Lettuce Through Time©

Tags

braised lettuce, Cooked lettuce, lettuce history, lettuce soup

 

A nice gentleman contacted me recently with a question about 18^th century lettuce and I promised to share some information.  His question was about period recipes for cooking lettuce and whether lettuce then was anything like what we have now.

Long leaved, cos type lettuce is ancient and depicted in wall and tomb paintings as early as 4500 B.C.  Lettuce is found among plants accompanying the Egyptian god, Min [4^th Millennium BCE].

Cabbage-leaved lettuce is traced from 1543.  Columella knew a few different varieties, and documented the Romans eating young tender lettuce and cooking older and tougher lettuce.  They ate lettuce with hot dressing on it much like the wilted lettuce salads popular in the 20^th century.  Lettuce was cultivated to improve its texture and flavor and by the medieval era there were distinct varieties of three types – heading, loose-leaf, and tall or cos.  William Woys Weaver credits the name Romaine, a cos, to it being grown in the papal gardens of Rome, although the name Romaine isn’t commonly found until the latter third of the 19^th century.

“Adam’s Luxury and Eve’s Cookery”, 1744 is a good early source showing varieties during the 18^th century.  Some of those listed are available through heirloom seed companies.  Dr. Weaver, in his heirloom vegetable treatise, tells us some of the early varieties later underwent name changes requiring some gardening knowledge to identify them and locate seed.  For example, Green Capuchin is now Tennisball and Silesia is now White-Seeded Simpson or Early Curled Simpson.

Cos lettuce was common during the 18^th century.  Accounts such as the one from “The New London Family Cook” instructing the gardener to tie up the leaves of cos lettuce, “the same as endive”, to shield the inner leaves from the sun rendering them tender and crisp indicates that without special care some lettuce was tough.  The center leaves would have been preferred for salads while the outer leaves would have benefitted from cooking.

Jamie Oliver’s braised peas and lettuce

Lettuce that formed a loose head was called cabbage lettuce and that which produced tall leafy to very loose-headed plants was cos.  The varieties were divided further by season – that which could withstand a European winter, spring lettuce that headed rapidly, summer lettuce which were usually larger than spring lettuce and which tolerated more heat without bolting as fast.  Cutting lettuces never form a head and are harvested a few leaves at a time as the plants grow.  This is sometimes referred to as cut and come again.  Southern Europe also had a, “perennial lettuce”, which resembled dandelion.

Lettuces varied in depth of color from very pale to very dark green.

In John Randolph’s eminent Gardening Treatise penned in 18^th century Virginia, we see the cutting lettuce, Cabbage lettuce, and cos.  Randolph found the cabbage lettuce the least pleasing of the three.  “This sort of lettuce is the worst of all the kinds in my opinion.  It is the most watery and flashy, does not grow to the size that many of the other sorts will do, and very soon runs to seed”.

Randolph found the cos the, “sweetest and finest”, because it washed the easiest, it remained longer before bolting, and, it was the, “crispest and most delicious of them all”.

Salads, raw and cooked, date to ancient times, however, here we will look only at ways in which lettuce was cooked.  It was put into soup, made into ragout, cooked with green peas, etc.  Elizabeth Lea [1859] had this advice for her readers, “Where there is a large family, it is a good and economical way to cut the fat of ham in small pieces, fry it, and make a gravy with flour, water and pepper to eat with lettuce.  To cook lettuce you must fry a little ham; put a spoonful of vinegar into the gravy; cut the lettuce, put it in the pan; give it a stir, and then dish it”.  Your author remembers the delight of eating this prepared by her aunt Dora, who was a master of the “use what’s in the garden and larder” method of cooking before it became trendy with preppers.

TO MAKE GREEN PEASE SOUP.  “The New Book of Cookery”.  1782.  Take a small knuckle of veal, and a pint and a half of old green pease; put them in a saucepan with five or six quarts of water, a few blades of mace, a small onion stuck with cloves, some sweet herbs, salt, and whole pepper;  cover them close, and boil them;  then strain the liquor through a sieve, and put it in a fresh saucepan, with a pint of young pease, a lettuce, the heart of a cabbage, and three or four heads of celery, cut small;  cover the pan and let them stew an hour.  Pour the soup into your dish, and serve it up with the crust of a French roll.

EGGS WITH LETTUCE.  “The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy.  Glasse.  1786.  Scald some cabbage-lettuce in fair water, squeeze them well, then slice them and toss them up in a saucepan with a piece of butter;  season them with pepper, salt, and a little nutmeg.  Let them stew half an hour, chop them well together; when they are enough, lay them in your dish, fry some eggs nicely in butter and lay on them.  Garnish with Seville orange.

TURKISH MINCE.  “Domestic Economy and Cookery”.  1827.  Mince hard [boiled] eggs, white meat, and suet in equal quantities, season with sweet herbs and spices, mix it with boiled chopped lettuce, bread crums [sic], a little butter and a raw egg or two; dip lettuce, vine, or cabbage-leaves into boiling water, roll up the mince in them, and fry them of a nice light brown, or bake them in a quick oven, buttering them from a buttering pan, which is a better method than laying on bits; when rolled up for frying, fix the leaves with a little egg; meat may be used instead of egg.

LAITUES AU JUS.  “How to Cook Vegetables in one Hundred Different Ways”.  1868.  Blanch the lettuces for about five minutes in boiling water, drain them; place some nice slices of bacon in a stewpan;  lay the lettuces upon them; add sufficient strong gravy [broth];  simmer for a quarter of an hour, and serve with the strained gravy.

LAITUES FARCIES.  “How to Cook Vegetables in one Hundred Different Ways”.  1868.  Remove the outer leaves from some good large white lettuces, blanch these for a few minutes in boiling water;  drain them;  make them hollow by cutting out from the stalk end;  fill them with a very good white forcemeat, and stew them gently in consommé, or braise them.  Serve with the gravy poured over.

LETTUCES—LAITUES AU LARD.  “The Treasury of French Cookery.  1866.  The salad being made, salt and pepper are added in the requisite quantities.  Cut bacon up in small dice.  Melt it in a heater [cook].  Pour it very hot over the lettuces.  A little vinegar is immediately put into the heater, and when warm is poured over the salad.

LETTUCE SOUP.  “The Master Books of Soups”.  1900.  2 pints veal stock, 1 large head of lettuce, 1 oz. butter, 1 oz. flour, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt and paprika.

Cook lettuce in 1 pint of the stock and press through a sieve.  Heat butter in a pan and add flour and the other 1 pint of stock.  Cook till smooth and creamy.  Add lettuce pureé, season to taste, re-heat, add lemon juice, and serve.

“Inferior heads, or the lettuce which does not form heads, is very nice if cooked just like spinach and dressed with cream.  Some varieties which have large white veins and mid-ribs may be made to serve a double purpose.  Strip out the thin parts of the leaf for use in the salads and then cook the stems and dress them just like asparagus.  It will make a substitute for asparagus which will go unsuspected with a good many people”.  – Cutler.  1903.

See:  Vilmorin-Andrieux, “The Vegetable Garden”, 1920.  Randolph, John, “A Treatise on Gardening”, mid-18^th c.  Weaver, William Woys.  “Heirloom Vegetable Gardening:  A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History”.  1997.  Weaver.  “100 Vegetables and Where they Came From”.  2000.  Lindquist, K.  “On the Origin of Cultivated Lettuce”.  Landskrona, Sweden.  April 1960.  Eaton, Katherine.  “Ancient Egyptian Temple Ritual:  Performance, Pastterns, and Practice”.  2013.  Cookery books listed above.

Kitchen Style That Reaches Out to Me

This post isn’t going to be long on text and is offered today just because I took a sentimental journey and decided to share images of kitchen styles that make me happy.  I’ve had the pleasure of cooking in some interesting settings and making food my ancestors would have been comfortable with, but at 60, I’m not sure if I’d want to take up cooking for 25 or more people as I once did in primitive settings.  Putting a joint on the spit and making some historical dish for the Mister and myself, however, will bring me immense pleasure when we get around to tweaking our keeping room.  We have pieces a plenty to outfit it once we are ready to transform the interior into the setting we want.  It doesn’t have to be nearly as elaborate as these to please me as I gravitate more toward cottage than castle, but the reader will enjoy this nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Blissful Meals now and perhaps you’ll find a few details in these images that speak to you as they have me.  I’ve tried to avoid copyrighted images, however, it was sometimes hard to follow the chain of postings to know who the original poster was and whether there were any restrictions on using the photo.

PIGEONS AND THE DOVECOT, Part I©

Tags

columbarium, doocot, dovecot, pigeonnier

The reader may well ask what a dovecot is since this structure is rarely seen today although it served an important purpose in times past.  They were intended to house the dovecot pigeon which when delicately prepared graced many a serving platter.  Dovecots, pigeon cote, columbarium, pigeonnier, or doocot are the same structure while the name varied with location.

Dovecots, or their ruins, can be documented from the Roman occupation of Britain.  They were essential from the early Middle Ages through the 18^th century and many were still in use during the 19^th century.  They are found throughout Europe and the Middle East and were in use in the U.S. by the 1600’s.  Design varied though most were initially round houses with holes for the pigeons to enter and build nests in openings inside the dovecot.  The Medieval larger structures were limited to more well-to-do families who may have had more than one.

[This ruined structure in Newbigging, near Aberdour in Fife, Scotland shows the nesting boxes inside after the facade deteriorated.  Photo credit:  Kim Traynor.]

Later dovecots were small structures mounted onto a building or pole.  Whatever the style, the purpose was the same – the young pigeons were collected from the nests for the table after which the breeding process started over.

[A mounted dovecot, artist William Holman Hunt.]

[Dovecot built into a roof.]

Squab may be a more recognized term than pigeon in farming and cooking circles but only age separates the one from the other.  Squab is a pigeon that has reached adult size but has not begun to fly.

Millington and many others noted the dovecot pigeon was the common blue pigeon.  He found it hardier and better suited to severe weather.  The pigeons fared well on a diet of peas, barley, and buckwheat, many foraging by day and returning to the dovecot in the evening.  May or August were said to be the best months for butchering as that is when the young were deemed best, however, this depends on location.

There is an abundance of historical references of statutes governing the building of dovecots in Scotland due to the damage the birds sometimes did to neighboring crops of grain.

[Craigievar Castle, doocot in the foreground, Scotland.]

Pigeon has been kept as livestock and eaten since antiquity.  “No farm-yard can be considered complete without a well stocked dovecot, the contents of which make the owner a most ample return, and repay him abundantly for the depredations which the pigeons are wont to make upon his ripening corn.  He commands a supply of delicious young birds for his table; and he has the tillage from the dovecot, which is of vast advantage to his barley land.  Moreover, the pigeons render him an essential service, by consuming millions of seeds which fall in the autumn, and which, if allowed to remain on the ground, would rise up the following year, in all the rank exuberance of weed, and choke the wholesome plant. . .

[Painting showing dovecot on the right, 1416.  One might notice the pigeons on the ground and the bee skeps along the fence.]

Our ancestors generally built their dovecot in an open field, apart from the farm-yard; fearing, probably, that the noise and bustle occasioned by the rustic votaries of good Mother Eleusina might interrupt the process of incubation, where the dovecots placed in the midst of the buildings dedicated to husbandry.”

Not everyone agreed with locating the dovecot in isolated locations, and this logic may have changed through the decades and centuries.  “The proper place for the pigeon-house is the poultry-yard; but it does very well near dwellings, stables, brewhouses, bakehouses, or such offices.  Some persons keep pigeons in rooms, and have them making their nests on the floor”.  Roosting where rats and cats could access the nests usually meant wanton destruction of the young pigeons.

[Mazor columbarium, photo credit:  Etan Tal, Wikipedia.]

[Dovecot from Shirley Plantation, Charles City Co., Virginia.  1600’s.  Plantation est. 1613.  Below is a view from inside this dovecot.]

[Inside nests in a dovecot, location and author unknown.]

[If you are wondering, gentle reader, how the young pigeons were collected from inside the dovecots, this is an excellent reproduction of the system in use for generations.  The ladder is attached by wooden arms, at top and bottom, to the center pole and fits just inside the outer wall of the structure.  The gentleman can climb up and down, and pull himself around on the ladder without having to come down.  It is actually a very efficient retrieval method.]

I wonder how vehemently Dear Husband would object to building a reproduction of one of the smaller older structures, maybe a platform for deer hunting, drying vegetables and seeds, etc. . . .  I believe that’s called multi-tasking by those not rooted in the past as we are.  Blissful Meals, all.  Part II to follow.  © All rights reserved.

Thistle Salad Days©

The title of this post came from “Blackwood’s Magazine” Feb. 1895.  “…the French public was browsing the thistles of the Vicomte d’Arlincourt, or of ‘Lord R’Hoone’ (otherwise Honoré de Balzac himself in his thistle-salad days)…”.  Yes, gentle reader, salads are made from peeled thistle stalks and they can be cooked as well.

This caught my eye as I’ve been slowly compiling an encyclopedia of the history of salads (cooked, raw, and everything in between) over the past few years and because there are thistles growing in our field.  To eradicate them, or to eat them, that is the question.

One needn’t worry about identifying a species of thistle before consuming it as all are said to be edible.  Although it may be too hot for them to flourish, I’ve purchased seed to add cardoon to my perennial garden and cardoon is simply a cultivated thistle grown for its celery-like stems rather than its flower head.  The plant is usually covered with hay to render the stems white and tender, and they are eaten just as wild thistles are in the references below.  Depending on what is available, either will work in the same manner and cardoon can be found in cans or jars in specialty food stores for those who prefer to skip the thorns and go straight to the dining room.

Historians date the cultivation of cardoon to the days of Pliny and some think modern artichokes then evolved from cardoon about the 15^th century.

One might assume the eating of thistle stalks was learned from Native Americans, but given the accounts of them being eaten in England, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and other countries from at least the Middle Ages, proves the thistle is one of those basic resources that evolved simultaneously throughout much of the world.  “Nothing to eat, starving and weak; we followed the example of the squaw, in eating the inner portion of large thistle-stalks”.  – “Travels in the Far Northwest, 1839-1846”.

English cooks and 19^th century cookbook writers point out that applying fresh lemon juice to the peeled stalks will prevent them from turning dark.  Acidulated water, the term often used, is water with lemon juice into which the pieces can be placed for this purpose.

“Both the milk thistle and the blessed thistle were used by our ancestors, the former as a vegetable and the latter as a tonic, and Evelyn, in his ‘Acetaria’ [1699], says that to a salad of thistle leaves ‘the late Morocco Ambassador and his retinue were very partial.’  The leaves of the milk thistle shorn of their prickles were not only an ordinary ingredient in a salad, but they were also boiled’, and Tryon says of them, ‘they are very wholesome and exceed all other greens in taste’.  They were added to pottages, baked in pies, like artichoke bottoms, and fried.  Culpepper advises one to ‘cut off the prickles, unless you have a mind to choke yourself’, but in olden days both the scales and the roots were eaten.  The young stalks, peeled, were eaten both fresh and boiled.”  Rohde, Eleanor.  “A Garden of Herbs”.  1922.

In 1828, John Loudon included thistle-stalks in a list of culinary vegetables from the open garden.  Were these the common thistle, or were they the more refined garden cardoon?  “An Encyclopaedia of Gardening”.

John Young was definitely eating wild thistles when he wrote in his memoirs in 1847, “For several months we had no bread, Beef, milk, pig-weeds, segoes [sego lilies], and thistles formed our diet.  I was the herd boy, and while out watching the stock, I used to eat thistle stalks until my stomach would be as full as a cow’s”.  – Young, John R.  “Memoirs of John R. Young, Utah Pioneer”.  1847.

“Good Housekeeping”, Oct. 1891, contained an article called Cajun Housekeeping”, in which the author said, “Tender thistle stalks she cooks as one would asparagus, and they are just as good-then no adverse fate ever cuts short the thistle crop”.  I suppose if my asparagus bed fails to thrive, I may depend upon its wild substitute to supply us with this favorite.

MILK THISTLE STALKS.  The young stalks about May being peeled and soaked in water to extract the bitterness, boiled or raw are a very wholesome sallet eaten with oyl, salt and pepper.  Boil them in water with a little salt till they are very soft and so let them dry to drain.  They are eaten with fresh butter melted not too thin and this a delicate and wholesome dish.  Other stalks of the same kind may be so treated as the Bur being tender and disarmed of its prickles.  – Evelyn, John.  “Acetaria”.  1699.

CARDOON SALAD.  1885.  Jules Harder removed the leaves from the stalks, cooked them, and then peeled them.  “Then cut them in scallops an inch long and drain them on a napkin.  Put them in a salad bowl and season them with salt and pepper.  Then chop two cloves of garlic very fine and put them in a frying pan with a little sweet oil.  Fry them [garlic] lightly (not letting them get brown), and add immediately some bell peppers chopped fine, and some vinegar.  Then let them boil up for two minutes and pour the dressing over the Cardoons, mixing them well together, and then serve.”  – “The Physiology of Taste”.

CARDOON SALAD.  Jeanette Norton.  “Mrs. Norton’s Cookbook”.  1917.

The salad made of cardoons is rather unusual.  These French thistles should be drained from the can and allowed to marinate for half hour in French dressing to which a little onion juice has been added.  Drain, add good mayonnaise, and lay on white lettuce leaves garnished with the sweet pickled cucumber rings that come in bottles for the purpose.  Toasted whole wheat crackers with melted cheese on them go nicely with this salad.  This will serve four people.

Bread Sticks, Italy’s Gift©

Tags

bread-sticks, grissini, Piedmontese bread

Bread Sticks were created in Turin, Italy during the Middle Ages, sometime between the 14th and 17th centuries, depending on which story you prefer. There are legends associated with their creation which I have as yet been unable to provide primary documentation for, so they won’t be repeated except as a flight of fancy. Those stories center around the Duke of Savoy, Vittorio Amedeo II, for whom the bread was supposedly baked in the hope it would relieve his intestinal complaints. As the bread sticks are thin and crisp and more cracker-like in texture, it was hoped they would be easier to digest than the heavy bread usually served.

In Italy they are called grissini, supposedly after the physician who “invented” them. They were, “bread not larger than pipe-stems…some two feet long, very brittle and easy of digestion…a specialty of Turin where they originated…” 1.

Travel journals are fun to read when Americans or Brits encountered the grissini for the first time. They, “were not a little surprised on asking for bread to see the waiter bring in a number of long sticks, the size of pipe stems and lay them upon the table. We repeated the demand, and were near laughing when it appeared that both he and his master called them bread, and expected us to eat them. The taste was agreeable enough, but we found it took so much time to manage them, that instead of making away with a couple of yards (a moderate allowance for breakfast) we had hardly swallowed a foot and a half.” 2.

Rousseau recommended them for teething children [1763] and said the “Piedmontese bread” was also known as Grisses. Turin is the capitol of Piedmont, Italy and that is why some 18th century writers used the name Piedmontese. 3.

Several writers commented on the unusually long time they retained their crispness, and yet it was said, “grissini—Piedmontese bread, in long delicate stems, laid across the table, snapping as you touch them and melting like ice-cream on your tongue…”. 4.

“We ate about three yards of bread which our musical waiter brought in a great bundle, like a parcel of sticks, under his arm! 5.

The Dublin University Magazine [Oct. 1859] proclaimed grissini, the bundle of sticks, the, “most delicious kind of bread”.

The grissini were often mentioned along with hot soup, minestra was a common variety, with cheese grated on top. 6.

“By the side of each plate was a bundle of small sticks, of the size of slate pencils, and from eight to ten inches long. At first both the children were very much puzzled by them, but seeing the use their father put them to, concluded they must be a substitute for bread. So it proved. They were delicately browned, short and crisp, like crackers, and were a most convenient plaything between the different courses. It is said of King Carlo Felice, that he always took a basket of these grissini with him whenever he went to the theater, that he might have something to amuse him between the scene. Nowhere but in Turin are they made so nicely, so that the Emperor Napoleon, who would have them on his table in Paris, had them expressed to him every morning fresh from Turin”. 7.

As for receipts, a London cookery book contained a receipt for Turin sticks in 1867, and by the 1880’s, receipts for bread sticks were being published on both sides of the Atlantic. They were sometimes called soup-sticks or salt-sticks.

TURIN STICKS. Two pounds of white flour, two ounces of fresh butter. Rub the butter well into the flour; add two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and sufficient pure cold spring water to mix it into a stiff paste; cut into little lumps of equal size, roll out into long thin sticks as quickly as possible; bake in a rather quick oven. 8.

The following modern recipe for crunchy breadsticks comes from Taste of Home magazine.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. shortening
½ to ¾ cup ice water
1 Tbsp. olive oil
¼ tsp. coarse salt
¼ tsp. dried thyme

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and shortening in a food processor, cover and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. While processing, gradually add water until the dough forms a ball. Transfer to a floured surface. Roll dough into a 10 in. x 8 in. rectangle. Cut into 10-in. x ½ in. strips. Twist each strip four times and place on baking sheets. Brush with oil. Combine coarse salt and thyme; sprinkle over breadsticks. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 16.

For a yeast version, search the King Arthur Flour archives. Blissful Meals, yall. ©

Notes:
1. Taylor, George Boardman. Italy and the Italians. 1898. Philadelphia.
2. Dwight, Theodore. A Journal of a Tour in Italy in the Year 1821. 1824. NY.
3. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emilius. Vol. 1. 1763. London.
4. Costello, Dudley. Piedmont and Italy From the Alps to the Tiber. Vol. 1. 1861. London. & The Ladies Repository. Vol. 24. May 1864.
5. Roby, John. Seven weeks in Belgium, Switzerland, Lombardy, Piedmont, and Savoy. Vol. 2. 1838. London.
6. Vine, Frederick T. Practical Bread-making.
7. Sewell, Alfred & Miller, Emily. The Little Corporal. May 1868.
8. Llanover, Lady Augusa Waddington Hall. Good Cookery Illustrated. 1867. London.

ACORN: The Other Flour©

Tags

acorn flour

It is common knowledge Indians ate acorns and were proficient at preparing them, however, how many of my readers know that as recently as 1917 they were being recommended as a source of food during WWI? There are some 50 species of oaks in the U.S. and around 30 of them are found in the Southeast.

A tribe in California stored dried acorns in baskets so air could circulate and prevent molding and used them to make mush and bread, while another also buried them in boggy areas near cold springs and allowed them to swell and grow soft. “They turned nearly black in color, but remained fresh for years”. They dug out a quantity and roasted them.

“When preserved dry in the usual way, the acorns are shucked as needed, and the dry meats, each splitting naturally in two parts, are pounded in stone mortars until reduced to a fine meal or flour. This at first is disagreeably bitter, but the bitter element is removed by leaching with warm water, which in seeping through acquires the color of coffee and the bitterness of quinine. The meal is then dried and stored to be used as required, for mush or bread.”

Eastern tribes preferred the sweeter varieties such as those from the white and chestnut oaks, but did eat any variety in times of scarcity. The Choctaw in Louisiana were noted to make flour from the acorns of the water oak by pounding it and letting water run through it in a basket to rid it of its bitter taste.

*White oaks have round lobed leaves, usually from 7 to 9 per leaf

Of the European countries known to consume acorns, England and France, “boiled acorns [which] were used as a substitute for bread”, and in fact, “acorns were eaten, at least in times of dearth till in the 8th century, when we find in the Regle of St. Chrodegand that by reason of an unfavourable year, the acorns and beech nuts failed.”

*Red oak leaves have pointed lobes, the leaf varies in shape, but always has points on the lobes.

During the war, an enterprising woman used acorn flour in bread baking and wrote that they were useful as a binder when used with corn meal or other coarsely ground gain used in making bread. She thought mush or bread made wholly of acorn flour less pleasing to her taste, but was altogether pleased with the result when combining one part acorn flour to four parts corn meal or white or whole wheat flour.

“The white oak family is the one to look for. This includes the eastern white oak, chestnut oak, and post oak. Their leaves have rounded or irregular lobes that lack any bristles at their ends. Acorns from the red-black oak group have a great deal of tannin. Their leaves have pointed lobes with bristles at the ends.”

The white oaks produce short stubby or round acorns while the red-black oaks produce acorns longer in shape than round. If the acorn’s cap is smooth and shiny, the acorn is from the white-oak family, if fuzzy in appearance, it is from the red-black oak.

In a non-historic setting, when your goal is simply to make flour, it is not necessary to grind the nuts using ancient techniques. Crack the nuts, using a nut-cracker can speed up the process, and cut the nuts into small pieces. Wrap the pieces in cheesecloth, and secure with string. Boil the nut meats in successive changes of water to remove the tannin. The tannin can also be removed by submerging the bundle in water and soaking them for several days, changing the water daily. With either method, they are ready to use when the water remains clear.

The acorn meat will have lost much in color and can be used at that point, or dried in the sun, a dehydrator, or low temp in your oven. When dry, the pieces can be put through a grinder, food mill, or run through a food processor or blender, or even put into a cloth bag and pounded to produce flour.

Method #2: Pound the acorns and remove the hulls. Put the fresh acorn meats in a blender with water and grind them to a pulp. Put the pulp in a towel-lined colander and run water through it or put it in a cloth and swish it in water to remove the tannin. Squeeze out all the excess water and either use the flour, dry it, or freeze it.

I have processed acorns for making ersatz coffee as was done in times of shortage in various cultures.

Sources: National Geographic. Vol. 34. Aug. 1918.
The Operative Miller. Jan. 1919.
Boys’ Life. Oct. 1983. Oct. 1977.
Bennet, Richard and Elton, John. The History of Corn Milling. Vol. I. 1898. London.

Brawn to Souce©

This is the third post on this subject and will give, in full, Nathan Bailey and John Worlidge’s instructions for making brawn and brawn to souse [Dictionary Rusticum.  1726.]   Gentle reader, you will notice that both receipts instruct in the rolling of the flesh as discussed in the previous articles.  You may scroll down to them for additional information.

BRAWN OF PIG:  the Pig must be no way spotted, yet pretty large and fat, and being scalded, draw and bone it whole, only the head is cut off, then cut it into 2 collars over thwart both the sides, and being washed soak them in Water and Salt 2 hours; then dry them with a clean Cloth, and season the inside with mingled Lemmon-Peel and Salt, and roul [roll] them up even at both ends, and putting them into a clean Cloth bind them about very light; and when the Water is boiling, put them in, adding a little salt, keeping the Pot clean scummed, and when they are sufficiently boiled, hoop them and keep them in an even frame, and being cold put them in a souced drink made of Whey and Salt, or Oatmeal boiled and strained, and then put them into such Vessel as may be conveniently stopped up from the Air.

BRAWN TO SOUCE.  Take fat Brawn, about 3 Years old, and boning the sides, cut the Head close to the Ears; and cut fine Collars of a side-Bone, and hinder-Legs, an Inch deeper in the belly than on the back, bind them up equally at both ends, soke them in fair Water and Salt a Night and a Day, put them into boiling Water, keeping the Pot continually scum’d; and after the first quick boiling, let them boil leisurely, putting in Water as it boils away, and so lessening the Fire by degrees, let them stand over it a whole Night; then being between hot and cold, take them off into moulds of deep hoops; bind them about with Packthread, and when they are cold, put them into Souce-drink made of Oatmeal ground or beaten, and bran boiled in fair Water; being cold, strain it through a Sieve, and putting Salt and Vinegar thereto, close up the Vessel light, and so keep it for use; But if you would have this Pickle to continue good, and the Brawn preserved through the whole Year, some Spirit of Wine, or choice Brandy must be put therein, a quart to every 3 Quarts or Gallon of Souce-drink.  © 2012

Brawn for Winter Use©

This piece follows yesterday’s post which briefly mentioned brawn and will expound on what brawn was and how it was made.

Brawn is an antiquated term by today’s standards, but one easily defined using early dictionaries and cookery books.  Samuel Pegge wrote in a compilation dating from about 1390, The Forme of Cury:  A Roll of Ancient English Cookery, that brawn referred to boar, but by the time his book was published, brawn also meant rolls of Brawn or Boar.  In earlier times he documented Brawn of Swyne as well as that of the Boar with notes on Brawn of Capons and hens.

I found sources for making sham, or mock, brawn which was made by removing the jowls from a cooked head and rolling them up as previously noted, but in a brief search I did not find receipts or instructions for pre-18^th century brawn that instructed the cook to use the bits of meat as would be typical in making souse or headcheese, which was a different dish altogether.

In 1675, Bailey defined sousee as, “a jelly made of hogs ears and feet, sliced and stewed in vinegar and sugar”.  Souse was the offal of a Swine, offal being “fragments of meat”.

In 1675, Nathan Bailey’s definition was, “the hardest or firmest part of a boar, hard flesh, sous’d meat or boar’s flesh”.  Later, Samuel Johnson made no mention of pickled flesh and defined brawn as, “the flesh of a boar”.  In 1795, William Butler wrote that brawn, “In the culinary art, signifies the fleshy or musculous parts of a hog, boned, rolled up, or collared, boiled, and lastly, pickled for winter use”.  Canterbury and Shrewsbury were known for the superior quality of the brawn they produced. – Arithmetical Questions on a New Plan.  1795.  London.   Johnson, Samuel.  A Dictonary of the English Language.  1768.  Dublin.

Hannah Glasse said one could choose brawn and know if it were old or young by the thickness of the rind, if thick it was old.  “If the rind and fat be very tender, it is not boar-brawn, but barrow or sow”.  A barrow was, “hog, a male Swine gelt [castrated]”.  – The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.  1784.  London.

Instructions for making it were detailed enough by 1736 that anyone with a desire can duplicate it:

The Boars that were put up for Brawn, are now [December] fit to kill.  It is to be observ’d that what is used for Brawn, is the Flitches [sides of a hog, salted and cured] only, without the Legs, and they must have the Bones taken out, and then sprinkled with Salt, and lay’d in a Tray, or some other thing, to drain off the Blood; when this is done, salt it a little, and roll it up as hard as possible, so that the length of the Collar of Brawn be as much as one side of the Boar will bear, and to be, when it is rolled up, about nine or ten inches diameter.  When you have rolled up your Collar as close as you can, tye it with Linnen Tape, as tight as possible, and then prepare a Cauldron with a large Quantity of water to boil it:  In this boil your Brawn till it is tender enough for a Straw to pass into it, and then let it cool; and when it is quite cold, put it in the following Pickle.  Put to every Gallon of Water a handful or two of Salt, and as much Wheat-Bran; boil them well together, and then strain the Liquor as clear as you can from the Brawn, and let it stand till it is quite cold, at which time put your Brawn in it; but this Pickle must be renewed every three Weeks.  Some put half small Beer and half Water; but then the small Beer should be brewed with pale Malt:  but I think the first Pickle is the best.  Note, The same Boar’s Head being well cleaned, may be boiled and pickled like the Brawn, and is much esteem’d.  – Bradley, Richard.  The Country Housewife and Lady’s Director.  1736.

Instructions were even more detailed by 1763 advising that for brawn the boar should be old; because the older he was the more “horny” will the brawn be.  [Horny in this sense means a hard, tough, or callous area.]  It was advised that the collar be boiled in a copper, or large kettle, till it was so tender, you could run a straw through it before putting it into the pickle.  – A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences.  Vol. I.  1763.

In short, the cook was to tightly roll pork, boil it until it was tender, and then put it into a solution that would help keep it from going bad.  Wine was used in the receipt from the Good Huswife’s Jewell, but vinegar would do well and probably be better as a preservative.

Reasonable Redaction:

1 piece of boned pork such as shoulder or roast, or loin will work; Chicken stock; Dry white wine (The wine should be about half the total amount of the liquid); 3 bay leaves; ½ a nutmeg, chopped in coarse pieces; 1 teaspoon of thyme, 1 of rosemary, and one of marjoram, coarsely chopped, or substitute dried herbs; 1 ½ teaspoons salt; Pepper as you wish

Roll the pork and tie it with cooking twine.  Put the seasonings into a pot with the stock and half the wine.  Once the mixture is boiling, add the pork roll, simmer until the meat is tender.  Remove the meat to a plate, strain the stock.  Return the stock to the pot with the remaining wine.  Pour just enough of the liquid over the meat to cover it.  Allow it to cool and once cold, cover and refrigerate for several days or a week, turning daily.  To serve, dry it from the pickling liquid and slice it.  Serve it with coarse mustard, or make your own.

Traditional Christmas Fare©

 

If you’ve ever wondered how they got the logs onto the massive fireplaces in times past, this illustration is probably a pretty accurate representation.  As we ponder on dragging in that huge yule log on Christmas Eve, we’ll have another look at Christmas customs the past including traditional foods. 

“First acknowledging the Sacredness of the Holy Time of Christmas, I proceed to set forth the Rejoicings which are generally made at that great Festival.

You must understand, good People, that the manner of celebrating this great Course of Holydays is vastly different now to what it was in former Days:  There was once upon a time Hospitality in the Land; an English Gentleman at the opening of the great Day, had all his Tenants and Neighbours enter’d his Hall by Day-break, the Strong-Beer was broach’d, and the Black-Jacks went plentifully about with Toast, Sugar, Nutmeg, and good Cheshire Cheese; the Rooms were embower’d with Holly, Ivy, Cypress, Bays, Laurel, and Missleto, and a bouncing Christmas Log in the Chimney glowing like the Cheeks of a Country Milk-maid; then was the Pewter as bright as Clarinda, and every bit of brass as polished as the most refined Gentleman; the Servants were then running here and there, with merry Hearts and jolly Countenances, every one was busy welcoming of Guests, and look’d as smug as new-lick’d Puppies; the Lasses were as blithe and buxom as the Maids in good Queen Bess’s Days, when they eat Sir-Loins of Roast Beef for Breakfast; Peg would scuttle about to make a Toast for John, while Tom run harum scarum to draw a Jug of Ale for Margery:  Gaffer Spriggins was bid thrice welcome by the ‘Squire, and Gooddy Goose did not fail of a smacking Buss from his Worship, while his Son and Heir did the Honours of the House; In a word, the Spirit of Generosity ran thro’ the whole House.

In these Times all the Spits were sparkling, the Hackin must be boil’d by Day-break, or else two young Men took the Maiden by the Arms, and run her round the Market-place, ‘till she was ashamed of her Laziness.  And what was worse than this, she must not play with the young Fellows that Day, but stand Neuter, like a Girl doing penance in a Winding-sheet at a Church-door…the Tables were all spread from the first to the last, the Sir-Loyns of Beef, the Minc’d-Pies, the Plumb-Porridge, the Capons, Turkeys, Geese, and Plumb-Puddings, were all brought upon the board; and all those who had sharp Stomachs and sharp Knives eat heartily and were welcome, which gave rise to the Proverb, Merry in the Hall, when Beards wag all.

There were then Turnspits employed, who by the time Dinner was over, would look as black and as greasy as a Welch Porridge-pot, but the Jacks have since turned them all out of Doors.  The Geese which used to be fatted for the honest Neighbours, have been of late sent to London, and the Quills made into Pens to convey away the Landlord’s Estate; the Sheep are drove away to raise Money to answer the Loss of a Game at Dice or Cards, and their Skins made into Parchment for Deeds and Indentures; nay even the poor innocent Bee, who was used to pay its Tribute to the Lord once a Year at least in good Metheglin, for the Entertainment of the Guests and its Wax converted into beneficial Plaisters for sick Neighbours, is now used for the sealing of Deeds to his Disadvantage…

Then let all your Folks live briskly, and at such a Time of Rejoicing enjoy the Benefit of good Beef and Pudding, let the Strong Beer be unlocked, and let the Piper play, O’er the Hills, and far away.” 

May we all be truly thankful for the joys in our lives and the love of Christ and may we strive to carry the merriment and good cheer of Christmas in our hearts all the year round.  Thehistoricfoodie©

Source: 

– Christmas Entertainments.  Originally published in 1740.  London.   ©

Roasted Capon, Start to Finish

Capon has graced serving tables for centuries although few people today know what it is or how to prepare it.  In short, it is a rooster that was castrated as a chick to render the flesh tender and flavorful and then fattened for the table.  The Greeks and Romans engaged in the practice, as did the Chinese before them. 

 

Available at a market near you, and ready to pop in the oven.

At the turn of the 20^th century, a report noted capons were universally known and appreciated in France, and other parts of Europe.  In the U.S. they have been commonly consumed since the Europeans settled here, and were becoming more profitable for market by then.  They were sold in the markets of Maryland by 1640, at roughly the same price as in England. 

The process of caponization was achieved by, “Insert[ing] the fore finger [through a small incision], and near the middle of the body, at the distance of about three quarters of an inch from the incision, near the spine, will be found the testicles, which may very easily be removed by the thumb and finger; sew up the orifice and daub a little tar over it to keep off the flies.”  Though considered a minor procedure it probably wasn’t a job for the squeamish and so by the late 19^th and early 20^th century the process had been considerably refined as evidenced from the following advertisement.

ROAST CAPON.  If you don’t know Capon you don’t know Chicken!  Nothing equals roast capon-always sweet, tender, rich, delicious.  June and July hatched cockerels should be caponized now for your Christmas, Winter, and Easter dinner parties.  Any surplus brings fancy prices at that season.  Do not think of attempting the operation with old style, clumsy, hand-in-the-way, peek-a-boo types of tools, that are difficult to use and uncertain in results…

Dear Sir:  Caponizing is a pleasure with your tools.  From remover to tearing hook they are A-1 requiring only a small incision.  I caponized a Leghorn cockerel weighing only 8 ounces, and he is growing fine.  Haven’t lost a bird.  Previously used a widely advertised set, lost many and had lots of slips.  I’ll not mention names but they might be called “stung.”  Your instruction book is what it should be and not an advertisement.  You do not claim “a child can do it,” yet such is the case.  My daughter, six and a half years old, can caponize and explain the operation to others, using correct names and terms.  – Mrs. Joseph Neft, Earman, Fla, June 20, 1921.  Published in American Poultry Journal.  Aug. 1921.

Capon was often served with rice or peas.  It was made into pasties, pilau, pie, soup, pudding, or croquettes, and it was soused, fricasseed, poached, hashed, boiled, larded, and roasted. 

Richard Dolby included a receipt for capon served with chestnuts and oysters, verbatim as found in John Nott’s book dated 1723. 

“Boil twelve large chestnuts till they are soft, then peel them and put them into claret wine warmed with the same number of oysters parboiled; spit the capon, and put these into the inside of the capon, and stop them in with butter, roast it before a quick fire, baste it with fresh butter, and when it begins to drip, preserve the gravy; then take half a pint of claret, put into it fifteen or twenty large chestnuts boiled, and the same number of oysters, a piece of butter and some whole pepper; stew all these together till half has stewed away; when your capon is roasted, put the gravy which you have saved into the sauce, bread the capon, place it on a dish, pour the sauce all over, and serve.”

John Nott published a receipt in 1723 in which he instructed the cook to place the fingers between the skin and flesh to loosen it, then put in between the flesh and skin a mixture of grated bacon, 2 eggs, mushroom or truffle, a little parsley, basil, and cives [chives], shred fine, salt and pepper.  The cook was then to sew up the end and roast it on a spit.  The ragoo to be served with it included sweet breads, livers, mushrooms, truffles, morels, artichoke bottoms, asparagus-tops in their season, a little gravy thickened with a cullis of veal and ham. 

A cullis is a mixture used to thicken ragouts and soups, and to give them an agreeable taste.  A capon cullis was made in this manner:

Take a roasted capon, pound it very well in a mortar, put it in a stew pan, and toss up some crusts of bread in melted bacon [fat]; and when they are very brown, put to them some mushroomes, cives,  parsley, and basil, all shred very small; mix all these with your pounded capon, and make an end of dressing them over the stove; put in strong broth, and strain it.

It is only the meat you put into a cullis that gives it the name and taste; if it be for pheasants or partridges, make use of pheasants or partridges, instead of capon; do the like for woodcocks or pigeons, ducks, teal, quails, rabbits, &c. and whatsoever meat you use must be more than half roasted before you pound it to put in a cullis.

Nott’s Roast Capon with Lemon still retained the flair of medieval cuisine in that it used sweet herbs, dates and currants, mace, nutmeg, sugar, almonds, and verjuice with butter and preserved lemon. 

Several 18^th century cookery books instruct in preparing a capon after the French way – braising in white wine.  “Take a quart of white-wine, season the capon with salt, cloves, and whole pepper, a few shallots; then put the capon in an earthen pan; you must take care it has not room to shake; up it must be covered close, and done on a slow charcoal fire.”

This Christmas a fat, perfectly seasoned, golden brown capon will take the place of last year’s roast goose on our holiday table as I set it with foods common to the era when my ancestor served as Sewer [server] at the royal tables in London.  See previous posts.  Blissful Meals & Merry Christmas!

 – The Cook’s Dictionary.  1830.  The Household Encyclopedia.  1858.  Montague, Laetitia.  The Housewife:  Being a most Useful Assistant in all Domestic Concerns. 1785.  Bozeman, John.  The History of Maryland, 1633 to 1660.  1837.  Baltimore.  Glasse, Hannah.  The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.  1785.  London.