The Old Foodie

There is another type of "hedgehog" in early cookbooks (not 6000 years ago of course) - a type of meatloaf or sometimes a pudding stuck with almonds to represent spines. More politically correct nowadays - although PC-ness was hardly an issue centuries ago.

You could make these: Larks in Shells. Boil twelve Hen or Duck Eggs soft; take out all the Inside, making a handsome Round at the Top; then fill half the Shells with passed Crumbs, and roast your Larks; put one in every Shell, and fill your Plate with passed Crumbs brown; so serve as Eggs in Shells. [The lady's companion: or, an infallible guide to the fair sex. Containing, rules, directions, and observations, for their conduct and behaviour ... The second edition. London, 1740] Supply of larks might be a problem though. Otherwise, here is a Pound Cake recipe: Pound Cake 4 cups sifted all purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder ½ tsp. salt 2 cups butter or margarine 1 cup milk 2 tsp. lemon or vanilla extract, or 1 of each 3 cups sugar 6 duck eggs or 10 hen eggs Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside. Have butter, milk and eggs at room temperature. Cream butter until very light and fluffy then add sugar gradually, creaming all the while. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Combine milk and flavoring. Add dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Do this in four or five additions. Pour into a well greased and floured bundt pan and a small loaf pan. Bake at 300 degrees for one hour and 20 minutes

I think a twin thread to this is about oven temperatures and timing. There is such a huge difference between ovens (I dont know if this is true of commercial ovens) that when my oven says it has reached 160 degrees (I am talking degrees Celsius here, but substitute any value of your choice) might be the same heat as when yours says 140 or 180. And 35 minutes in my oven might mean 25 or 45 in yours. I once lived in the country, with an ancient wood stove that had no temperature indicator or control at all. I had no choice but to use it. I soon learned that almost everything turned out OK, and that the crucial thing was to be able to judge when something was cooked, and not worry about time or temperature. When the time came to replace it, I decided on a modern version of the wood stove because I loved it so much. The modern one had temperature indicator - but no control other than adjusting the flue or raking the embers or adding more wood. I think we get far too hung up on numbers and times - in past times, cooks managed (as I eventually did) without dials and indicators. I could never quite work out how I "knew" when jam or marmalade was done. But I did know. Then one day I read about an old lady who said you could tell by the different sound of the bubbles as they popped - and I knew immediately that that was what I was doing. In other words, just keep doing it, dont agonise over everything too much, mostly things will turn out fine.

What a great job you are doing mizD! Until you get chance to find a real one, there are several versions freely available online: 1896 edition: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/index.html 1918 editions http://www.bartleby.com/87/ and here http://www.harvestfields.ca/CookBooks/001/06bkc/00.htm

I suspect it was a bit of an awareness-raising thing combined with a competition rather than a true search for forgotten historic dishes. There certainly seems to be a commercial edge to it all. Fun though. What would be your choice of dishes Adam? Lets say only five, not ten, to make it a bit easier. How about the rest of you? Any ideas? (or is that another thread?) I'll work on my list, as I get time, I'm a bit snowed under on all sides at present.

If you cant handle them right now, for marmalade purposes it is fine to freeze them until you do have time. They are easier to slice up after they have been frozen and thawed too. You can never have too much kumquat marmalade in your pantry.

How so? the grey squirrel is a relatively recent invasion from N America I thought. Wouldn't the traditional one have been red? ← The very traditional one would have been red, but I understand that the red squirrel is very poor eating. The introduced grey squirrel is apparently delicious, and because it has forced the native red squirrel out of its habitat, and is more damaging to trees etc, it became almost politically and environmentally correct to eat it.

If you love Google Books you'll also love the Internet Archive. Same idea, several other methods of viewing (I love their 'post-it' note version) It is at http://www.archive.org/index.php

There is finally a copy of Eliza Acton's "Modern Cookery in all its branches ... for Private Families" available online. It is at Google Books http://books.google.com/books?id=5-kDAAAAQ...ookery&as_brr=1 (her English Bread Book is there too) For some reason the graphics dont always show up when you load it, but you can still download it and it works fine.

I'm just catching up with this thread - what a fascinating challenge! I think this is a fantastic idea, capable of all sorts of variations. I sometimes make crispy rice cakes (I think it might be a Malaysian recipe?) - just boiled rice essentially, and surely plain boiled rice would be acceptable for most people? I thought it might work with the rice coloured pink by putting a beetroot in the cooking water (Or food colouring) and it could even be flavoured with rose-water? (some sugar in that though - but it wouldnt need much, would it?) They would be close to the idea of cup-cakes, and a pretty pink - perfect for weddings. All I do is cook rice by the absorption method, beat it a bit with a wooden spoon, and press it into an oiled tray (however thick you want) , cover with greased foil and weight it down - it works best if you put a second tray the same size as the first, on top so they nest together, and then put weights (eg cans) on it. Refrigerate overnight, use a wet cutter (heart shape would be good?) to cut out shapes. They can then be dried out slowly in the oven if you want them crisp. How do you make yours, K8? Pink, rose-scented, heart-shaped, and only rice and water - any problem with that? I dont have time to experiment this weekend (daughter competing in the Gold Coast marathon - not her mother's daughter ......... ). Janet P.S what would happen if you soaked almonds (skinned) in colouring? they could be used to form the petals of 'flowers'? Or slivers of dried strawberries to decorate? so many ideas, so little time .......

Can you tell us in what context this will be served? Does it need to taste something like bacon (however distantly) or just look like it? Is it primarily for a visual joke, or are there serious vegetarians to be catered for (do serious vegetarians want something that even looks like bacon? or is that a question for another thread?) There is a medieval recipe for mock bacon made with marzipan ......

Wow! Thanks for this. I will be in the UK in late August/Early September for 3 weeks (going to the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery while I am there - anyone else from eGullet going to be there?) I had not heard of this shop - it will definitely be on my list while I am in London. Janet [edited to fix a typo]

The full title of the book is "Hints for the table: or, The economy of good living .. With a few words on wines". Written in the wonderfully pompous style of the Victorian era. It is freely available via <a href="http://books.google.com/">Google Books</a> as scanned pages. I love Google Books. I have a list of over 500 freely available online historic cookbooks (have found a few more to add when I get around to it). You can download it from http://www.mydatabus.com/public/TheOldFood..._Cookbooks3.pdf You might be able to find some books there to fill in your gaps! Have fun Janet P.S Carrot Top - I just knew you would respond to the "sauce is action" idea!

I just came across this sentence in a book called “Hints for the table: or, The economy of good living …” – an English book published in 1859. "A good sauce, in the phrase of the kitchen, “tastes of everything and tastes of nothing”; that is, all the articles in it are well proportioned and neither predominates." I thought it might be a good trigger for a discussion. It is hard to disagree with the second phrase, but I am not sure about the everything/nothing bit. The book then gives recipe which are heavy with anchovies, or lemon, or parsley - in proportions that would certainly dominate. Other phrases in the chapter: "A noble gourmet once asserted that sauces are to food what action is to oratory." and "A delicious sauce will cause you to eat an elephant." So - to start off the discussion: How do you react to those comments? Is that a good definition of a good sauce? What is your favourite sauce and its application? Those of you with a literary bent, please expand on the idea of sauce/food and action/oratory. Comments from those who have tasted elephant, with or without sauce, are particularly welcome. Janet

I havent been able to find this topic anywhere on eGullet - so I hope I haven't missed it and am repeating someone else's thread! In 2006 the Guild of Fine Food Retailers ran a competition to discover the top 10 Forgotten British Foods. The list (with descriptions and recipes) is <a href="http://www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk/competitionlast.html">HERE</a> In summary, the winners were: “Eadles” Bath Chaps Mrs Grieve’s Fish Custard Mrs Langland’s Faggots Grey Squirrel Casserole Rook Pie Rabbit with Prunes Fife Brooth Roman Pie 16th C Pancakes A Grand Sallet (from Robert Mays’ cookbook of the 17th C) How many of these have you tasted?

This reminded me of something, and I just had to go looking. Here is an English take on the idea, from Cassell’s Vegetarian Cookery, 1891. I cant see myself doing the red sprinkly bit though! Egg Salad. Egg salad consists of an ordinary salad made with French lettuces, with an extra quantity of hard-boiled eggs. If you want to make the salad look very pretty on the top, cut up the lettuces and dress them with oil and vinegar in the ordinary way. Make the tops of the lettuces (which should be placed in a round salad-bowl) as smooth as you can without pressing them down unnecessarily. Now take six hard-boiled eggs, separate the yolks from the whites, powder the yolks, and chop up the whites small. Sprinkle a ring of yellow round the edge of the salad-bowl, say an inch in width, then put a ring of white round, and place the remainder of yolk in the middle, almost up to the centre. Have the centre about two inches in diameter. We now have a yellow centre surrounded by a broad white rim (as, of course, there is more white than yellow), and an outside yellow ring, which meets the white china bowl. Reserve about a teaspoonful of pieces of finely chopped white, and put them in a saucer, with a few drops of cochineal, and shake them. This turns them a bright red. Sprinkle these red specks very sparingly on the white, and take about half a teaspoonful of chopped blanched parsley, and sprinkle these green specks on the yellow. This makes the dish look pretty. I think we are almost in the realm of composed salads here. Janet

This is tough, seeing as most of us in my family havent yet met the potato we didnt like. 1. A big baked potato, skin slightly crackly with salt, a dollop of good butter in the middle. 2. Tiny new potatoes (preferrably just dug up) - boiled and tossed with good butter and perhaps, if I'm in the mood, with a little fresh mint. 3. All other potato dishes. Or is that cheating? I havent made Janson's Temptation in a while (grated potato, onion, anchovies, cream - baked in the oven) That will be my 3rd choice for at least the next half hour. Janet

Here is a totally different take, from a cookbook from 1827. Egg Salad. Boil six cloves of garlic six minutes, and pound them with a few capers and two anchovies; mix them very well with oil, salt, pepper, and vinegar, and dish it under hard-boiled eggs, whole or cut in two.

When in doubt, make soup. That's my motto. One of them anyway.

Its pretty hard to improve on perfect simplicity. Some days I just might want some curry in that mayonnaise though.

How about a risotto cake? Make risotto - flavour as wished (carob? fruit? cook it with juice not stock? nuts? vanilla? ????) Pour it into a dish and let it set ('congeal'). Perhaps if some egg was added while it was warm, it might be better. Might be like a cheesecake idea but with a bit more substance and be a bit more 'cakey'. A crumb crust? Does this sort of thing already exist?

Aren't you going to tell us what sort of eggy dressing you had on your warm eggy salad?

Fantastic! Congratulations!

The sugar in jam (jelly) / marmalade is there to (1) sweeten (2) make it gel and (3) act as a preservative. You can get around (1) by using artificial sweetener (horrible) or nothing, if you dont mind it not so sweet. Use fruit juice instead of water in the recipe. If you are using fruit juice concentrate, you are just using a liquid form of sugar, essentially. Honey is OK too (adjust the amount of water in your recipe if you use honey). (2) use pectin or gelatin (3) no way around this one, if you dont use a lot of sugar, the marmalade wont keep very well, so make small amounts and keep in the fridge or freezer. If you search for "refrigerator jams" or jellies, you'll get some ideas. Keep us posted! Janet

Mango pulp and juice freeze well; frozen mango is fine for sorbets, ice-cream, cakes, pies, chutney etc. I freeze slices or pulp regularly - mangoes grow well here (although having said that, the last season was terrible for some reason).