Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 25, 2011

Seville Orange Ice Cream from the Sand

Making Seville Orange Ice Cream

The lemon that is needed for the Seville Orange Ice Cream receipt (recipe) is partially hiding the Seville Oranges which have been stored in sand since December!  Their appearance is not the best but the juice is just fine and that is what I need for the ice cream.  This picture was taken at the beginning of my demonstration and the 20 pounds of ice has yet to be crushed by the visitors so you can see my reproduction pewter sabotiere and I am holding the pewter scraper.  I keep making different ice cream receipts and thinking that I have already made the best flavor until I make the next receipt.  Seville Orange Ice Cream is a winner.

 
Hands-on 18th century ice cream demonstrations are available for sites and organizations.  Visit my website at www.hearttohearthcookery.com

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Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 21, 2011

Tulip Plate of Comfits

Comfits in Sweetmeat Glasses

The comfits in the six handblown glass sweetmeat glasses represent 12 days of comfit making.  Each time I use my comfit pan, I apply twelve charges (layers) of sugar syrup to each seed or spice.  My goal is to have 60 coatings of sugar on my carraway seeds.   The center sweetmeat glass contains clove comfits with 24 coatings of sugar.  Starting with the darker colored comfits by my hand and going clockwise are caraway comfits with 12 layers of cochineal colored sugar, caraway comfits with 48 charges of sugar, caraway comfits with 24 layers, caraway comfits with 12 layers, and last clove comfits with 12 charges.  I find the presentation of the comfits on my pewter reproduction tulip plate very pleasing.  See my food history source listing for more information on the plate.

 
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Posted in 17th century foodways, comfits, confectionery, culinary history, food, food history | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 18, 2011

Shad on the Street

To boil a shad

Heart to Hearth Cookery can do programs almost anywhere-including the street!  On the plank is a buck shad about to be prepared to go in the kettle (on the brazier in the background).  The receipt I am preparing is To boil a Shad.  The shad will be boiled in White-wine Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, an Onion stuck with Cloves, a Piece of Butter, sliced Lemon and a Bay Leaf. 

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Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 16, 2011

Discomforting Comfits!

Will the sugar ever be first degree?
Will the sugar ever be first degree?

This is a rare picture and the first time you will have ever found me blowing into one section of my barrell bellow into a brazier to try to increase the heat!  I was excited yesterday to use my comfit pan (hanging by the chains in the picture) to start grains of paradise comfits with twelve layers of sugar and to increase the layers by twelve on both some clove and carraway seed comfits.  The “discomfort” of the day was that it was taking forever to get my sugar syrup to the first degree!  My comfit pan is idle as I spent three hours to obtain first degree syrup!!  Now that was a first and I have done this many, many times.  At the end of a long day, I had two charges of sugar syrup on my grains of paradise. 

It seems yesterday I was not destined to make comfits!  But I do find the picture interesting.
 
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Posted in 17th century foodways, 18th century foodways, comfits, confectionery, culinary history, food, food history, Sweetmeats | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 14, 2011

Dinner is ready!!!!

19th Century Hearth Class

Today nine hearth cooking workshop participants (two not pictured) prepared a 19th century dinner meal at my Historic Speedwell class.  Two early to mid-nineteeth century manuscript receipt books were used as the sources for the receipts (recipes).  In the center Rockingham ware plate is A la mode beef surrounded by Spinach garnished with bread fried in butter.  To the right, is the presentation of Onion Ragout with Bran Biscuits on the pewter plate.  Next to the beef on the left (in a deep Rockingham ware dish) is Stewed trout.  The trout was rubbed every part of it well with a seasoning made of black & cayenne pepper, thyme, sweet marjoram, cloves, salt and all spice.  And the Sponge Cake (far left) was baked in turks head molds and the center filled with Lemon Cream. 

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Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 10, 2011

Shad and Sparagus-The Twentieth Way

Shad and Sparagus-The Twentieth Way

I do not know for certain the answer to the question as to why Robert May wrote the title of this 17th century receipt (recipe) The Twentieth Way as the The Nineteenth Way and The one and Twentieth Way do not include the asparagus but the common denominator appears to be the Spring bounty of eggs.

For the Twentieth Way, I took young and tender sparagus (mine was white), broke then in small pieces, and half-fried them brown.  What you see on the griddle, is the receipt after the eggs were put into them beaten with salt and an omlet made.  And another sure sign of Spring is the roe shad on the plank being readied for a family dinner.
 
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Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 7, 2011

Too make syrup of vilets

Violets

It was a breezy day as I picked the very last of the violets of the season.  The choices were to preserve them with gum arabic and sugar, make violet cakes, or make syrup of vilets-a 17th century receipt of Gulielma Penn.  I chose the latter and picked them very Clene as I only wanted the “blue” colored part of each petal.  The petals were put..in a peutor pott, with water and sett..by the fire with a few embers under and a bout the pot till they bee enough.  When enough (the water was very blue), the violets were strained out and a pound and a 1/2 of suger was put to 1/2 a pint of juce.  This blue syrup will give a lovely blue color to my calf’s foot jelly.

 
Next Saturday, May 14th, I will be conducting a hearth cooking class in New Jersey.  Visit my web site at www.hearttohearthcookery.com for details to register.  There are only one or two openings as I post this  to my blog.
 

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Posted in 17th century foodways, culinary history, food, Food preservation, Hearth cooking classes, Preserving with sugar, receipts, Violets | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | May 4, 2011

Tail into the Mouth-Not a Fish Tale

Tied tail to mouth

This is an interesting late eighteenth-early nineteenth receipt for baking a fish.  It is in a manuscript receipt book so the exact date is not precise.  The receipt calls to gutt the fish at the Gills, stuff it with Bread and Herbs, and season the outside with cayenne. Then turn the tail into the mouth and lay it on sticks in your bake pan.  I found that the sticks made it easy for the fish to be removed from the bottom of the bake kettle. 

 
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Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | April 30, 2011

Violets to Candy

To candy violets

This is violet season!  The preservation season for violets is very short and there is so much to do.  One of the first preservation techniques I use is to candy the violets which I am demonstrating in the picture.  This is a time consuming task that uses gum arabic and the whitest sugar (double or triple refined)prepared very fine in a marble mortar and pestle.  In the picture, I am using my squirrel-haired brush to cover each petal completely with the gum arabic.  This will make the very finely ground sugar adhere easily.  If all the petals are covered both front and back, I will have a perfect candied violet to serve in glass sweetmeat dishes to impress dinner guests all year! 

 
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Posted in 17th century foodways, 18th century foodways, confectionery, culinary history, Edible flowers, food, food history, Preserving with sugar, Sweetmeats, Violets | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: hearttohearthcookery | April 28, 2011

White “Sparrow-Grass”

White Asparagus

For those of the wealthiest status in the 17th century, white was a desired color for the table.  The whitest sugar for sugar plate, the whitest flour for bread, and the whitest salt for the table.  White asparagus (or sparrow-grass as it was frequently called in 17th century England) could be grown by gardeners by keeping the emerging spring stalk covered by dirt.  White asparagus is produced by the same plant that produces the green but the white are deprived of light so that chlorophyll (green) cannot be produced.  I am taking the cooked white asparagus from the kettle by the string that ties the bundle.  It will be served with a sauce prepared with cream, herbs, yolks of egg, and sugar.   Visit my website at www.hearttohearthcookery.com

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Posted in 17th century foodways, asparagus, culinary history, food, food history, Vegetables | Tags: , , , ,

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