Food History

We all need a break from unlimited alcohol. In fact, we need something solid and sobering, because we’re heading for mid-week and sobriety is terribly important during the middle of the week. I thought some more recipes for the biscuit and scone collection would do the trick.

A question the other day made me realise that some of you don’t know why all these biscuit and scone recipes keep appearing. It’s because I’m collecting (slowly and a little sporadically) recipes and mentions and, one day, when we’re all completely sick of it, I’m going to make a special map. I’ll chart biscuits and scones over time and geographically. I’ll compare names and ingredients, if it ever gets to that stage, and we’ll come up with interesting results.

Until then the recipes are lovely. Today’s lovely recipes are from Foods that will Win the War and How to Cook Them, by C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss, 1918.

SOY BEAN MEAL BISCUIT
1 cup soy bean meal or flour
1 cup whole wheat
1−1/2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon corn syrup
2 tablespoons fat
1 cup milk
Sift dry ingredients. Cut in fat. Add liquid to make soft dough. Roll one−half inch thick. Cut and bake 12 to 15 minutes in hot oven.

EMERGENCY BISCUIT
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon fat
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 cup sour milk
1 teaspoon salt
Mix as baking powder biscuit. Drop by spoonfuls on greased baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes in hot oven.

I’m taking a break from drinking. I promise to get back to it, though, and write more curiously influenced posts.

Today I have two things to talk about: search terms and one of the community cookbooks. They are in no way linked, nor is the fact that I spent this morning looking at stoves.

Normally search terms for this blog aren’t at all interesting. Everyone who comes is practical and sensible and looks for good stuff. This time, when I checked the stats, things were a bit different. That’s why I’m sharing. Everyone else gets strange terms to chuckle over so it’s about time we had some, too.

Right up the top is ‘brad and butter pudding’. I do wonder what Brad tastes like in a pudding, but I don’t want to kill him to find out. A few entries under Brad is ‘pleasure revenge food’ – if it was the same person who used both search terms and you are that person, please own up. There has to be a story in it.

Just for the record, photography was invented in the nineteenth century. This means that the poor soul who looked for ‘medieval beef photos’ was entirely out of luck. I hope that the person who keyed in ‘middle evil times people how to cook food’ had better success, though I can’t promise anything for ‘names of a Jewish butcher.’ I have met a Jewish butcher and I don’t think I called him names at all.

The rest is pretty sane and sensible. I’d really love to know what the person who googled ‘jewish herb garden’ found out. Why should a Jewish herb garden be any different from a non-Jewish one? Colour me mystified.

The next cookbook on my little pile of must-reads is The Tried-and-True Cookbook. It has a lovely blue cover and was put out by the Wesley Deep Creek Uniting Church in order to help primary school children at risk. It comes from the bottom end of mainland Australia rather than the top end, but it’s still about children and their needs.

Melbourne has a Mediterranean climate, and its food has a Mediterranean influence. Instead of tropical flavours, there is minestrone and Chinese barbecue pork, pilaf and lasagna. There is, however, also macadamia chicken, tomato curry and some truly wonderful-looking desserts that could be from anywhere European. In other words, the cookbook doesn’t reflect Melbourne, it reflects the congregation of that particular branch of the Uniting Church.

To celebrate that congregation and its efforts in helping children, how about a recipe? This one calls itself “Impossible Pie” and, despite the name, it looks delightfully simple.

Impossible pie

4 eggs
½ cup butter
½ cup plain flour
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
2 tsp vanilla

Blend all ingredients together and pour into a 25 cm greased pie plate.

Bake at 180 degrees C for about 1 hour or until centre is firm.

I promised my grandmother’s recipes and, after racking my brains to think what I should talk about tonight, I remembered my promise. It’s a pity I remembered that I had promised recipes, though, because I had just about decided that it was time to talk about the gabelle. Salt is important, after all. Anyhow, there’s world enough and time for a post on French salt taxes and their extraordinary effects on world history. Another day. If I remember.

The baked egg recipe is identical to a recipe that appeared in the 1920s in the US, which just goes to show that US cuisine and Australian aren’t so far away from each other as they sometimes look. The only difference between my grandmother’s recipe and the US version is that my grandmother’s follows the Jewish technique of breaking the egg into a cup first, to check for blood spots or embryos. I find it works best with the perfect rich tomatoes of high summer.

The main course of tomato and egg is so light and healthy that I’ve given a rather decadent dessert to match it.

Baked Eggs & Tomatoes
Allow 1 egg & 1 tomato to each person. Slice about 1 ¼ off the top of the tomato, scoop out the pulp. Break an egg into a cup & pour it into the tomato. Add a little butter, pepper & salt. Bake slowly until egg is set. Warm the pulp, season, and pour around each egg.

Caramel Custard
3 eggs, 1 qt milk, 2 oz lump sugar, vanilla essence. Make a custard with eggs and milk in a shallow dish, cooking it very slowly so that it will not curdle. Put sugar in a pan with a little water and warm until it is a dark coffee colour. Add vanilla. Take the brown skin off the custard when it is cold and arrange in a glass dish and pour the cold caramel sauce over it. Serve with cream.

Today’s biscuit recipes are from The American Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book by Mrs EA Howland. It was published in Cincinnati in 1845. For saleratus you can use baking soda, and everything else is pretty obvious. Is it equally obvious that I’m falling asleep at my desk? I hope not.

“17. Brown Bread Biscuit.
Two quarts of Indian meal, a pint and a half of rye, one cup of flour, two spoonfuls of yeast, and a table-spoonful of molasses. It is well to add a little saleratus to yeast almost always, just as you put it into the article. Let it rise over night.

18. Bread Biscuit.
Three pounds of flour, half a pint of Indian meal sifted, a little butter, two spoonfuls of lively yeast; set it before the fire to rise over night; mix it with warm water.

19. Tea Biscuit.
* Take one pint of sour milk, one tea-spoonful of saleratus, flour enough to knead up, a small piece of lard or butter, a little salt; roll it out, and cut it into small biscuits.

20. Light Biscuit.
Take two pounds of flour, a pint of buttermilk, half a tea-spoonful of saleratus; put into the buttermilk a small piece of butter or lard rubbed into the flour; make it about the consistency of bread before baking.

21. Rice Biscuit.
Two pounds of flour, a tea-cupful of rice, well boiled, two spoonfuls of yeast; mix it with warm water; when risen enough, bake it.

25. Rich Milk Biscuit.
Two pounds of sifted flour, eight ounces butter, two eggs, three gills of milk, a gill and a half of yeast. Cut the butter into the milk and warm it slightly, sift the flour into a pan, and pour the milk and butter into it. Beat the eggs and pour them in, also the yeast; mix all well together with a knife. Flour your moulding-board, put the lump of dough on it, and knead it very hard. Then cut the dough in small pieces, and knead them into round balls; prick and set them in buttered pans to rise till light, probably about an hour, and bake them in a moderate oven.

26. Butter Biscuit.
Eight ounces of butter, two pounds of flour sifted, half a pint of milk or cold water, a salt spoonful of salt. Cut up the butter in the flour and put the salt to it, wet it to a stiff dough with the milk or water, mix it well with a knife. Throw some flour on the moulding-board, take the dough out of the pan, and knead it very well. Roll it out into a large, thick sheet, and beat it very hard on both sides with the rolling-pin. Beat it a long time, cut it out, with a tin or cup, into small, round, thick cakes. Beat each cake on both sides with the rolling-pin, prick them with a fork, put them in buttered pans, and bake them to a light brown in a slow oven.”

Sharyn’s children are all christened. I couldn’t be there, because seventh day Passover and christenings really don’t match, but my thoughts were with them all.

She says that she has a couple of posts to take us through the missing food elements and then that’s it: we will have a complete documentation of a rural Australian christening with stories. Although I admit, I wasn’t expecting the Mayan aspect of today’s post.

“Perhaps this one should be called ‘Recipes from before a Country Christening,’ because when you have a wedding, 21st, christening etc in rural Australia, you have people coming from all over the place, and you are never catering for just the one meal. We already have friends here, from both interstate and overseas, more family and friends are expected today, although precise numbers are unclear. So, not being one hundred per cent certain of how many I’ll be feeding, I decided late last night, while roasting the chicken for the ‘Chicken, Leek, and Tarragon Pie’, to make pumpkin soup, and get the makings out for a casserole.

It then made sense, while I had the oven on, to prepare the bread cases for the ‘Smoked Salmon Tartlets’, and one of my houseguests decided to pitch in with her own favourite recipe, what she calls her ‘Sinking Mud Muffins’, so we’ll have something to offer with coffee & tea today. And after all, doesn’t everyone make muffins at midnight?

But she couldn’t have chosen a better comfort food for me. Chocolate has been used as important parts of people’s social and religious lives, since the Mayans grew it in Mesoamerica (250-900 AD). Modern studies have proven what is in it that makes us feel so good, and as a child, my best friend’s mother used to make the darkest, moistest, absolute best chocolate cake. She knew I was somewhat partial to it, so weekends when I stayed over there would always be a big slab of frosted chocolate cake to have with our morning tea mugs of Milo.

As a teenager I moved to Wodonga for work, and my friend moved to Benalla. Whenever she came home, even unexpected visits, she’d ring me, and I’d head straight out to see her. It took me half an hour to get out there and I’d walk in the door, just as her Mum would be removing a freshly baked chocolate cake from the oven. “I knew you were coming”, she’d grin, “so I made you a cake.” It’s not really any wonder I named one of my daughters after this woman.

So today, while I raise a glass in honour of the Anzac’s, make ‘Frangelico Truffles’ as gifts for my boys god-parents, eat chocolate muffins, and my house fills with more of the people I love, I’m sharing my recipe for the truffles. To my mind, nothing else could quite say thank you, to those people for making the commitment they have chosen to make to my children, like handmade chocolate.

Frangelico Chocolate Truffles

Ganache
8 oz (230 g) dark sweet chocolate
2/3 c. heavy cream
2 Tablespoons Frangelico.
Dipping
16 oz. (450 g) dark sweet chocolate
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Garnish
2 cups chocolate shavings.

When chocolate and cream ganache have cooled to room temperature, stir in sherry before refrigerating. Roll dipped truffle in chocolate shavings. “

Culcairn is heating up, as you can see from this post. By Saturday, there will be enough food in that town to feed double the usual number. Enjoy Sharyn’s latest post!

“Recipes from a Country Christening

My childhood memories of food at parties may well be different from people the same age in other areas. With the migrant camp at Bonegilla http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/national/sites/bonegilla.html introducing a wide variety of people to our region, we had an incredible amount of choice.

Pot-luck dinners run by the CWA might have French style ragouts; sweet and sour sausages & rice (the rice was always cold and gluggy); stroganoff; homemade pizzas on scone dough; homemade spring rolls; kransky; tuna mornay; and my favourite, lasagna. Big, solid layers of meat and tomato sauce, nutmeg flavoured cheese sauce and homemade pasta. Sweets could range from platters of fairy bread and honey joys; bread and butter pudding; to fresh apple strudel. I have fond memories of watching the strudel pastry being made.

Making fresh pasta, and tomato sauce, for a lasagna always takes me back to the aromas of my friends mum’s kitchen, when I was a kid. It takes a bit extra time, but the flavor is always well worth the effort.

Home-Made Pasta Dough

INGREDIENTS

400g plain flour (strong/bread flour is best, but you can get passable results with ordinary plain flour)
4 whole eggs, lightly beaten
salt to taste
METHOD

Place flour onto the work surface, and make a well. Add eggs, salt and gradually work into the flour until a soft and pliable dough forms. Knead the dough until smooth and consistent - 5 minutes should do.
Allow dough to rest for an hour, covered in cling wrap, in the refrigerator. Divide dough into 4 balls. Flatten each ball into a disk and pass through the pasta machine on the widest setting, Fold in half lengthways and repeat. Keep rolling twice on each setting until you reach the narrowest setting.
Cut pasta if it gets too long.

* To roll by hand, divide mixture into manageable balls. Roll each portion evenly onto a well-floured board. A marble rolling pin is best for this job.
Dust rolled pasta with extra semolina and allow to rest for 10 minutes before using, or air dry the pasta until required.

Pasta Sauce

INGREDIENTS

10 large tomatoes
1 heaped tablespoon dried basil, or half a bunch of finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 cup stock (chicken or vegetable)
½ cup red wine

METHOD

In a medium sized stockpot (you can use a deep-sided saucepan) melt the butter, and fry onion til soft. Add roughly chopped tomatoes and stir for several minutes. Add stock, basil and wine. Bring to the boil, and stir while tomato flesh breaks down. Season to taste, and simmer for approx half an hour, or until sauce has reduced. For a smooth sauce, blend for a few minutes with a stick blender.”

More from Sharyn Lilley. I’m so going to make that entree when Passover is over!

“For a while in the 50s my father drove trucks for a living. The highway was tarmac, but most other roads weren’t, and air conditioning was of the ‘roll your window down for cool or up for warmth’ variety. This method was also used to control the dust intake.

Drive through service hadn’t been heard of, but there were a few twenty four hour cafes where they offered sit down meals of steak, eggs and onions; pies, chips and peas; fish, chips and salads; hearty soups and thick bakery bread. In Victoria, trucks were not permitted to drive between midnight Saturday night, and midnight Sunday night.

Today’s first recipe gives a nod to the cafes of old, with steak, onions and homemade bread.

Steak and Caramelized Onion Entree

Slice a whole loaf of wholegrain bread, I prefer it to be about as thick as toast loaf and cut each slice into quarters. Line a baking tray with silicone paper, lightly brush both sides of bread with oil, and toast under a grill. (The cheats version is to buy packets of mini toasts)

Heat a non-stick fry pan, add a tablespoon of oil. Add two thick pieces of rump steak, sear each side, and then add ½ cup red wine and mixed herbs to the pan, simmer until steak cooked to your preference. Set steaks aside, cover loosely with foil.

Slice two large red onions thinly. Fry gently in half a tablespoon of butter until soft, then add one tablespoon of brown sugar, and one tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Cook, stirring, until caramelized, remove from heat.

Spread toasts with seeded mustard. Slice steaks thinly, and cut to fit the toasts. Top each toast with half a teaspoon of onion; garnish with chopped fresh parsley leaves.

Makes roughly 40 toasts.

Smoked Salmon Tartlets

400 grams smoked salmon
1 tub cream cheese
Two spring onions thinly sliced
1 loaf white bread
Sprigs of fresh dill

Using a fluted biscuit cutter, cut rounds from the bread. Lightly grease two mini muffin trays. Line trays with the rounds of bread, and lightly toast in the oven. Set aside to cool.

Slice the spring onions finely, mix well into the cream cheese. Fill the bread cases with cream cheese mixture. Top with small amounts of the smoked salmon, and fresh dill.”

More from Sharyn. She’s writing us a series, in fact, so you can get a real sense of what catering and family and family foodways are in her tiny corner of rural Australia. Don’t forget to visit her at Eneit Press and find out what she’s up to when she’s not cooking!

“A christening might not be what most people associate with the Anzac weekend, but it has both sentimental and practical reasons for being chosen. Practical, because a long weekend allows our interstate guests to be able to get here; sentimental, because amongst the letters and keepsakes I inherited from my grandmother, is a post card, with a beautifully hand embroidered flower, and a robin redbreast in flight. The chain-stitched letters spell out To My Dear Father, and a brief message, scrawled on the back was the first indication my great-grandparents had that their eldest son had survived Gallipoli. It seems fitting that his youngest great-grandsons should be christened on that weekend.

My grandparents were married in 1920, Granddad had returned from the war ill, and wounded, and used his Soldiers Allotment to purchase land at Leneva. When they married they ran a poultry farm there. Which leads me to today’s recipe – one of the main meal dishes I’ll be preparing next weekend.

Chicken, Leek, and Tarragon Pie

Filling:
50g butter
2 tbs plain flour
1 leek, ends trimmed, washed and thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups chicken stock (I use Oxo cubes if I don’t have fresh stock – that’s just a personal favourite)
1/2 cup cream
1 tsp dried tarragon.
Pinch of white pepper
1 large ready cooked chicken, (again, just because it’s homemade doesn’t mean cheats aren’t available) skin and bones removed, meat shredded

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat until foaming. Add leek and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the leek softens. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until mixture bubbles. Remove from heat. Gradually add stock, whisking until smooth.
Whisk the cream, tarragon and pepper into the flour mixture. Season with salt, and stir in the chicken. Set aside to cool completely.

Thaw out three sheets of frozen short crust pastry. Line a 22cm (base measurement) springform pan with silicone baking paper, and then line with two sheets of the pastry, allowing sides to overhang. Spoon the chicken mixture into the pan. Shape the remaining sheet of pastry to fit the top, and then enclose the filling by folding down the overhang of the base. Cut vent holes in the center, brush lightly with either an egg wash, or milk, and bake on lowest shelf of oven for 35 minutes or until crust crisp and golden. Set aside to cool slightly. Can be served cold or warm, but at this time of year, and with this being for an evening meal, mine will be served warm.

Dad tells me Grandma used to make a similar version topped with potatoes; I might have to try that one day. ”

Sharyn Lilley of Eneit Press is also in memory mode because she’s preparing for a big country christening. When she offered to write it up for me I raced in with my ‘yes please’ before she could change her mind.

“In 1941, my Grandmother’s sister married, and celebrated afterwards at Strahan’s Rendezvous with an afternoon tea comprising:
Assorted Sandwiches
Mixed Savories
Cream Cakes
Trifle & Cream
Jellies & Cream
Fruit Salad & Cream
Dried Fruit
Sweets
Nuts
Tea and Coffee and Soft Drinks

Fairly standard fare for a Country Wedding in those days, although I look at the menu keepsake my Grandmother left to me, along with various other papers she’d collected over the years, and can’t help but wonder what sort of sweets you’d need after all those cream cakes, trifles and jellies!

Anzac weekend 2008, my husband and I will be having our three boys christened, I’m doing the catering, and decided to share the menu with Gillian’s readers. Again, it’ll be pretty standard fare … for a party at my place.

Today’s recipe is for the nibblies table, and is a savoury adaption of palmiers. Palmiers are variously known around the world as: palm leaves, elephant ears, pig’s ears, butterfly crisps and even kanapee (Finnish). The food dictionary at Epicurious has a definition of Palmiers here: http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/entry?id=3771

Honey Ham Palmiers
&
Cheese and Mustard Palmiers

1 packet (6 sheets) frozen puff pastry (just because it’s homemade, doesn’t mean you can’t cheat.)
¼ of a kilo of shaved, smoked ham
Pouring honey (make sure it’s clear and running easily, makes the job much easier.)
Seeded Mustard (I’ll be using tarragon mustard from Milawa Mustards, because that’s a favourite of mine)
2 cups grated tasty cheese.

Separate the frozen sheets of pastry, lay flat on a work surface and spread three of them with a thin layer of ham. Spread the remaining three with a thin layer of mustard. Drizzle the honey over the sheets of ham covered pastry, and sprinkle the cheese over the mustard.

By now the pastry will be fully thawed, so roll up each sheet of pastry in two rolls that meet in the middle. Cut into finger-width slices, lightly squash the double rolls together to get the palmier shape (vaguely heart shaped) and lay flat onto a baking tray lined with silicon baking paper. Bake for 10 minutes at 180 Degrees C, or until golden and crisp.

One of the beauties of this particular recipe is it can be prepared ahead, and put into the freezer, layering with baking paper for ease of separation when needed, and just baked on the day.”

When I moved out of home I did a lot of overseas travel. When you can cook and you travel, everyone wants you to cook dishes associated with your native country. Some of the recipes in this section of my book of secrets (which now ought to be renamed my book of not many secrets) are because I love them (challah), some because I love making them (macaroons) and some because everyone demanded them (pavlovas). For most recipes, the person who gave me their version is written down – I’m going to include the personal name of the recipe-giver, just in case they happen upon these recipes. If you’re one of these people, it means I remember you fondly, even if we’ve lost touch.

Challah (traditional bread, for Friday nights –from Nancy)

Stir 1 sachet yeast in ¼ cup lukewarm water and let sit 5 minutes.

Mix 4 ½ cups flour, 2 tbs oil, 2 tsp salt, 2 eggs and 1 cup water together. Add the yeast mixture and stir well. Knead until smooth. Let rise one hour.

Thump down. Knead briefly. Break into three pieces. Braid.

Let rise one hour. Beat an egg yolk and brush the top of the load with it. Sprinkle with poppy seed. Bake at 350 degrees F for about one hour.

Coconut Macaroons (from my mother)

3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
2 tsp corn flour
2 cups coconut
vanilla essence
glace cherries to decorate

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar in small quantities, beating well after each addition. Add cornflour. Beat over saucepan of fast boiling water until mixture begins to cook on the bottom of the basic. Fold in coconut and essence.

Place in small heaps on greased trays. Decorate with cherry.
Place in the lower half of a moderately slow over (160 degrees C) for c 25 minutes. Cool.

Pavlova (from my mother)

3 egg whites
12 tbs sugar
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp cornflour
cream
fruit and other toppings

Beat egg whites until stiff and dry. Add sugar in small quantities, beating well after each addition. When sugar completely added and dissolved, add vinegar and cornflour.

Spread or pipe in desired shape on greased and cornfloured tray. Place in slower half of very slow oven (120 degrees C). Leave in oven with door ajar until cold. Fill with cream (whipped with sugar if you prefer it sweet) then top as desired.

The weather is getting colder and I’m slowly getting over whatever it is I have had. By ’slowly’ I mean “Why aren’t you gone already, drabbit.” Two perfect excuses for more biscuits and scones, though some of the biscuits call themselves ‘cookies.’

Because I’m embedded in the 1920s, this set of recipes is from The Perry Home Cook Book, 1920.

Cookies
1 cap sugar; ½ cup butter; ½ cup sweet milk; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon cream tartar; ½ teaspoon soda; flavor to taste. Knead soft. Roll thin and bake in quick oven.
-MRS. HOMER TRAPP, Oskaloosa, Kans.

Plain Cookies
1 cup butter; 2 cups sugar; 1 cup sweet milk; 5 cups flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ nutmeg; 1 teaspoon vanilla. Roll thIn, sprinkle with, sugar. Bake in hot oven.
-MRS. PIUS VOELKER

Chocolate Cookies
2 cups sugar; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon soda dissolved in ½ cup warm water; 1 cup grated chocolate; ½ cup butter; ½ cup lard. Melt lard, butter and chocolate. When cool add to sugar and eggs. Flour enough to stiffen. Roll thin. When baked ice with white icing.
-MRS. ARTHUR MICHAEL

Chocolate Cookies
4 eggs; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup butter; 3 squares unsweetened chocolate; 3 cups flour; ½ teaspoon vanilla flavor. Flour sufficient to roll very thin.
-SYLVIA DOUGLAS, Oskaloosa, Kans.

Coffee Cookies
2 cups brown sugar; 1 cup butter; 1 cup raisins; 2 eggs; 1 cup coffee; 1 teaspoon soda-in-coffee; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 3 cups flour. 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat well, drop on greased pans, bake in hot oven.
-M. J. BURKE.

Eggless Cookies
1 cup shortening; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup brown sugar; 1 cup sour milk; 1 teaspoon soda; mix shortening and sugar then molasses, then sour milk with soda; enough flour to make stiff batter. Roll out ½ inch thick. Bake in moderate oven.
-MRS. J. E. HERRON, Pittsburgh, Penn.

Filled Cookies
1 cup chopped raisins; 1 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon flour; ½ cup water; Boil mixture till thick, watch closely as it burns quickly. DOUGH 1 cup sugar; ½ cup shortening; ½ cup milk; 3½ cups flour (scant); 1 egg; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon each vanilla and lemon. Roll dough very thin, cut, spread with paste, putting another cooky on each. Bake in moderate oven. These keep moist indefinitely, improving with age.
-MRS. W. J. FROST.

Ginger Cookies
1 cup molasses; ½ cup sugar; 2 eggs; 1 cup lard; ½ cup cold water; 1 tablespoon soda; 1 tablespoon ginger; flour enough to make stiff. Mix well and bake in quick oven. Roll thin.
–MRS. H. G. WOLFE

Grandma’s Cookies
2/3 cup butter; 1 cup sugar; 4 tablespoons milk; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla; flour to make soft dough. Roll and cut.
-KATHLEEN HAYNES

Hermit’s Cookies
3 eggs; 1 cups sugar; 1 cup butter; 1 cup seedless raisins; 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, salt; 1 teaspoon soda dissolved in 3 tablespoons sour milk; flour enough to roll. Do not roll too thin on account of raisins. Bake only to a light brown.
-MRS. SOPHIA O’ROKE

I’m sorry there was no post yesterday. I also suspect today’s won’t be up to much. The trouble I have a virus. The worst symptoms are over, thankfully, and I’m no longer racing to the bathroom at the mere thought of food. I’m not really up to contemplating culinary matters too closely yet, though. And yes… I can’t not post. There would be a deep wrongness about refusing to post with this illness when I’ve posted from interstate and from other illnesses. Let’s face it, I refuse to wimp out (at least now that I’m actually out of bed).

I feel like talking about invalid food. For some reason the beef soups that I read about as a kid always appealed to me. They sound much more pleasant than, say, a panada. The last time I encountered a panada was in Georgette Heyer, anyhow, and she was very much not a nineteenth century writer.

The method for the fine beef drink for invalids is surprisingly simple. It’s basically steamed beef, with the steaming done with the lid on. The quality stuff from the meat is supposed to be drawn out of the meat until you are left with nothing but the finest quality and most easily digestible drink. When I get well enough to work out if I have the pans to do it with (and I may just) I might use up a package of chuck steak in the process, although one recipe (according to my vague recall) specified a higher quality meat. Anyhow, my chuck steak is quality meat, just a tougher cut of quality meat, so it will have to do.

What I was going to post about yesterday was class, and what I was going to post about today were some more of the recipe tests. Both of those will have to wait, since tomorrow I had not emerged at all from illness and today I’ve only just emerged. Still, at least I’m back. And it’s only one remove from a beef drink for invalids to a fine consommé for gourmets, so life can’t be that bad. Besides, I’m a half inch thinner than two days ago.

I’m taking today off and maybe tomorrow. I’ve got a virus. Serves me right for doing an autumn post and overworking all on the same day. I taught this morning, but since then have spent vast amounts of time asleep, so I don’t feel quite as totaled, but I still need a little time out.

To entertain you while I sleep some more, here are some recipes for the biscuit and scone collection. These are from the second edition of The Neighborhood Cook Book, Portland, Oregon. It was compiled on behalf of the Portland Section of the Council of Jewish Women, originally in 1912, but this version in 1914.

Biscuits

One quart flour sifted twice with three teaspoons Crescent baking powder. Shortening size of large egg, half butter, half lard. If you only use butter, take twice the size of an egg. One rounding teaspoon salt. Sweet milk enough to make a soft dough. Roll thin and bake in hot oven seven to ten minutes.

Five o’Clock Tea Biscuits

Mix one-fourth of a pound of flour and one teaspoon Crescent baking powder, one cup of sugar, the rind and juice of two lemons with one-half pound of butter, which has been worked into a smooth paste, add to this the whites of two eggs and a little milk. Roll this and cut into biscuits, and brush them over with the yolks of the eggs. Sprinkle with a little sifted, pulverized sugar and bake in buttered tins.

Chocolate Cookies

One cup brown sugar, one cup white sugar, three sticks chocolate, one tablespoon whiskey, four eggs, three cups flour, two teaspoons Crescent baking powder, one teaspoon each of all kinds of spices. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the sugar. Add chocolate, syrup, whiskey, spices, and then the flour, and last the beaten whites over which the baking powder has been sifted. When stiff enough to roll, brush tops of cookies with beaten egg.

Drop Cookies

Three eggs, two cups brown sugar, one cup butter, level teaspoon soda, dissolved in two tablespoons boiling water, one cup walnuts chopped, three cups flour.

Date Cookies

One-fourth pound dates pitted and cut in half, one-fourth pound almonds blanched and cut lengthwise, one-fourth pound granulated sugar. Whites of two eggs, beaten very stiff. Put dates, almonds, and sugar in bowl together and mix well. Then add beaten whites. Grease tins very well. Sprinkle with cracker dust to prevent sticking. Bake in hot oven.

I’ve been playing with my food again.

I know it’s more about food than food history, but I thought (just for once) you might like to see the results. Potato salad with a difference. The biggest difference is in the colour of the potatoes. They are deep purple. The grower was telling me yesterday that someone complained once because they got them home, cut into them and discovered that they weren’t white or yellow. Normally I would fry them with chili and lime, but today I wanted to do something different.

I started with the potatoes and added beautiful fresh eggs from hens I have met (once). I boiled the eggs and I microwaved the potatoes. When the potatoes were cut, and still hot, I sprinkled them with as much verjuice as they would hold then added a bit of salt. I chopped the eggs and I put in some capers and pitted Kalamata olives, plus some of the heritage carrots (pale orange and white) and a bit of their leaf for the green. One of the organic growers had a ton of tiny tomatoes yesterday, so I had to include some of them, too.

I made a dressing from the chevre mixed with lashings of fresh-squeezed lime and just a bite of chili.

What’s so special about it is that the potatoes, eggs, olives, carrots, tomatoes, chevre and lime all came from the markets yesterday. The aim of this was to see what could be done with minimal effort using seasonal vegetables, focusing on the older or more exotic varieties. The result: very, very happy tastebuds.

It’s autumn in Australia and the falling leaves have obviously drifted into my brain and meant I didn’t sort out the Carnival dates. I finally swept out my brain and so here is the Carnival of the Recipes – a second post for the day for my regular readers and maybe not too late for everyone else to add to their cooking planning for the week. Enjoy!

I’m dividing the recipes in a very unorthodox manner this time round. They are all things I want to eat, but half of them I can’t eat. For instance, I can’t eat Katy’s lovely Steamed Mussels with Tomato and Fennel but I can most definitely rejoice in Christine’s Stuffed Peppers with Cheese (Poivron au Fromage). Instead of being sensible and dividing them according to ingredients or any other kind of logic, I’m carefully explaining to you whether I can eat them. The reason behind this is only obvious to those who live in my hometown: it’s the Monday night after a long weekend, and rationality went out the door two days ago.

Melissa’s Southwestern Meatloaf sounds like a tasty dish for the next time I have to cook for a crowd, while I shall just have to eye off Stephanie’sPepperoni Rolls.

Karen says “This is a recipe for stuffed jalapenos. These are great to serve as appetizers or finger foods for a party.” I need to find a substitute for the bacon – stuffed jalapenos is such a fabulous thought. Pasta is another fabulous food, though I rather suspect there is no substitute for shrimp (being Jewish can really limit a foodie’s joy), but I can dream, and maybe you can cook. Yi Hui Chang has a recipe for Shrimp pasta with parsley oil looks delectable. I shall have to assuage my hunger with a rather yummy Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe from Bobby at Free Online Recipes.

Expat Chef must have had my restrictions in mind, as there are three dishes I can cook (and they look great – if it wasn’t nearing midnight I might be tempted into trying at least one of them immediately). Check it out. Also check out Marsha Hudnall’s Healthy Recipe: Whole Grain Bread.

I’ve been thinking of corned beef recently. It’s still hot during the day, but cold nights make me think about winter slowcooked meals. This is a good one from the World Famous recipes website and, for the Northern Hemisphere, you will be looking for light summer dishes.

So there are a bunch of recipes to try, and a bunch to yearn over. And they all look wonderful! I am so grateful for the existence of cooks who blog.