Food History

I know I’m supposed to be taking a break, but I couldn’t resist giving you a New year present. The Tudor cooks on fast forward!

Two in two days is worrying, especially as this is definitely from me. I’m not well. Nothing life threatening. Lots of graphic symptoms, inckuding headache and vomiting so it might be as simple as heat exhaustion and lots of tension underneath (the doctor said I needed time out, but that was before the most graphic symptoms appeared).

Anyhow, it is summer and I am prone to heat exhaustion. I’m also prone to never taking holidays. I hope you don’t mind not getting any posts until 1 January while I take a bit of a break and take care of myself a little.

The spam filter needs glasses. It has been reading your comments as spam and eating them, by mistake. Until the problem resolves, I’ll try to go through every bit of spam manually, because I miss all your comments.

You might also want to check back and resend comments where they haven’t appeared. I will try to catch everything, but I’m a mere human being and this blog gets a lot of spam and I might miss something important. I don’t to lose your sage words, however.

I’m sorry about it (it’s not my fault, but I’m still sorry - I felt all kinds of deserted until I found out that the spam filter needed glasses) and I hope that someone will find a solution soon. It is being worked upon, but right now they’re not sure what can be done, since it comes from the previously brilliant spam program itself. I keep thinking that maybe some idiot spammers have invented new varieties of the stuff and that Akismet is hopelessly tangled. Hopeless entanglement is something I can sympathise with.

PS If you want cheering up, I’ve got two lovely new books that require disussion.

I was so certain today was Friday that when I discovered it wasn’t, I floundered for about two hours. I solaced myself with a 1920s ice cream, the very first product of the Prohibition menu tests. Kate made two ice creams initially, although she has taken some more because summer is such a perfect time to test ice cream recipes. Yesterday she thought I should taste them too. She made a white peach one and a raspberry. (more…)

When people tell a group “Merry Christmas everyone” I always have to bite my tongue to avoid adding “And well over the Fast.” It’s because Christmas is very closely linked to New Year in general Aussie culture and of course, one of the new years in my branch of Aussie culture is followed by a fast. This is pure culture confusion added to a little mild frustration that the person giving such generous wishes kind of forgets that not all of us share Christmas.

This would normally be the start of a big grouch. It isn’t. It’s the start of a bit of food history wonderment. (more…)

Welcome everyone to the Carnival of the Recipes #174. I’m sorry this is a bit more disorderly than my posts normally are, but it’s Christmas Eve Downunder and – though it ought not touch me at all (since I’m Jewish) I’ve been invited to a friend’s place for the whole shebang, including a full day’s preparations. I’ve tried to make up for lack of editing time with some bad jokes. Think of them as fine seasoning, since I can’t plate the meal beautifully. (more…)

You don’t have nearly enough cookie recipes yet. I’m assuming this because all my friends who do that mysterious and little-known festival called Christmas are baking and baking and baking. Slices and biscuits and every kind of cake, as well as identifiable recipes such as plum pudding and Christmas cake.

Me? I’m taking pasta with avocado and macadamia cream sauce (maybe also artichokes in the sauce – I need to think about this) to Christmas lunch at a friends, and that’s really all the cooking I have to do.

Today’s recipes are from 1845, (more…)

What do American Orphans recommend for Christmas? Especially what did they recommend in 1798? Amelia Simmons in her American Cookery, gave us two cookie recipes, which means I get to add to my biscuit recipes and you get something a bit different to all the pudding variants. (more…)

The elegance of the moustache cup made me think of India in the late nineteenth century. This means – naturally – that you get some Christmas recipes from there. We are still in a stormy zone, so I’m going to keep the introduction and explanations down to a minimum. These recipes come from The Indian Cookery Book, Calcutta.

Christmas Plum Pudding (Indian Way) (more…)

The other day Donna whipped out her camera and took me some photos. I won’t inflict the one of me on you, but I thought you’d like one of the moustache cup.

I’ll give you some more Christmas recipes later in the day, of course, but I really wanted you to see the cup and contemplate the elegance of Continental gentlemen in the nineteenth century. Don’t forget to contemplate the elegance of their coffee-drinking habits. Oh, and their moustaches. Their moustaches were exquisite.

I’m sneaking this post in before the thunderstorm hits. A recipe from The New Dr. Price Cook Book, 1921.

I’ve just rediscovered that glace ginger is really good to help prevent the summer thunderstorm aches. Doesn’t solve them all, but it makes me feel all kinds of warm inside. I’m trying to make you feel all kinds of warm inside, too.

A couple of you were fretted by the amount of suet (more…)

All around me people are panicking and making pronouncements and cooking and creating plum puddings and cakes. To celebrate the vast amount of festive fare being created in the Christmassy hemisphere (as opposed to the places the rest of us live, which presumably are lacking in reindeer and elves) I’m going to give you a bunch of plum puddings, from The complete cook by J. M. Sanderson, 1864. No history lessons today – these plum puddings will leave you too full to think.

Plum Pudding Sauce. (more…)

On the 2nd day of Christmas recipes I bring you lots of plum pudding from Ideas for refreshment rooms (more…)

“I’m dreaming of a wide Christmas, one where my waistline overflows”

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Will a recipe make up for the sheer horror that is my sense of humour?

This recipe is from Good Housekeeping’s book of Menu, Recipes and Household Discoveries, New York, 1922. I came across it while I was doing research for the Prohibition Banquet.

EVERY MAN’S CHRISTMAS PUDDING

1 cupful suet chopped fine
1 teaspoonful salt
1 cupful molasses
1 teaspoonful cinnamon
1 teaspoonful soda
1/2 teaspoonful ground cloves
1 cupful rich milk
1/2 teaspoonful mace
31/2 cupfuls pastry flour
1 1/2 cupfuls seeded raisins
2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar
1 cupful currants or seedless
1 teaspoonful grated nutmeg
raisins

Mix together the suet and molasses. Add the soda and stir until foamy. Then add the milk and three cupfuls of the flour sifted with the cream of tartar, salt, and spices. Stir in last the seeded raisins chopped and the currants or the seedless raisins the latter cut in halves dusted with the remaining half-cupful of flour. Steam in a large pudding boiler or two smaller ones, well greased, four to five hours. Serve with York and Lancaster Sauce.

I’m sorry there was no post yesterday. I wasn’t good for much, because I got hit by a whacking great migraine. I made a nuisance of myself at a meeting then went home and was useless.

Uselessness always gets me thinking, though, so not all is lost. And if the migraine behaves I might do you a second post (with some recipes) to make up.

The first thing I thought about is that I have a ton of Christmas posts for all of you brave souls who put up with Chanukah. I was going to post them on the 12 days of Christmas, but that really doesn’t give you much chance to play with them for your Christmas dinner. Maybe I should start later today then, and you can create timely historical fare throughout your festive season. That sounds like a good idea. Your second post today will be Christmas food from an historical cookbook.

This isn’t what the migraine made me think about, though. The migraine made me think of Medieval medicine. A whole branch of treatment in the Middle Ages was taking appropriate food for your body, to balance the humours and diminish the symptoms. (more…)