Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 25, 2011

The Christmas Goose

Roast Goose with Onion Sauce

 To stuff and roast a Goslin

 Boil the inwards tender, chop them fine, put double quantity of grated bread, four ounces butter, pepper, salt, (and sweet herbs if you like) and 2 eggs into the stuffing, add wine and roast the bird.

The above is a good stuffing for every kind of Water Fowl, which requires onion sauce.

Amelia Simmons, 1796

 The roasted goose and onion sauce are ready for table!   Merry Christmas to all from Heart to Hearth Cookery!!

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Posted in 18th century foodways, culinary history, food, food history, goose, receipts, recipes, Roasting | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 24, 2011

Roast Goose and Christmas

Roasting a Goose

 Christmas and roast goose are frequently paired together.  In Victorian England, the goose for Christmas dinner was a tradition for some.  The goose has many religious ties and the Christian celebration of Christmas is just one of many.  Charles Dickens wrote In a Christmas Carol that in the Cratchit family you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course.  But Scrooge sent a young boy to the Poulterer’s to fetch the big prize turkey for the Cratchit’s Christmas dinner.  The goose is roasting attached to my bottle jack in the hearth.

 
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Posted in bottle jack, culinary history, food, food history, goose, grisset, Roasting | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 21, 2011

Almonds for Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen with Sugared Almonds

  In the picture, I am placing almonds (coated with seven layers of sugar syrup using my comfit pan) on the lebkuchen.  I chose a round tin cutter of a diameter that would fit well on the baking sheet.  The sugar coated almonds are in the small rye straw basket in the lower right corner.

 
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Posted in comfits, culinary history, food, food history, Lebkuchen, Pennsylvania German foodways | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 18, 2011

Is it the “oldest gingerbread”?

Preparing Lebkuchen

 It certainly looks like I have just rolled out “gingerbread” and ready to cut out a shape, but the receipt (recipe) that I have prepared is a lebkuchen which historically was honey based and  incorporated expensive, luxury spices of the European spice trade.  This receipt contains eight spices in the spice mix:  cinnamon (56%), cloves (18.5%),allspice (4.6%), anise seed (4.6%), cardamom (4.6%), coriander (4.6%), ginger (4.6%), and nutmeg (2.3%).  The sweetener is both honey and molasses in equal parts and boiled.  Thus the appearance of a modern rolled gingerbread but perhaps more accurately considered a cinnamon-bread or spice-bread? 

 
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Posted in culinary history, food, food history, Gingerbread, Lebkuchen, Pennsylvania German foodways, receipts, recipes | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 15, 2011

Fennel Comfits

Making Fennel Comfits

In my last post, Dyshefull of Snowe, the presentation included two sweetmeat glasses with fennel comfits.  The hemispherical kettle full of sack posset is behind me in this picture as I am swinging my comfit pan (to save my hands from the brazier heat below) making fennel comfits.  Twelve charges of sugar syrup were added to the fennel seeds.

 
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Posted in 18th century foodways, comfits, confectionery, culinary history, food, food history, posset, Sweetmeats | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 13, 2011

A Dyschefull of Snowe

Dyshefull of Snowe

This early 1600’s receipt (recipe) is festive in any century and simple as well.  In the bottom of my punch bowl, I placed pomegranates (apples can be used as well) and stuck branches of rosemary into the fruit.  By whisking both cream and egg white until stiff, the effect of snow is created.  This “snow” was used to dip the gingercakes (pictured to the right) stacked in a sweetmeat cone.  Glass sweetmeat dishes hold fennel comfits.

 
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Posted in 17th century foodways, confectionery, food, food history, receipts, recipes | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 11, 2011

Sack Posset in Hemispherical Kettle

Sack Posset in Hemispherical kettle

 Last evening, I was “historical entertainment” at an original hearth in a private home.  The sack posset I made is keeping warm at the hearth in a hemispherical kettle.  To learn more about the kettle visit my food history sources page.

 
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Posted in culinary history, food, food history, kettles, posset | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 9, 2011

To Stuff a Goslin

Stuffing the goose

 The bottle-jack is in place at the hearth for roasting the goose (goslin) after it is stuffed in 18th century fashion.  The method was to boil the inwards tender, chop them fine, put double quantity of grated bread, four ounces butter, pepper, salt…2 eggs into the stuffing add wine.  In the picture, I am placing this stuffing in the cavity of the goose prior to the roast.

 
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Posted in 18th century foodways, bottle jack, culinary history, food, goose, receipts, recipes, Roasting | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 7, 2011

A Jerusalem Artichoke Pudding

Peeling Jerusalem artichokes

 I am peeling Jerusalem artichokes for a Jerusalem artichoke pudding.  I have a pudding bag (yard of linen) in my colander ready to receive the peeled artichokes and I have already peeled the apples.  I will boil these in the bag, drain them in the colander and then mash both for the pudding.

 
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Posted in 18th century foodways, culinary history, food, food history, Jerusalem artichokes, Puddings, receipts, recipes, Sunchokes | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | December 5, 2011

The Presentation

Marchpane with Caraway Comfits

 
The marchpane is sitting on a bed of caraway comfits in the center of my pewter charger.  Previous posts discribe the marchpane which is almond paste set in the oven on a wafer and iced.
 
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Posted in comfits, confectionery, culinary history, food, food history, marchpane, wafers | Tags: , , , , , ,

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