Salaric Cooking

My husbands aunt has several copies of Mrs Beeton some of which date from when around the time it was actually produced! Most of the recipies she has produced from Mrs Beeton havve been well not very nice but then this may have more to do with the cook economising and using far too stale bread and far too mouldy cheese and still living in the wartime mentality.

However it turns out that it is full of amazing stuff including lots of historical tipbits on how medieval and roman kitchens were supposed to be set out and herbal remedies. I was going to extract the information I thought most useful from it and put it on the blog – warning if you are doing this you need to check on copy right law and trade mark law specific to your country!

I was not however looking forward to typing up all of those recipies when I discovered via my husband that there is a project that is putting all the out of copywrite books onto a giant database so that the information is accessable to everybody!

It is called Project Gutenberg.

This is fantastic news for me and you – for a start the whole of the Mrs Beetons book is avalible on there – I would say that reading books like this is a bit of a headache and I still browse the actual book but it reduces the amount of work I have to do to bring the information to a wider audience – why am I still putting it on here rather than just linking? I want to make the information more usable and also bring it to bare on a modern setting. I want to actually do my own research on some of the articles and update things so that you have Mrs Beetons opinion and then mine/a modern interpretation.

This is exciting and I am hoping that there may be more of the really old cook books and almanaces on the project.

Having read the preface to Mrs Beeton I think that this blog maybe actually turning into the mordern equvilent of her book – which is scary. There is obviously years of work here so don’t expect it all next week.

This year you are pretty much only getting the seasonal foods as this is important from an budget and environmental point of view.

I also do not think unlike my husbands aunt that Mrs Beeton has the definative anser to everything. Foods come in and out of fashion, medical science has stormed ahead in the past century and nutrition is better under stood. Foods and cooking tequnics that were not avalible to Mrs Beeton are common place. Having said that we on the brink of the tecnologicala age are in danger of loosing lots of old tecnics and knowledge that if we are going to live long and healthy lives we need to maintain. I know I have a copy of serval books dating from centuries ago that contian recipies and the like. Add in the wartime stuff and I think we are going to be rocking and rolling – any other information people have would also be greatly appreciated.

I would even like to investigate the diets of say the Romans and maybe even neolithic man. Again this is a big project but one I hope I can chip away at steadily.

I am starting with Mrs Beetona but she is by no means the end!

Of course I shall continue my own experiments and post the resulting recipies or simple do’s and don’ts. And hopefully at some point soon I will link this blog up with the gardening salaric which is woefully in need of attention. I manly concentrate on growing food so feel that it would be highly relevent to this blog!

Wish me luck!

Seasonal eating is very much in vogue for a number of reasons therefore this month I again give you Mrs Beeton’s food listings for what should be eaten in this month. Again this includes some imported food but as part of the reason for eating seasonally is to reduce our carbon emmisions this could be seen as counter productive!

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.

As I said in Febuary there is apparently Pink or Rose Veal which is ok to eat ethically as the calves are treated in a nice. I’ve found alink about it so here it is and I’ll try do a dedicated post at some future date.

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.

1 egg

cup full of flour

2 cups of milk

Mix together untill you have a runny but slightly thicker than milk batter – warning if you use an electric whisk you will froth the mix and have to wait for it to settle again! The amount of flour added can be varied depending on taste.

I normally do a minimium of four eggs. The eggs can be replaced with egg replacer for vegans and Hindus, the milk can be replaced with either goats milk (infact the ones in the photos are made with goats milk), water or orange juice depending on taste or dietry needs.

I use a small frying pan which takes about half a ladle full of batter. Place the frying pan on a medium heat – it is easy to burn them so this lower heat is actually quiet important – We find the best results come from putting a little bit of vegitable oil in the pan for the first pancake – through this redures it uneatable as it is horribly oily but it prevents subsequent pancakes from sticking.

My friend Seth insists that egg replacer is vile and says he makes pancakes by:

i use flour, milk, baking soda (or baking powder), pinch of salt, butter in frying pan (he is a fantastic cook)

Staking the cooked pancakes one on top of the other keeps them warm:

We then put them out on the table with a selection of toppings – this year these were: Banoffee suace Chocolate suace Toffee source Strewberry source Maple syrip Lemon juice Limes cut in half Oranges cut in half Demerara sugar Soft brown muscovado suga Bean sprouts (grown under the kitchen sink!) Grated cheese Marshmellows Nutella Condensed Milk Chopped Bannana

I let Jean pick her own toppings: Marshmellow Banoffee sourcce bean sprouts Cheese – she liked it and yes it was all in one pancake!

I personally discovered that my slightly peppery bean sprouts tasted great with condensed milk!

I picked up recipy card in Morrisons for Pastry Hearts and though we didn’t actually have the right ingredients my husband cooked us a version of the recipy for our valentines meal. So here is his version:

Chopped up two shallots, half a yellow pepper, and a few cherry tomatoes

Put them in a shallow dish

Added a splash of oil infused with sun dried tomatoes and a splash of balsamic vinegar

Roasted in the oven at… 200C? for… 15 minutes?

Meanwhile, roll puff pastry to ~3mm thick

Cut out two heart shapes

Scored a smaller heart 0.5cm in

Smeared milk around the resulting 0.5cm border

Put it in the oven for a bit to make it rise… 10 minutes or so?

Took it out, pushed the middle down

Spooned in the roasted stuff

Add chunks of feta

Back in the oven until it looked good

He boiled some new potatoes up and added ground pepper to them, and served it with a mixed leaf winter salad. We also cracked out the purple champainge flutes from our wedding meal and had fizzy flavoured water in them!

I personally would have used two sizes of heart cooky cutter and made a boarder that had more pastry on it. Al had to cut a heart shape out of paper mainly due to the fact that our little girl had bitten the bottom of the template I had been using for the heart decorations!

I know this is probably not that relivant and I really do need to dig out the photos I took of the cheese and bacon, cheeses and chicken, cheese and onion and sweet pancakes I make but I just wanted to show how I find my craft and cooking activities tend to over lap.

I needed to send a card around shrove Tuesday and so I made a flipping pancake card which can be seen on Salaric craft! Complete with how I did it 🙂

Enjoy pancake day – I love to put tangerine segments in warm pancakes with a smear of nutella and then wrap it up and eat it whilst burning my fingers – I promise I’ll try and sort those recipies out soon 🙂

There is a big drive at the moment to try and get people to eat seasonally so I thought I’d have a little look at what Mrs Beaton thought on the subject.

Her book is not my cup of tea but it does have lots of useful information in it.

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.

I haven’t even heard of some of these fish so I think I’ll have to do some investigating!

MEAT.–Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal.

Veal is an iffy one morally these days though this is apparently only white veal, pink veal is ok – again I will endervour to find out more!

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

Again a few things here I have never heard of such as Capons and pullets.

GAME.–Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipes, woodcock.

Same for this section hence making all I can into links!

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.

Interesting I wonder if they have them stored as I thought some of this definatly would be affected by winter frosts such as lettuce. Again more investigation – if anyone has any light to shed let me know.

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.

Interesting that she adds the ‘forgien’ food into the seasonal like this. I feel that buying seasonal is probably going to be coupled with local in todays scheme of things. Especially as we are supposed to be reducing waste and the carbon footprint of what we eat in this country and our local economy could do with the boost of local buying. Some of the things like snipes didn’t even have a wikipedia page – unless Mrs Beeton ment a computer game which I somehow doubt as computers didn’t actually exist back then!

Robert Burns was a big litrature dude (he wrote Auld Lang Syne)and my husbands aunt always dissappears off for Burns night in January.

I decided this warrented a post as this is a dinner to celebrate the poets life and works and is held around his birthday the 25th of January. This year it is the 250th anniversary and there are year long events going on. Furthure info on this can be found at Home Coming Scoutland.

What has this got to do with food and drink I here you cry!

Well they have the address to the Haggis. If you don’t know what a haggis is and are a bit squimish you may not want to read on!

It is minced sheeps lungs, heart and liver (known as sheep’s pluck) mixed with onion, oatmeal, suet, salt, spices and stock – this is then all boiled up in an animals stomache.

There are now vegitarian versions avalible and I shall be researching these as I think it would be a good event to hold with my Scouts!

At the Burns Night the haggis is a central part and they have the address at a specific point in the poem they cut the haggis. Here is the address:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race! Aboon them a’ ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace As lang’s my arm

The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o’ need, While thro’ your pores the dews distil Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dicht, An’ cut you up wi’ ready slicht, Trenching your gushing entrails bricht, Like ony ditch; And then, O what a glorious sicht, Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive: Deil tak the hindmaist! on they drive, Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve, Are bent like drums; Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, “Bethankit” hums.

Is there that o’re his French ragout Or olio that wad staw a sow, Or fricassee wad mak her spew Wi’ perfect scunner, Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash, As feckless as a wither’d rash, His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit; Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash, O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread. Clap in his wallie nieve a blade, He’ll mak it whistle; An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned, Like taps o’ thristle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o’ fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware That jaups in luggies; But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer, Gie her a haggis!

There is then a whisky toast and it is served with mash potato and swedes (tatties and neeps).

If anyone has traditional Scoutish recipies I could try/add here let me know.

Thanks.

The old addage Breakfast is the most important meal of the day turns out to be correct from a nutritional and medical point of veiw and it turns out there is a whole week dedicated to it!

Farmhouse Breakfast Week starts on the 25th of January this year and goes on until the 31st. There site has quiet a few recipys and nutritional information on it that I thought people might find usefull.

They seem to have been around for an age (2003) but I found out about it from on of those super market magizines.

Personally I had crumpets toasted with a drizzel of honey on them – bliss 😉

For my birthday this year my husband made me a butterfly cake with left overs from Christmas – ie the swiss roll and chocolate that never got turned into my classic christmas log I’ve been making since I was thirteen!

He started by making a butterfly shape out of the large swiss roll – he says this involved cake maths as he had to work out how to make a whole butterfly out of one roll. He cut four equal slices off for the wings and then cut the remainder of the log up so that it could form the base of the body.

He then broke the chocolate up into squares and placed into our old milk pan which is tall an narrow. He then held this in a suacepan of water which was actually on the heat – this is really important as chocolate burns if in direct contact with the heat and is easily spoilt.

Once melted he drizzeled it over the cake using spoons to pick up the chocolate that run off of the cake and drizzling it in the gaps. This produced a messy look and chocolate icing would have produced a better finish but then he did not know this and we didn’t have any chocolate icing anyway!

He then sprinkeled rainbow hundreds and thousands onto the butterflies body.

Then mauve sugar crystals from a Barbie cake decorating set onto the wings.

As furthure ornimentation to the wings he added some cake decoration jelly lemon and orange slices to the wings.

He had to add the candle holders whilst the chocolate was still molten other wise it would have cracked the chocolate.

He brought it out at the end of a cheese fondue for me. More on the actual celebration can be read about on our personal blog Snell-Pym.

There are photos of this when I track them down!

My husband loves fudge and I normally buy him some for Christmas but I didn’t get out in time this year to pick him up some so I thought I’d have ago at making him some – but as always I had slightly the wronge ingredients and decided to sort of make up my own recipy as I went along.

I used:

• Condensed milk (the recipie I had found all called for evaporated milk which basically doesn’t have the added sugar but I didn’t have any of that in the cupboard)
• Sugar
• Candied mixed peel
• Finailly chopped hazelnuts
• Some christmas dry fruit mix
• One teaspoon full of Allspice

I placed the condednsed milk and sugar in a pan and then was supposed to stir it untill all the sugar had dissolved but the heat was too much and I feared it would burn so I just poured in the other ingredients and stirred them in.

I then spooned the mix (it was so thick I had to use a second spoon to push the mix off of the first spoon) into some tin pie cases I had. It filled two of these shallow dishes and was absolutely chock full of the fruit and nuts so that the ‘fudge’ formed just a sort of cement or matrix for it.

My husband likes this very much and says it tastes like mince pies and fudge and is very christmassy and that the guys at the office have requested more 🙂