Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Sweetmeats & other things

"The different tastes of people require more or less of the flavour of spices, salt, garlic, butter & c. which can never be ordered by general rules; and if the cook has not a good taste, and attention to that of her employers, not all ingredients which nature and art can furnish will give exquisite flavour to her dishes."

Taken from A New System of Domestic Cookery, by a lady,
W. Andrews 1807, Boston.
Formed upon Principles of Economy and Adapted to the Use of Private Families.

My latest bent is to research menus and recipes from another era.
As I read through the pages I jotted down a list of what I found to be interesting titles within the "contents" portion of the book.

Spitchcock Eels
Eel broth, very nourishing for the sick
Knuckle of Veal
An excellent hotch-potch
Plovers eggs
A very fine fish sauce
Pippen pudding
A very fine crust for orange-cheese-cakes
or sweetmeats when wanted to be particularly nice...
Rules to be observed w/ pickles
Burnt cream, two ways
To scald codlins
Magnum-bonum plums; excellent as a sweet meat or in tarts,
though very bad to eat raw.
How to discover whether bread has been adulterated w/whitening chalk.
Flat cakes that will keep long in the house good.
Hard biscuits
On the management of cows
Sippets, when the stomach will not receive meat
For (chopped) lips--(maybe they meant chapped)
To destroy crickets

There you have it. Everything for the housewife from soup to, well..........crickets.
My spellcheck went nuts with the olde English.
I end with another quote from within the pages of this book. It would appear that woman were starting to stretch their wings and venture out away from the kitchen.
I wonder if it had anything to do with having to prepare eel broth?

"In the variety of female acquirement's, though domestic occupations stand not so high in esteem as they formally did, yet when neglected, they produce much human misery."


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