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Category: Recipes

Tomato Pie (For the Next Time You Run Out of Pumpkin?)

August 30, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose…and sometimes you fall in between. That’s how my modern rendition of Lydia Child’s tomato pie turned out – in my opinion, at least.

In her book, the American Frugal Housewife, Child mentions various methods for making squash pies. But in an endnote, she writes that stewed and salted tomatoes can be “prepared the same as rich squash pies, only an egg or two more,” (pg. 115).

I was intrigued. In the past, I’ve been pleased with other historical recipes that break modern expectations of which foods should be sweet or savory.* Furthermore, I like pumpkin pie and I like tomatoes, so how bad could a tomato pie be?

Not horrible. But I didn’t think it was fantastic either. There were mixed reviews among my taste-testers…so maybe you just need to try it for yourself;)

In case you desire to create a tomato pie, here is what I did based upon this 19th century recipe:

Tomatoes make excellent pies. Skins taken off with scalding water, stewed twenty minutes or more, salted, prepared the same as rich squash pies, only an egg or two more….

For common family pumpkin pies, three eggs do very well to a quart of milk. Stew your pumpkin, and strain it through a sieve, or colander. Take out the seeds, and pare the pumpkin, or squash, before you stew it; but do not scrape the inside; the part nearest the seed is the sweetest part of the squash. Stir in the stewed pumpkin, till it is as thick as you can stir it round rapidly and easily. If you want to make your pie richer, make it thinner, and add another egg. One egg to a quart of milk makes very decent pies. Sweeten it to your taste, with molasses or sugar; some pumpkins require more sweetening than others. Two tea-spoonfuls of salt; two great spoonfuls of sifted cinnamon; one great spoonful of ginger. Ginger will answer very well alone for spice, if you use enough of it. The outside of a lemon grated in is nice. The more eggs, the better the pie; some put an egg to a gill of milk. They should bake from forty to fifty minutes, and even ten minutes longer, if very deep.

Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife

After reading that misleading but very informative receipt (recipe), I decided on this method:

First, blanche your tomatoes. Child doesn’t mention how many – I chose five, which, combined with the rest of my ingredients, actually made two pies.

Once the tomatoes are blanched and peeled, mash the tomatoes until only small chunks remain. Feel free to blend them to ensure a smoother pie filling.

[Technical issue: unfortunately, many of my photos would not load, so this spare collection will have to do for now. The center photo is the pie mix before I added the tomatoes.]

In a separate bowl, whisk together some milk and eggs – I used four, which comes out to Child’s recommendation of one egg per gill (1/2 cup) of milk. More eggs probably would have been better.

Add to the milk and eggs molasses, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Avoid scrambling your eggs by adding small amounts of the pie mixture to the tomatoes while stirring. Once the tomatoes are successfully incorporated into some of the egg mix, pour them into the rest of the filling.

Line a pie plate with your favorite pie crust (I left my to chill in the refrigerator for too long – freeze it if you’re going to make it a few days apart).

The bake! Mine took about 60 to 70 minutes.

Unfortunately, I cut the pies too soon after they exited the oven – they were not set. Though they settled more after cooling, an additional egg or two would aid the firmness. Furthermore, the piecrust in the glass pie plate was crisper than the cast iron one, if you have an option.

As I mentioned before, these pies were by no means repulsive – some found them delicious! They were a combination between tomato soup and pumpkin pie. I’m all for trying new foods, but tried-and-true foods are sometimes still the best.

Full recipe to come!

*My previous savory/sweet mix-ups include onion pie – a family favorite – chicken and cranberry pie, and salmon with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. Keep your eye out for those recipes in the future!

The Curious History of Ketchup

July 31, 2020 / / 1 Comment

Bright red ketchup – or perhaps catsup – is so familiar: squirted onto hotdogs, hamburgers, or next to fries. You see the condiment everywhere, gracing restaurant tables, filling fast food packets, and stashed in your refrigerator.

But I had never paused to question where ketchup originated, who made it, or that it might not have always come in its sweet, smooth, tomato-y form.

My handy-dandy copy of Lydia Child’s the American Frugal Housewife is where my ketchup quest began. When speaking of a recipe for ketchup, she writes that “the best sort of catsup is made from tomatoes.” Which immediately implies that there were other sorts of ketchup not made with tomatoes.

I soon discovered that if you were to ask a 19th century seat mate to “please pass the ketchup,” you could be handed a variety of different sauces.

I used the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museum’s (ALHFAM) member database to find my answers. It’s a wonderful resource for anyone interested in historical subjects! There are no requirements for membership, and it’s not very expensive if you want to join 😀

Many thanks to the Past Masters articles of Summer 2005 and Spring 2011!

One of the earliest ketchup recipes is from the East Indies and uses Kidney beans along with many spices and orange juice. This recipe qualifies the ketchup as being “in paste” form.

But much more popular ingredients for ketchup were mushrooms or walnuts.

Many of the recipes actually produce a very thin sauce, more akin to Worcestershire sauce. Oftentimes the base ingredient was the strained juice from pickled or cooked walnuts or mushrooms.

Nuts to You English Walnuts quotes this recipe:

WALNUT Ketchup. Take green Walnuts, and pound them to a Paste; then put to every Hundred two Quarts of Vinegar, with a Handful of Salt; put it all together in an Earthen Pan, keeping it stirring for eight Days; then squeeze the Liquor through a coarse Cloth, and put it into a well-tinn’d Sauce-pan, and when it being to boil skim it as long as any Scum rises, and add to it some Cloves, Mace, sliced Gin-ger, sliced Nutmeg, Jamaica Pepper-corns, sliced Horse-radish, with a few Shalots, and a little Garlick; let this have one Boil up, pour it into an Earthen Pan, and after it is cold bottle it up, dividing the Ingredients equally into each Bottle.

Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery, Made plain and easy

Tomatoes only started gaining popularity as ketchup ingredients in the late 18th century. But as Lydia Child advises that these red fruits make the best catsup, I made my own modern adaptation of her recipe.

Child’s first instruction is to squeeze the tomatoes up with your hands, salt them, and let them sit for a day.

After the 24 hours, the tomatoes should be “passed through a sieve,” the spices added, and then the mixture boiled down one third.

Mashing tomatoes through a sieve proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. After much squishing by me and other parties, there was still a lot of tomato left. I didn’t want to waste it all, so I decided to use some modern tech: a blender.

I pureed the tomatoes until the seeds wouldn’t be bothersome, and poured the thick soup into the tomato water. Then I added the called for spices.

I brought it to a boil, and then left it to simmer. The ketchup ended up simmering for about 8 hours! It got a bit forgotten about, but it turned out to be just what it needed.

The resulting dark red sauce was looser than Heinz, but definitely a consistency that could be dolloped onto a plate for meat, french fries, or whatever else you might want.

Perhaps the most striking difference to me was the lack of sweetness – there is no sugar in the recipe. Despite this, I really liked the “catsup!” It was very flavorful with all those spices and went well with meat.

Here is Lydia Child’s original recipe and my modern adaptation:

Mrs. Child’s Tomato CatsupDownload

For now, have fun experimenting with your own ketchup recipes! If you’re interested in learning more about the condiment, I’m looking forward to reading ALHFAM’s recommended Pure Ketchup: A History of American’s National Condiment with Recipes by Andrew F. Smith.

Pederson, Carla. “Nuts to You English Walnuts.” Past Masters News, Spring 2011.

“Clarissa’s Corner: Catchup, Catsup, Katchup, Ketchup?” Past Masters News, Summer 2005.

ALHFAM – Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums – Home

ALHFAM Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums

Cracknels – An 18th Century Cookie to Celebrate Independence

July 12, 2020 / / 2 Comments
Cracknels Going into the Oven

Fourth of July 2020 left many traditions altered or completely ignored as firework shows were cancelled and neighborhood barbecues went unplanned. However, one tradition I was still able to keep up despite new regulations was baking cracknels.

The fact that we celebrate the Fourth of July, and not the 2nd, or 6th, or even 2nd of August is interesting in itself. July 2, 1776 is the actual day Congress declared independence. July 4 is the day they finalized the text. July 6 is the day the Declaration was first published in a newspaper (the Pennsylvania Evening Post). August 2, 1776 was the date it was signed.

But colonists then would still have celebrated on the fourth of July. Why? Because that was the date written, and then printed, on the Declaration of Independence.

Regardless of when you are making them, or which day you are celebrating, these cracknels are delicious. As an 18th century recipes, these treats are something the colonists themselves could have eaten in response to the Declaration of Independence.

This recipe was originally from Colonial Williamsburg’s recipe blog. (Note: the blog has been updated, and no longer includes this particular recipe. But they have other fantastic recipes found here!)

As CW’s introduction says, the term cookie was actually derived from a dutch word. Before “cookie” was popular, the sweet discs might be called cakes, or in this case, cracknels.

Colonial Williamsburg’s Modern Adaptation of Elizabeth Moxon’s recipe:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 Tbsp. butter
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 Tbsp. caraway seeds

Note: Mix the dough with your hands! No excuses, the recipe told you so:)

  1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper.
  2. Combine flour, sugar and caraway seeds in a bowl until well mixed.
  3. Cut in butter. Beat egg slightly and add to flour, sugar and butter mixture.
  4. Work the dough with your hands until the mixture holds together. If you find that the heat of your hands is not bringing the mixture together, you can beat one more egg and add a little bit at a time and work until the dough holds together [For my doubled recipe, I used 3 eggs]. This mixture will be stiff, so it is important not to add any more moisture than necessary.
  5. Taking a small portion of dough at a time, roll out to 1/8″ thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut out dough with a 2 1/4 inch biscuit cutter [or glass!] and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet 1/2-1″ apart. Dough does not spread during baking [it’s true!].
  6. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Cookies will be soft to the touch.
  7. Allow to cool slightly on the cookie sheet before removing to wire racks to cool completely. As the cookies cool they will become hard and crisp.
  8. Yield: using a 2 1/4″ cookie cutter, about 7 dozen cookies.

Chewy and sweet, with the slight crunch of caraway seeds, the cracknels are very popular with my family. At first, I was doubtful that the caraway seeds would be an improvement. They might be a bit of an acquired taste, but now I wouldn’t want to leave them out.

This recipe is so easy and fun to make. You could definitely use it as a base for other add-ins if you wanted to go a more modern route. Thanks CW!

Declaration of Independence Full Text, US Independence Day Facts | Constitution Facts

Declaration of Independence Facts. Declaration of Independence Activities and Lesson Plans for Educators. Important Dates to Remember. Learn About the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Read the Declaration of Independence and Test Your Knowledge with our Declaration of Independence Quiz.

Recipes

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Andrlik, T. (2012). Reporting the Revolutionary War: Before it was History, it was News. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.

Gruel and More Gruel

July 5, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Well. I had grand plans of a cleverly-themed Fourth of July post. Instead, not only did I neglect to write said post, I forgot to post at all. Ah well, in lieu of that, today we’ll turn again to Mrs. Child’s, The American Frugal Housewife. More summer/Revolution-themed posts will be in your future….

Gruel. Thoughts of watery, hot oatmeal come to mind. Not exactly images of delicious, nourishing food.

However, both of those terms came up as I recently whipped together some of Lydia Child’s gruel recipes. (And yes, there are more than just these two.)

Child introduces gruel as the perfect food for invalids: easy to digest and good for you. “Gruels” are also super simple to make.

The original recipes and their modern adaptations will be available at the bottom of this post!

The first recipe for Gruel produced something very familiar, a cereal akin to polenta or grits. To make it yourself, start with course-ground or stone-ground cornmeal and water.

Stir a few tablespoons of cornmeal mixed with a little cold water into a pan of boiling water. Boil for 8-10 minutes, throwing in a small handful of raisins part way through.

  • Cold water with hard cornmeal
  • Stir together
  • Boil
  • Add the raisins
  • Serve!

When the time is up and the water is absorbed, scrape the gruel into a bowl and season with salt, nutmeg, and sugar if you want. I skipped the sugar and still really enjoyed the cereal – ahem, gruel. The raisins give a little bit of sweetness, and the nutmeg adds a unique flavor I liked.

Egg Gruel

Far more unique than nutmeg, however, was Mrs. Child’s recipe for egg gruel. I assumed that eggs would be added to the standard gruel recipe – but I was most definitely incorrect.

Instead, begin with a small pot of milk and carefully bring it to boiling. While you are waiting, whisk four eggs until a thin froth forms on top.

Next, make sure your arm is rested. XP Then when the milk boils, rapidly whisk it as you pour the eggs in very slowly. Continue whisking until the mixture becomes a thick cream, almost like a partially-set jello.

The egg gruel was like a form of custard! As the recipe directs, I mixed in a pinch of salt and nutmeg, but omitted the recommended white sugar. I’m sure the addition of sugar would make a scrumptious custard dessert, perhaps with some fruit mixed in.

But even without the sugar, I – along with my taste-testers – enjoyed the unusual breakfast. It was creamy, eggy, and with a dash of nutmeg, a simple but rich meal.

For good health, Child recommends drinking half of the egg gruel while hot, and the other half two hours later. So if you’re feeling in the mood for a creamy, protein-full breakfast, give it a try!

Mrs. Child’s GruelDownload recipe here!
Mrs. Child’s Egg GruelDownload recipe here!

Potash, Pearlash, and Pancakes

May 23, 2020 / / 1 Comment
Chemically-Risen Pancakes

Without a second thought, we frequently grab baking soda or baking powder out of our cabinet to use for whatever cookie, biscuit, or cake recipe we want. But the common use of chemical leaveners – for that’s what baking soda and baking powder are – is actually a fairly recent phenomenon.

While I was reading through the American Frugal Housewife, I came across several recipes calling for a little bit of pearlash (pearl-ash). One of them was a pancake recipe that otherwise had pretty standard ingredients. I was stumped.

So I did some research and fell down a rabbit hole of chemical leavening.

First of all, I discovered that pearlash is a refined form of potash (pot-ash). The refining process removes most of a smoky flavor from the substance. Which lead me to the question: what exactly is potash?

Potash is substance that was originally created by running water over wood ashes. After evaporating the water, you are left with a mix of potassium carbonate and other chemicals. Pearlash is composed only of potassium carbonate.

Now, in the 21st century, potash is actually mined from huge, underground deposits, which you can learn more about in the video below.

Nutrien: What Is Potash?

Learn more about potash, an essential crop nutrient that improves crop yields worldwide. With over 20 million tonnes of potash capacity at our six mines in S…

Thanks to Jas. Townsend and Sons’ YouTube channel, I learned in their “Exploring Colonial America: Chemical Leavening” series that these types of rising agents may have been in use as early as the 14th century! But that knowledge was held in total secrecy.

In the 1300’s, the Netherlands was famous for its gingerbread, but there was one town in particular known for its delicious, fluffy gingerbread. The unique sweet contained a special ingredient that was so secret not even the bakers knew what it was. The local burgermeister would visit each bakery to add in the ingredient to the rest of the prepared dough. Coincidence? Probably not.

Chemical leavening also occurred by accident in England, where millers were supplementing their poor flour with chalk, a base. When bakers began adding alum – an acid – to bleach the bread whiter, they unwittingly provided the other ingredient for a chemical reaction. Though ignorant of the chemical process, they did notice that the bread rose more fully with the additional ingredients.

But chemical leavening was not commonly used in households, yet.

In the 1750’s, a dutch cookbook was published that is suspected to be the first great unveiling of those long-held dutch bakery secrets. Further research translating manuscripts and comparing recipes is required before the connection can be declared certain. But the likelihood of confirmation is very high.

For, in the late 1700’s, where did recipes calling for potash begin to emerge from? None other than the dutch-settled Hudson River Valley of New York.

These recipes were advertised as something that could be quickly whipped up for unexpected guests. No long wait times for rising yeast were required. One can definitely see the appeal when you think of how often we use baking soda or powder as a speedy alternative to yeast.

The use of chemical leavings spread quickly in the U.S., with many 1830’s cookbooks including potash and pearlash’s successors, baking soda and powder, as leavening. However, chemical leavening was slower to take hold in the U.K., possibly because of prior scares of poison in bakers’ bread.

Another source I found online was the blog Four Pounds Flour: Historic Gastronomy. (NOTE: I will link it below, but I recommend reading through the comments and using Jas. Townsend as a more reliable source.) The author writes that her cookies turned out bitter because of the pearlash. However, an astute commenter notes that pearlash is a leavening comparable to baking soda: if you use too much, it will be bitter.

On the Spruce Eats website (linked below), they say that for every 1 teaspoon of pearlash, you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

So I decided to try making Mrs. Child’s pearlash pancakes, but just use baking soda instead. Fortunately, even if something went wrong, I reasoned, the recipe is easy and inexpensive.

The Pancakes:

The original recipe doesn’t call for the dry and wet to be mixed separately first. It went exactly how you’d expect: the cinnamon clumped together. I decided to wait to add some of the baking soda until I added the flour, since I wasn’t sure how much I would need.

1 1/2 cups of flour seemed to cause “the spoon to move… round with difficulty,” as Mrs. Child recommends.

The Batter

Instructions regarding the oil/fat in the original recipe were a bit confusing. I started out with olive oil, but it gave too strong of a flavor to the pancakes. I would recommend going with butter. Mrs. Child states the more fat in your pan, the better, which I think is why the pancakes reminded me of funnel cake. But they did need a certain… je ne sais quoi.

  • Pan-Fry in Cast Iron
  • Tasty with Fruit and Cheese

With that, here is the recipe which I have not touted so well, XP. After more experimentation I shall post a new one that’s better and tastier, but this is a good base that you could add more flavors to. To be clear they are not bad: all of them were eaten 😀

Mrs. Child’s Standard PancakesDownload

Child, Lydia Maria. The American Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy. 12th ed. Carlisle, MA: Applewood, 1985.

Chemical Leavening Discoveries Part 1

Part 1 of an in depth discussion on the history of Chemical Leavening. Our Website – http://www.townsends.us/ Cooking Blog – http://www.savoringthepast.net I…

Pearl Ash

2oz of Pearl Ash also known as Potassium Carbonate. Packaged in a modern plastic bottle with a safety lid. According to the Oxford Symposium on Food and Drink, Pearl Ash (potassium carbonate) was used as a chemical leavening agent as early as the 14th century in certain Dutch Baking.

American Potash Cake 18th Century Cooking with Jas Townsend and Son S5E17

Today’s episode is another companion piece to our Chemical Leavening Discussion. It’s a recipe found in a letter to the editor in the Monthly Magazine (Londo…

The History Dish: Pearlash, The First Chemical Leavening

Pearlash is powdery and slightly moist. The History If you were to scoop the ashes out of your fireplace and soak them in water, the resulting liquid would be full of lye. Lye can be used to make three things: soap, gun powder, or chemical leavener.

Recipe Substitutions for Pottasche or Pearlash

Pottasche is a common ingredient in traditional German recipes. It may also be written as potash or pearlash, potassium carbonate, salts of tartar, and carbonate of potash. All of these terms refer to the same ingredient. It is usually present in classic German gingerbread ( Lebkuchen) recipes.

Make Your Own Easy Baking Powder

Baking powder is used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods. It’s a dry leavening agent that is made from a mixture of carbonate or bicarbonate, a weak acid, and a filler. When a liquid is added, the baking powder creates an acid-base reaction, which releases carbon dioxide gas into the batter or dough.

Potash and pearlash even affected our quarantine-banana bread ;P

Banana bread is having a moment

If there’s an unofficial snack of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s a sweet, soft loaf of home-baked banana bread. Celebrities like Chrissy Teigen love it, and ttreat has been the most searched-for recipe across all US states for the last 30 days.

Apple Pie: A Historical Way

May 16, 2020 / / 2 Comments
The Finished Pie

Everyone knows how to make apple pie right? Apples, cinnamon, and sugar mixed together and thrown into a piecrust. Maybe you add butter or flour, or nutmeg and lemon zest, but this classic recipe that we take for granted started out differently.

I found this pie recipe on Colonial Williamsburg’s website (which I’ll link to below). The first thing they pointed out is that apple pie is not American, despite what we may think, it’s actually British – interesting.

The pie crust recipe came from The American Frugal Housewife, by Mrs. Child, which was printed in 1833. I enjoyed the challenge of interpreting this recipe from its original form – most of the historical recipes I try have a modern version next to them that is easier to understand. In continuing with that, I have created my own modern version of the recipe that I will attach below if you would like to try it. Or just experiment with the 1830’s recipe!

The main differences between this apple pie and any modern apple pie you might be accustomed to are the spices and the method of construction. There is no cinnamon! Only sugar and whole cloves.

Then you must layer it. At no point does the recipe say to mix the fruit and seasonings together in a bowl. Instead, you lay a layer of peeled, cored, apple slices into the bottom of you pie crust. Then you dust sugar and some whole cloves over the apples. Put more apples on top, add more sugar and cloves, and repeat.

Once you have used up all the apples, lay the second pie crust over it, and press the edges together. Williamsburg’s beautiful picture of the pie included pie crust decor. So I cut a few leaves and long strips out of my crust scraps and created a small design on top.

The recipe doesn’t call for it, but I decided to beat an egg and spread it over the top. Upon further inspection of the photo, I realized that only the decorative crust pieces must have had egg wash to make them stand out. Oh well, it was too late.

The Pie Before Baking

I baked it at the recommended 450˚ for 10 minutes, then 350˚ for 40 minutes. It smelled wonderful.

I must admit I was a little suspicious of sprinkling whole cloves throughout my apple pie. But they were very easy to pick out. And having only the cloves and no cinnamon gave it a different flavor that definitely seemed historical 🙂 I loved the taste, and judging from how much of it was eaten, my family enjoyed it as well!

However, it would have been improved by salt. The recipe does not call for salt. And for the pie crust, I used unsalted butter. But it turns out that I should’ve used salted butter. Why? Because Mrs. Child talks about butter earlier in her book. She instructs her readers to “pack your butter in a clean, scalded firkin, cover it with strong brine…” and it will last indefinitely. A strong brine would certainly add salt to the butter.

I love how something as simple as apple pie has changed and developed over time. Next time you’re wishing for some homemade apple pie, try this easy recipe! (Even easier if you skip the pie crust for store-bought.)

Here’s my modern version of the crust recipe alongside the original!

Mrs. Child’s Piecrust RecipeDownload

Here is Williamsburg’s recipe:

To Make An Apple Pie

Pastry (homemade or store bought) 8 Granny Smith applies ¼ – 1 cup granulated sugar or castor sugar 1 tsp. rose flower water (optional) 2 tsp. whole cloves Instructions Preheat the oven to 425°. Remove one piece of dough from refrigerator and let stand until soft.

Child, Lydia Maria. The American Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy. 12th ed. Carlisle, MA: Applewood, 1985.

18th Century Colonial Duck…Curry?

March 17, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Warning: graphic images of raw meat included 😛

I absolutely love cooking historical recipes. Trying out flavors from the past is revealing and almost always tasty. We often make uninformed assumptions about what historical food was like though. And the sheer variety of what people used to eat can be quite surprising. Take for example, this Guyanese Duck Curry.

During the 18th century, there was trade happening all over the world, and international cuisine reflected this. This dish comes from Guyana, which lies in-between Venezuela and Brazil. Duck curry is immensely popular in Guyana, but this South American country’s food contains influences from several other continents. Elements of duck curry originate in North America, Britain, India, the Netherlands, and Africa.

I got the recipe from A Taste of History: Cookbook. I had no idea, but PBS actually airs a show titled A Taste of History, which has hundreds of episodes about 18th century food. Pretty cool. You can find some recipes on their website, which I’ll link to down below.

This recipe could be made with less time and effort if you used store-bought broth. However, the recipe calls for duck broth, which I have never seen for sale before. As I had all the ingredients for duck broth, I decided to make it. Basically, it’s like making another soup, but with the whole carcass steeping in it.

The first step was to butcher the duck, which I promptly realized I didn’t know how to do. After getting frustrated part way through, I watched a tutorial about butchering a duck – it definitely helped. My tips are: 1. know what you’re doing first, and 2. have a sharp knife!

In the Middle of Butchering
The End Results

Once I finished butchering, it was time to start the broth. Add together with the duck parts onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, and water. Make sure you use all the excess duck parts, I neglected to take a photo with all of them in the pot. I boiled all this for a while (and forgot to switch it to a simmer).

While that boiled, I sautéed two onions, garlic, and curry powder. Then I added the now chopped up duck pieces and tomato. Then some of my precious duck broth went into the pan.

  • The Duck Broth
  • Sauté of Onions, Garlic, and Curry Powder
  • Addition of Duck, Tomato, and Broth

After the broth, the recipe calls for garam masala and cumin. Make sure you do this in a pot. Since my pan turned out to be too small for the following ingredients, I ended up transferring everything to a pot. Then I threw in chopped potatoes, carrots, ginger, and thyme. The original recipe called for habanero, but too much spice isn’t popular with my samplers, so I omitted it.

  • Garam Masala
  • Cumin
  • The Curry!

The recipe says to cook the duck for 10 minutes before you add the carrots and potatoes. I would recommend letting it simmer longer, because the potatoes and carrots were very soft by the time the duck was tender. However, the dish was still yummy. It tasted very modern, like something you could get in a restaurant nowadays. To note, duck does taste different than chicken, if inquiring minds want to know.

This recipe is a great example of the extreme variety present in 18th century food! With the spices from India, potatoes and tomatoes from the New World, and more, any presupposition of bland meals primarily of meat and breads is simply blown away. Just like anything, you must delve deeper before you assume it to be one way or another.

I highly encourage everyone to take a stab at recreating their own historical recipe! If you don’t have – or desire to buy – a cookbook, there are plenty of resources online. Colonial Williamsburg, Jas. Townsend and Sons, and many others offer recipes and tutorials on their websites or on YouTube.

Here is the video I watched partway through the process:

How to butcher a duck

Butchering is a great skill to have, since it’s often cheaper to buy the whole animal rather than portions. Have a go at buying a whole duck and using it in …

A Taste Of History | Winner of Ten Emmy® Awards!

Help produce another Emmy© award winning season We were just nominated for 5 more Emmy’s©.

Townsends

A channel dedicated to exploring the 18th Century lifestyle. Subscribe for hundreds of videos on 18th century living, cooking, clothing, and much more. Our W…

Recipes

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Meat and Cranberry Pie

April 1, 2019 / / 0 Comments

This week I decided to do something different. And well, it did turn out very different, and I gained a new-found appreciation for food bloggers.

The Finished Product

I believe history can truly be found everywhere, not just in museums, but in your kitchen. Experimenting with historical recipes is a joy of mine. A historic recipe is just like using a recipe from another country: it can give you a novel experience, a small substitute for traveling there.

When I travel, I want to experience what it is like for a native to live there. How do they dress? What are they fond of saying? What is unacceptable? And what do they eat?

Eating is very important. We all do it, and it says a lot about our culture. For example, what foods are readily available, tastes that we prefer, and our priorities in nutrition, cost, and flavors.

This is why I find it fascinating to eat foods that were common a long time ago. We can learn about the past in more ways than one, and eating what they ate can be quite interesting.

Fortunately, my family has been willing to try the variety of dishes I’ve made. Some will never touch our table again, such as chicken pudding, and apple and onion pie. Others are gobbled up each time, Medieval onion pie, chicken and pine nuts, and cracknels.

I have made a few pies involving both meat and fruit before. I thought that I had already made this one, but perhaps not. If I did, it must’ve turned out better, or I would’ve remembered it.

The recipe came from a Medieval cookbook purchased at Camlann Medieval Village in Carnation, Washington. Several years ago, my parents and I went to a feast there, which was a wonderful experience. Afterwords, we really wanted to eat some of that food again, so we bought their cookbook.

I’ve tried multiple recipes from it, and most of them have been enjoyed. This one looked good, and is a good example of the interesting spice combinations evident in the period.

The Pie Crust

First of all, let me address the crust, which is not a Medieval recipe. In the past, I have often had no luck with homemade crust, and resorted to store-bought. However, I was reading through the King Arthur Flour Cookbook, and decided to give it another go.

I ended up with a crumbly mess that didn’t seem to stick together no matter how much water I poured in. That probably had to do with the fact that I used whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose.

So I did my best to press it into the pie plate, and scatter it over the top.

The Filling

In the recipe, it calls for a mixture of pork and chicken breasts. But I just used chicken thighs. One, it was cheaper, two, it seemed authentic, though I don’t know that for sure. First step is to chop up the meat, done. I think 2 lbs instead of 1 1/2 would’ve been good for a larger family. Then put to cook with butter until white.

While that sizzles, measure out your fruit. The original recipe calls for grapes and prunes. However, in the footnote, it says that Camlann has used cranberries instead of grapes with great results. So I weighed out 4 oz. of cranberries, and 2 oz. of chopped prunes. Cranberries were easily purchased frozen since they’re out of season.

Next up: the spices. I absolutely love using spices. They can change the flavor of a dish so dramatically. Unlike what we are used to, this meat pie contains ingredients often associated with sweet dishes. It is semi-sweet, as sugar is first on the list. I dropped in a few tablespoons. Then a teaspoon each of ginger, cinnamon, and crushed fennel seeds. I just used the back of a spoon for the crushing. Finally, add in some salt. The original recipe calls for saffron, but I decided against that for now.

To the spice mixture, add an egg. I ended up with a rather thick liquid. Now it was time to assemble. Pie crust inserted, I poured in the chicken, then spread the cranberries and prunes on top. Then I drizzled the spice mix over the pie.

I then proceeded to piece together a sort of top crust from my dough scraps. Popping it into the oven at 375˚F, I let it cook for 45 minutes or so.

The dinner reviews were varied. Some politely thanked me for meal, while others said it was their favorite Medieval dish. (Take that as you will ;)). The crust was a bit hard, but it grew on me. More fruit, especially cranberries, would have been better.

I would definitely make this again, albeit with a different crust. I really enjoyed the sweet and savory flavor combination.

If you’re interested in Camlann, or some more Medieval fare, check out these websites!

Camlann Medieval Village

Camlann Medieval Village a living history museum project portraying rural England in 1376, is dedicated to offering the public personal experiences of history, including multiple learning and performing arts opportunities, built upon research of rural communities in 14th century England, to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between historical events and western society today.

I cannot completely vouch for the below sites and shows, as I have not read or watched all their content.

Later episodes talk about Medieval food and diet.

Medieval food

History of food in medieval England

Medieval Recipes – Easy Recipes

Almond Milk Applemoyse Tartys In Applis Bake Mete Ryalle – spiced pork pie Barley Water Beef y-Stywyd Blancmanger (chicken & rice casserole) Boiled Asparagus Boiled Sallet Buttered Beere Cameline Sauce – a cinnamon spice sauce Stewed Capon (chicken) Cheese – fresh soft cheese Cormarye (roast pork) Cremoneze (spinach tart) Ember

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