Tagged ‘eggs’

To make Loaves of chesecurds.

June 8th, 2013 by KM Wall

Take a porringer full of curds...

Curds I got, but a porringer full – Is that a little or a lot of curds?

porrringer

porringer – 17th century, about 7″ across

To make Loaves of cheesecurds.
Take a porringer full of curds, and four Eggs, whites and yolks, & so much flour as will make it stiff, then take a little Ginger, Nutmeg, and some salt, make them into leaves, and set them in an oven with a quick heat; when they begin to change colour take them out, and put melted butter to them and some Sack,[1] and a good store of Sugar, and so serve it.
- W.M., p.16-7.

________________________________________
[1] A white wine imported from Spain or the Canary Islands; a sherry

And now more on porringers, maybe too much more on porringers. There are many 17th and 18th century porringers that are made from pewter and silver – Paul Revere made porringers – and if you look at museum collections, those are the ones you find. But if you look at archeological collections, you find more evidence of the earthen ware,or clay pottery, porringers.

There’s also a whole lot of nonsense written about porringers, about how they could be used for bleedings….you know, the drawing off of the bad blood sort of thing . I suppose if you were desperate  you could just as well use a bucket, but bleeding cups show up in all the places that they need to and porringers were for eating out of, and really didn’t needed to be used for much else. Bowls are more of a multi-tasker. Porringers imply porridge, and the little handle imply a little hand holding.

And now for much, much more on porringers…..

another porringer

another porringer – this one from the V and A, a Dutch porringer found in Essex, made c. 1600-1650

 

porringer fragments - text below

porringer fragments – text below

Red earthenware vessels recovered from Excavation Unit 43, Context 5, Elkins B Site. Vessels marked with an (E) were recovered from the Elkins B Site and are thought to be manufactured by the Hillegas Brothers in Philadelphia circa 1720-1746. These vessels are compared with examples from the Hillegas Pottery site (H) and from the Scott Run historic site (SR). Top row (left to right): two sizes of shallow bowls with folded, rounded rims from the Hillegas Pottery site; a porringer with a tapered body from the Hillegas Pottery site; and a similar porringer handle/body sherd from the Elkins B site. Bottom row (left to right): rim sherds from the Elkins B Site and the Scott Run historic site with folded and rounded rims similar to those pictured above from the Hillegas Pottery site; a large redware bowl or milk pan rim sherd with an incised wavy line from the Elkins B Site; a redware storage jar with a similar incised wavy line from the Hillegas Pottery site (Photographers: Justin Colon and Lindsay Lee, October 2011) [HRI Neg.#11017/D9:008].

Rim sherds From the Elkins Locus B site exhibit folded lips that are rounded or tooled — a treatment that is similar to 17th-century North Holland and Low Country slipwares (Jennings et al. 1981:85-93). Rim diameters from three of the recovered bowls or shallow dishes range from 6.5 to 9 inches. Cress has suggested these represent graduated nesting sets that were intended for sale. Sherds from the Elkins B Site exhibit interior decoration consisting of central pinwheels (with counterclockwise sprays) bordered by verdigris green and white slip wave and band combinations identical to decoration observed on vessels produced by the Hillegas brothers (Cress 2002). Three identical rim sherds were recovered from the nearby Scott Run Historic Site [7NC-G-179] suggesting some kind of a connection between the two sites. Other recovered vessel forms thought to be made by the Hillegas brothers are storage vessels/crocks, a milk pan with a distinctive incised wavy line similar to incised lines found on some Hillegas storage vessels, a dark brown, manganese glazed porringer with a slightly flared, tapered, rounded rim, and a wheel thrown plate/charger.

Submitted by Bill Liebeknecht, MA, RPA, Hunter Research, Inc.

link to the Philadelphia Archeology Project Artifact of  the Month March 2013

 

 Repro porringer at Plimoth Plantation retail

Repro porringer at Plimoth Plantation retail

 

 

whyt meate

June 7th, 2013 by KM Wall

Whyte meat? Is that olde-thyme speak for ‘whitemeat’? What happened to the goat milking/cheese making conversation? Isn’t chicken whitemeat? Or pork, the other whitemeat? Or is the another other whitemeat?

Why, yes.

To quote Andrew Boorde  and the Here foloweth a Compenyous Regiment or Dyetary of health, made in Mountpyller  [this]

Chapitre treateth of whyt meate, as of egges, butter, chese, mylke, crayme, &c.

So whitemeat is also DAIRY, so it all ties in the the goats and the curds….

Just a little headnote – it seems that this very same Andrew Boorde may be the original ‘merryandrew’, which you may recall was a sort of jack pudding, or clown or buffon or jester or fool. It’s not that the dear Doctor didn’t study afar and write extensively – his titles alone are exercises in length – he just seems to have rather lost his marbles, as it were, towards his end, which was in the Fleet (prison that is, not the street), wearing a hair shirt and possibly keeping loose woman.  Three loose women.

Miraim-Webster dates the first use of  merry-andrew at 1677, 150 years after his death….

Merry Andrew is also a movie with Danny Kaye.

Merry Andrew - 1958 - Danny Kaye

Merry Andrew – 1958 – Danny Kaye

Back to whitemeats.

Whitemeats as a dairy product is the older term of the word ( I almost said original, but it would take several hours of poking around to confirm or deny, so I found me a fence to sit on, pondering Danny Kaye and Merry Andrews). Back to Monday’s workshop:

Curds forming - last Monday at the workshop

Curds forming – last Monday at the workshop

 

 

Whey and curds

Whey and curds

Moving curds to a cloth to straine

Moving curds to a cloth to strain

 

 

 

 

 

 

More straining

More straining

Dripping and draining

Dripping and draining

One batch was animal rennet; the other vegetable rennet

One batch was animal rennet; the other vegetable rennet

Kathy prepping the cloth to strain the second batch

Kathy prepping the cloth to strain the second batch

 

 

 

 

 

More curds

More curds

Ready to eat

Ready to eat

 

More ready to eat

More ready to eat

Kat provide even more whitemeat snackage then we made there.....

Kathy provided even more whitemeat snackage then we made there…..

“the moon is made of a greene cheese.”

June 4th, 2013 by KM Wall
Adam Elsheimer  - 1609 Flight into Eygpt

Adam Elsheimer – 1609 Flight into Egypt. Notice the greene cheese moon

 

According to John Heywood’s Book of Proverbs in 1546 “the moon is made of a greene cheese“.

But not green in color sort of way, but rather green as an age and stage sort of way. Like green wood, it’s fresh and moist. It’s cheese made to eat sooner rather then later .

There are many green cheeses that we still know and love – cottage cheese or schmeerkase, paneer, queso blanco, and to the dismay and disclaim of lovers of true ricotta, ricotta.   (Ricotta is a whey cheese, not a milk cheese. Most of the on-line directions for ricotta include cream, as well as full milk, which makes them a sort of mascarpone, but I digress into fresh Italian cheeses…..)

Homemade cottage cheese - the green cheese many of us know now

Homemade cottage cheese – the green cheese many of us know now

Back to English cheeses….English green cheeses

 

Robert Herrick (1591 – 1674)

Fresh Cheese And Cream

Would ye have fresh cheese and cream?

and a little more that’s more suggestive then outright obscene, about Julia and her  …  tasty bits -  this  blog has a G rating, so go read some poetry if you want to know more…..

 

To make a Fresh Cheese & Creame.

Take a pottle of new milk, a quart of creame, put therein a stick of cinamon, & set it on the fire, have in readiness the yelks of twoe eggs beaten, when it boiles up put them in, then take it from the fire, & let it stand, then put in as much rennet, as will turne it, then put it in a cloth, & let it hang will it bee drie. then season it with rose water, & sugar, & serve it.

Hilary Spurling. Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book: Elizabethan Country House Cooking (1986)p. 102.

Paneer is another sort of green cheese - this looks a little more moon like

Paneer is another sort of green cheese – this looks a little more moon like

Curd Fritters

May 26th, 2013 by KM Wall

No running down to the corner store for a quart of milk in 1627 Plimoth (or most other places in the world, then).  If you want milk, first you must milk the cow.Use the milk to make curds and then make some curd fritters. There is one red cow in  Plimoth Colony, according to the Division of Cattle of 22 May 1627.

 

Woman milking a cow - Pirosmani - not 17th century

Woman milking a cow – Pirosmani – not 17th century, but a clear view of the milking action

 

Millet - Woman Milking a cow (another red one)

Millet – Woman Milking a cow (another red one, also not 17th century)

Karel Dujardin - Woman milking a Red Cow - French and 17th century

Karel Dujardin – Woman milking a Red Cow – French and 17th century- nice goats, too

 

 

To make Curde Frittors 

Take the yolks of ten Egs, and breake them in a pan, & put to them one handful Curds and one handful of fine flower, and straine them all together, and make a batter, and if it be not thicke ynough, put more Curdes in it, and salt to it.  Then set it on the fyre in a frying pan, with such stuffe as ye will frie them with, and when it is hot, with a ladle take part of your batter, and put of it into the panne, and let it run as smal as you can, and stir then with a sticke, and turne them with a scummer, & when they be fair and yellow fryed, take them out, and cast Sugar upon them, and serve them foorth.

-1594.The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin.pp.47-8.

To make Curd-Cakes.

Take a pint of Curds, four Eggs, take out two of the whites, put in some Sugar, a little Nutmeg, and a little flour, stir them well together, and drop them in and fry them with a little Butter.

                   -1653. W.I. A True gentlewomans delight.(Falconwood Press: 1991) p. 8.

Puddinggrass

May 24th, 2013 by KM Wall
Hedeoma pulgiodes - false pudding grass

Hedeoma pulgiodes – false pudding grass

Mentha pulegium - Pudding Grass!

Mentha pulegium – Pudding Grass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parkinson Paradisus 477 Pennyroyall..vsed to be put into puddings,..and therefore in diuers places they know it by no other name then Pudding-grasse.

Now, dear Mr. Parkinson, how is that this herb that is named for it’s use  in puddings so seldom shows up in pudding recipes?

And frankly – GOOD THING:

Pregnant women and children under the age of 15 should not use this herb.  Do not use oil extract orally as it is highly toxic.  Do not exceed dosage amounts.

With any herb, there is the risk of an allergic reaction. Small children and pregnant women should use additional caution when considering the use of herbal remedies.

Which begs another question – how can the people of the past get away eating and otherwise ingesting things that we now know to be unsafe?

  1. Toxic load is different for different people in different times and in different place. Possibly there was a less toxic form of the herb available or perhaps we’re now exposed to things that make what was once inert, very dangerous OR
  2. When the leading cause of death is ‘suddenly’ appropriate cause and effect relationships aren’t always noted.

So this is a caveat – before we continue in the garden, before we try things merely because someone in the past wrote it down, before we try to be authentic in every detail in recreating old recipes, we must be safe.

Safety First.

Live to tell about it.

All the lovely herbals and books of medicine and even the cookbooks and commonplace books and receipt-books of the past are a great place to start BUT find a good modern herbal reference and use it often before ingesting anything.

There are websites (American Botanical Council or ABC) and books (John Lust The Herb Book is a personal quick and easy reference guide). Check them out before you eat! When in doubt, DON’T.

 

Skull and Crossbones - warning of  poison  AND sign of Cemetary entrance

Skull and Crossbones – warning of poison AND sign of Cemetery entrance

 

“256. A Pennyroyall Puding.

Take 6 Eggs beat them very well and halfe a pint of creame one Nutmeg grated a litle sugar and salt then take a good quantity of parsley penyroyall Marygold flowrs shred very small put them to the creame and Eggs with 4 spoonfulls of sack half a p[ound] of Corance and almost a p[ound] of Beefe suet shred a topeny loafe grated stir all well together then flowr the Bagge or pot tye it up close and it will be boyled in an hours time[.]

for the sauce take a litle rose water and sugar a litle vinegar and butter beat together poure it upon it then serve it in this is esteemed a good puding[.]”

-John Evelyn, Cook. C.Driver, ed. Prospect Books, 1997. p. 143.

For the Pudding, sans pennyroyal….

6 eggs, beaten

1 cup cream

nutmeg, sugar, salt

parsley and caledula flowers (not French marigolds, which taste as nasty as they smell – look them up…)

a little wine (a sack is not a bag, although sack in a bag pudding sounds like the punchline of a 17th century riddle)

suet and grated bread, I mean Bread Crumbs.

This is one pudding that can be boiled in a bag or a basin – basin being a category the I hadn’t noticed in Robert May. hmmmm.

The rosewater, beaten butter and vinegar sauce sounds very very very nice indeed. Not too much rosewater or it will taste like the soaps your Nana put out for company smells.

 

Bagge Pudinge

May 23rd, 2013 by KM Wall

‘Take thicke cream’. When a recipe starts this way, you know that it’s going to be good. Maybe not ‘take a pound of butter’ good, but certainly good enough, possibly very indeed.

The question then is – just what is thicke cream in the seventeenth century?

This is Fresh Cream - not the same as 17th century thicke cream - but good in it's own way

This is Fresh Cream – not the same as 17th century thicke cream – but good in it’s own way

The slightly darker stuff floating on top is cream and thick - the bottle concept is modern and not early modern

The slightly darker stuff floating on top is cream and thick – the bottle concept is modern and not early modern

 

Cream didn't come in cartons in the 17th century, but this is how we think of cream now.

Cream didn’t come in cartons in the 17th century, but this is how we think of cream now. Heavy and thicke may very well be the same things.

Snow Cream, also known as Snow  - not thicke cream, but very good, and more photogenic then other sorts of cream

Snow Cream, also known as Snow – not thicke cream, but very good, and more photogenic then other sorts of cream

 

 

 

 

 

Clotted cream - very thick cream, and the stuff that cream teas are made of...oh, to be homesick for the Cornwall and Devon, and I don't even play someone who is from there!

Clotted cream – very thick cream, and the stuff that cream teas are made of…oh, to be homesick for the Cornwall and Devon, and I don’t even play someone who is from there!

An aside about clotted or clouted cream:

In  The Shepheardes Calendar,  by Edmund Spenser (1579) under November:

She while she was, (that was a woful Word to fain)
For Beauty’s Praise and Pleafance had no Peer:
So well she couth the Shepherds entertain
With Cakes and Cracknels, and fuch Country Cheer,
Ne would she scorn the simple Shepherd’s Swain;
For she would call him often heam,
And give him Curds and clouted Cream.
O heavy Herse!

And give him Curds and clouted Cream – THAT”S Entertainment  – and true love!

To make a Bagge Pudinge.

Take thicke cream and make yt somewhat hotter than bloud warme, then take halfe a dossen egges and beate them well and mingle them wth yor Creame then ad to yt a little parsely and winter savory cut very smale and some nutmegges suger and a little salte then put to yt as much Crumes of bread and fine flower as will make yt thicker than batter for pan-Cakes, then wett yor bagge in cold water and put yt in and when yor water boyles put him into yt, yt must not bee boyled wth meate but alone in fayre water.

- Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book: Elizabethan Country House Cooking. Hilary Spurling (1986) p. 46

National Vanilla Pudding Day

May 22nd, 2013 by KM Wall

I’m not at all sure how these National (internet) Holidays come about, but WHO KNEW that Vanilla Pudding had a following?

In 1627 Plymouth Colony, it’s the day they hold a Court to divide the first of the stock of the  shareholders venture – the livestock. The resulting document – known as The Division of Cattle – list the people -we’re pretty sure just about ALL the people in 1627 Plymouth – and the cows, calves, heifers, steers and the bull. And the goats, which appear to be written  in another handwriting, possibly a little later.

Kerry cow and her calf

Kerry cow and her calf

Red Devon bull - the bull is the husband of the cow

Red Devon bull – the bull is the husband of the cow

 

So, although there was some milk to make the sort of thing we now call pudding, what did these people think about vanilla?

Not much, if the cookbooks can be believed. By not much, I mean it doesn’t show up, a thing unknown, too unfamiliar.  The Story of Vanilla and it’s introduction to European kitchens is a Spanish story, with Cortez and Aztecs and secret chocolates……and then on to Florence and France……

Florentine Codex 1520 - not English

Florentine Codex 1520 – not English

The word ‘vanilla’ doesn’t come into use in English until the 1750′s, via a botanist, and it  really hits it big in the 19th century. Now it’s hard to believe that it just wasn’t around as a common flavor and a scent.

Which isn’t to say the internet doesn’t say otherwise……

However, it was not until the 17th century that it was recognised as a flavour in its own right. In 1602, Hugh Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth I of England, suggested that vanilla had sufficient character to stand alone – and later the Queen refused to eat or drink anything that had not been enhanced with vanilla.

FYI – she dies 24 March 1603, so she didn’t love it long…..

Elizabeth I - painted after her death c. 1610. Perhaps she's missing her vanilla...

Elizabeth I – painted after her death c. 1610. Perhaps she’s missing her vanilla…

To boil a Pudding which is uncommonly good.

Take a pond and [a] half of Wheat-flour, three quarter pond of Currents washed clean, a half pond Kidney-suet, cut it very small, 3 Eggs, one and a half Nutmegs, grated fine, a little Salt, mix it with a little sweet Milk so dry that one kneads it like a Bread and tie it in a clean cloth rather close and throw it into a pot with boiling water and let it boil for two hours, then it is done.

-                     The Sensible Cook, Rose ed. p. 79.

 

May Pudding Baggage

May 21st, 2013 by KM Wall
Robert May

Robert May

 

May. Robert May, that is. Robert May The Accomplist Cook author. And what do I mean by Baggage? Why, the things you use to put bag puddings in!

But first,  a word, or two – actually a little poem – in praise of Robert May

Whats wouldst thou view but in one face

all hospitalitie, the race

of those that for the GUSTO stand,

whose table, a whole Ark command

of  Nature plentie, wouldst they see

this sight peruse MAYS booke, ’tis hee.

This is the little ditty in the frontispiece underneath his portrait. Let us all stand for GUSTO!

Back to baggage.

In The Accomplist Cook, which was first published in 1660 , and continued to be revised and printed even after Mr May’s death, there are chapters devoted to different kinds of foods. This is a HUGE and pleasant change from the way many  earlier cookbooks were set-up, where there was a continuation, rather in the way they might come to the table. That is there would be several boiled meats (which might include chicken) and then fricassees (which may or may not include chicken) and then baked meats (which are pies) and again there might be chicken there, and then some sweets and then maybe some roasted things that got forgotten with the other roasted things, and then sauces for the roasted things…..and there are no real category headings.

Mr May has sections, such as

Section 7

The most Excellent Ways of making all Sorts of Puddings.

Way cool.

In this section (because there are other puddings in different places, but only a few).  In looking only at the boiled puddings (not the baked ones, or the ones baked in a pie or the fried ones), puddings are boiled in the following things:

1)    Guts. Formes. Skins (we’ll come back to these, but remember, the oldest forms of puddings are guts)

2)    Bag, Napkin, Cloth

  1. Bag :5
  2. Bag or napkin: 2
  3. Napkin: 11
  4. Napkin or cloth: 1
  5. Cloth: 6
  6. Napkin or paunch: 1
  7. Total: 26 specific mentions.
Flemish 17th century Napkin at the MFA

Flemish 17th century Napkin at the MFA

Table napkin

  • Flemish, early 17th century
Flanders
Dimensions
102 x 70.5 cm (40 3/16 x 27 3/4 in.)
Medium or Technique
Linen damask
Classification
Textiles

This is a table napkin – this is more suitable, although to use something so lovely for a pudding would be a pity – there were plainer napkins.  Notice the size -  40 inches by 28 inches – and it’s made of linen. If a pudding had been made in this napkin, there would be a greasy circle in the middle, reminiscent of the image in the Shroud of Turin.

 

 

 

To make  a Quaking Pudding either boild or baked.

Otherwayes.

Take a penny white loaf , pare off the crust, and slice the crumb, steep in a quart of good thick cream warmed, some beaten nutmeg, six eggs, whereof but two whites, and some salt. Sometimes you may use boild currans, or boild raisins.

If to bake, make it a little stiffer, sometimes add saffron; on flesh days use beef-suet, or marrow; (or neither). for  a boild pudding butter the napkin being first weted in water, and binde it up like a ball, an hour will boil it.

        1671. Robert May. The Accomplist Cook. Third edition. p. 180.

This is a money bag - this is NOT a suitable thing to boil a pudding in

This is a money bag – this is NOT a suitable thing to boil a pudding in, although the shape is good…

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.

Pies for the month of May

May 13th, 2013 by KM Wall

If the 1627  Winslows had wanted to celebrate their six years of marriage with six pies, they had some spring-time options, based on what is available in May and in New England.

Pie the first:

An herb tart

Take sorrel, spinach, parsley, and boil them in water till they be very soft as pap; then take them up, press the water clean from them, then take good store of eggs boiled very hard, and, chopping them with the herbs exceedingly small, then put in good store of currants, sugar, cinnamon, and stir all well together; then put them into a deep tart coffin with a good store of sweet butter, and cover it, and bake it like a pippin tart*, and adorn the lid after the baking in that manner also, and so serve it up.

-         Markham, Best ed. p. 109

 

Pippin Tart design from Robert May

Pippin Tart design from Robert May

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