To make Meade
In interpreting this 18th century receipt for Meade, I started with 2 gallons of water instead of 10 and added 1 quart of honey. After mixing the water and honey, ginger sliced thin was added and boyled well. The fluffy white in the picture is the egg white beaten into a froth and added. The mead is just about ready to bottle as I prepared it three weeks ago and as the receipt states in 2 or 3 weeks you may drink it!
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Posted in 18th century foodways, Beverages, culinary history, food, food history, Mead | Tags: culinary history, food, food history, mead
Basting the Hare
A description of the pudding in the belly of this hare is in the previous post. After the pudding was put in the belly, it was sow up. The hare was larded with my larding needle, and then put on the spit on the spit dogs that you see pictured. I am basting the hare as it is roasting with butter and cream made hott that is in my redware grisset. (The source for my grisset is listed on my food history source page of this blog)
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Posted in 17th century foodways, culinary history, food history, grisset, Roasting | Tags: culinary history, food history, foodways, larding, Roasting
Pudding in Ye Belly
In this receipt, For a Pudding for a Hare, I am taking out the liver. It will be boiled and minced well with twice as much beef (liver). All the other ingredients for the pudding in ye belly are on the table. I will be mixing bacon, parsley, thyme, onion and lemon peel with salt, pepper, grated bread and nutmeg. This may sound like a stuffing but this mixture is put in the belly of the rabbit and closed at both ends and thus is a pudding-even though savory!
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Posted in 18th century foodways, culinary history, food history, Puddings | Tags: culinary history, food history, foodways, pudding
Ugly but FLAVORFUL Greening
Yes, this not-so-pretty apple is thoroughly green! As it ripens in October, the skin is green with a slight yellow tinge and the flesh is a greenish white. But the distinctive, juicy, tart apple has an excellent flavor and is good for both eating and baking. The apple is called a Rhode Island Greening and has been planted in this country since the mid-seventeenth century. This apple stores well for several months but I am preparing slices of the apple for drying. When the drying rack is filled, I will place it in the slack bake oven overnight.
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Posted in 17th century foodways, Bake oven, culinary history, drying, food history, Food preservation | Tags: apples, culinary history, food history, Food preservation, foodways
Painted Wafers are done!
On September 25, 2010, I wrote about a receipt titled To make Plain or Painted Waffers. The ingredients were simply sugar and lemon juice and I used saffron to “paint” on the heart design. With great trepidation, I baked the wafers in a very cool oven (slack) on a drying rack. In the picture to the left you can see the results. Three of the wafers are Painted and one is Plain.
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Posted in 18th century foodways, Bake oven, confectionery, culinary history, food history | Tags: confectionery, culinary history, food history, foodways
To Pott Hare
This is the time of year for preserving and this time I am potting hare (rabbit). The rabbit was baked in a redware dish in a bake kettle with butter. More butter was clarified in a posnet to be ready for the actual potting. The receipt gives the option of boning the “hare” or cutting it in quarters. I chose the later option as is pictured to the left. Next I “season(ed) high” with “beaten” pepper, salt, cloves, mace, and Jamaican pepper (all spice). I have half the clarified butter added and will completely fill the pot with this butter and “keep for your use”. A thick leather will be covering the pot.
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Leaching acorns
After cracking the acorns, I added the nutmeats to heated water in the clay pot. The water immediately turned a coppery-brown color from the tannins that protect the nut but are not good for humans! I drained that liquid off using a grape vine basket and repeated the process again for a second leaching. The tannin-colored water was lighter with each leaching but it took 6 leachings before the water was clear. Both of the white oak acorns have less tannins then the red oak acorns that I had processed previously this year (see acorn flour post).
Step 3 to follow!
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Posted in acorn flour, culinary history, food history, Lenape, Native American | Tags: culinary history, food history, foodways, Lenape, Native American
Cracking open acorns
Today I started the process of making acorn flour with a mix of two varieties of white acorns- chestnut and chinkapin oak. After the gathering of the acorns, the first step in processing was to use a stone nut mortar and rock pounder (in Lenape fashion) to crack open the acorns and remove the nut meat. The rock mortar has indentations deliberately made in the stone to keep the acorn in place while cracking. With the large rock pounder, two acorns can be pounded simultaneously.
Step 2 to follow!
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Posted in acorn flour, culinary history, food history, Lenape, Native American | Tags: acorn flour, culinary history, food history, foodways, Lenape, Native American
Preparing the slices of squash
Peter Kalm, a Swedish botanish, wrote in 1749, that the squashes or pumpkins are cut in slices, drawn upon a thread , and dried. They keep all year long, and are then boiled or stewed. I am removing and saving the seed for planting. As I slice the rind and flesh of the squash, circles are formed that I place on my drying rack by using either cordage or a green stick. When the squash is dried, it keeps until it gets wet. The dried squash I reconstitue in my trade kettle usually with hominy and beans
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To pickle Red Cabbage
This is the time of year for preservation. I am amused by H. Glasse in her receipt To pickle Red Cabbage that she writes: It is a Pickle of little Use, but for garnishing of Dishes, Sallets, and Pickles, tho’ some People are fond of it. I find it an excellent pickle! The cabbage needs to be sliced thin and pickled in salt and vinegar with an Ounce of All-spice. The all-spice, otherwise known in the 18th century as Jamaican pepper is pictured in the small redware bowl.
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Posted in 18th century foodways, culinary history, food history, Food preservation, Pickling | Tags: culinary history, food history, foodways, pickling
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