The Old Foodie

Hello again - a follow-on from my post a few minutes ago - I just did a quick check, and there is one menu specifically from a theatrical event. Supper menu from a show called “The Midnight Follies”, at the Hotel Metropole in London on April 29th, 1927. Consomme au Marsala Compote de Madrilène en Gelée -- Oeufs poché Daumont Oeuf à la Gelée d’Estragon Oeuf sur la plat au Bacon -- Filet de Sole Joinville Homard froid Sauce Mayonnaise Haddock poché Métropole -- Poussin en Cocotte Ménagère Caille de Vigne aux Raisins Cuisse de Poulet grille Américaine Rognons d’Agneau Vert Pré Jambon Langue Roast Beef -- Salade de Volaille Coeur de Laitues Fines Herbes Sandwiches Variés -- Biscuit Glacé Cote d’Azur Coupe Cressane Friandises -- Welsh Rarebit Canapé Rabelais Toast au Anchois It sounds like great fun. I hope you all dress in 1920's clothes too! [and the Welsh Rarebit is in its proper menu position here!]

Hello - I have a database of about 5000 menus from the 14thC onwards. I just did a quick check and there are over 400 for the 1920's. Quite a number are for events with royalty, or presidents etc. I also have quite a few books that give a recommended menu-a-day (with recipes for the dishes), and I have one each from America and England for the 1920's. I also have a number of 1920's cookbooks. If you can give me some idea of the type of meal you want (formal, informal, buffet etc), I can send you a specific menu. I might even have one for the exact day on the calendar. You can PM me if you want to talk in more detail.

My family's favourite Asian style dressing 1/3 cup olive oil 2-4 teaspoon sesame oil 2 tab soy sauce 2 tab sweet chilli sauce (the Thai style seedy kind, but not hot) 1 clove garlic, crushed ¼ cup lime juice (lemon juice if you absolutely have to) If you make a quantity ahead you need to top up the sesame oil as it loses its fragrance. This is good on just about everything - rice, pasta salads, roasted veg, as well as basic tossed greens.

I think you need to check whether the "cups" are American or Imperial in both the new ones you are contemplating and the ones you already have. There is a difference between cup measures, and it would depend on where the moulds were made. I haven't got the link to a conversion table on this computer (I'm not at home at present), but there are several online, and I think there was a recent thread on the topic. Failing that you'd need to fill one up with water and tip it into the other and see what the difference was, if any. Maybe there isn't an issue!

Wouldn't a thinner soup work better? A lot of the thick soup would be left in the shot glass, and it would not be elegant to try to get one's tongue down to the bottom, so as not to waste any .... I have had this with a chilled gazpacho and it worked well.

It seems like everyone is correct. I checked with the word expert (the OED of course) and it says “Shrub” comes via the Arabic word for beverage (sharab), so has the same origin as “Sherbert”. It gives the definition of Shrub as: “A prepared drink made with the juice of orange or lemon (or other acid fruit), sugar, and rum (or other spirit)”. The first usage is given as 1747. The US usage is “A cordial or syrup made from the juice of the raspberry, with vinegar and sugar”. The first usage is given as 1860. And under the heading “Rum” it refers to 1864 TOVEY Brit. & For. Spirits 283 “Rum Shrub should be made with the freshest lemon juice, and a portion of Seville orange juice, the finest Jamaica Rum, and sweets from good loaf sugar.” And just to confuse things further, there is a recipe in William Kitchiner’s “The Cook’s Oracle” (1845 edition) for “Shrub or Essence of Punch”. He says “Brandy or Rum, flavoured with (651) (651 is a recipe for a lemon syrup with citric acid and “quintessence of Lemon-peel”) will give you very good extempore ‘Essence of Punch’” and then observes “The addition of a quart of Sherry or Madeira makes “Punch Royal”, if instead of Wine, the above quantity of Water be add, it will make “Punch for Chambermaids”, .... "

I've never tried to make them an inch thick - I dont see why it wouldn't work, their texture is a bit shortbready, isn't it? Perhaps one of the professional bakers reading this could comment about an adjustments to the recipe or baking time to make them thicker without them turning out like bricks. I guess any failed experiments could be crumbled up and used for cheesecake bases anyway!

Palm sugar? It makes a great syrup for poaching fruit - especially with an Asian-style meal (or drink?).

How about something like the traditional English Digestive biscuit - they work well with savoury or sweet things (and the Chocolate coated ones are divine)? I cant find my recipe at present but it is similar to <a href = "http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/DigestiveBiscuits.asp" >THIS ONE</a>

Absolute Australian Classic - Pumpkin Scones (I think you call them "biscuits" in the States). 1 oz butter 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg 2 cups mashed pumpkin 2 cups Self Raising Flour. Mix and bake in the usual way. Have with strawberry jam and cream. Other ideas: I second the risotto idea - but always add some crumbled crispy prosciutto; I do the same with cubes of roasted pumpkin and prosciutto in pasta (toss in a few roasted macadamia nuts too - they are fabulous with pumpkin). Pumpkin soup - especially made with Asian-style flavourings and a dollop of coconut cream. Slices grilled on a BBQ place so they are all nice and brownly cross-hatched with grill marks are great as a side dish for anything. In a vegetable curry with potato or cauli or corn, and garnished with cashew nuts. My friend makes a pumpkin, pine-nut, and couscous salad. I also have a recipe for a pumpkin fruit cake somewhere or other.

I dont know about customs officers, but I do have a contact who is a health inspector from a local council. She says it is funny how often on a Friday afternoon there is a decision to do a random purchase and testing of prawns from various outlets around town. They have a not-very-difficult way to guess of disposing of the batch of prawns after testing. Then for a while recently there were all of the bottles of duty-free booze that people bought which they were then not allowed to carry on board. My husband had just returned from a trip and said the confiscation bins were full! Bet they didnt get trashed!

Thanks Adam, it seems that you are right about the rust panic. Apparently barberries were introduced into Australia in 1859, but the only significant population (?crop) was in Tasmania. I dont suppose there are any left now (Taswegians please reply). Your galantine looks fabulous. Now, if only I could get hold of a sturgeon, there is a great recipe with barberries somewhere! I should be able to get hold of some dried berries at the weekend, but for any Aussies reading this but not near any ethnic markets or shops, they can apparently be ordered through <a href = "http://www.ozevillage.com.au/herbies/index.html">HERBIES SPICES</a>

I found a recipe for you. It is from "The new experienced English-housekeeper, for the use and ease of ladies, housekeepers, cooks, &c. written purely from her own practice ..." by Sarah Martin (1795). Barberry Syrup. Take barberries, beat them and squeeze out the juice, to a quart of juice take a pound and a quarter of sugar, stir till the sugar is melted, set it on the fire; skim it and boil it gently half and hour, when cold bottle and cork it close. Now all we need are some fancy mixing ideas from those mixologists over in the other forums!

Hello Nina - strange, the recipe on the Epicurious site gives the barberries as an alternative to fenugreek - from what I have read of barberries the flavour does not sound at all like fenugreek, so the dish would end up quite different depending on which one was used. I suspect that in the 19th C the collection of barberries just got too difficult (the thorns and all) and other ingredients were substituted (one just cant get good servants who are prepared to do foraging in the wild anymore, can one?).

I did a blog post today about <a href = "http://theoldfoodie.blogspot.com/2006/09/barberrying-we-will-go.html"> barberries </a>, which used to be very common in recipes from medieval times up until sometime in the nineteenth century when the use of them seemed to fade away. I am very curious about them - they seemed to be so widespread, now nothing! A couple of commenters have told me that they are available in Middle Eastern shops (dried, I think), so now I am on a search for them. I have a lot of historic recipes using barberries, but am keen to know if any of you use them in "modern" recipes. Both commenters happened to be Jewish - is that co-incidence, or do they feature in Jewish cuisine? [edited to fix the link, I hope!]

Does the written word have to specifically have a copyright warning for the law to apply? I didn't think so. Intellectual property rights are independent of a "warning" surely? I understood that mostly the "warning" is to notify any would-be-plagiarist that the writer will be on the lookout and will act if plagiarism occurs. It is not "innocent" to knowingly steal someone else's words, even in the absence of a written warning.

The prejudice about French food (certainly on the part of the English) is very old. Here is Hannah Glasse in her "Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy" (1747) on the topic: "... But if Gentlemen will have French Cooks, they must pay for French Tricks. A Frenchman, in his own Country, would dress a fine Dinner of twenty Dishes, and all genteel and pretty, for the Expence he will put an English Lord to for dressing one Dish. But then there is the little petty Profit. I have heard of a Cook that used six Pounds of Butter to fry twelve Eggs; when every Body knows, that understands Cooking, that Half a Pound is full enough, or more than need be used: But then it would not be French. So much is the blind Folly of this Age, that they would rather be impos'd on by a French Booby, than give Encouragement to a good English Cook! "

Three more historic ones for me. "Dumas on Food" translated by Alan and Jane Davidson (so if any of you are lusting after "Shark pie made from the stomachs of yound sharks", just let me know); "The Cookbook of Lady Tillipronie", and "Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book" (by Hilary Spurling) which has some wonderful Elizabethan recipes. And two modern ones - Michel Roux's "Eggs", and another brought home for me by my husband who has recently been to Dublin, Ireland - "Roly's Bistro: the restaurant and its food" - must try the Kerry Pie with Roasted Parsnips very soon. [edited because I had forgotten Roly's Bistro]

In medieval times the boars head with an apple in its mouth was a traditional symbol of Christs triumph over Satan (the boar's head representing Satan) - hence the tradition of it being borne into the feast on a great platter. I'm not sure what the apple represents - apart from perhaps the obvious Garden of Eden thing. Or perhaps the apple was just a convenient prop to keep the boar's mouth open so the gruesome teeth would show! I think the traditional pairing of pork and apple in old recipes relates to terroir - pigs often used to graze the apple orchards and hence be fattened on the fallen fruit.

I have an old favourite "Cheese and Onion Savoury" - a sort of savoury bread pudding. 2 oz grated cheese. 1 small onion, chopped. 1 small clove garlic, crushed 2 eggs lightly beaten 1/2 cup milk 2 oz. soft breadcrumbs 1 teaspoon mustard salt, pepper, also parsley if you wish. Mix it all well together, put in a well greased 6 inch dish (bit more cheese on top if you wish), put in a hot oven about 20 mins until it is golden. It is a nice change from a frittata, and lends itself to lots of variations.

from here. Anyone familiar with frozen varieties? How good are they? ← My immediate thought was "how bad are they"?

Who would have thought there could be so much variety in the simple mashed potato! with and without skins with or without butter, duck fat, chicken fat with or without milk or sour cream or chicken stock with or without cheese, caramelised onions, horseradish ..... (insert all other suggested additions here) forked, potato mashered, or ricered (with or without lumps) secondarily oven baked and browned on top (or not) Just to add to the ideas, my son does a mean job with extra virgin olive oil and roasted garlic. just give me ABI (Anything But Instant) and I'm happy (must be the North of England upbringing). Janet

Can we be absolutely sure the strawberries in the first picture were not clever marzipan berries, or fondant berries or some other "imitation"?? No matter how dry the berries, sugar usually makes them sticky-shiny, not powdery-dry, except in the very short term, doesnt it?

Other than avoiding peeling potatoes, what, exactly, is the advantage of instant mashed, and whatever it is, is it worth the trade-off for something that sounds more like wallpaper paste than food?

Blueberries are surprisingly good with Maraschino. Marmalade with whisky is great. Apricots with Amaretto are fantastic. Strawberries with Gin, definitely. Peaches with Brandy, or Grand Marnier.