Foods in Season: September, 1861

It's a new month, so it's time to once again check Beeton's Book of Household Management to see what's in season (in/around London) in September:

Fish- Brill, carp, cod, eels, flounders, lobsters, mullet, oysters, plaice, prawns, skate, soles, sturgeon, turbot, whitling, whitebait.

Meat- Beef, lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Poultry- Chickens, ducks, fowls, geese, larks, pigeons, pullets, rabbits, teal, turkeys.

Game- Blackcock, buck venison, grouse, hares, partridges, pheasant. 

Vegetables- Artichokes, asparagus, beans, cabbages sprouts, carrots, celery, cresses, lettuces, mushrooms, onions, pease, potatoes, salading, sea-kale, sprouts, tomatoes, turnips, vegetable marrow, various kitchen herbs.

Fruit- Bullaces, damsons, figs, filberts, grapes, melons, morella-cherries, mulberries, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, quinces, walnuts.

While overall diversity remains high, September sees multiple changes in almost every cateogry. Fish saw extensive turnover, with 11 removals and 5 new varieties added. Pork has come into the meat category, making the first change there since May.  Buck venison did come off the meat list, but only because it moved to the game category, which saw the addition of partridges and pheasants. Poultry saw ducks and turkeys replace ducklings and turkey poults (understandably), as well as larks and teals replacing plovers, wheatears, and wild ducks. Cauliflower, cresses, endive, and radishes are all off the vegetable list, though tomatoes have come onto it. Bullaces, damsons, morella-cherries, and quinces have replaced currants, gooseberries, pineapples, and raspberries on the fruit list.

The "green goose" listed back in August refers to its diet: a goose culled in summer that has been eating green grass versus the "stubble goose" of the autumn that is turned loose on on harvested grain fields to feed. It's not clear to me whether Beeton is using "goose" in the list here to mean "stubble-fed goose" or in a more general sense indicating that multiple varieties are available. Stubble-fed geese, I am told, are traditional at Michaelmas in late September, so this might be a case where there's variation between what is available at the beginning and end of the month.

Blackberry Jelly

Blackberry Jelly, this time, from The Improved Housewife (1845, 20th ed 1855)

 

Very visually interesting blackberry jelly.

My plan is to use it for creams or molded jellies later this year, as described in Beeton's. I wouldn't have bothered with jelly otherwise: jam is much easier to make, yields more per pound fruit, and tastes the same on scones. However, the seeds and pulp would be a problem in a jelly mold, and I had another large haul of blackberries, so jelly it was.

For this pint, I used about 3 lbs of blackberries. I put the berries though through the food mill, and then strained the juice through a cloth, but some seeds seem to have gotten around the edges. Fortunately, most of the seeds stayed in the fibrous pulp in the first place, so the jelly's relatively clear.

Per the receipt, I added 1 lb of sugar to the pint of juice successfully collected, brought it to a boil with a partial egg white (aiming for 1/3 per the recipe ratio, but this was pure estimation), took it off the heat to skim the resulting foam (some of which even adhered to the egg white), and brought back to a boil. After a second skim, I transferred the jelly to a clean pint jar and processed for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

After making so much jam, the yield was a bit of a disappointment, though that's entirely on me. If this works out well for a molded jelly or cream, I'll likely make more jellies next year for the same reason. If not, I'll probably stick to jams for the bulk of my fruit preserves, as they are much less work and leave me with fewer dishes to wash. 

Blackberry Jam, 1846

More summer preserves, this time Blackberry Jam from Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book (1846; 3rd ed, 1856.) 

Blackberry Jam. Allow three quarters of a pound of brown sugar to a pound of fruit. Boil the fruit half an hour, then add the sugar and boil all together ten minutes. 

 

I ended up with 68 oz of blackberries (4 1/4 lbs, or just short of one ice-cream tub full), and thus used 51 oz brown sugar. Anticipating about 4 pints of jam, as previous batches seem to produce just under 1 pint jam per pound berries, I was pleasantly surprised to get 5 pints (1 pint, 6 half-pints, 4 quarter-pints to be precise), which I must put down to the extra sugar, and no material being lost to skimming. Processed 10 minutes, based on my current elevation.

Obviously, this receipt was very similar to the jams in Eliza Acton's book, but with a higher proportion of sugar, and the specification to use brown sugar with the blackberries. I had planned to follow Acton's advice about skimming, but found it unnecessary, as no scum of any sort rose to the top of the mixture (perhaps why Beecher makes no mention of it). As usual, I consulted modern recipes for safe water-bath processing times, and to check that the sugar to fruit ratio is high enough. These historic receipts generally resemble the modern ones quite closely, except that they rely on boiling the fruit alone to thicken the preserves, instead of adding pectin.

 

Foods in Season: August 1861

Back to Beeton's Book of Household Management to see what's in season (in/around London) in August:

Fish- Brill, carp, chub, crayfish, crabs, dory, eels, flounders, grigs, herring, lobsters, mullet, pike, prawns, salmon, shrimps, skate, soles, sturgeon, thornbeck, trout, turbot.

Meat- Beef, lamb, mutton, veal, buck venison.

Poultry- Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, pigeons, plovers, pullets, rabbits, turkey poults, wheatears, wild ducks. 

Game- Leverets, grouse, blackcock.

Vegetables- Artichokes, asparagus, beans, cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, celery, cresses, endive, lettuces, mushrooms, onions, pease, potatoes, radishes, small salading, sea-kale, sprouts, turnips, vegetable marrow, various kitchen herbs.

Fruit- Currants, figs, filberts, gooseberries, grapes, melons, mulberries, nectarines, peaches, pears, pineapples, plums, raspberries, walnuts.

Fish again is the category with the most changes, with nine new additions and three removals. The meat category remains the same as in July (and June).  Pigeons have been added to the poultry category, while leverets have moved into the revived category of game. Potatoes are back in the vegetable category. Fruit has seen the most changes after fish: apricots, cherries, and strawberries have passed out of season, replaced by filberts (hazelnuts) and mulberries.  

Assorted Jams, 1845

And now for June/July's berry jam haul. I used Eliza Acton's  Modern Cookery, in all its Branches (1845) for each of these. And despite the different receipts, they basically all boil down to 'boil the fruit, skim, add half the fruit's weight in sugar, and boil it again.'

Strawberry jam: Approximately 4 dry pints fruit yielded 3.5 lbs (after removing stalks and picking out bad pieces), which combined with 42 oz sugar made 3 1/4 pints jam. 

Strawberry Jam

Red raspberry jam, from the same source. 3lb 5oz fruit, plus 1lb 11oz sugar made for 3 1/4 pints raspberry jam. I made a second batch the following week, for a total haul of 7 1/4 pints. We used one of the quarter-pint jars at Tenino Oregon Trail Days the other weekend, and it went beautifully on the hot Soda Scones (with or without butter).

Raspberry Jam!

Another good common preserve (mixed berry jam): This jam receipt is basically the summarized form of all the others, but giving permission to freely mix any soft summer fruits in any proportion, and then add half-as-much sugar. For this, I tried a mixed berry assortment, using all the fruit in season at my sibling's house the first week of July. I got 3/4 pint of jam from 12 oz mixed fruit, 6 oz sugar. Raspberries were the majority fruit, with some strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and black currants. The jars look like more raspberry jam, but we'll see if any of the other flavors come through.  

 

Pickled Cucumbers, etc.

The garden has bern going wild this year, and I've been canning something at least every week through June-July as a result. This is not unrelated to the dearth of blog posts

My first bunch of pickling cucumbers came ripe at the same time as well a decent crop of radish seed pods (with plenty more of each to come). In the spirit of efficiency, I decided to make both up with Beeton's Universal Pickle.

As before, I found it convenient to up make at 1/6 scale, using 1 qt vinegar, 3 oz salt, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp mace, 1.5 tsp tumeric, 2 tsp mustard seed, scant 1 oz ginger and scant 2 oz shallots (technically 2/3 oz ginger and 1 1/3 oz shallots, but my scale isn't that precise). This quantity filled the four pint jars exactly. Each contained 1 1/4 cucumbers, and a generous handful of radish seed pods (about ~1/3 cup). 

 Processed 10 minutes, per modern safety recommendations. 

Cucumbers and radish pods.

My second batch of cucumbers got a modern dill pickle recipe. The main problem with this year's plentiful cucumber harvest is getting the cucumbers picked while they're still small enough to fit in jars nicely. I'll clear them all on a Monday, and by Wednesday there are somehow more cucumbers, all too tall or wide for my pint jars. So, instead of whole, these dills got quartered lengthwise. At least the next receipt I found calls for them to be sliced.

Modern "fresh-pack dill pickles"

 

Foods in Season: July, 1861

Late, but technically still in the right months, let's see what Beeton's Book of Household Management has in season in July.

Fish- Carp, crayfish, dory, flounders, haddocks, herring, lobsters, mackerel, mullet, pike, plaice, prawns, salmon, shrimps, soles, sturgeon, tench, thornbeck

Meat- Beef, lamb, mutton, veal, buck venison.

Poultry- Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, plovers, pullets, rabbits, turkey poults, wheatears, wild ducks (called flappers).

Vegetables- Artichokes, asparagus, beans, cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, celery, cresses, endive, lettuces, mushrooms, pease, radishes, small salading, sea-kale, sprouts, spinach, turnips, vegetable marrow, -various herbs.

Fruit- Apricots, cherries, currants, figs, gooseberries, melons, nectarines, pears, pineapples, plums, raspberries, strawberries, walnuts, in high season and pickled.

More changes in fish this month (seven new varieties, two removed), but none to meat, and only one addition to poultry (the wild ducks). Cauliflower and cresses are back in the vegetables, also joined by sprouts, mushrooms, turnips, and marrow, though I'm confused at the loss of cucumbers (as my own garden has been producing them in adundance all month) and potatoes (also producing well this month, though starting to wind-down). For fruit, peaches and rhubarb are out, replaced by figs, plums, and walnuts.

Revisiting Tea Cakes (1855)

Needed something sweet for Steilacoom, so I decided to revisit the tea cake receipt from Cookery, Rational, Practical and Economical (1855). This time I tried increasing the spices to 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp allspice, the combination of which made for more flavorful cakes. I like that this recipe is already on a small scale (8 flour, 5.5 oz sugar, 4 oz butter, 1 egg; makes 2 pans of cookies), though I had forgotten just how dry the dough is. It takes a lot of hand kneading to get all the dry ingredients worked in, and ends up making a rather grainy dough as a result. The cakes were a bit dense (as usual for this kind of biscuit/cake/cookie), but are perfectly serviceable for serving with tea.

Small tea cakes flavored with cinnamon and allspice.

Being pressed for time, I tried just shaping these cakes with my hands (roll into small balls and flatten rather than rolling out a sheet and cutting them). It worked tolerably well, and made 3 dozen ~1.5" diameter cakes. I do think the texture could be improved by letting the dough chill overnight and then rolling them out, which is what I will plan to try next time.

Sallet of all kinde of hearbes, 1587

 To make a Sallet of all kinde of hearbes, from The Good Huswifes Jewell (1587): 

Take your hearbes and picke them very fine into faire water, and picke your flo∣wers by them selues, and wash them all cleane, and swing them in a strainer, and whē you put them into a dish, mingle them with Cowcumbers or Lemmons payred and sliced, and scrape Suger, and put in vineger and Oyle, and throw the flowers on the top of the Sallet, and of euery sorte of the aforesaid things, and garnish the dish about with the foresaide thinges, and hard Egges boyled and laide about the dish and vpon the Sallet.

So, which are these "all kinde of hearbes?" In the contemporary A Book of Cookrye (1591), the only salad recipe is a boiled salad of spinach (with a sauce of currants, sugar, and vinegar). The earlier Forme of Cury (c.1390) gives a "salat" that truly features all kinds of herbs:

Take persel, sawge, garlec, chibolles, oynouns, leek, borage, myntes, porrectes [porrets], fenel and ton tressis [cresses], rew, rosemarye, purslarye [purslain], laue and waische hem clene, pike hem, pluk hem small wiþ þyn honde and myng hem wel with rawe oile. lay on vynegur and salt, and serue it forth.

In a more modern spelling, I read this as

Take parlsey, sage, garlic, chibolles [spring onions], onions, leeks, borage, mint, porret [scallions, young leeks, or small onions], fennel, cresses, rue, rosemary, purslane. Lave [rinse] and wash them clean, pick them, pluck them small within hand and mingle well with raw oil. Lay on vinegar and salt, and serve it forth.

Meanwhile, Eleanor Fettisplace's Receipt Book (edited by Hilary Spurling, started c.1604) apparently mentions salads of lettuce, radish, cress, and 'other greens' interspersed with olives, currants, nuts, and decorated with flowers. None of these recipes made the printed addition in full.

Being limited by what was available in the garden, I had to use a purchased spinach/baby lettuce combination as the bulk of the greens, supplemented by curly cress (lots in the garden already), roquet/arugula, parsley (doing well in the container garden), sage (ditto), mint (likewise), and green onions (also coming along in the garden). I technically could have grabbed some leeks and borage as well, but I didn't like how either of them looked in the necessary interval between when I picked them and when I started assembling the salad--and I simply forgot to pick any rosemary. I opted for the cucumber over the lemon (this being for an event, and feeling that cucumbers require less of an explanation), and did remember to grab some chive flowers to decorate the sallet.   

Sallet of all kinde of hearbes, after a recipe of c.1587.

Per the instructions, I washed and drained all the vegetables, then sliced the cucumbers and tore up all the leafy greens. Mounding the greens on a plate, I set the cucumber slices over them, and poured white wine vinegar and olive oil over the whole thing. I finished it the sallet by setting slices of three hard-boiled eggs around the edges and putting the chive flowers on top.

Overall the salad was fine, I just found it really bland. In many respects, it's not that different from my usual Victorian salads, so I think the main issue is the dressing not having that extra zip of mustard and cayenne. It might also just have been too cool of a day for salad to really be appealing. I was worried about the more pungent herbs, and the sheer number of onion variations called for, but it ended up not being a huge deal. The few bits of green onion I included went very nicely with the egg and cucumber, while the sage wasn't bad, and even the mint worked better than I feared. I'm not sure this will hold true for a salad with more mint and onion all together, but in small amounts, it sort of worked. I'd definitely inflict this one on other people in the name of historical accuracy (it's weird, but not awful). 

I did forget the sugar, but otherwise feel pretty good about the accuracy of this salad. For one thing, I think there's room to interpret "all kinde of hearbes" as 'this recipe can be many with any kind of green salad vegetables' as much as it can be read as 'this recipe requires as many different vegetables as possible,' and in that case, not including every plant isn't a failure. Furthermore, the herb list I used was a good 200 years older than the salad recipe itself, so while I think it was a potentially useful suggestion, I don't think it's a binding matter of accuracy to includes all of them in this one specific recipe. I think there's room to argue that the cucumbers should be mixed into the greens instead of laid on top, so I might try that instead next time, though I like the look of the cucumbers on top.

Food in Season: May 1861

It's May Beeton's Book of Household Management considers to be in season for May.

Fish- Carp, chub, crabs, crayfish, dory, herring, lobsters, mackerel, red and gray mullet, prawns, salmon, shad, smelts, soles, trout, turbot.

Meat- Beef, lamb, mutton, veal.

Poultry- Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, pigeons, pullets, rabbits.

Vegetables- Asparagus, beans, early cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, cresses, cucumbers, lettuces, pease, early potatoes, salads, sea-kale, -various herbs.

Fruit- Apples, green apricots, cherries, currants for tarts, gooseberries, melons, pears, rhubarb, strawberries.

Meat and poultry are looking pretty much the same as last month, save for the addition of goose. The game category is completely gone, as are the shellfish. Lots of turn-over in the fish, vegetables, and fruit categories.

Foods in Season: April 1861

Spring and the new reenacting season are finally here, so it's time to see what foods Beeton's Book of Household Management considers to be in season for April.

Fish- Brill, carp, cockles, crabs, dory, flounders, ling, lobsters, red and gray mullet, mussels, oysters, perch, prawns, salmon (but rather scare and expensive), shad, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, tench, turbot, whiting.

Meat- Beef, lamb, mutton, veal.

Poultry- Chickens, ducklings, fowls, leverets, pigeons, pullets, rabbits

Game- Hares.

Vegetables-Broccoli, celery, lettuces, young onion, parsnips, radishes, small salad, sea-kale, spinach, sprouts, -various herbs

Fruit- Apples, nuts, pears, forced cherries, &c. for tarts, rhubarb, dried fruits, crystallized preserves.

And thus we have the shortest list so far this year. Every category has seen some items disappear, though I hope for our ancestors' sake that the addition of multiple new ingredients (rhubarb, young onion) partially offset the smaller overall variety. For "small salad" read "microgreens"-- as we've seen before, "salading" encompasses a wider variety of leafy vegetables and herbs than can be eaten raw.

A Bachelor's Bread Pudding (1855)

And a final receipt from Sunday at the Fort.

A Bachelor's Bread Pudding

The Recipe: A Bachelor's Bread Pudding from The Practical Housekeeper and Young Woman's Friend

A Bachelor's Bread Pudding--Four oz of grated bread, the same of currants and apple, two oz of sugar, three eggs, a little essence of lemon and ground cinnamon. Boil it three hours. 

The Date/Year and Region: 1855, Toledo, OH

 

How Did You Make It: As the receipt gives no instructions, I basically winged this one. I started by grating about half a loaf of sour dough bread (not quite as stale as expected), which readily got me to 4oz. I cored and diced one apple (also 4 oz), and mixed all this together with the 4oz of currants, 2 oz granulated sugar, several dashes of ground cinnamon, and a splash of lemon extract. I beat 3 eggs and mixed them into the dry ingredients, then put all of this mixture into my smaller melon mold. This went into a pot of water on the stovetop, and remained there about three hours

Time to Complete: A half hour to prepare, 3 hours to boil.

 

Total Cost: About $3.50 at the current price of eggs and the currants (bread was left-over, apples and the rest on hand).

 

How Successful Was It?: Very well received. The flavor was nice and interesting, but not overwhelming (one of the interpreters compared it to applesauce), and several complimented the texture. One friend even took some home for a spouse who likes boiled puddings. Suggestions were made of adding a custard, whipped cream, or whiskey sauce over it. 

 

I was worried about the apples, since I've seen apple pudding receipts ranging from 'boil the apples down entirely before mixing with breadcrumbs' to 'core but don't otherwise peel or cut the apple.' Dicing them small, without peeling, was my compromise idea (and a lazy one, since I had no peeler but also don't like solid chunks of apple in my bread puddings), and it seemed to work fine.

 

How Accurate Is It? The ingredient list is all I have to go on, so I'd say this is as close as I can get, baring a more detailed set of instructions, particularly dealing with the apples. From the proportion of the ingredients, I assumed that laying the fruit nicely and then filling in the mold wouldn't be practical, thus mixing everything together. Finding heirloom apples (not the pink lady apples I got at the store) and drying real currants (not the zante currants I can purchase) are the only two changes I can think of at this time that make this more accurately.

Carrots au Beurre or Buttered Carrots (1854)

 Another receipt from Sunday at the Fort.

Carrots au Beurre or Buttered Carrots.

 

The Recipe: Carrots au Beurre or Buttered Carrots from Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery

The Date/Year and Region: 1854, England

 

How Did You Make It: I cut the last of my winter carrots into sticks about 1/4" wide, and set them to boil on the stovetop. Once soft, I strained the carrots, then melted ~3oz of butter on the stovetop, with a handful of minced parsley, and a dash of salt and of pepper. As I couldn't find the cayenne, I substituted black pepper. Once the butter was melted, I added the carrots back in, stirred about a minute, and then served it.

 

Time to Complete: About half an hour, including boiling the carrots. Estimate because no clock in the kitchen, etc.

 

Total Cost: About $1 for the butter. Carrots from my garden and parsley from the Fort's.

 

How Successful Was It?: Tasty enough. It was a bit overshadowed by the other fare, but the carrots were cooked through, the butter-and-parsley sauce suited them well. I don't often have the opportunity to serve hot vegetable side-dishes at period events, but this is a very pleasant way to serve them.

How Accurate Is It? I used heirloom carrots, and cooked everything on a wood-burning stove, so it's about as close as I can get. I would use the correct pepper next time, but that's the only obvious thing I can think to make it more accurate. I might be wrong about "dissolve" meaning "melt", but as no mention was made of water or another solvent in the sauce, I think my interpretation was correct.

Sausage Rolls (1853)

It's not a Historic Food Fortnightly challenge, but I was back at the Fort kitchen (and working solo for the first time in a while), so I decided it was time to write up some new receipts.

 

Sausage Rolls

The Recipe: Sausage Rolls from Household Hints to Young Housewives

SAUSAGE ROLLS. Sausage meat rolled in crust and cut in lengths about 2 inches. the outside brushed with yolk of egg . 

The Date/Year and Region: 1853, London

 

How Did You Make It: I made a paste from the receipt in this same book (half scale 1 lb flour, 1/2 lb suet, 1/2 tsp salt, water as needed), substituting butter for the suet, as I did not have any. This half scale was ample for the 1 lb of pork sausage meat, to which I added about 12 narrow sage leaves (chopped) and salt and pepper, based on various similar receipts. For future reference, the receipts which go into further detail indicate that the sausage meat should be 2/3 lean pork and 1/3 fat.

 

I rolled out the paste into 4" wide pieces, set on the ground pork, and wrapped the paste around, then cut into 1-1.5" long pieces, and treated the tops with beaten egg. I baked the rolls in the wood-fired oven; it was to be a 'quick oven', but didn't achieve the requisite temperature until Elise took charge of the fire. The rolls were cooked until the pastry started browning and the meat was cooked through.  

About 1/4 of the paste was in excess, so I tossed some sugar and cinnamon on it, and baked it as puits d'amour.

 

Time to Complete: About 20 minutes to prepare, less than an hour to bake (no clock in the period kitchen).

 

Total Cost: About $6.50 for butter and meat.

 

How Successful Was It?: Tasty. Most of the interpreters took two. I'm not sure they were a good as Quin's, but they were quite nice hot out of the oven. I tried not to overwork the pastry crust this time, and it wasn't particularly tough, but it also wasn't as flaky as I would have liked (though some of that might have been the oven temperature).

 

How Accurate Is It? I used pre-ground pork, but most versions of this receipt assume you'll purchase it from a butcher, which is functionally what I did. I based on the flavoring (sage leaves, salt, pepper) on similar receipts, and again feel pretty good about that. The use of butter for suet was an intentional deviation, but that would provide one way to get closer to the original.

Foods in Season: March 1861

As I ramp up my gardening activities, it's time to see what Beeton's Book of Household Management has to say about foods that are in season for March.

Fish- Barbel, brill, carp, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.

Meat- Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Poultry- Capons, chickens, ducklings, tame and wild pigeons, pullets with eggs, turkeys, wild-fowl, though now not in full season.

Game- Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipes, woodcock.

Vegetables-Beetroot, broccoli (purple and white), Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, celery, chervil, cresses, cucumbers (forced), endive, kidney-beans, lettuces, parsnips, potatoes, savoys, sea-kale, spinach, turnips, -various herbs

Fruit- Apples (golden and Dutch pippins), grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pears (Bon Chrétien), walnuts, dried fruits (foreign), such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates, crystallized preserves.

Cod is off the menu! Not that I usually cook with it. No changes to the meat or fruit lists. Fowls are now out of both the poultry and game categories. Sea-kale has been added to the vegetable category (the only new addition this month). So, all told, March is looking very similar to February. And January. While this is a much larger variety of foods than one might fear, I'm starting to get a better appreciation for how boring late winter and early spring cooking can get prior to long-distance refrigerated transit.

Belated 12th Night Cake

Revisited the 1857 Godey's receipt-in-verse for Twelfth Cake again this year. The changes this time were:

• I finally found candied citron, and thus was able to include all of the fruit and nuts in their proper proportions.
• I made a half-receipt worth of cake.
• I made a cake with gluten-free flour.
• I tried freezing the cake.
• I decorated the cake using piped icing. 
  

By way of explanation, I had two 12th Night events planned, one period and one modern, and so made two quarter-receipt-sized cakes. For the modern one, I again used a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour substitute, while I used regular flour for the period one. The period event then got postponed, so I stuck the extra cake in the freezer.

Period cake in the hoop, modern in the springform pan.

My first takeaway of the experience is that the candied citron mostly gets lost in the mass of other fruit (and some spice) flavors. There just isn't that much citron, so it's only every few bites that I'd get a flash of citron flavor among the currants and almonds. That being said, it was strong enough to be picked out, and it worked with the other flavors. I'm glad to have the chance to try it, and would use it again in the future, but I also think the cake doesn't suffer from missing it when the citron isn't available.

Since I used different flours, I was really making two quarter-batches rather than one half-batch. In the process, I observed that my modern springform pans are not large enough for even a half-receipt of the cake (the period cake hoop could probably manage a half batch, though not a whole), and it's doubtful that my mixer would be up to the half-batch either. I didn't notice any difference in taste or texture between the two cakes (both being functionally a mass of dried fruit held together with minimal batter), making it one of my most successful gluten-free baking experiments to date. Freezing the one cake worked beautifully:  as soon as it was cool, I wrapped it tightly with the parchment paper I had baked it in, then covered that with tin foil. It was in the freezer for a month, then I let it thaw for a day before frosting and serving it.

The icing was still my modern buttercream frosting, though I have since received a tip about adapting period royal icing which I will try next time (apparently meringue powder allows one to avoid the 'uncooked egg whites' issue).  I opted for piped decorations this time, since I came across detailed period instructions for piping icing onto Twelfth Cakes (also Wedding Cakes), though I failed to save the link for once. Will update when I find it again.

 

Modern cake. The period one had white-on-white frosting.

 

Comparative Cheese & Also Custard Puddings (1845-1855)

While I'm going through my old pictures: last week's cheese experiments at Fort Nisqually. All three receipts are variations on "melted cheese adjacent to bread" from The Carolina Housewife (1855).

Boiled Cheese.

 We used Quin's homemade sourdough and a mild cheddar cheese for all three receipts, in order to compare them. The boiled cheese involved melting the cheese on the stovetop with milk, butter, and egg. It was served with sippets of toasted bread (made in bulk on the skillet on the stovetop, since toasting it on the forks one at a time would have been prohibitive). The stewed cheese called for cream, butter, cheese, and a salamander to cook it from above. Both ended up tasting like delicious melted cheese, and tended to solidify quickly once taken off the heat. The stewed cheese was a little less intensely cheddar-flavored, but they were very similar in general.

To Stew Cheese.

The toasted cheese again called for grated cheese mixed with cream and butter, but also had salt, pepper, mustard, and breadcrumbs, which worked into a paste with the consistency of play-dough. This was spread over slices of bread and baked in the oven until the cheese started to brown. The flavor was quite good (after eating so much cheese, the slight kick of the mustard made a nice variation), though the texture of the cheese paste was a little too similar to the bread in my opinion. It was however, much easier and neater to eat than the first two receipts. All three receipts went together quickly, and would be easy to make around other receipts (say, for the cook's lunch while demonstrating other dishes).

To Toast Cheese.

For dessert, we made two different versions of a custard pudding. Again, for good comparison, both were flavored with almond [there was a mishap with the lemon flavoring] and served with homemade preserves. One was a common custard pudding from Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery (1845), the other from Cookery Rational, Practical, and Economical (1855). 

Common custard pudding. (Boiled)

The first was boiled, and the second baked, but the only other difference was the exact proportion of eggs, milk, and flavoring. The baked pudding did have an option to substitute flour for some of the eggs, but we decided not to do this. Both receipts produced a nice molded dessert with the texture of a flan and a notable, but not overwhelming, almond flavor. There was a small mishap with the boiled pudding turning sideways enough to have water leak into the mold, but the pudding still held together when turned out. I did end up draining excess water off the plate after it had set a few minutes. I noticed little difference between the two, but Quin preferred the baked pudding (the water leak apparently making the boiled one too moist).

Custard pudding. (Baked.)

All in all, it was a tasty day. Except for the bread being baked in advance in a modern home kitchen, everything was prepared in the Fort's historic kitchen, using the wood-burning stove. All of our ingredients were as close to period as possible, and most can be documented to the place as well.

Updated Coconut Macaroons (1845)

Coconut Macaroons.

 

Revisited the Very Fine Coconut Macaroons from Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery (1845) for Fort Steilacoom on Sunday. It's a simple receipt that scales easily (1 white beaten stiff, 2 oz sugar, 1oz dry shredded coconut; bake on low until firm). I did 2 eggs worth again, which neatly filled 1.5 pans. Despite beating the egg whites to stiff peaks, the mixture liquefied as soon as I added the other ingredients, so I didn't get to shape the macaroons by rolling the dough into balls. This is probably why they turned out a bit flat, but they tasted fine anyway. I'm mostly posting this update so that I can note the cooking temperature: the macaroons were mostly done after 30 minutes at 180F, but the bottoms were still sticky and tended to come apart. I put them back in for another 10 minutes (40 minutes at 180F in total), and then let them sit in the cooling oven overnight. They ended up cooked all the way through, without changing color.

Foods in Season: February 1861

Late this month, but I finally have some historic cooking to do, and decided to once again consult with Beeton's Book of Household Management about ingredients considered to be in season for February.

Fish- Barbel, brill, carp, cod may be bought, but is not so good as in January, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whiting.

Meat- Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal

Poultry- Capons, chickens, ducklings, fowls, tame and wild pigeons, pullets with eggs, turkeys, wild-fowl, though now not in full season.

Game- Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipe, wild-fowl, woodcock

Vegetables-Beetroot, broccoli (purple and white), Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, celery, chervil, cresses, cucumbers (forced), endive, kidney-beans, lettuces, parsnips, potatoes, savoys, spinach, turnips,-various herbs

Fruit- Apples (golden and Dutch pippins), grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pear (Bon Chrétien), walnuts, dried fruits (foreign), such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates, crystallized preserves.

I was interested to note that the only different in fish suggestions between January and February is the cod being "not so good," while venison falls off the meat list moving into February and wild fowls are added into the game category. Poultry sees the most more changes, as wild pigeons, wild fowls, and chickens are now "in season" and rabbit is out; I plan to bother my friendly neighborhood chicken-raisers with questions about this. I had expected the vegetable category to slightly expand over January to March as spring approaches and the fruit list to contract over that time as winter storing varieties run out; the main difference instead seems to be that the February lists gives more specific varieties of broccoli, apples, and pears.

Foods in Season: January

Thinking more about cooking through the season, Victorian style, and decided this year to share the monthly suggestions from Beeton's Book of Household Management.

For January, foodstuffs that should be in season:

Fish- Barbel, brill, carp, cod, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whitings

Meat- Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal, venison

Poultry- Capons, fowls, tame pigeons, pullets, rabbits, turkeys

Game- Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipe, wild-fowl, woodcock

Vegetables-Beetroot, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, celery, chervil, cresses, cucumbers (forced), endive, lettuces, parships, potatoes, savoys, spinach, turnips,-various herbs

Fruit- Apples, grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pears, walnuts, crystalized preserves (foreign), dried fruits, such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates.

*Terminology notes: "house lamb" is, as the name suggests, a lamb that has been hand-raised in the house (generally over bitter winter weather). "Forced" cucumbers would be grown with artificial heating and protection from the elements (greenhouse, use of glass covers outdoors, a "hot bed" with decaying manure used to warm the soil, etc).