‘Historical Recipes’ Category

  1. Going medieval on dinner

    18 February, 2012 by Alexa Chipman

    No, this is not a rant on how terrified I am of cooking—it is a continuation of my historical culinary experiments. This time there are two easy and complimentary dishes—one from the 15th century, the other from the 14th century and both from England. I have already included edits to the recipes for more readily available modern ingredients and techniques.

    Pumpes (15th century)

    1 pound ground beef
    2 egg yolks
    1/4 cup cranberries (I swapped out for currants which I hate)
    1 tsp sugar (or more if you like them sweet)
    1/4 tsp nutmeg (or mace)
    1/4 tsp cinnamon
    Dash of salt
    Dash of cloves (less is more)
    Dash of pepper

    Mix the above together and form into one inch balls (more is fine for a larger meal and smaller balls make great appetizers).

    2 cups water
    2 cups milk
    1/4 cup sherry (sweet)
    1 TB crushed almonds
    1 packet beef bullion (or cube)
    Dash of almond extract

    Bring the above to a boil in a pot, then put the meatballs in it. Lower temperature slightly and let cook for approximately fifteen minutes, turning occasionally. Altogether it only takes about a half hour to make these and they have a wonderful slightly sweet taste.

    Blancmanger (14th-15th century)

    This can have bits of cooked chicken shredded and added after the below is complete, but since I was pairing it with meatballs I eliminated this step. I have also created it with the chicken mixed in which tasted fantastic, too. Do not confuse the Middle Ages blancmanger with the modern dessert.

    2 cups white rice
    2 cups wild rice
    8 cups water

    Cook the above in a pot until rice is nearly done but not quite.

    1 cup milk
    1/2 cup crushed almonds
    1 TB almond extract
    3 tsp sugar
    1/4 tsp ginger
    1/4 tsp white pepper
    Dash of salt

    Add in the above to the nearly cooked rice and stir over low heat until all cooked together. Sometimes a bit more milk is needed, use your best judgement. Either add shredded cooked chicken with the above ingredients or leave as a side dish.

    Category Historical Recipes | Tags: ,,,,,, | 4 Comments

  2. 1917 Strawberry Dessert Recipe

    2 August, 2011 by Alexa Chipman

    I was reading through a May 1917 Pictorial Review magazine and saw a Minute Tapioca advertisement with a whole bunch of recipes. While they all looked great, there was a lovely looking pink strawberry dessert that caught my eye as looking simple and delicious. It turns out I already had Minute Tapioca in the kitchen, so it was a simple matter of snagging some strawberries and rummaging through dishes to find an appropriate glass mold.

    Although I’ve never made tapioca before, it was quite easy, although I did learn to go ahead and turn up the stove-top to high since after about 10 minutes it still wasn’t warming up. I think I cooked it for more like 20 trying to figure that part out—the older recipes never give advice on temperature since they assume you just know.

    I did not use any modern means for crushing the strawberries, so I first put them into a bowl, then mushed them with a fork, and finished off using a whisk which seemed to work quite well. The recipe recommended adding a bit of extra sugar at that stage but I didn’t put that much—I think it is a good part of the recipe to decide how sweet you want the final product to be. There is potential to add a bunch of sugar, for example (not my taste).

    I did go off and do some packing while the tapioca was sitting and I left it about 15 minutes too long—the fruit still stirred in, but I think it would have been easier when it was still quite warm and hadn’t set quite as much, so definitely set a proper timer when you do that part of the recipe. It did conform to the glass molds quite well—especially leaving it in the refrigerator (yes they had them) overnight or at least for a few hours. If you plan on serving this as dessert in the evening I’d make it that morning for the best texture.

    Just an additional note: this takes a ton of fruit. Two cups of mushed strawberries = about two medium sized boxes of strawberries from the grocer. I don’t even want to think how many raspberries it would take! It might work with other mushy fruits like ripe peaches or blackberries, I’ll have to experiment with that.

    May, 1917
    Pictorial Review Minute Tapioca Recipe (serves 6)

    Ingredients:
    1/2 cup Minute Tapioca
    1/2 cup sugar
    1 teaspoon butter
    3 cups water
    1 pint strawberries or raspberries crushed
    Whipped cream

    Directions (my addition tips in brackets):
    In a double boiler, cook the tapioca, sugar, butter, and water for 15 minutes [go ahead and turn it up high, stir constantly]. Let stand for half an hour [don't let it stand longer, it thickens up too much]. Add crushed fruit by stirring into tapioca. Pour into glass molds / sherbet glasses and let stand until room temperature before refrigerating. Serve cold with dollop of whipped cream and garnish of matching fruit.

    Category Historical Recipes, History | Tags: ,,,,,, | 4 Comments

  3. 100 Year Old Gingerbread Recipe

    23 August, 2010 by Alexa Chipman

    I was reading through some Ladies Home magazines from 1916-1918 continuing my WWI era research and came across this advertisement for Crisco. I noticed two things right away:

    1. The Crisco logo hasn’t changed much since 1917

    2. The recipe was for normal items found in modern kitchens and therefore tryable (other than eggs which I had to go pick up, but that was only because I happened to have used up the last of them.)

    So here is my experiment: Will it work today?

    I also noticed something fun on the page next to it: write in for party ideas. Some of them were truly shudderworthy. Pink satin with pussywillows, yellow with suns everywhere, and even a bloke’s 21st birthday party celebrated with… yes I am serious… little dolls of couples all over the room. I feel for all you poor blokes in 1917 whose mothers heeded the advice of that column.

    Moving on: the gathering of some of the ingredients. Yes I actually did have a tin of Crisco in the cupboard. I usually purchase whatever is cheapest, rather than by brand, so I was pleasantly surprised by this.

    The brand of molasses is different than the recipe, but it is what I happened to have and I doubt it makes a massive difference. It took a while to find the cinnamon.

    I’m not really a fan of cinnamon, I’m not sure why. When I was little I remember loving cinnamon on hot buttered toast, I guess that was before I worried about things like waist size.

    The batter came out very well, I’d never melted Crisco before (microwave medium for 40 seconds in case anybody wonders) but it was way easier to work with than dumping it in cold. I think I’ll use this newly learned trick in other recipes in the future. I switched to a whisk in the batter at the end, to turn it nice and smooth which worked well.

    Based on the taste of licking the bowl, it is very good but definitely heavier on the spices than modern gingerbread recipes.

    Here it is out of the oven— it smells very good but I have to wait for it to cool. I found the call to generously smear Crisco thickly on the sides amusing. I did so but also figured it was probably an advertising gimmick to help them sell more!

    Usually I flour the pan, rather than paper it, but I wanted to follow the recipe exactly (yes strange coming from me.)

    February, 1917
    Woman’s Home Companion Crisco Recipe

    Ingredients:
    2 eggs
    1 cupful New Orleans molasses
    1 cupful light brown sugar
    1/3 cupful Crisco (melted)
    3 cupfuls flour
    1/2 teaspoonful salt
    1 tablespoonful ginger
    1 teaspoonful cinnamon
    1 large cupful milk
    2 teaspoonfuls baking soda (dissolved in a little warm water)

    Directions (my addition tips in brackets):
    [In large bowl] Beat eggs light, add molasses and sugar, stir until all lumps are removed. Add melted Crisco. [In small bowl] Mix salt, ginger and cinnamon with flour. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk [to the large bowl of wet ingredients]. Beat well, then add dissolved soda. The batter is very thin [no kidding], if all measuring is done correctly. Beat until light. Bake in well Criscoed pan, papering the bottom. A long shallow pan is best. Bake in moderate oven [350 F degrees works well] 25 to 30 minutes [start checking with toothpick to middle after 20 min. If no batter sticks to toothpick take it out].

    Category Historical Recipes, History | Tags: ,,,,,, | 2 Comments