Cooking Marathon! - 18th Century Cooking Season 4

there's a fascinating book from 1836 called the back woods of Canada the book is comprised of letters of Catherine Parr Strickland Trail she was the wife of a British officer who was given a land grant in Canada for his service during the war the book starts In 1832 with their departure from Greenwich Scotland and it follows their trip all the way through what is now Ontario while this book was published in 1836 very little had changed in the way of life in the back woods so this book gives us a very good Glimpse about what frontier life was like in the late 18th and early 19th century tree thanks for joining us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend and son [Music] forewarned and for armed that's the theme of Catherine Trail's book The Backwoods of Canada she wrote this series of letters to tell her friends about exactly what it takes to survive in the back woods this is a very fascinating book about what frontier life was like from a woman's perspective let me share with you this passage you must bear with me if I occasionally weary you with dwelling on Trifles to me nothing that bears the stamp of novelty is devoid of Interest even the clay built ovens stuck upon four legs at a distance from the houses were not unnoticed in passing when there is not the convenience of one of these ovens outside the dwellings the bread is baked in large iron pots baked kettles they are termed at first I was inclined to Grumble and rebel against the expediency of the baked kettles but as cooking stoves iron ovens and even brick and Clay built ovens will not start up at your bidding in the bush these substitutes are valuable and perform a number of uses I have eaten excellent light bread baked in one of these kettles I've eaten boiled potatoes baked meat excellent stews and good soups all cooked at different times in this universally useful utensil so let it not be despised we're going to be embarking on a journey of our own about the various uses of the bake Kettle or as we call it today the Dutch oven today's recipe is a fairly simple one we'll be doing a Hasty Pudding out of Maria rundell's 1807 cookbook a new system of domestic cookery it's believed that puddings were introduced to English kitchens by the French during the Norman invasion of the British Isles during the 12th century their popularity exploded during the 14th century when someone discovered that you could boil these puddings in a cloth the pudding bag allowed for puddings to be boiled alongside other courses they were intended to serve as an economic filler so that Less meat will be required to satisfy appetites boiling a full-size pudding can take four to six hours not a very practical dish for a frontier man or woman without the full amenities of a kitchen so a Hasty Pudding is perfect for this setting and a dutch oven is the perfect vessel to cook it in now that our water is boiling let's get started rendell's recipe omits all the measurements so the measurements we're going to be giving you today are based off our experience this recipe should make about 10 to a dozen small puddings we're going to start by combining about one cup of fine bread crumbs with a half a cup of currants or raisins and the zest of a half a lemon and a cup of grated suet instead of bread crumbs in this recipe you could use pounded up ships biscuits we offer ships biscuits at Jamestown and sun in these one pound bags you get about six biscuits to the bag now back to our recipe make sure your ingredients are well Incorporated in a separate Bowl you need to whisk up two eggs two egg yolks and a half a teaspoon of powdered Ginger now combine your wet and your dry ingredients it should make a pretty stiff paste once this is mixed you can roll it into small egg sized balls you want to roll these in flour after you've turned them into your egg size shape now just as a reminder we're cooking these in boiling water rather than frying them you're going to need to stir these occasionally they need to boil for 15 or 20 minutes a lot better than four hours and that's it a very simple yet popular dish fresh out of the pot these look a little soggy on the outside but let them rest a few minutes and they'll firm right up this can be served hot or cold with any kind of sweet sauce a molasses honey maple sugar or a pudding sauce made with equal parts melted butter sugar and Sac which is a sherry wine these are something you really ought to try they're actually very very good they have a really nice texture with the sweet sauce they've got a really nice sweetness the raisins are in there you can taste that hint of Ginger and the lemon zest really a wonderful thing as good as these are it's amazing that they've dropped off the culinary scene hmm really good [Music] I'm hungry I'm hungry Ivy what are you hungry for three four chocolate I agree well I did promise you something special for when you're done with your chores are you done with your chore yes I am well let's get started then so are we going to make we're going to make something that would be a rare treat for someone in the 18th century we're going to use a recipe for chocolate biscuits from the 1770 cookbook the court and Country confectioner biscuits well cookies really how are we going to start this recipe starts off with a half a pound of almonds I thought we were going to eat chocolate well it has chocolate in it but we're going to start off with the almonds I've already blanched these almonds in boiling water for a minute and then removed the Skins now I'm going to mash these up but before I start I'm going to add a little egg white why do you add egg white right well this is to keep the almonds from oiling almonds have a very high content of oil and if you don't have egg whites in there they'll become oily as you're crushing them and then they'll be ruined this can take quite a while if you want to make this but you don't have a mortar you can use a heavy bowl and a spoon if you are working in a modern kitchen you can pulse the almonds in a food processor but even then it may take quite a while to work it down into a paste but Dad can't you buy this at the store well I suppose I highly recommend doing this ahead of time in your food processor or buying it from the store this is nearly impossible okay our almond paste is finally ready let's get it in the bowl ah come on there we are now we can get out the chocolates what type of chocolate is it this is a special kind of chocolate it's an authentic 18th century style chocolate called American Heritage chocolate it's a dark chocolate seasoned with a hint of cinnamon and other spices it comes in three Styles a six ounce block pre-grated chocolate and a convenient 12 ounce canister or individually wrapped chocolate bites we also offer a less expensive chocolate called el popular a dark chocolate that's lightly seasoned with cinnamon and almonds we're melting two ounces of American Heritage chocolate the recipe suggests melting this over a very low fire foreign [Music] whether you're cooking this over an open fire or in a modern kitchen the important thing is that the chocolate is heated very slowly and stir it so that it doesn't burn let's add our chocolate to our almond paste we're also going to add a medium egg white and three to four tablespoons of sugar [Music] this is going to work a lot better if you stir this up with your hands get them right in there go ahead smoosh it up get all mixed up I don't want to get my hands dirty now we need to roll this into a log I can do that the recipe explains uh cutting this trying to get in into small slices by using two different knives so we're gonna pin the the roll or our little log between the two slices take our two knives and quickly slice off thin little pieces this method works really well as long as your knives are very clean hey I have an idea what about this foreign you go ahead you can keep cutting I'm going to put these on our baking sheet we got a baking sheet here that's lined with paper what kind of paper is it it's just regular writing paper okay I'm going to tend to the oven you keep cutting okay if you're cooking these in a modern kitchen you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees [Music] you need to let these completely cool before you try to remove them from the paper I can hardly stand it it smells so good in here here if the paper ever sticks to what you're baking you can dampen the back side just a bit with a wet cloth well what does it taste like is it good yeah that's what I thought chocolate in the 1700s was a fairly rare treat and was available but usually only reserved for the well to do it wasn't until the mid-1800s that it became cheap enough and available enough for common folks now you can get it everywhere uh in the upcoming episodes Ivy and I will be working on two or three more uh chocolate recipes [Music] hi Dad hi ivy have I told you today how much I love chocolate twice now Ivy but tell me again I could live on chocolate really I love chocolate to the Moon and back so I'll bet you're wanting to make something chocolate today yes I've got a great recipe how about a chocolate tart yeah this recipe is from the 1800 edition of Hannah glasses cookbook the complete confectioner let's get started [Music] we're going to start by mixing four large egg yolks to that we're going to add about a tablespoon of rice flour we're going to need about a tablespoon of milk there we go and we also need a pinch of salt here's some salt there we are and now we're going to whisk this up I'll get it started and then I'll let you whisk it okay get it good and mixed okay here you go you can whisk it when this is whisked up nice and smooth we're gonna set this bowl aside and work on our next step in our next step we have a pint of cream which is brought to a simmer and I'm adding to that five ounces of the grated chocolate mmm chocolate I'm also going to add three tablespoons of sugar now we can add a little bit of our chocolate mix here to our egg mixture why just a little bit well we don't want to cook our eggs so we're gonna temper them by adding just a small amount first once the eggs have come up to temperature then we can add this mixture back in to all the rest of our chocolate so now let's take our our mixture here and we're going to pour it in your [Music] now we're going to take this back put it over the fire keep stirring it and it should thicken right up right away once this starts boiling it'll only take a minute or two to thicken okay where's that pie crust we prepared earlier [Music] I'm gonna I'm gonna hold the pan can you get more of that out for me here take the take the Whisk there and help me get more of that out get all the way up in there right over there we need a spoon we do there's a spoon let me get the last little bit out here take the Whisk thank you is is I don't know there we are let's spread this out nice and even this recipe makes the perfect amount for our handmade tart tin is it ready to eat yet not quite yet we're going to need to bake it first we're going to bake this for about 45 minutes and if you're baking it in a modern oven set it to 350 degrees oh is it ready not quite yet our final little step here is to sprinkle some sugar on and caramelize it with the salamander which is a very common way of finishing off a dessert in the 18th century a salamander you mean the amphibious kind no salamanders in the 18th century are a special heated iron that we use to do the caramelization so let's sprinkle some sugar on top all right how to do more than that like this okay like that now let's take the salamander to it [Music] now this pie is meant to be served completely cold this should set even after it's cold for a good three or four hours so it completely solidifies and and uh yeah I know maybe we should try a just a little piece right now okay we'll take a little tiny piece here even though it's not completely cold yet let's give it a try bring the plate over hurry oh there let's give it a little try here I'll let you have that little end piece here we go there we go give that a try [Music] hmm that turned out great that's a little chocolate pie or a chocolate tart isn't that wonderful are going to make another chocolate recipe today we sure are this one's an easy one but a good one especially on a cold day like today what is it it's a recipe from Maria rundell's 1814 cookbook for something that she simply calls chocolate it's actually a recipe for a simple chocolate syrup used to make hot chocolate I love hot chocolate let's get started [Music] this is a very easy recipe I've gotten a head start on this by getting a pint of water boiling in our little pot here and what we're going to do is add the chocolate to it very carefully very slowly while stirring it foreign how much chocolate did you put in that hot water about six ounces ivy for years we've offered uh this sort of chocolate it's lightly flavored with cinnamon and almond it's very similar to a chocolate of the 18th century and comes in a seven and a half ounce bar looks pretty smooth is it ready not quite I still need to add it back onto the fire for just a bit I noticed your continuing really stirring it right what next actually that's it for right now the syrup is done I'm gonna pour it into this jar that way we can use it later um but what about now okay let's make some chocolate Maria Rundell goes on to say that we can make up our chocolate drink by taking about a pint of milk that's been simmered now we're going to add to that about three tablespoons of our chocolate syrup that we've already prepared there we go that's about right and to that we're going to add about a tablespoon of sugar regular white sugar there we are now we can Stir It Up with our chocolate pot now that it's all mixed let's serve it up into a mug and try it out to try good yeah let's try hmm perfect great today I'm going to be fixing a rather simple but delicious dish using fresh green beans or French beans as they were called in the 18th century one of the ingredients in this recipe is ketchup now when we say ketchup today most people think about tomato ketchup but the word ketchup in the 18th century could mean a variety of different things we'll be exploring that topic today as well thanks for joining us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend and sun [Music] today we're going to be making a ragu of French beans from a recipe in John Farley's 1783 cookbook the London art of cookery we're going to start off with a pound of fresh green beans in the 18th century cookbooks green beans were almost always called French beans and typically in the recipes they were called to be cut lengthwise and even today this style of cut is called French style cut green beans most of the recipes I've seen for a ragu of French beans specifically call for the the cook to cut the beans crosswise so we've taken our beans we've cut the ends and tips off and cut them into thirds we're gonna fry these beans a little fat until they're lightly browned you can use any type of fat oil butter lard or even beef fat will do once they're browned we'll remove the beans and drain them and we'll pour off the grease from our pan now in our pan We'll add about a half a stick or two ounces of butter that we've rolled in flour along with about a quarter of a cup of water we'll also add two tablespoons of mushroom ketchup along with two to four tablespoons of white wine or sack we'll also add a couple of Blades of Mace along with some freshly grated nutmeg and a little pepper the mushroom ketchup has enough salt in it already finally We'll add one medium onion this onion has been peeled and stuck with loaves this is a fairly common way of using onions in the 18th century many times they were thought of not only as an ingredient but also as a seasoning this onion we will remove before we finish the dish while this is simmering for a few minutes let's talk about ketchup [Music] the modern definition of ketchup is that of a sweet and tangy condiment but it wasn't until the 19th century that tomato ketchup began to dominate the market as well as public perception there are very few recipes in 18th century English cookbooks that call for the use of tomatoes but we know from other literature such as gardening books and Physicians manuals that Tomatoes were cultivated in kitchen Gardens for use in salads soups and sauces the earliest tomato ketchup recipes didn't appear in English cookbooks until the turn of the 19th century prior to that ketchup was a general term that described a number of different sauces in the 18th century ketchup was used the same as it is today both as an ingredient and as a condiment right there on the table but ketchup was made from ingredients other than tomatoes mushroom ketchup was very common in the 18th century a while back we produced a very popular video on how to make mushroom ketchup mushroom ketchup can be used for roast beef or poultry it goes well with Savory puddings and can also add that something extra for Soups and stews James Townsend and son now offers a couple of new ketchup products the first is this George Watkins mushroom ketchup it's based on an early 19th century recipe and tastes exactly like the mushroom ketchup that we made in our video another new product we're carrying at James Townsend and sun is George Watkins anchovy sauce this product is only available on our website this has a stronger flavor a little goes a long way so if you want to liven up your historical food experiences now there are some options mushroom ketchup or anchovy sauce okay our sauce has simmered for a while and it is reduced nicely I want to now remove the onion and add back the beans a quick stir and that's it I'll transfer it to a plate and serve it up let's give this a try [Music] you can really taste the spices and the mushroom sauce excellent in this dish you're gonna really enjoy this [Music] and something a little different a dish that was popular all the way from the mid-18th century to the 20th century found in British cookbooks and also popular in colonial America we're going to be making a hunter's pudding thanks for joining us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend inside foreign is a type of Plum Pudding and a plum in this context means raisins Plum puddings were often associated with special occasions served during certain holidays or when visitors came to visit the name Hunter's pudding may be a bit deceiving we need to be careful about assuming that it was a favorite dish for Backwoods rather a hunter's pudding was likely a pudding that would have been reserved for various special occasions such as a formal hunt but that's not to say Ordinary People didn't enjoy a hunter's pudding on occasion Hunter's puddings were popular from the mid-1700s up until the beginning of the 20th century let's get started we're going to be making a recipe from the ladies assistant a 1775 cookbook published from Charlotte Mason's manuscripts we're making half batches today so if you want to make a full-size batch all you'll need to do is double the ingredients it will change the cooking time so we'll talk about that as we cook it but to start let's look at the ingredients I'm using a half pound of flour and a half pound of suet now when I say suet I mean kidney fat in a previous episode we explored the difference between suet and hard muscle fat and when it comes to making puddings there's a huge difference so if you go to your butcher to ask for suet make sure he gives you kidney fat if you can't find kidney fat to use or if you have neither the time nor the inclination to render yourself James Townsend and son now carries a Torah shredded suet this suet is made from rendered kidney fat it's stabilized with a little flower because it's rendered properly it doesn't need refrigerated in addition we're using a half a pound of currants unlike the fleshy red berries that go by the same name and are related to the Gooseberry these currents are small dried seedless Corinthian grapes also on our pudding we'll be using about four ounces of raisins now raisins in the 18th century had seeds in them so they had to be cut open and the seeds removed before they could be used in a recipe like this there were different kinds of raisins in the 18th century the best of the raisins were dried in the Sun as opposed to dried in ovens these were called raisins of the Sun and most of the time they were imported in jars so they would be many times called jar raisins the best of these raisins were called Malaga or moscatel raisins they were grown in Spain and imported throughout much of Europe and North America our modern raisins are similar in quality to a mid-level jar raisin of the 18th century while having the convenience of being seedless next we're going to be adding a couple of tablespoons of candied orange peel and candied Citron our recipe will also use about a teaspoon of nutmeg and three to four tablespoons of Brandy now here's something interesting about the addition of branded these puddings it started to be added in the second half of the 18th century and in many of the recipes they find that the addition of the Brandy helped in the preservation of the pudding and many times it's noted that the puddings can be kept for up to six months if you keep the pudding still wrapped in its pudding cloth and kept up Out Of Reach This allowed Cooks to make multiple puddings at once serving one immediately and the others later on finally back to our recipe we'll need four eggs and one cup of cream now that's it for the ingredients now that we've gathered them up let's put this pudding together preparing this pudding is going to be very easy we're just going to add all of our dry ingredients plus our sweet meats and don't forget to add the nutmeg that's mixed quite well okay now that our dry ingredients are done let's move on to our wet ingredients let's whisk our eggs together [Music] and then we're going to add in cream and our last wet ingredient are Brandy now let's add this to our dry ingredients should make a pretty thick paste now when you're going to boil a pudding there are a few things you have to have ready to go you need a couple of pots of water boiling our large one will be for boiling the pudding itself the smaller pot we'll use to refill the water as the water boils away you'll also need a clean piece of cloth one for each of the puddings you're going to boil linen makes a really good pudding cloth the the water makes the fiber swell up and the weave even tighter you can also use cotton osnaberg go ahead and scald these cloths you'll also need to Stout cord to tie the cloth off with remove the cloths from the boiling water and dust each with a little flour then set each one aside flower side up into a bowl gather your pudding dough and place it on top of the cloth tie the bag tightly around the dough now it's time to put this in the boiling water and boil it for three hours you want to make sure to only replenish this water with boiling water you want this water to not stop boiling it at any time because that'll increase your cooking times now like I said this is a half size pudding if you're going to be doing a full size pudding you'll want to boil this for four hours okay the Hunter's pudding has boiled three hours you'll need a bucket of cold water on hand by dipping the hot pudding in the cold water for a few seconds it will make it easier to get the cloth off without damaging the surface of your pudding [Music] if you don't want to spend four or five hours boiling and pudding at your next event you can cook these ahead of time you can cook these the week before if you leave them in their pudding cloth then you can take them to the event when you're ready to use them you can either boil them for an hour right before you need them or you can slice them cold and then either fry them or broil them these puddings were usually served with a sauce and the sauce we're using here is the most common type which is equal parts of butter sugar and sac let's give these a try they're very dense and Rich kind of food here these are chock full of raisins and they're nice and sweet in fact compared to today's palette 18th century folks were not used to such sweet things so it's likely that this would be the sweetest thing they would eat all year long these would make a great addition or finish to uh to a nice period meal and because you can fix them the week ahead of time they're a perfect kind of thing you can you can pull out of the hat and Fry these up from something that's been prepared without spending the four hours of boiling them at the event you should really try these These are wonderful dishes very nice Michael before we begin cooking today uh I want our viewers to get a chance to know you better you've been to our store many times in Pearson and frankly it's your your passion and enthusiasm for reenacting that's that's got us interested in and uh how long have you and your wife been doing a historical reenacting just a little over two years so you're a bit of a neophyte at this absolutely what sort of uh historical time period and Persona do you do you do oh it's uh French and Indian or up until Revolution 1750s to 1780s and that's kind of persona um I haven't developed that yet it's just the 92 percent of the population who were farmers and what we try to do if we're in Western Virginia is research what would have been available at that time of year there versus Ohio or Michigan or Tennessee right so that's that's we just labor class absolutely not looking shabby like I just struggle out of the woods but just trying to make it through the next year right and what I have that is a typical meal and and a area specific we try which is very which varies a lot from absolutely absolutely yes berries that are in season in Michigan might might be passed so time and location I try to do what if you were there today in my time what right what I've been working with so Michael most Korean actors uh choose uh trades or battles or specific soldiers to do but you focus on 18th century food ways what led you to that decision you know Deb and I as the public as members of the public would go to these different events and we'd see a lot of people making noise and making smoke or coming out of the woods and and we just wanted to do something different and we didn't see a lot of people just being everyday people and and we like to cook and the few times we saw people demonstrating cooking sometimes you were seeing things that obviously would be more toward the Civil War porcelain plates or things like that and we thought well heck we could do that we could do that we just looked each other said let's try it and that's exactly how it happened so Michael you've told us you know why you do cooking and reenactments but why do you choose historical reenactment itself when we would go on vacation when I was little um our families would go to um michelamachina or Boonsboro or any place like that we'd always stop it at Fort my long-suffering mother would go along with us and and tour the forts but so many people spent time to talk to me as a kid as the age of your youngest child um and and and make sure that I was understanding what they were doing and why and I that that just made an impression on me and and we chose food because we didn't see other people doing food today and and we like to cook but what I'm trying to pass on is that passion to just pass you know get these people to to get a little more out of it than just seeing clashes and smoke and cooking is a good way to engage with the problem Cooks I'm just showing them what they would have done instead of tonight's supper at home but my tonight's supper would have been 250 years ago sure yeah so how do you engage the public directly you know when we look through all these old recipes um we we try to choose things that are easy and short so that I'm not just doing a five hour in the pot wonder that nobody can see happening we try to turn these things every half an hour to an hour so um I've chosen three recipes that are either variations of things you've already shot videos on or just simple things that anyone could do um during their reenactments or their demonstrations or whatever or they can take these home with them and still do a absolutely simple it can engage even with their own kids or whatever yep and we I get the kids involved I pick things I don't let them do sharp things or hot things but whether it's a grade school kid or a high school kid is I love school days because they have such great questions and there's such an interest because they get to cook at home right and so I let them help grind stuff or mince or a great stuff or or just anything like that butter do my absolutely yeah it's just fun I never expected to enjoy that as much as I do but I really like that interaction it's just a connection that and everybody loves food oh it's no kidding it's fun yeah so what are we going to make today Michael Scott's eggs or Scottish eggs or Scotch eggs it's most commonly referred to absolutely yes okay let's let's make it let's Scotch eggs alrighty I have minced up a half a pound of ham finally with my knife and what I'm gonna do is uh use this as just like a mortar and pestle and once we have pulverized this so it's no longer looking like little crumbs little squares of ham we are going to add a quarter cup of breadcrumbs right some allspice a nutmeg to taste and salt and pepper to taste and a well beaten egg so we're just going to throw that all in here okay I'm gonna sneak up on my salt because right each cured ham is has its different consistency of salt I've got just uh I've got some green onion mints because I like that in here and um I'm gonna get her an egg in here so just one egg yolk just one egg yolk yes thank you John and I'm just gonna mush this all up so it's a nice Patty consistency if it's still a little dry just add a little more egg and what we're going to do now is get a Patty made up in one hand and a Patty made up in the other hand and then with your third hand with my third hand we're gonna plop an article egg in there okay we're gonna Encompass it and right in between there I'm looking for about a half an inch of meat on this so we're just going to lay it in the pan I've got some uh some suet in here and the secret is to just be turning this frequently so it's not burning and it's cooking to set the egg because the egg is one of the binders we're just going to keep rolling this slowly and not burn my hand since this is ham it doesn't need to have a whole lot of color right I am just warming that's right so I like the tour I like using the Torah because there's no there's no taste of the the animal fat you know with a lard or with butter and stuff it butter burns more easily right and the lard sometimes will you'll taste that and I don't taste anything except yeah the suet has a high high cooking temperature so yep it's very forgiving for this when I can't really control the temperature perfectly we're almost done here I think I'm about ready to pull it out and if I were prepared to have something to pull it out and put it on too here we go thank you sir that's it let me get my pan off here we're gonna let that cool just a little bit before we cut it it helps it set a little bit and that's just about it thank you sir these look great I can't wait to see what they're going to look like on the inside we'll we'll find out won't we let's find out [Music] oh yeah perfect okay so we got them we get a nice little presentation very good and the only thing that we would add is a little sauce here and this sauce is it's nothing but cream a little Roux flour and butter I added some pepper a little salt and some of the uh some chicken stock that's it go to it okay it's okay are you getting in here here yep that's it that's perfect foreign [Music] that's very good it's not the flavor I was expecting out of it I mean you see this and you you don't think a ham um ground up so it definitely is a different flavor I'm I can I can't imagine anybody complaining about getting this for this recipe is really really good I think anybody who gives it such a chance takes a little bit of extra effort but it is very very worth it I want to thank you for bringing this to us today it's my pleasure thank you love to have you I think this was a great opportunity I want to thank all you for joining us and watching today as we Savor the Flavors in the Aromas of the 18th century so in some previous episodes you brought us a couple of great uh recipes or dishes what are we going to do today we are going to make a forced meat balls which today we just called meatballs they would mix on occasion a variety of meats right I've got a half pound of chicken half pound of ham um and uh just uh enough bacon for my taste it it's a third ingredient okay we can certainly do that and you're gonna just mix this all up oh yes so you want me to add these spices here while you're still sure nutmeg and mace and we've got some crushed black pepper right and that is all to taste if you want a recipe it's about a half a teaspoon of each if you could dump I've got two egg yolks just go ahead and pop those in okay thank you you want a little salt in that too if you would please just a couple pinches will be fine and I'm just going to mix this up to a to a nice paste consistency not too sloppy and not too dry I'm gonna make these bowls and if you want to roll them up in flour put them on a plate I think we'll be all set okay here we go yep that's the last one for now okay let's get cleaned up and we'll get our pan ready okay if you would just throw a little suet in here okay so this is the Torah yeah I wouldn't have more enough I wouldn't have guessed that this would be great for frying in because of the the flour stuff now we're gonna take it hot and then I'd like you to just pop the meatballs in thank you very much we are just gonna treat them just like at home we're just gonna roam around a little bit this is so easy it's a one pot Wonder um I'm gonna make a uh a mushroom and leek sauce to pour over these but you could eat these all by themselves they could accompany some other dish you've got but bring your cooking to the foreground so that other people can see it happening I suppose if you wanted to cheat you could bring them pre-cooked to your van you can show as much as you want to show but be authentic if you want to prepare some of the stuff at home so it's just easier and quicker because you don't have a lot of time right between your events or whatever that makes sense I demonstrate as much as I can as quickly as I can so people are constantly seeing it happening so I think we're about done I don't know if I mentioned this before this is Mark Thomas's double Brazier I've got the optional trivets there are two come in the set we're just going to keep those warm while I go to my next recipe already we're ready to make the mushroom and leek sauce which we're going to pour over the uh over the meatball the first meatballs I've just got a small onion I've got a half a leek okay and um I've got some mushrooms so what we're gonna do is sweat we need a little suet okay and we're just gonna sweater on this perfect a little bit good a little more yeah I can do that thank you all right perfect and then we'll just introduce the onions in here okay so you want onions yes sir just the onions both sides okay and the leeks good enough sir and hips we're just gonna get these just reduced here a little salt and pepper to taste if you just want to do a pinch of each you'll be fine okay these are just about down here once you introduce the mushrooms and we're gonna we're gonna let those reduce down there you go perfect thank you and uh they are gonna start uh releasing their moisture and once they've started doing that we're just going to throw some flour in here to kind of thicken up a little bit we're going to add two to three teaspoons of your mushroom ketchup if we can start introducing a little at a time the chicken broth just a little at a time there we go that's good thank you yeah perfect thank you that looks like a wonderful sauce you could use for lots of different things well I'm using the chicken because I prefer the chicken broth but you can use a beef broth and you can I'm thinking you can put this over you know different kinds of meat or well not baked potatoes right I mean they use a lot of mashed potatoes um a bread that's too old yeah you could crumb it up in this or pour it over there's so many period correct things you could do I think we're good I know we have extra stuff left but I think we're good for this so yeah if you like I can just take this over with the meatballs and we'll I'll take the sauce you can take me perfect thank you let's go yeah sir let's give these a shot okay let's give these another shot wow the bacon in there is really good along with the other stuff and the leak great gravy yeah yeah you can taste that mushroom ketchup in there and it I didn't overpower it with that mushroom ketchup I would eat that in a bowl by itself right that's some of my top five favorite tastes unexpected wouldn't have quit the nutmeg in ever right without reading the recipe and that's and you can taste it it's right there so you know you talked about earlier um uh interacting with the public interacting with other reenactors but you got another reason why you think cooking is great for reenacting well if you're at the regimental level and you're you're seeing what it really took to to prepare a weapon and keep it in fighting trim and how many times a minute you can fire at you right have an idea of what war was like then just a glimpse of what war was like this is the same for me I and I had no idea how much work it would take to prepare the simplest dishes that they were working all the time they were working all the time to make dishes and to prepare food it was so difficult the things they used the technology they had were heavy the fire there's so many awful stories of tragic scaldings and burnings of women from the fire from their the way their apparel and this the way the the heat sources were arranged it's experiencing history yes not only do you you know get to smell it and you get to you know do the actions and feel it but you get to taste of what they tasted so it's a really great way to connect it is and connect with people and to connect through time this is really yeah I only do this because it's an excuse for a middle-aged man to eat badly it's just no there's nothing bad in here Michael I want to I want to really thank you for all the tremendous work you've done my pleasure you made all this possible Right everything you offered you picked out some wonderful recipes that are good for other people um period recipes easy for other people to do and uh you've you've brought up some great points about uh why we want to put do cooking at reenactments we want to take the time um it encourages other reenactors it encourages us it gives us some great connections with history so there's so many great reasons to really take the time to learn about cooking and to do it right there at the event so people get to to see that interact with it so it's wonderful thank you so much thank you sir thank you so much for coming with all these great things and I want to thank you for joining us today for watching this video as we Savor the Flavors in the Aromas of the 18th century [Music] in addition to opening up new ways of engaging with the public give us another reason why you think it's great to add cooking into your historical reenacting it's also engaging with other organ actors we've had more unexpected relationships developed just through sharing food you know it's just like sharing breaking bread at home with your friends or your relatives your family it's just a heartfelt thing we bring it around otherwise I'd have to throw it away so whether it's a breakfasty thing or a suppery thing we just pass it around it was a great way to learn oh my Heavens yes but first of all they all have their own ideas of what they've done like that in the past and and secondly it's just the the Friendship doesn't end it just oh you'll get an email you'll get a phone call it just I never expected that so obviously this food must be very popular with the reenactors what's the most popular dish one of the most popular and one of the easiest ones is a variation of your theme you guys did Milk pancakes all we do is I make some jam and I make some whipped cream and uh introduce that on into that pancake and it can be served in the same manner or you can just put it in the middle and roll them up they're lined up with their plates for seconds it's wonderful and they're so easy to make yeah let's make some today we're gonna the recipe I use is adapted from Maria rondelle's cookbook a new system of domestic cookery we'll start mixing together in a large bowl two cups of flour a half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg half a teaspoon of salt and one whole teaspoon of ground ginger in a separate Bowl I whisked together one egg and two and a quarter cups of milk we'll then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients whisk together and the resulting batter should be smooth and a little thicker than cream if yours is too thick just add a little more milk So today we're going to be cooking over Brazier instead of a campfire yes sir well I'll tell you why um and it's so appropriate that you offered it at the time you did because I got rain out of an event and I had driven a long way and spent a lot of money on food to not have a presentation all weekend I have a washed out fire fire pit with head duckies in it yeah and so uh I I purchased one of these and I've never looked back it's I can do more than one thing at once I can adjust where the heat is and isn't and you can bring it up to where it's easy to cook without bending over a fire and I live at home it's it's better than a Hibachi I love to use it at home right now I'm using a hardwood charcoal for today it's I have nice even heat with it but I generally I'm using uh splitting up the firewood that's offered at the different events right and I can just send it in this thing accepts the wood the way it's been cut I don't have to re-split it or break it it's just wonderful and the beauty of this is you can be working on your pancakes on your side and I can be preparing the jam on mine foreign I'm going to use red raspberries and blackberries just a combination of each I've also used strawberries at events today but that works very well then I'm going to have the same amount of sugar as I said and we're just going to get this thing going and as it Heats I'm going to mash the fruit and then I stir constantly for maybe four minutes and then I just set it aside and let it gel so you're trying to get this to a jam like consistency what thickens it up oh um yeah I as a matter of fact let me just show you um you'll know when you're ready to go uh when you uh introduce a spoon into it um and then it heavily sticks to the side okay and that's exactly what's happening now so they can pull this out it's all fruit contains pectin some more than others uh raspberries are not bad and so I'm just going to set this aside let it cool and it'll be the consistency of the jam you're used to buying in the store good so you've made the jam you're gonna make whipped cream right right here yep right now using one of your ointment jars and I'm I'm just gonna put some butter around the around the edge right now so here's our heavy whipping cream and we're a little less than half full and I'm just gonna put this lid on top and my seals nicely okay I'm just gonna shake it I like the indent it helps to hold it makes it easy it does I'm gonna go until I don't feel the liquid um moving around in there and when it's just in a kind of a sloppy State that's I'm getting towards whipped cream if I go past whipped cream and I feel a lump slapping around in there I've got butter it's a good uh thing for kids to do too I always have kids doing this for me I've owned three of these and I can have them passed out and they can be doing it it helps they can be doing something else and it's just something and then they they open it up and see the whipped cream okay last of the pancakes is done how's that how's that whipped cream well I think we're done let's look hang on a second we're ready we are ready okay let's go okay I'm ready so tell me how are we gonna finish these off why don't you sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar over the top okay on the first one there okay and um yep that's perfect and we're just gonna do a little bit section right here okay so we got cinnamon sugar and jam this is raspberry jam and whipped cream just in case you should roll that up roll it just roll around okay and then introduce the open end interior the Apple not bad not bad mom I have to eat I'm not gonna eat cheese all day and then I want to thank you for bringing this wonderful recipe to us has been really good I want to thank you for joining us today as we Savor the Flavors and the Aromas of the 18th century I could eat these all day yeah yeah many of the foods that we've cooked here on 18th century cooking with James Townsend and son have been using old recipes recipes that have nearly been lost while reading through John mollard's 1801 cookbook the art of cooking Made Easy and refined we run into a little bit of a surprise something that seems very contemporary and is found on many modern fast food menus that's the fried onion ring but this recipe has a little twist thanks for watching us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend and son foreign [Music] onions were an important vegetable in the 18th century we know from period writings that a number of strains of onions were cultivated ranging from sweet and Mild to strong and hot onions were harvested in various stages of growth if the plantings were staggered properly a family would have onions year around but only the stronger tasting onions would have been put into winter storage sweet onions had to be consumed shortly after they were harvested onions contained sulfur compounds that's why our eyes become irritated when we chop them these sulfur compounds are responsible for the onions flavor but it also helps preserve the onion we were a bit surprised to find this recipe for onion rings and one would expect them to be a simple garnish but Mallard apparently intended these to be a dish unto themselves so I've cut these onions into half inch slices I'm using Spanish onions today now let's get our Frying fat ready this recipe calls for lard we're using enough for our five quart Kettle here this Kettle is a good period reproduction available on our website obviously we've got large pots of very hot oil and an open fire need I say more be very very careful we'll keep an eye on this while it heats up in the meantime we'll work on the batter I've started with three eggs that I've beaten really well and to this we'll add five tablespoons of cream in addition a dash of salt and a pinch of pepper next we'll add about a quarter of a cup of flour then we'll add our secret ingredient four ounces of finely grated Parmesan cheese this is ready to go let's cook some up our grease is hot I'm going to dip the Rings and then one by one lay them into the hot lard we'll fry these until they are golden brown on the bottom side then we'll carefully flip them and fry them a few minutes more be careful they're hot these look great and they smell even better Mallard suggests serving these with mustard in a melted butter sauce but I'm going to try it just like they come Roger F1 [Music] just like onion rings you could expect with a wonderful Zing of Parmesan cheese who would have expected onion rings in the 18th century in a previous episode we did a dish fried onion rings something that's thought to be purely modern but it actually came from John mollard's 1801 cookbook the art of cooking Made Easy and refined today we're going to be making another one of John mallard's recipes a recipe for 18th century onion soup thanks for joining us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend and son [Music] we start by placing four ounces of butter in our spider along with about four tablespoons of flour I'll want to keep this stirred well while it Browns so it doesn't burn next I'll add eight mid-sized onions peeled and sliced very thin any onions will do white yellow sweet unlike onions so I'm using a lot of red onion which is a stronger flavor red onions were used in the 18th century probably more often in medicine but they were used in cooking as well I'll season this with a little salt I'll continue to stir this until the onions are soft and they have begun to caramelize the longer I reduce them the sweeter and more flavorful they will become we need about three quarts of beef stock on the five here we're gonna add our onions we're gonna let this simmer about 30 minutes while this is simmering I'm gonna prepare the rest of our ingredients onion soup is routinely served over a piece of bread sometimes that bread was toasted as we are doing other times it was fried in addition mallard's version of the onion soup here is a cream of onion soup so I have prepared what's called a liaison it's uh four egg yolks a cup of cream and a little bit of salt and we're going to add this to the soup mollard's onion soup here is just a very plain basic onion soup you could add a lot of things to this I'm gonna season this one with a little bit of our Mrs Frazier's mixed spices this is an authentic blend of spices from an 18th century recipe it contains black pepper allspice nutmeg and clove this will be a great addition you can also add other things like vegetables or other kinds of spices after 20 minutes this is looking wonderful I'm gonna dish some out [Music] this smells wonderful let's give it a quick try hmm this is really really good you're going to really enjoy this it's got a wonderful medley of flavors the wonderful sweet onions you can get all those wonderful spice flavors in there the texture of the bread this is really great soldiers in the 18th century were given very simple rations a pound of meat a day and a pound of bread a day and many times the bread was substituted with just plain flour that's what we're going to be cooking with thanks for joining us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend inside [Music] thank you here's what I found in Hannah glass is the art of cookery made plain and easy from 1778. to make hard dumplings mix flour and water with a little salt like a paste roll them into balls as big as a turkey's egg and roll them in a little flour have the water boiling throw them in the water half an hour to boil them they are best boiled with a good piece of beef you may add for a change of few currants have melted butter in a cup I thought that was very interesting there's something that you can make with just a little bit of flour and a little bit of salt and it goes perfectly with a soldier's boiled beef so that's what we're going to be making today hard little dumplings we're going to be starting off with just a little bit of flour here in my bowl and I'm going to add a pinch of salt to it if a soldier may not have salt so that's purely optional and then we're going to add our water a little bit at a time I suppose you could use some beef broth out of your boiled meat here instead of the plain water if you're boiling a piece of meat like this for several hours your dumplings should go in at the very end of your boil right before you serve it we're just going to roll these up into uh nice little balls about a chicken egg size and roll them a little bit in that flour that's still left in the bottom of the bowl and then we can put these directly into our are boiling broth [Music] these are going to need to boil for about 20 minutes [Music] our meat's done and so are our dumplings let's give these a try these dumplings are a great addition to a simple boiled meat dish you're gonna love them today we're going to be making a very simple soldiers Apple boiled pudding thanks for joining us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend and son [Music] several episodes ago we made hard dumplings which was a perfect example of what a soldier could do with a simple flower ration that he would have been given instead of his normal bread ration today we're going to be looking at a very similar idea here we're going to be making an apple dumpling or a boiled apple pudding it would be very similar to what a soldier a traveler or somebody very low means a very poor person could make something very similar to this apple dumplings are exceedingly easy to make I'm just going to use a very simple bowl that might be a cup and a half of flour I'm gonna add enough water to make a sticky paste I've got our simple sticky paste here we have got to have enough to cover our Apple the I've got a apple that I've cored here already we're just gonna put it back together in its shape and and then try to get this all the way around our Apple we should have about a quarter of an inch or slightly less as you can see it's formed up it's got a nice layer all the way around it I'm going to set this aside it's time to get our pudding cloth prepared I just have a bit of natural linen fabric here this is probably about 18 inches Square we're going to toss it in our boiling water and it needs to be floured now we'll just take our dumpling put it right there in the middle I tied this up but not too tight because this likely will grow as it boils this is ready to go in the water we need to make sure that our water is boiling we before we put it in the cooking time really depends on how big your Apple is and how large the coating is you put around it this one turned out to be about softball size I'm guessing that this will take about 45 minutes to an hour to cook let's take a look there's dumpling hmm that's really good it's it's very simple I mean just a flower and the Apple but you still get some wonderful baked apple taste in it along with the flour it's very filling it isn't very uh super sweet but there's some sweetness there you would really be surprised a little bit of salt to the to the dough would help a little bit a little bit of sugar to sprinkle on top or butter would be really great but even like it is even as simple as this is it makes a wonderful dish today we're going to be looking at a very common ingredient in many 18th century recipes the current currants have been a subject of much debate and confusion through the centuries today we'll be talking about exactly what a current is how they were used and we'll be presenting a simple recipe on how you can make something with currants thanks for joining us today on 18th century cooking with James Townsend inside please foreign [Music] things first let's talk about exactly what a current is you can find the first in your grocery store right next to the raisins these are called zonte currants after the old name of the Greek island where they used to be grown zonte currents are little raisins processed from the small sweet grape that originated in the region of Corinth the word current is assumed to be a Corruption of the word Corinth it's thought that they were first introduced to English kitchens during the Crusades tax records from the 18th century suggest that zonte currents were imported in greater numbers than even regular raisins they were known as currants of the shops or currants of the Grocers they were very popular in a number of traditional British dishes such as boiled puddings mince meats and a Bread soup called panada just to name a few the second kind of current is called the garden current these juicy little berries are related to the Gooseberry they're in the ribes genus some people even today argue that these ribsberries are the true current ribe's currents are native to Northern Europe and Asia there are three basic varieties there's the red currant like these there's a white currant which is really just an albino variety of the red and then there's the very sour black currants red and white currants were preferred by most people in the 18th century over the black currants they were often used in Jellies jams as well as in Tarts black currants were popular in Jellies and puddings as well they were also called squincy berries being reduced to a lozenge or put into a syrup form to treat Quincy which is a chronic condition of the tonsils current jellies were a very popular condiment they were used in certain puddings in drinks and all sorts of meats ribe's currents were first successfully cultivated in Great Britain in the 16th century many people at that time thought they were the same thing as the Corinth grapes this confusion has continued for centuries I suppose if you squint hard enough the leaves look somewhat like those of a grape and the fruit grows in clusters or strings but probably the most confusion resulted from how they appear to be similar in their dried form the ribe's current Bush became known as the Raisin Tree and because it could be grown in kitchen Gardens it became so popular that it threatened to overshadow the zonte currents many of the earliest Settlers of North America thought that the ribe's current was so important that they thought to bring it along the earliest known cultivation of the European ribes in North America was 1629. currents are mentioned often in 18th century cookbooks and while some of them it's obvious which type of current to use most are rather ambiguous a good place to start in determining which type of current should be used is to look at the context of the recipe you're interpreting if the recipe is surrounded by other fruit or Berry recipes such as cherries or raspberries it's most likely that the ribes variety is intended to be used and likewise if it calls for the the currents to be Juiced it's probably also the ribes mince Meats on the other hand used zonte currents puddings puddings are sort of ambiguous it's hard to tell it's likely that they use whatever current they had on hand or whichever one they preferred but they would certainly give a different taste depending on which current you used we've used zonte currents before make sure to watch our videos on boiled puddings but today we're going to be concentrating on the ribes variety of currants these can be very hard to find in the United States this is in large part due to a federal ban on all black currant farming starting in the early 1900s this ban was shifted to State jurisdiction in 1966 and some states still Outlaw the black currant plant and some states Outlaw current farming altogether if you can't find these in a local store or Farmers Market you can find these online either Frozen or dried for more information make sure to see our cooking blog savoringthepast.net today we're going to be making a current tart these are very easy if you have fresh or frozen currants today I'm going to be using one of our handmade tart tins I've started by buttering our tin well and then lining it with a short crust be sure to watch our previous video series on different kinds of crusts or pastes as they were called in the 18th century next I'll sprinkle into the bottom of the crust just enough sugar to cover it then I'll fill that with berries about a cup and a half or 10 ounces of berries should be perfect for this tart tin size next I'll sprinkle over the berries in equal amount of sugar that's 10 ounces or about a cup and a quarter now that may seem like an awful lot of sugar on this pie but these berries really need it they're extremely tart so this is going to cook up and make it sweet enough you're going to need to cook this size of tart about an hour at 375 in a modern oven now you can of course bake this in your Earthen oven or in a dutch oven any of these methods you're really going to have to watch this to make sure it doesn't burn let's put this in the oven because currants have a fairly short harvest season they would preserve the currents for later use many times it would make a currant jelly or they would dry their currants or they would cover them in sugar for use later well here it is I've let this completely cool off and uh you know it looked like the sugar boiled over a little bit and it's going to make this very difficult to get out of the out of the tin but we'll give it a try very nice excellent very um uh wonderful rich flavor it reminds me a lot of raspberry it was very tart but very sweet at the same time you're gonna love this in our last episode of 18th century cooking with James Townsend and some we looked at a very important fruit the current today we're going to be doing another simple current recipe thanks for joining us today as we mentioned in the last video ribe's currents can be very hard to come by in the United States and normally we would shy away from suggesting the use of something that can be very frustrating to find but currents were a very important fruit in the time period that's why we're encouraging you to try out these recipes and we're including information in our savoringthepass.net cooking blog where you can purchase these currents one of the most popular uses for currents in the 18th century was current jelly current jelly is very easy to make we're starting with a jelly bag a jelly bag is simply a piece of fine lemon cloth we've dipped our jelly bag in hot water this expands and tightens the fibers we're setting the jelly bag in a Pancham this is a new product here at James Townsend and Sun this is a Pancham it was used generally as a mixing bowl but more specifically as a bowl for a separating cream from milk and for raising bread dough we're going to fill our jelly bag gather up the edges fairly Loosely and wrap and tie it with a heavy cord now I'm going to squeeze and twist it until I get all the juice I can from it an apron is a must for this step I'll repeat this process until I've got the desired amount of juice our juice measures out to about a cup and a half or 12 ounces I'll add an equal amount in weight of fine sugar I'll gently boil this skimming off any scum that develops it'll take 15 minutes I want to be sure to stir this so the bottom doesn't burn now to store this I'll pour the jelly into a small jar and allow the jelly to cool completely once this is cooled I'm going to take small Circles of paper that's cut to the size of the jar soak them in brandy and then lay them on top of the jelly once that's done I'm going to cover the jar up with a bladder Jamestown and Sun sells these imitation hog bladders made from all natural collagen make sure to check out one of our previous videos on how to use them people would have stored these in a cool dry place I recommend a refrigerator current jelly was used as a condiment on all sorts of meats beef uh pork poultry we're going to try this out with a little bit of chicken this could also be served on puddings on other kinds of desserts on ice cream even over certain drinks definitely some great flavors in there really brings out something different with some sweetness and some tartness along with the chicken flavor you're going to really really enjoy this

Channel: Townsends

Views: 148,551

Keywords: Nutmeg Tavern, townsends, history, historical food, 18th century, colonial, jon townsend, john townsend, historic site, colonial lifestyle, Thanksgiving, Watches, pocket watches, historic time pieces, antique watches

Id: 38FMonXupGM

Length: 82min 10sec (4930 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2022