A bit about Crullers

Crullers are a variation of doughnuts known primarily for twisted bars or rings. They were initially popular in New England and the Dutch communities of New York, but probably originated in Scandinavia, before making their way into North American settlements via New Sweden. (I've identified their presence among Osage Indians living in Missouri in the early 1800s.) Today I'm sharing a recipe which is redundant to my book, but shouldn't be totally discarded.

[1836] Crollers

157   Melt your lard in a frying pan, to fry your crollers in ; take four table spoonsful of it when melted, and mix with five heaping table spoonsful of rolled sugar, half a tea spoonful of salt, four beaten eggs, and a little essence of lemon, or rosewater. Dissolve a tea spoonful of saieratus, in half a tea cup of milk, and turn it in, together with flour sufficient to enable you to roll it out easily. Roil it half an. inch thick, cut it with a jagging iron, or knife, into strips about half an inch wide, twist them into any shape you please. Heat your fat in your frying pan till it boils up, as the cakes are laid in. There should be fat enough, to cover them, watch them narrowly, when brown on the under side, turn them carefully and let them brown on the other. [Howe, Hezekiah, “New England Cook Book”, p52 [Hezekiah Howe & Co::New Haven CT)]

I had hoped my book would be nearing completion by now. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, but still have weeks of research and writing before the text is completed. 

Eggs a la Switz

While reading through many old cookbooks to select recipes for the many different breakfast histories I stumble across an occasional recipe which doesn’t have a place in this history, but fascinating enough to be worth sharing.

This is one of those intriguing recipes. I don’t know if it has a history. I don’t know that it has been in the kitchen for the past couple of centuries. But, it might strike a chord with you; it might be a recipe which some adventurous day I may want to try in my home. I am guessing this recipe may have been one familiar to cooks in Switzerland. It has the usual sugars and spices of its era, as well as using orange juice for flavoring.

[1730] Eggs a la Switz

TAKE the Yolks of a Dozen Eggs whole from the Whites, poach them in white Wine and Salt; then have ſcalded Spinach minc’d, and toſs it up with a little Cream and thick Butter, and the Yolk of an Egg or two to bind it a little: ſeaſon it with Pepper, Salt, and Nutmeg, and ſqueeze in the Juice of an Orange; lay it hot in your Diſh; lay the Yolks of Eggs over it, and waſh them over with the Yolk of an Egg and thick butter beat together, and dredge them over with the Raſpings of a French Manchet, and give it a Brown over with an hot Iron, and ſtick fry’d Toaſts between the Eggs: Garniſh with Orange or Lemon. [Carter, Charles, “Complete Practical Cook”, p82 (Printed for W Meadows::London)]

Progress is continuing with my Breakfast recipes, a lot of cleanup, most of the needed research completed – just a bit left to finish. Still looking for a publisher. 

538 blog Recognition

Today my work was mentioned on the new Digest blog, part of the 358 publications. When the first Digest post was made a couple of weeks ago I contacted the reporter, Anna Maria Barry-Jester, to comment on her discussion of Toast, sharing with her what (at that time) was my earliest discovery of a Sops recipe mentioning making toast. With my permission she shared the recipe, with my translation from Middle English, in her blog posting today and providing me with attribution. 

Her narration caused an epiphany for me. While I've perused, then ignored, Sops recipes in the past, I had not made any association between them and Toast, nor other modern recipes, breakfast or otherwise. I now realize there are a number of recipes which makeup our Breakfast menu today which fit the definition of Sops. As I reviewed my recipes I discovered phrase fragments and other references in several which already mentioned a connection with Sops. I have been busy reorganizing my chapter on Toast, renaming it Sops and Toast. It is always fun to have my knowledge horizons expanded, and thereby yours, once my book is published. 

Of course, after sharing my recipe, I ended up tweaking the translation yet again, shared here for your pleasure (and before my book is published it could change again):

[1430] Soupes Jamberlayne {Middle English}

Take Wyne, Canel, an powder of Gyngere, an Sugre, an of eche a porcyoun, þan take a ſtraynoure & hange it on a pynne, an caſte ale þer-to, an let renne twyis or þryis throgh, tyl it renne clere; an þen take Paynemaynne an kyt it in maner of brewes, an toſte it, an wete it in þe ſame lycowre, an ley it on a dyſſhe, an caſte blawnche powder y-now þer-on; an þan caſte þe ſame lycour vp-on þe ſame ſoppys, an ſerue hem forth in maner of a potage. [Harlaien MS 279 xxviii / Thomas, Austin, “Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books”, p11 (Early English Text Society::London) 1888] 

Translation:

Sops Chamberlain

Take Wine, Cinnamon, and powder of Ginger, and Sugar, and of each a portion; then take a strainer, & hang it on a peg, And cast ale thereto, and let run twice or thrice through, till it runs clear; and then take good Bread, and cut it in a manner of bread for broth, and toast it, and wet it the same liquor, and lay it in a dish, and cast ground spices blended with sugar enough thereon; And then cast the same liquor upon the same sops, and Serve them forth for a good porridge.

blawnche powder – ‘white powder’, blend of ground spices with sugar, especially ginger

sops – pieces of fried or toasted bread in liquid

Apple Butter

Apple Butter is a well-known vintage recipe historically used to preserve apples. The recipe goes back to the European Middle Ages, where it started off as a medicant - as did many other sweet recipes. Apple Butter was a rare sweet which did not require sugar, the sweetness gathered by using concentrated cider in which sweet apples were boiled. Brought to America by immigrants from the Rhine river valley, the recipe was used to preserve apples grown by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Apple Butter spread across the apple growing communities of America, with apple butter frolics becoming a popular community event. 

This apple Butter recipe isn't the earliest, so not needed in sharing the tale of the recipe. However, being part of Lettice Bryant's "Kentucky Housewife", has a significane in its own right. A whole slew of Apple Butter recipes appeared in print in the late 1830s. 

[1839] Apple Butter

Cider for apple butter must be perfectly new form the press, and the sweeter and mellower the apples are of which it is made, the better will the apple butter be. Boil the cider till reduced to one half its original quantity, and skim it well. Do not use for this purpose an iron kettle, or the butter will be very dark, and if you use a brass or copper kettle, it must be scoured as clean and bright as possible, before you put the cider into it, and you must not suffer the butter to remain in it a minute longer than is actually necessary to prepare it, or it will imbibe a copperish taste, that will render it not only unpleasant, but really unhealthy. It is best to prepare it late in the fall, when the apples are quite mellow. Select those that have a fine flavor, and will cook tender; pare and quarter them from the cores, and boil them in the cider till perfectly soft, having plenty of cider to cover them well. If you wish to make it on a small scale, do not remove the apples from the cider when they get soft, but continue to boil them gently in it, till the apples and cider form a thick smooth marmalade, which you must stir almost constantly towards the last. A few minutes before you take it from the fire, flavor it highly with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, and when the seasonings are well intermixed, put it up in jars, tie folded paper over them, and keep them in a cool place. If made in a proper manner, it will keep a good more than a year, and will be found very convenient, being always in readiness. Many people who are in the habit of making apple butter, take it from the fire before it is boiled near enough. Both to keep it well, and taste well, it should be boiled long after the apples have become soft, and towards the last, simmered over coals till it gets almost thick enough to slice. If you wish to make it on a large scale, after you have boiled the first kettle full of apples soft, remove them from the cider, draining them with a perforated ladle, that the cider may fall again to the kettle, and put them into a clean tub. Fill up the kettle with fresh apples, having them pared and sliced from the cores, and having ready a kettle of boiling cider, that is reduced to at least half its original quantity; fill up the kettle of apples with it as often as is necessary. When you have boiled in this manner as many apples as you wish, put the whole of them in a large kettle, or kettles, with the cider, and simmer it over a bed of coals till it is so thick, that it is with some difficulty you can stir it: it should be stirred almost constantly, with a wooden spaddle, or paddle, or it will be certain to scorch at the bottom or sides of the kettle. Shortly before you take it from the fire, season it as before directed, and then put it up in jars. [Bryan, Lettice, “Kentucky Housewife”, p375-377 (Shepard & Stearns::Cincinnati OH)]

I'm working long days to try to complete my book, some days making lots of progress, like today, and others only small steps taking place.

Before there were Omelets there were Fraysse and Froyse

Today I'm happily chugging along, researching and writing about the origin of omelets - I've been here before, but thinking I may be close to wrapping up their history. Like many recipes there are hints, as would be expected, that Romans enjoyed them. Then, while examining a history on British food, I encounter the following sentence:  "The omelet - including the cheese omelet - was a regular English dish in the Middle ages, when it was called a fraysee (or froyse)." [Grigson, Jane, "English Food", p28 (Penguin Books::London) 1992]

I love finding (and eventually sharing) little gems like this, but am surprised after reading dozens of omelet histories to only now stumble across this knowledge for the first time. Being such a basic recipe, it is logical that recipes resembling omelets would likely have been prepared in the kitchens of medieval England. I have already located a 1653 recipe titled "Eggs and Cheese", which would produce an omelet in the kitchens of today. Of course, now I get to again enjoy reviewing several centuries of cookbooks and cookery manuscripts to seek out (and capture) recipes titled fraysse or froyse.  

I did poke about a bit in an attempt to research their etymology, but so far have not turned up the background of either word, though I'm guessing they are related. Etymology of current 'modern' English is usually a straight-forward process of research, but words which have faded from use are more challenging (to impossible) to trace.

It is side trip surprises like this which make tracing the origin and evolution of each recipe so much fun.

Maple mystery

I'm not sure what to make of this recipe. The title suggests it is a Maple Cookie recipe, 'biscuits' usually referring to what we Americans now call a cookie (though in England, they still use biscuit). However, upon reading the recipe, no maple flavoring is used, unless the sugar is maple (maple sugar existed in cones over in the colonies of North America). There were maple tree in Europe, though they did not produce maple sugar, nor syrup. 

On the other hand, recipes often depended upon the reader to know what to do, to do what was unwritten. The recipe just provided what might be forgotten, not what was known. Maybe that is the case here.

[1735] Maples Bisket, to Bake

Take Almonds beaten very Fine, one pound, fine Flower a pound and a half, Sugar, one pound, whites of Eggs half a Dozen; make them into Batter with fair water, and put the Batter into your Tin-coffins; ſo bake them, glazing them with the white of an Egg and Roſe-water. [Kenrick, Lady A, "Whole Duty of a Woman", p158 (Printed for A Bettesworth and C Hitch::London) Edition 8]

Still getting settled, but working on these recipe histories every day. I've been busy with Omelets (or Omelettes). Once omelets became part of the breakfast menu a large selection of recipes began to appear, far too many to include in a book. Here is an early Omelet with bacon recipe which got clipped, but too good to totally discard, so sharing it here. 

I'm still busy researching early omelet recipes, so unsure if there were earlier English-language omelet recipes than those published in this 1653 translation  of French chef François Pierre la Varenne's 1651 edition of Le Cuisinier François, this being one of several omelet recipes which were included.

[1653] Omelet of Gammon

67   Take one doſen of eggs, break them, take out the whites of half a doſen, and beat them; then take of your gammon as much as you will think fitting, mince it, and mixe it with your eggs; take ſome lard, cut it and melt it, powre your Omlet into it; let it not be too much fryed, and ſerve.  [La Varenne, Francois, “The French Cook”, p95 Englished by I.D.G. 1653 (printed for Charles Adams::London)]