absence of method instructions for the Spice Pie recipe from 1915 yesterday. In 1915, ‘everyone’ would have known how to make pastry and form a pie shell, so it was not thought necessary to include instructions for this – it was understood that the recipe was simply for the filling.

Quotation for the Day.

A Cook they hadde with hem for the nones

To boille the chiknes with the Marybones

And poudre-marchaunt tart and Galyngale.

Wel koude he knowe a draughte of londoun ale.
He koude rooste, and sethe, and broille, and frye,
Maken mortreux, and wel bake a pye.
But greet harm was it, as it thoughte me,
That on his shyne a mormal hadde he.
For blankmanger, that made he with the beste.

Chaucer, Canterbury Tales: Prologue (late 14thC)

The Spice of Life.

I would not enjoy cooking half as much, without spices. How about you? It occurred to me that there are many spices that have not had their day on this blog, so this week I have selected a few for our joint consumption. 

Firstly, what is a spice? According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is ‘one or other of various strongly flavoured or aromatic substances of vegetable origin, obtained from tropical plants, commonly used as condiments or employment for other purposes on account of their fragrance and preservative qualities.’

Interesting, that the OED includes the supposed preservative qualities of spices. Has this ever been borne out by science? I don’t think so. The definition no doubt derives from the belief that ‘curry’ is a way of preserving meat in hot climates – and/or disguising the taste if it has already spoiled. I don’t know how this idea ever got established. If it were true, there would be no rationale for the adoption of heavily spiced dishes in cold climates. There would be no need for spicy hot ale posset or gingerbread in mid-winter Europe. There would have been no impetus for the hazardous and expensive voyages of exploration and other imperial thrusts towards the spice lands of the mysterious East. ‘Curry’ would not be almost the national favourite dish in England.

There is no nutritional drive for added flavour. Aside from the possible medical benefits of some spices (a ‘watch this space’ region if ever there was one), spices add flavour, not nutritional value. A piece of cinnamon toast has barely any more calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates or vitamins than plain toast (with a sprinkle of sugar on it) but my goodness, its smell is more likely to lure you back into the kitchen, isn’t it?

Humans like warm, sweet, aromatic, peppery, gingery, hot, complex spicy flavours. That is the sum of it. Humans have been so fond of fragrant, spicy dishes that they have been prepared to risk life, limb, and the national economy to ensure their fix. Historically, humans have been willing to spend years crossing treacherous oceans aboard fragile ships, and dangerous deserts aboard ill-tempered camels, in the hope of making vast amounts of money by finding spices to sell to home-bodies hungry for tasty, spicy, fragrant, stews, soups, cakes, pies, sauces, beverages and whatever else you can think of.

To start our week I give you a couple of nice, non-threatening spicy dishes from The Suffrage Cook Book (Pittsburgh, 1915), by Mrs. L.O.Kleber.

Spice Pie

The yolks of three eggs, one and one-half cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of cream, two tablespoons of flour, two-thirds of a cupful of butter, one teaspoon of spice, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Mix the flour and sugar together, then cream with the butter. Add the yolks of the eggs, beating thoroughly. Next add cream and spices. Use the whites for the frosting.

Inexpensive Spice Cake

 ½ cup shortening

2 cups brown sugar

grated rind of lemon

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 lb. seeded raisins

½ teaspoon cinnamon

dash of cloves and nutmeg

Boil raisins in 1 ½ cups water twenty minutes.

Mix shortening, sugar, lemon rind, eggs and spices, add one cup flour then raisins drained but still hot. Then the other two cups flour and ½ cup of the water in which the raisins were boiled to which add 1 teaspoon bi-carbonate soda.

Bake in gem pans in moderate oven. This makes 30 cakes which can be iced with white or chocolate icing.

Quotation for the Day.

A man all Vertue, like a Pye all Spice, will not please.

J. Crowne, Regulus: a tragedy (1694)

A Nice Bit of Powsoddy.

There is an old dish from the north of England and Scotland called powsoddy (spelled in various ways.) I loved the name when I first came across it, so naturally wanted to find out exactly what it was. It turns out that the name is applied to several quite different things.

Powsoddy number one is a type of ‘ale posset with rum, sugar, nutmeg, and toasted bread; usually introduced during Christmas in Cumberland.’ 

Powsoddy number two is perhaps a variation of the above, as it can mean ‘a poisonous draught.’

Powsoddy number three is ‘any of various cooked dishes containing a mixture of various ingredients; a stew, a hotchpotch’, but the term is especially applied to a broth made of a sheep's head – from ‘pow’apparently meaning ‘head’, and sodden being an old word for boiling.

Powsoddy number four is ‘a suet pudding placed under a roast’ – otherwise known as ‘Aud-wife’s Sod’ or ‘Cinder-catcher.’ Some descriptions call it ‘Yorkshire Pudding’ too, because the original way of cooking this was by placing the mixture under the roast – although this mixture is a batter, not a suet pudding mixture. 

The Oxford English Dictionary admits that the etymology of the word is problematic, but I am more puzzled by how such different dishes came to be described by the same word – albeit a word with a large number of different spellings. Any ideas?

Recipe for the Day.

I am most intrigued by the first part of this recipe relating to the use of the sheep’s brain when it is removed from the head.

Sheep’s-Head Broth.

Have a sheep’s head and feet singed, split up, take out the brains and rub the head and feet with them; let it lie all night, and in the morning put it on the fire, in a pot with cold water. Le tit get hot, but not to boil; take it from the fire and let it stand one hour, then wash it well, brush it with a brush until you are ready to put them to the boil. Have a pot ready, put in one tea-cupful of barley, two ounces of whole rice, two pounds of the neck of mutton; put in the head and feet, and plenty of cold water and a little salt.Skim it well, and when it comes to the boil, draw it to the side of the fire, and let it boil slowly but constantly for another two hours; then add carrots, turnips, onions, cut neatly, and let it boil for another two hours, salting to taste. If your head is tender, take the broth off the fire, dish the head with the feel round it, and pour a little melted butter and minced parsley.

Practice of Cookery and Pastry (Edinburgh, 1854), I. Williamson.

Quotation for the Day.

I know it's not cat food, but what exactly is it that they put inside of tinned ravioli?
Doug Coupland

Honey, to Find.

I cannot resist sharing with you another piece of advice from Sir Frederick Galton’s The Art of Travel: or Shifts and Contrivances available in Wild Countries (1872.) This gem gives a whole new meaning to the idea of cooking (provisioning) from scratch. If you want honey - first catch your bee.

Honey, to find, when Bees are seen.

Dredge as many bees as you can, with flour from a pepper-box; or else catch one of them, tie a feather or a straw to his leg, which can easily be done (natives thrust it up into his body), throw him into the air, and follow him as he flies slowly to his hive; or catch two bees, and turning them loose at some distance apart, search the place towards which their flights converge. But if bees are too scarce for either of these methods, choose an open place, and lay in it a plate of syrup as a bait for the bees; after one has fed and flown away again, remove the plate 200 yards in the direction in which he flew; and proceed in the same sort of way, until the nest is found.

I am delighted to have found this little story, as I do not think I have given honey sufficient space in this blog to date. Today’s recipe source is a twenty page pamphlet from the Canada Department of Agriculture, Honey and Some of the Ways in Which it May be Used, (Ottowa, 1936.) The pamphlet was written for ‘the country housewife, especially those who produce their own honey’, and who pose the question ‘Can we use the honey we produce, but cannot sell, in place of sugar, which we have to buy?’

The pamphlet gives some general rules by which any recipe may be adapted to the use of honey.

1.      Measure honey always in the liquid form. If it is granulated, heat over warm water until liquid.

2.      For every cup of honey used, reduce the liquid called for in the recipe by one-fifth.

3.      One cup of honey is as great in sweetening power as one cup of sugar.

4.      Use ¼ to ½ teaspoon of soda to each cup of honey.

5.      Increase the amount of salt by ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon.

6.      When substituting honey for sugar in cake, reduce the liquid of the recipe by one-fifth and use half honey and half sugar. Fruit cake is an exception to the rule and all honey may be used.

7.      In milk puddings, pie fillings, etc., add the honey with the thickening agent – eg flour, cornstarch etc.

Sir Frederick does not provide recipes as such, in his book, so I have no idea how he would have used the honey – probably to sweeten tea, or perhaps to spread on bread, but almost certainly not in recipes like the following, taken from the Canadian pamphlet.

Honey Snaps.

½ cup honey

1 cup sifted pastry flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup butter

⅔ cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt.

Heat the honey to boiling point, add the butter and let it melt. Carefully add the mixed and sifted dry ingredients, combining so that there are no lumps, add flavouring and drop from a teaspoon onto a well-buttered baking sheet. Bake in a slow oven, 300 degrees Fahrenheit, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until thin and bubbly and nicely browned.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool a little, just enough that the wafers may be pulled from the baking sheet, and roll with the top side out. If the wafers become too hard to roll, place the baking sheet in the oven for a few minutes.

Quotation for the Day.

Bees sip honey from flowers and hum their thanks when they leave.

Rabindrath Tagore.

To Keep Milk and Butter.

When I travel, I like to travel light - but I also don’t like to do without the comforts of home and the good things of life. Tea bags solve the problem for me. Usually, at home, I have milk in tea, but in extreme situations, or just for a change, I drink it without. I never feel the need to go to extreme lengths to find milk in low-milk environments.

Real explorers and adventurers seem to take a perverse pride in doing it all tough and manly, so I was surprised to find that the intrepid author of yesterday’s source, The Art of Travel: or Shifts and Contrivances available in Wild Countries (1872) gave space to methods of preservation of milk and butter. Bit sissy, that, isnt it? Carrying glass bottles of preserved milk would make the choice of beasts of burden more difficult too, I would think. 

Anyway, who am I to judge? I have never done anything more adventurous than a hot-air balloon ride – although that did turn out to be exciting, as we crash landed. No glass bottles aboard, thankfully.

Should milk and butter be essential to your trip, and portability and lack of refrigeration not be issues for you, here is how Sir Frederick suggests you prepare them:

Milk, to keep.-Put it in a bottle, and place it in a pot of water, over a slow fire, till the water boils; let the bottle remain half an hour in the boiling water, and then cork it tightly. Milk with one's tea is a

great luxury; it is worth taking some pains to keep it fresh. A traveller is generally glutted with milk when near native encampments, and at other times has none at all. Milk dried into cakes, intended to be grated into boiling water for use, was formerly procurable: it was very good; but I cannot hear of it now in the shops. Milk preserved in tins is excellent, but it is too bulky for the convenience of most travellers. Dried bread-crumb, mixed with fresh cream, is said to make a cake that will keep

for some days. I have not succeeded, to my satisfaction with this recipe.

Butter, to preserve. -Boil it in a large vessel till the scum rises. Skim this off as fast as it appears on the surface, until the butter remains quite clear, like oil. It should then be carefully poured off, that the

impurities which settle at the bottom of the vessel may be separated. The clarified butter is to be put aside to be kept, the settlings must be used for common and immediate purposes. Butter is churned, in many countries, by twirling a forked stick, held between the two hands, in a vessel full of cream; or even by shaking the cream in a bottle. It is said that the temperature of the milk, while it is being churned, should be between 50 degrees and 60 degrees Fahr., and that this is all-important to success.

Quotation for the Day.

Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.

Robert Fulghum.

Salt from Ashes.

Today I want to bring to you some useful insights from a marvellous book called The Art of Travel: or Shifts and Contrivances available in Wild Countries (London, 1872), by Sir Frederick Galton. Should you ever need to know how to take a strong man prisoner singlehanded, how to make your own lint (for wound dressings), or how to deal with the continual braying of one of your asses, then this is the book for you.

Naturally, we are going to focus on the suggestions given about the provision of food for travellers in such wild places (which, I am delighted to advise, include Australia.) The relevant chapter begins:

Food Suitable for the Stores of Travellers. - The most portable kind of food is, unquestionably, the flesh of cattle; for the beasts carry themselves. The draught oxen used in African and Australian explorations serve as a last resource, when all other food is wanting.

It has been truly remarked with reference to Australian exploring expeditions, that if an exploring party would make up their minds to eat horseflesh, stores of provisions might be largely dispensed with. A few extra horses could be taken; and one shot occasionally, and its flesh dried and slightly salted, sufficiently to preserve it from becoming tainted before the men could consume it.

Portable Food. - The kinds of food that are the most portable in the ordinary sense of the term are:-Pemmican; meat-biscuit; fried meat; dried fish; wheat flour; biscuit; oatmeal; barley; peas; cheese; sugar; preserved potatoes; and Chollet's compressed vegetables. Extract of meat, as I am assured by the highest physiological authors, is not a portable food but a portable savour. It is quite impossible that life should be maintained on any minute amount of material, because so many grains of carbon and so many of nitrogen are daily consumed, and an equivalent weight of those elements must, of course, be replaced. Salt meat is not to be depended upon, for it is liable to become hard and worthless, by long keeping.

The author goes on to note that, if one is living off the land, then the flesh of no beasts (and few fish) is poisonous, but many plant foods are. He has some interesting comments on the importance of salt, and gives a method of making it which will serve as our recipe for the day.

Salt.-The craving for salt (chloride of sodium) is somewhat satisfied by the potash salts, and, perhaps, by other minerals: thus we often hear of people reduced to the mixing of gun-powder with their food, on account of the saltpetre that it contains. An impure salt is made widely in North Africa, from wood-ashes. They are put into a pot, hot water is poured over them and allowed to stand and dissolve out the salts they contain; the ley is then decanted into another pot, where it is evaporated. The plants in use are those of which the wetted ashes have a saline and not an alkaline taste, nor a soapy feel.

I plan to give you more insights from this author tomorrow, for he has much to share, and there are still wild places to travel in the world.

Quotation for the Day.

Don’t slaughter more pigs than you can salt.

French Proverb

Puddings by the Wholesale.

One of the ideas I like to come across in old cookery books is the ‘make x-number of things from one mix’ sort of recipe. They are not very often relevant to modern family size, meal preferences, and time constraints, but I like to think of them as aids to creativity. Today I give you, in its entirety, a short article from the American Farmers' Magazine of 1857 which shows just how much you can do with a basic custard as your starting point.

                  Puddings by the Wholesale.

Here is a rule for building a dozen puddings or more on one foundation. What an idea! It may be a good, one, however. Let the ladies look at it and see:
Baked Puddings.—Take about three eggs for each quart of milk, beat them thoroughly and stir with the milk, adding salt and sugar or molasses to the taste, and a little nutmeg, or other spice if desired. It is now ready to pour into the pudding dish and set in the oven as a custard pudding, or with apple or other sauce stirred in, as a fruit pudding; or it can be used as a basis for almost any other pudding. Take the custard as prepared, and thicken it somewhat with cold corn cake or pone crumbled fine, and you will have a light and excellent Indian pudding, or thicken with dry bread well crumbled, for a good bread pudding, that will please all. Or the pieces of stale bread may be sliced thin, and slowly dried and browned in the oven, then pounded fine or ground in the coffee-mill, and a little of this powdered rusk—about one tablespoonful to a quart—used to thicken it, with ground clove for spice, and you have a rusk pudding.
Add rice which has been previously boiled in milk, to the custard, for a rice pudding, or a little sago or tapioca, well soaked and boiled, for a still further variety. Hominy well boiled, or grated sweet corn, too, make puddings which some are fond of. A pudding which we particularly like, is made by taking very thin slices of bread buttered thinly, putting a layer of this at the bottom of the dish, then a layer of apple sliced thin, another layer of bread, and so on till you have enough, then pour a custard made as first directed over the whole, and put it into the oven. Or for the bird's nest pudding, take small tart apples, pare and core, put them in the pudding-dish and pour the custard over.
The proportion of eggs may be increased or diminished in any of these puddings, according to the supply, and raisins or West India currants can be added or not at the pleasure of the cook. All of these puddings should be baked very slowly, and not suffered to boil in the oven. Sweet cream, with sugar, and if wished, a little nutmeg added, makes the best sauce for any of those. Or thicken boiling water with a little flour, add a small lump of butter, sugar, salt and spice, and either lemon juice, or lemon essence and vinegar, and you have a good, plain sauce.—Ohio Cultivator.

Quotation for the Day.

Chopsticks are one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.
Spike Milligan

Why not ‘Bean Day’?

I love beans. Aside from their gustatory pleasure, they are a never-ending source of stories. Some time ago we had an American story from World War II on Soy Beans for Freedom. Today I give you an article from World War I, from the Washington Post of January 13, 1918. It is an appeal from a Mrs. Christine Frederick - clearly a bean-lover herself - which is still entirely relevant almost a hundred years later. I love the sweet dessert idea for lima beans.

We have had wheatless days and meatless days urged upon us, but why not consider the merits of one “bean day” every week? Beans, as we know, are meat equivalents; and even though the price has trebled in the last year, they are still cheaper and give more nourishment of the same kind than animal protein. Now, with the gathering of the crops, dried beans should be hanging a-plenty in cellar or attic, and the creative housewife will find still more ways to use them than before.

There are black, red, white, and all manner of mottled beans. Their value is about the same; all are high in protein and starch, so that really the bean is meat and potato combined. The whole family has also sulphur compounds of great value. The one disadvantage they possess is the thick leathery skin, which sometimes irritates the stomach and makes people think that “beans don’t agree with them.” It is better to keep back the skins when cooking for children and persons of weak digestion.

Mashed Beans.

Until recently few housekeepers were familiar with the method of using bean pulp instead of the whole bean in the familiar “pork and beans.” To make this pulp, boil any lima, pea, or red bean in very little water until tender. Press through a fine puree strainer and season. This pulp can then be used hot instead of mashed potato, or it can be made into croquettes or patties or as a stuffing for meat and vegetables. The pulp of lima beans is particularly sweet and delicious. If combined with beaten egg yolks and stiffly beaten egg whites it makes a soufflé or baked custard which is most delicious and nourishing, especially for children.

This pulp is really a 100 per cent no-waste food, for even though the price of beans is abnormal, it must be remembered that there is not an ounce of loss through bone, gristle, or trimming: they are the most concentrated food. The one ingredient that they lack is fat, so it should always be combined in their cooking: high contrasting flavours, like tomato, pepper, thyme, etc should also be used.

Much is being made of the new emigrant from Japan, the soy bean. It is the most nutritious of the entire family, is as easy to cook and tastes just as well as our own navy bean. It can be boiled, baked or made into soup, and the flour makes delicious muffins and pancakes. Ask your dealer about the soy bean and try some of your favourite recipes with it.

Another bean that could be used more is the large red kidney bean, whose pulp is particularly mealy. This is the kind used by Mexicans and Asiatics and which is so tasty in hot pungent dishes. The pulp mashes well, makes excellent croquettes and stew. The small red and white mottled Italian bean has very good flavour, especially excellent for baking. The lima has the sweetest flavor of all and makes the best mealy pulp.

It is now possible to secure in package form flour made from various beans. These make excellent soups very quickly or can be used as a thick cereal or made into puddings in which children delight.

Making Up Left-Overs.

Beans are also a food which use up scraps and left-overs to the best possible advantage. Any small trimming of meat, ham, celery tops, or the water in which vegetables were cooked can be used as the water in which to boil the beans and increase their nourishment. There is not a ham shank too small or a bacon rind too old to be used for flavouring. Carrots, cabbage, and celery too wilted to appear as vegetables, can be cut into fine bits and combined in the various bean dishes. Beans should always be cooked with the pot lid off in order to let the sulphur compounds escape. The water in which they were soaked should not be used, but do not throw away the water in which they were parboiled, as this holds some of the valuable elements. It seems natural for beans to cook best in earthenware, and many of us should try the plan of cooking soup in crockery like our frugal cousins, the French. The flavour is better and the service made easier by cooking and serving in the same dish.

Quotation for the Day.

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you, and be silent.

Epicetus (55 AD – 135 AD)