The Old Foodie

The yogurt is puzzling--a cup of yogurt, in addition to the eggs, IN the meat mixture? And it stays firm? ← I intended to make this last Friday night - ran out of time to do the rolling into meatballs, so made it into meatloaf instead. It was great - good texture. I used very thick yoghurt - had drained it well so it was labneh (spelling?) really.

Sounds fantastic, and a whole lot better than the 19th C version. Thanks! Janet

Has anyone ever tried making their own Worcester(shire) Sauce ? I have a recipe from 1870 that I have been meaning to try for ages. Maybe I should shut-up thinking about it and get on with it!

It would be a full-time job for several people for a long time, I think.

My favourite meatball recipe ("Indian" flavoured) has mashed potato as the starchy bit. Great texture.

The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book, by Victor Hirtzler (1919) has these: Consommé Diane. Take any game bird, such as grouse, partridge, quail, pheasant or guinea hen, and roast just enough to give a color. Then put in soup stock and boil until soft. Clarify the broth with chopped beef, and strain. Cut the breast out of the bird, cut in small squares, and serve in the consommé. Add some dry sherry wine and a little Cayenne pepper before serving. Poached eggs, Diane. Line a tartelette mould with paste and fill with raw white beans to support the walls, and bake in oven. Then throw out the beans and fill with tomatoes sauté in butter, place a poached egg on top, cover with Hollandaise sauce, and put in hot oven for a second. There's a Canapes Diane too - but I am not sure of the "recipe" - chicken livers, I think.

I have a great recipe for a marzipan cake - a kind of pound cake idea with grated marzipan in the mixture, and some Amaretto liqueur. Adapted from a magazine (forget which) several years ago. pm me if you want it - not sure of the copyright issues. On another note - this is my first post in a long while - been too busy with a lot of things to risk the distraction here. It is good to be back.

HI Medini - I havent tried it, but from your description I know I'd like it. My favourite "B" food is bread - but that probably doesnt count as in the original story that prompted this thread, bread was a staple. Bananas are hard to do without, especially at breakfast. Baked Beans for lunch? Blue-Eye Cod for dinner - with black beans as per the fantastic quick recipe from Neil Perrys new ccokbook. We love this dish. Takes 8 minutes to cook.

Hello Medini - your post has jolted me into action; I have shamefully neglected this game (screaming deadline approaching) Naturally I think Aus is beautiful (although it is far too hot here right now) I now declare The Letter B!

The Frugal Girl has some great tips, and she is on a campaign to waste no food at all.

They havent been proven safe, that's the issue as I understand it.

People who behave like this give breastfeeding mothers a bad rep. ← mortifying unfortunate forced not words I'd ever expect to hear in relation to breastfeeding one's own child. sad, very sad.

In Chicago??? ← I came across this yesterday (looking for something else, as happens) - Manas Journal of May 19, 1971 In an article on Food, Clothing, Shelter, in the right hand column on page 2, there is this interesting bit: “ … It isn't that there is any deep lesson in any of this, but that, over all, the more people relate for themselves to the sources of their food, the more natural their lives become, and a change of taste is always at the beginning of any lasting change in life. What about people in the slums? There it is more difficult, but last year a young man from East Harlem came to California to learn how to build what he called a "food cabinet" – an ingenious arrangement of redwood planks in V formation, one trough above another, five in all, about six feet long, closed in in greenhouse style, with a big metal reflector on one side to shine the sun's rays in at every level. The food cabinet, it was said by its inventor, a California orchardist, would feed a family the year round, if proper care was taken of the soil in the troughs. The man from East Harlem hoped to get people in the ghetto to build food cabinets for their roofs and fire-escapes, and start growing vegetables for themselves. Wild ideas like that can be the beginning of a cycle of progressive self-reliance, in some cases. Sounds like an idea whose time has come. Anyone know anything about this invention and inventor?

I dont think it matters as long as we have fun and it makes us think about foods we wouldnt normally eat - like the man in the original story.

Me too. I dont care what they say, there is very little evidence on safety. Most plastics are "Generally Recognised as Safe" - they even have an acronym [GRAS]. Means no-one really knows, but industry wants them to be safe so has lobbied successfully to have them recognised this way (in the '50's, if I remember correctly, when a huge plastics industry was developed for military use during the war, and industrialists quickly found domestic applications to ensure the industry did not fold when the war ended.) I am far from being anti-technology and am not a conspiracy theorist, but really - there is something in this that makes me feel uncomfortable.

An interesting sub-thread might be to consider making use of the bits that we often throw out, even when we know they could be used. Like pumpkin seeds; roasted and slightly salted - great nibble.

I think we should allow a week per letter, to allow time for lots of input (not everyone eGullets every day. Including me for the last six months. Dont Ask) Saturday to Saturday. OK? I hate Angel food cake too. I am happy about the kitten in the story too. Kangaroo will be easy for me when we get to "K" - I can get it in the supermarket. Most of you might have to stick with kidney or kitten

In that case, I'd like your recipe for ambrosia, because I had a pretty awful version once (really, really awful) and have never tackled it since!

You can learn some tricks with leftovers by tapping into the wisdom of the past, while simultaneously saving money on cookbooks, and having some fun with The family save-all, a system of secondary cookery (1861) – thanks to Google Books. I love the attitude. Not cooking with leftovers, but “secondary cookery”. I like the idea of Toad-in-the-Hole with leftover chunks of meat (and potatoes). I draw the line at using fish skins to clarify coffee. {edited to fix the link}

I have a new challenge (game) for all of you intrepid and adventurous e-Gulleters. It was stimulated by an article I came across in the New York Times of Dec 25, 1888 (reprinted from the Buffalo Express of Dec 23) First, here is the article in its entirety: EATING BY THE ALPHABET. “Have you got anything here beginning with ‘k’ that’s good to eat” inquired a new customer at a well-known local delicacy market last Tuesday. “How will pickled kidneys answer?” replied the clerk after a moment’s thought. “First rate. Give me a dozen cans. The kitten’s life is saved,” exclaimed the strange patron with enthusiasm. “I told my wife,” he continued, “that if I failed to send home a kangaroo, dead or alive, before 2 o’clock I should expect to find the kitten served up for supper in the latest Chinese style. But your happy thought saves her. You see we all got tired of eating the same things day after day, and so last month we agreed that during December we would eat up (or rather down,) the alphabet, taking one letter a day, with bread, potatoes, tea and coffee thrown in as staples. So Dec. 1 we inaugurated the dietary system with a bill of fare consisting of apples in many forms, apricots pickled, asparagus, almonds, and the staples. The next day’s menu was beef, beets, beans, biscuits, buttermilk, bacon, and bon-bons. The following day we feasted on chicken, codfish balls, clams, celery, cucumbers (50 cents each,) crabs, cheese, cake, crackers, crullers, carrots, canned currants, canned cherries, citrons, cider, catsup, and candy. And so it has gone on. The fifth day would have been a fast day had it not been for eggs, but we made an Easter of it. Yesterday we dined, breakfasted, and supped chiefly on jellies. Today your kidney suggestion saves us from starvation, while tomorrow we will grow fat on liver, lamb, lobster, lettuce, &c. A queer thing about our new food departure is the number of things it has led us to put in our mouths which we never thought of before.” My thought is that this man and his family should be given honorary, retrospective and posthumous membership of e-Gullet. Who said they were unadventurous with food in the late nineteenth century? I propose that we take a letter a week, starting with “A” right now, and see what we come up with. Aim for a balanced range of foods. First, chose your three staples for the whole week. My own thoughts: My staples: bread, tea, and champagne. Apricots are in season here at the moment, so that is my fruit of choice. Avocados are not in season, so the ones in the shops are not fabulous, but this is a game after all, so they go on toast or in sandwiches (with aioli and alfalfa perhaps). Almonds and Anchovies for fat and protein. Should we allow things like Angel-food cake? Or stick to basics?

Here are my comments so far on my experiments with gingerbread in a mug (an adaptation of the brownie in a mug). Going back to the original quantities (based on 4 tab flour) is easiest, unless you want to be left with half an egg: 4 Tab Flour 4 tab Sugar 2 tab Ground Almonds 1 egg 2 Tab milk 1/2 -1 teas ground ginger (depending on how gingery you like it) 1/4 teas each of nutmeg and cinnamon 60 seconds wasnt quite enough for this amount - but I was using a fairly tall thin mug - it would presumably be different in a short squat mug. This is a big "cake" - more than one serving. As I said, if you halve it you have half an egg left, - or you make it twice. It is definitely puddingy, and needs to be eaten warm. So far, the GF version is a bit soggy - I need to try a different combination of GF flours. {not sure if this should be in a different thread? - the Cooking in a Mug Experiment?}

From TOF: OOPS! One tablespoon of cocoa, as in the non-GF version. Sorry folks.

Gosh, when we lost power for 12 days, my whole back porch became my fridge/freezer a couple of winters ago. Since then, I've kept the tradition up I have a big bench and the seat open up to hold shoes--only no shoes in mine, only food. ← From someone who lives in a relentlessly warm climate - what do you do with all that "stuff" in your trunk or BBQ or your back-porch when spring comes? Have a giant party to eat it all, or find indoor freezer space in a hurry?

I win. Santa gave me Heston Blumenthal's The Big Fat Duck Cookbook. It is one of the the most gorgeous cookbooks I have ever seen. The designer should get an award. It doubles as weight-lifting gear too. Not that that's what I wanted for Christmas.

I dont think there is a mincemeat specific to Ireland. The version that your friend is thinking of is probably the original style of mincemeat, as has already been pointed out - with actual meat (plus suet) in it. There is an infinite number of variations of the theme of meat plus dried fruit plus whatever else was available. One old writer referred to its contents as "the goodly litter of the cupboard."