Tagged ‘baking’

Another May pie

May 15th, 2013 by KM Wall

Prunes are very sexy. William Shakespeare says so. More then once, so it must be true.

 

Prunus domestica - ordinary plum, the fruit that, when dried, is a prune.

Prunus domestica – ordinary plum, the fruit that, when dried, is a prune.

“THE USE OF PLUMS”

“The great Damaske or Damson Plummes are dryed in France in great quantities, and are brought to us here [London] in Hogs-heads, and other great vessels, and are those Prunes that are usually sold at the Grocers, under the name of Damaske Prunes: the blacke Bulleis are also these (being dryed in the same manner) that they call French Prunes, and by their tartnesse are thought to binde, as the other, being sweet, to loosen the body.”

John Parkinson, Paridisum in Sole, 1629, p.573.

”There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.”says Falstaff  in Henry IV, First Part, act 3, sc 3, l 12-3. Is he talking about fruit, the fruit that is (reputed) to be often served in brothels and there associated with ill-repute? Or is stewed another way to say inebriated? Or is the analogy merely to a lumped thing?

Prune - not stewed

Prune – not stewed

 

A Pruen Tart

Take of the fairest damaske pruens you can get, and put them in a cleane pipkin with faire water, suger, vnbruised cinamon, and a branch or two of Rosemarie; and if you have bread to bake, stew them in the ouen with your bread; if otherwise, stew them on the fire: when they are stewed, then bruise them all to mash in their sirrop, and straine them into a cleane dish; then boyle it ouer againe with suger, sinamon, and rosewater till it bee as thicke as Marmalad; then set it to coole, then make a reasonable tuffe paste with fine flower, water, and a little butter, and rowle it out very thin; then having patterns of paper cut in diuers proportions, as Beasts, Birds, Armes, Knots, Flowers, and such like; lay the patterns on the paste, and so cut them accordingly; then with your fingers pinch vp the edges of the paste, and set the worke in good proportion: then prick it well all ouer for rising, and set it on a cleane sheete of large paper, and so set it into the Oven, and bake it hard: then draw it, and set it by to coole: …..then against the time of services comes, take off the cofection of pruens before rehearsed, and with your knife, or a spoone fill the coffin according to the thickness of the verge: then strow it ouer all with caraway comfets, and pricke long comfets vpright in it, and so taking the paper from the bottome, serve it on a plate in a dish or charger, according to the bignesse of the tarte, and at the seconde course, and this carrieth the colour blacke. .

- 1623.  Gervase Markham. Covntry Contentments or The  English Huswife. p. 108

 

 

Pretty pre-prune plums

Pretty pre-prune plums

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Three Rice tarts

May 14th, 2013 by KM Wall

Three tarts of rice, each a little different. They were in three columns to compare and contrast, but they don’t want to seem to stay that way. Sigh.

But the line divisions did remain, so compare away.

BTW – Oranges are pretty unlikely for New England in 1627, but rice is a common commodity on ships; eggs easy to come by in May; and milk – from goats, if not from cows – would be new enough to New England, and still scarce enough to be special .

To make a Tart of Ryce.

Boyle your Rice,

and put in the yolkes of two or three Egges into the Rice,

and when it is boyled, put it into a dish,

and season it with Suger, Sinamon

and Ginger,

and butter,

and the juyce of two or three Orenges,

and set it on the fire againe.

1596. T. Dawson. The Good Housewifes Jewell

 

 

To make a Tart of Rice.

Boyle your Rice, and pour it into a Cullender, then season it with Cinnamon,

Nutmeg,

Ginger,

and Pepper,

and Sugar,

the yolkes of three or four Eggs,

then put it into your Tart with the juyce of an Orange,

then close it, bake it, and ice it,

scrape on Sugar,

and serve it.

1653. W.I. A True Gentlewomans Delight.: 1991.p. 51.

 

To make a Tart of Rice.

Boil the rice in milk or cream, being tender boil’d pour it into a dish, & season it with nutmeg,

ginger,

cinnamon,

pepper,

salt,

sugar,

and the yolks of six eggs, put it in the tart with some juyce of orange; close it up and bake it, being baked scrape on sugar,

and so serve it up.

1671. Robert May. The Accomplist Cook (third edition). p.245.

pies

Now we tend to think of tarts as being open, and pies being closed, even though there are pies without a top crust….think lemon meringue, coconut cream, tarte tartin ,….

Thomas Dawson doesn’t mention pastry or baking, yet both W.I and Robert May have an upper crust as in, “close it, bake, it, ice it” and “close it up and bake it”.

There are clearly tarts with tops on.

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Paling

April 7th, 2013 by KM Wall

 

Gerookte paling - smoked eel

smoked eels – gerookte paling 

Gerookte paling is (at least according to an on-line translator app) Norwegian for smoked eels.

In March the eels come forth out of places where they lie bedded all winter, into the fresh streams, and there into the sea, and in their passages are taken in pots. In September they run out of the sea into the fresh streams, to bed themselves in the ground all winter, and are taken again in pots as they return homewards. In the winter the inhabitants dig them up, being bedded in gravel not above two or three foot deep, and all the rest of the year they may take them in pots in the salt water of the bay. They are passing sweet, fat and wholesome, having no taste of mud, and are as great as ever I saw any.” 1622/23. Three Visitors (John Pory), p.7.

Christian IV , King of Denmark and Norway and Anne Catherine

Christian IV , King of Denmark  and Anne Catherine

 

Christian IV was the king of Denmark-Norway from 1588 until his death.  He is sometimes referred to as Christian Firtal in Denmark and Christian Kvart or Quart in Norway.

And his sister married the King of England

 

Anne of Denmark, consort of James I and VI and mother to Charles I

Anne of Denmark, consort of James I and VI of England and Scotland and mother to Charles I

a shilling with the images of Charles I - how most Englishmen see the King

a shilling with the image of Charles I – how most Englishmen see the King

How to make an Eele Pye

“Take two pennyworth of very fat Eeles when they be blead and very faire washed, seeth them in a little faire water, and Salte till they be halfe sodden, that they may slip from the bones, cut awaye the fines on every side, then slip them the bones, and shred them somewhat fine with a knife and take two or three Wardens and shred them very fine to put among them, or Pippins or other apples, if you do want wardens, then take a little Salte, a little Pepper, Sinamon, cloues Mace and Suger, and season it withal put in a quarter of a pound of sweete butter, so put it in paste, and bake it not too rashlye, you maye put in the yolke of an egge and a little verges when it is halfe baked if you will but I think  it is better without.”

The Good Hous-wiues Treasurie. Edward Allde: London. 1588

 

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Posted in Fish and Fishing, Recipes. 17th century | 1 Comment

Creative Cheate I

February 27th, 2013 by KM Wall

Bramer - sacks to the mill

Before bread there is flour; before flour there is the mill; before the mill there is grain.

Sacks to the Mill!

Markham’s  cheat bread, redacted

1 # leaven in salt

Soooo – how do you get leaven (which is another name for a starter) if you don’t have some left from the last batch because, just maybe, this is your FIRST batch?

Punt. Hence, Creative Cheate.

I’ve tried lots of different things. Essentially you want a mixture of water and flour and yeast that will help your bread rise give it good  sourdough qualities – it’s not just for flavor, but alterations in the pH that improve keeping time, etc.

My latest?  1 bottle of beer (any kind); 1 Tablespoon of yeast or a packet (I buy it by the pound, so I’m not sure how many teaspoons are in the packet, but close enough for this)


2 Q H2O
flour for dough:
2# each corn, rye, wheat
OR 3# corn, 3# wheat

1TBL yeast
salt

Dissolve starter in 3 Q H20 ; Add 3# flour (I like to start with corn – the longer it soaks, the better it is)
Cover and fridge overnight
Next morning
Add salt to taste (1 tsp/# – the starter adds some)
The yeast
The rest of the flour
Form into rough dough
Let sit at least 10 minutes and then knead until as smooth as a babies bottom
Let rise in clean greased bowl (with cover – flour and towel – to keep crust from forming on top)
Knock down and cut into 8 – 2# loaves and 1# new starter
Mould loaves, let rise
Bake 500° convection oven 1/2  hour ; put oven to 350 and keep in for another half hour. It will sound hollow when knocked on bottom. It smells different, too, but I’m not in your kitchen to tell you when.
Cool on racks
Cover with towel or freeze.

And what if you don’t need this much bread? The saga continues……

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Sizing up leavens

January 25th, 2013 by KM Wall

Hildegarde von Bigen

My wits worke like barme, alias yest, alias sizing, alias rising, alias Gods good.

1594 John Lyly Mother Bombie

(Wouldn’t this be a terrific quote for an apron? ‘alias rising’ would also be a great name for a rock band.)

Mother Bombie by John Lyly

So now we have some new terms for leavens:

  1. barme – our old friend. Barmy is frothy…..
  2. yest - another form of yeast
  3. sizing – perhaps from the sound that beer or ale make when they ferment…OK, that sounds a little hokey, but stranger things are true, and the origins story comes from 1674.
  4. rising – which sticks around and shows up in the 19th century as hop-rising or salt-rising bread
  5. Gods good (a/k/a godesgood)

And there’s still sourdough, references of which date back to the 12th century, and leaven itself. We see yeast as a factory produce life-form that should always be the the same. Wild yeasts (the very siblings and cousins of the store bought babies) as something to be afraid of. Notice that the following illustration are many, many, MANY times enlarged. Fear them not!

Yeast life cycle

Yeast cell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But back to the most commonly referred to leavens, barm and yeast.

Almost Opinion Section:

I think that to 17th people there was a fundamental difference between yeast and barm, so fundamental that it didn’t warrant explaining – like the difference between an Lexus and a VW bug. They’re both going to get you to where you want to go, but we know that they’re not really the same thing – but 100 years from now, people might just see ‘car’ and not know what the fuss was all about. I think (I don’t know enough to  make this an actual opinion yet) that the difference between yeast and barm may be much more subtle – like between a Lincoln and a Cadillac, where what is the better car is based on where and how and when you were raised, and who you want to impress in the neighborhood, intangible factors, as well as the apparent ones.

Barm and Yeast specific references reveal…..

  • To begin: In Gervase Markham’s English Housewife (1617 ed)
  1. He uses Ale-barm in fritters,
  2. barm in another fritter,
  3. ’2 or 3 spoonfuls of ale-barme’ in a sauce for fish,
  4. ‘good barm’ in a cake,
  5. 7 or 8 spoonfuls of Ale-barme’ in another cake,
  • BUT
  1. barme for your beer,
  2. barm to rise up in your ale,
  3. ale-barm for leavening manchets (bread)
  4. and a combination of sour leaven and barm for cheat bread.
  • But to make vinegar – add ‘yest’ .

Now, in the Compleat Cook of 1655 W.M. uses Ale-yeast in quantities large and small – from ‘some’ and ‘a little’ to a quart – pints, half pints and wine pints being mentioned as well.

But when it comes to making methaglin – he turns to ale barm!

No conclusions at this point, except Hildegarde von Bigen should really be the poster girl for good beer and all things barmy.

1 Cor. v. 6 Know ye not that a little leauen leaueneth the whole lumpe?

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Moulding cheates and other bread words

January 24th, 2013 by KM Wall

BREAD GLOSSERY

BARLEY – a type of grain

Ears of barley (a/k/a 'barleycorn')

BARM – the yeast that settles to the bottom of beer while brewing

BATTER – mixture of flour and water – thinner then a paste

BOLTED – sifted; put through a bolting cloth or seive

Sieve

 

CHEATE – of a golden color; flour not thoroughly sifted, some bran still included in the flour
CORN – grain – all grains -not just maize

FLOUR – the ‘flower’ of the grain – the best part, separate from the chaff and the bran

KIMMEL – a vessel, like a tub or large bowl. NOTE: Not to be confused with Kimmel Bread,which is a rye bread with caraway seeds. Probably from the Yiddish borrowing the German Kümmel (caraway) as kimmel to mean caraway. Not be confused with Jimmy Kimmel, who is a comedian and neither a loaf of bread, a tub, nor a caraway seed.

Caraway seeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JImmy Kimmel

KNEAD – To work the dough; to pound the dough.First Known Use: before 12th century

LEAVEN Middle English levain, from Anglo-French levein, from Vulgar Latin *levamen, from Latin levare to raise (as in  lever) First Known Use: 14th century

LIQUOR  – simply the liquid, not necessarily alcohol

LOAF  -  a mass – the finished  bread

MANCHET – a type of bread; finer then cheat
MEAL 1: the usually coarsely ground and unbolted seeds of a cereal grass or pulse; especially : cornmeal
2 : a product resembling seed meal especially in particle size or texture
Origin of MEAL: Middle English mele, from Old English melu; akin to Old High German melo meal, Latin molere to grind, Greek mylē mill
First Known Use: before 12th century

MOULD – to shape – this isn’t the nasty mildew cousin
OVEN

Oven

RYE -

Rye

SOUR DOUGH – also know as a lump of leavan – a piece of the bread dough held out to start the next batch. Sometimes held in flour and sometimes held in salt.
SOUR PASTE – same as a sourdough, but with more water
STRAIN -
TROUGH -  Middle English, from Old English trog; akin to Old High German trog trough, Old English trēow tree, wood; a wooden vessel

TUB Middle English tubbe, from Middle Dutch; akin to Middle Low German tubbe tub;    a wide low vessel originally formed with wooden staves, round bottom, and hoops

WHEAT

Wheat

YEAST Middle English yest, from Old English gist; akin to Old High German jesen, gesen to ferment, Greek zein to boil…the feremnting substance that rises to the top of beer and ale

Beer brewing bubbles...the yeastie beasties

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Cheate Bread

January 23rd, 2013 by KM Wall

Pieter de Hooch - Boy Bringing Bread

Of baking cheat bread

“To bake the best cheat bread, which is also simply of wheat only, you shall, after your meal is dressed and bolted through a more coarse bolter than was used for your manchets, and put also into a clean tub, trough, or kimmel, take a sour leaven, that is piece of such leaven saved from a former batch, and well filled with salt, and so laid up to sour, and this sour leaven you shall break into small pieces into warm water, and then strain it; which done, make a deep hollow hole, as was before said, in the midst of your flour, and therein pour your strained liquor; then with your hand mix some part of the flour therewith, till the liquor be as thick as pancake batter, then cover it all over with meal, and so let all that lie that night; the next morning stir it, and all the rest of the meal well together, and with a little more warm water, barm, and salt to season it with, bring it to a perfect leaven, stiff and firm; then knead it, break it, and tread it, as was before said in the manchets, and so mould it up in reasonable big loaves, and then bake it with and indifferent good heat: and thus according to these two examples before showed, you may bake any bread leavened or unleavened whatsoever, whether it be simple corn, as wheat or rye of itself, or compound grain as wheat and rye, or wheat, rye, and barley, or rye and barley, or any other mixed white corn; only, because rye is a little stronger grain than wheat, it shall be good for you to put to your water a little hotter than you did to your wheat.”

- Gervase Markham, The English Housewife, (1617). Best ed. p. 210.

 

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Two Turtledoves

December 27th, 2012 by KM Wall

Two European Turtle Doves (Streptopelia turtur)

 

To bake Pigeons wild or tame, Stock-Doves, Turtle-Doves, Quails, Rails, & c. to be eaten cold.

Take six pigeons, pull, truss, and draw them, wash and wipe them dry, and season them with nutmeg, pepper, and salt, the quantity of two ounces of the foresaid spices, and as much of the one as the other, then lay some butter in the bottom of the pye, lay on the pigeons, and put all the seasonings on them in the pye, put butter to it, close it up and bake it, being baked and cold, fill it up with clarified butter.

Make the paste of a pottle of fine flour, and a quarter of a pound of butter boil’d in fair water made up quick and stiff.

If you will bake them to be eaten hot, leave out half the seasoning: Bake them in dish, pie, or patty-pan, and make cold paste of a pottle of flour, six yolks of raw eggs, and a pound of butter, work into flour dry, and being well wrought into it, make it up stiff with a little fair water.

Being bakes to be eaten hot, put into yolks of hard eggs, sweet breads, lamb-stones, sparagus, or bottoms of artichokes, chestnuts, grapes or gooseberries.

Sometimes for variety make a lear of butter, verjuyce, sugar, some sweet marjoram chopped and boil’d up in the liquor, put them in the pye when you serve it up, and  dissolve the yolk of an egg into it: then cut up the pye or dish, and put some slic’t lemon, shake it well together, and serve it up hot.

In this mode or fashion you bake larks, black-birds, thrushes, veldifers, sparrows or wheat-ears.

- 1678. Robert May. The Accomplist Cook. Falconwood Press ed. p. 124.

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EAT! Minc’t pie

December 19th, 2012 by KM Wall

Still Life Pie with Oysters Joris van Son

A minc’t pie.

Take a Leg of Mutton, and cut the best of the best flesh from the bone, and parboyle it well: then put to it three pound of the best Mutton suet, and shred it very small: then spred it abroad, and season it with pepper and salt, cloues and mace : then put in good store of currants, great raysons and prunes cleane washt and pickt, a few dates slic’t, and some orange pills slic’t: then being all well mixt together, put into a coffin, or into diuers coffins, and so bake them: and when they are serued vp open the liddes, and strow store of suger on the top of the meat, and upon the lid. And in this sort you may also bake Beefe or Veale; onely the Beefe would not be parboyled, and the Veale will aske a double quantitie of suet.

- Gervase Markham’s English Huswife (1623 ed, pp. 103-4)

 

A few quick notes -
orange pills are peels
coffins are stand alone pastry cases (but there is no reason not to use a pie plate),

diuers are diverse or several
liddes are the upper crust of the pie

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The Secret Life of Beets

December 7th, 2012 by KM Wall

Chapter One.

Lumdardy Tart.

How to make Lumbardy Tarts

Take beets, chop them small, and to them put grated bread and cheese, and mingle them wel in the chopping.  Take a few corrans, and a dishe of sweet butter, and melt it.  Then stir al these in the butter, together with three yolkes of egges, sinamon, ginger, and sugar, and make your tart as large as you will, and fill it with the stuffe, bake it, and serve it in.

-1588. The Good Huswives Handemaide.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago in a place not so far away.…

So there I was with my pilgrim sister and future pilgrim sister. Just what was a Lumdardy? The Oxford English Dictionary – several of us had joined a book of the month club because a copy of the condensed version – complete with magnifying glass – was the welcome gift – had no better answer then we did.

But, we were young and we had beets – lots of beets. It had been a great year for beets. And, really, what could this tart be but an olde-timey version of a vegetable quiche. Right?

Enter, stage right, Myrtle Winslow. Myrtle was a lovely lady who had retired about the time most of us youngun’s were just being born. She also liked to whitewater raft and road her bike all along Cape Cod, a trip of dozens , if not scores of miles, being fairly ordinary. She could cram more movement in after a full days work then many of us could even contemplate for a weekend. I never felt more sluggish then near her. But she was also whip-smart and kind and wise and thoroughly no-nonsense. And kind.

She was also the best gardener. She had a vested interest – she was also a vegetarian. So it was her beautiful red beets that we harvested. She thought that they’d be easier to chop if they were boiled first – seemed reasonable. Even someone with a small amount (and we had no idea just how small at that time) of time with 17th century recipes knows that they can be frustratingly lacking in real basic details.

Beet boiled, skinned and chopped. A pile of vegetable rubies.

The some grated bread – we were using a cornbread – a skillet cornbread made with sour milk….if it sounds a little frontier, well, that’s another story. Golden-yellow bread crumbs. (Golden yellow breadcrumbs)

As for the cheese, we had been given some chedderish bit, from the local supermarket, a lovely orange shade.

Then we added butter and currents, which were actually raisins; three egg yolks from our hens, fresh laid and the color of the sun; but it didn’t seem like enough to make the quiche like dish we thought we OUGHT to be making, so we adding 4 or 5 other eggs…….

The came the spice, and it all went into a pastry coffin. I’m pretty sure that we baked it in a Dutch oven on the hearth, but we did have an outdoor clay oven then, so if someone else was baking – and we baked pretty much every day back then, we might have thrown it in with the bread, but I don’t think so.

And when it was done – did I mention that we all assumed that since it was a tart, it wouldn’t have a top on? – it was fragrant and truly beautiful. Gloriously striking. A color unlike any other, unless you’ve been a bridemaid in a seventies wedding….

And we had to wonder – if there were instructions to make a tart carry the color white (cream and egg whites) and another for a tart to carry the color yellow (cream and egg yolk, and sometimes saffron) and to carry the color black (prunes, stewed) and green (spinach or other herbs) –

WHY WAS THIS TART NOT NOTED FOR IT’S COLOR??  and then

WHAT WAS IT THAT WEREN’T UNDERSTANDING??

It was delicious, but we decided we needed to do a little more research before trying it again.

Tomorrow – Chapter Two.

Seems like a good time to remind that that subscribers get Pilgrim Seasonings right in their in box, just put your e-mail address in the little space and don’t miss the next episode of

The Secret Life of Beets


 

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