In the last little while, I've been enjoying the blog, Ridin out the Recession. I heartily recommend bookmarking it and visiting often! It's been a fantastic read.
It's a blog that has got me to thinking food again. If you've been following either of my blogs for a while, you may have noticed I have an interest in food history. You can learn alot about people by what they eat, how they prepare their food, and the customs and traditions surrounding food. I find it fascinating.
Ridin out the Recession, in their posts talking about different ways to put up food for the future, has reminded me about this a lot. Our modern society, with its technologies and international trade, has not only made an astounding variety of foods available to us, but it has made preparing and preserving our food for the future much easier, more consistent and safer. Modern canning methods sure have improved from the days I helped my mother top her jars of jam with a piece of string and paraffin wax! (The string was allowed to hang outside the jar so you could pull the wax up to "open" the jar - but sometimes the wax would just break apart, and we'd have to use a knife to get the rest out, then fish little bits of wax off the top later on.)
Not too many people preserve food anymore, beyond sticking things into the freezer, though doing so was regaining interest even before the global economy tanked. Much like traditional crafts often see a resurgence in popularity after being displaced by industrial versions, increased numbers of people have found that these old methods are satisfying and enjoyable skills. It feels darn good to do things for yourself! Being able to grow a garden, then fill your pantry with food for another day really does something for you! Even those who aren't DIY'ers are increasingly appreciative of hand made items.
I love old cookbooks. While I enjoy recreating historical recipes, some of my favorites are just a generation or two old. As much as I like the recipes in modern cookbooks, I find myself less willing to try them out. With so many of them written and published in the US, for example, they tend to call for ingredients that aren't so easy to find in Canada, if they're available here at all. New cookbooks also tend to use a lot of packaged ingredients. While the use of canned, bottled or powdered ingredients makes things handy, we just don't buy a lot of prepared foods. I have little interest in buying them just to try out a recipe.
The old cookbooks don't have these prepared ingredients, since they didn't exist at the time. Of course, there's also the problem of the old recipes using ingredients that were common then, but aren't anymore! Others are foods that were common and cheap at the time, but are now expensive, luxury items. Like rabbit!
Among my favorite cookbooks is The Canadiana Cookbook, by Mme Jehane Benoit, published in 1970. This was one of those flea market finds that are such treasures. The book is organized by province and territory, with plenty of Mme Benoit's wonderful commentaries strewn about.
In the Manitoba section, she has a recipe for Pemmican (Chippewa), which she in turn found in the Prairie Pantry cook book. Pemmican played a huge part in Canadian development and trade, and in Metis culture. Many of our modern highways closely follow the Pemmican trails - the Metis trade routes. Pemmican was a vital food for a very long time, and was originally made using bison, elk or venison.
I haven't tried this recipe yet. In the cookbook, Mme Benoit says she made it using smoked venison instead of beef. If you give it a try, please let me know how it turned out!
---
Pemmican (Chippewa)
The Canadiana Cookbook, pages 144-145
1 pound dried beef or smoked venison
3/4 pound dried crushed chokecherries*
1/2 pound fresh beef suet, chopped fine
1/2 cup light brown or natural sugar
Pass all through meat grinder, except the sugar. Add the sugar. Mix thoroughly. Pack in a bowl and keep covered and refrigerated. Serve with sourdough bread.
* I dry my own chokecherries in a 200 F oven. They are usually easy to find in Health Food stores. Dried currants can replace them, or fresh lingonberries when available.
---
Well, I don't know if you can get chokecherries in health food stores anymore. Besides her recommended alternatives, cranberries, saskatoons and blueberries can be used, too. The fruit is actually optional, and a more modern addition. This is the only recipe I've seen that uses sugar.
We've made our own beef jerky, and if you want to dry your own meat, it's easy to do. Get a cut of very lean meat, such as flank steak, and cut it very thin, against the grain (partially freeze the meat to make it easier to cut, if you want). We laid wire cake racks over cookie sheets, then spread the meat out over them evenly. After letting the oven warm up to the lowest setting (about 150 - 200 F), we put the meat in and left it overnight with the oven light on, but the oven off. The oven can be heated back up as needed, though it just needs to be warm, not hot enough to actually cook the meat. If you take the meat out to turn it, though, make sure to warm it back up again. It can take a very long time to thoroughly dry the meat (I've seen as long as 15 hours - we didn't take as long with our jerky, since we wanted it to still be chewable).
In the days before meat grinders and food processors, the dried meat would be pounded into a powder. The fat would be rendered and everything would be put into special leather bags and mixed together.
Pemmican was valuable because it was extremely nutritious, portable and, properly wrapped, could last 4-5 years. It can be eaten as is, though I've read of the Voyageurs adding it to boiling water to make a soup.
I don't know how economical it would be to make pemmican now, with how much meat costs these days. At least for someone who has to get their meat at the grocery store. For a hunter or beef farmer, it might be a practical way to preserve some trail food.
Showing posts with label historical eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical eating. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Monday, November 23, 2009
Pioneer Dinner; cooking rabbit.
Well, our pioneer themed dinner worked out quite well! Before I go on to that, though, here's how I ended up cooking the rabbit for the evening.
The rabbit we got was frozen - fresh wasn't even an option. Friggin' expensive, too. Just over $25 for the one. The bison roast was more expensive, though, and wasn't really much more meat, so we stuck with the bunny.
Ingredients for this dish:
1 whole rabbit
about 1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
3 cups chicken broth (or water)
Once it was thawed, we figured out why we couldn't see the hind legs. They were tucked into the body cavity, where we also found the liver (which fell out, so it isn't in the photo) and kidneys (which were still attached).
Some of the recipes I found included instructions for the liver and kidneys, but not for how I'd decided to cook it. In the end, I chopped them up and gave them to the cat. Only one of our cats will eat real food, for some reason, and she was more than happy to have it all to herself. :-D
If this had been an old rabbit, I would have soaked it in salt water for a while, first. As it was, I just rinsed it out.
I then had to figure out how to cut the carcass into pieces. I've never butchered a bunny before. The legs were easy enough, but the body took a bit more figuring out.
I've decided I need a cleaver, though. Making do with a chef's knife will only go so far. Bunny bones are weak enough to go through, but it still took a bit more than I was comfortable doing with the knife I had.
This is what I ended up with - 8 pieces. Plenty of meat on those back legs. The ribs are quite scrawny, though. The rib and back pieces got rolled up to make the thickness similar to the leg pieces.
The pieces were then dredged in a mixture of flour, salt and pepper. Some versions from the time period had the pieces rest for a while, then get dipped in beaten egg, followed by breadcrumbs. I decided our hypothetical settlers weren't established enough to have eggs or large amounts of flour. For a long time, if the settlers were able to grow their own grain at all, they usually had only enough to grind small amounts in a coffee grinder to make bannock or pancakes. Breadloaves, especially yeast breads, didn't become common until the late 1800's, early 1900's.
The floured pieces were then browned in a pan. I used bacon fat for this. Pigs became common well before cows, so pig fat was more available than any other kind. People would let their pig root around in the bushes, feeding itself throughout the spring and summer. In the fall, they'd butcher it, preserve the meat (usually smoked or brined) and render the fat for use in the winter. Adequate dietary fat was a major concern. In the early years, a lot of people died of "rabbit starvation." Rabbits were plentiful and easy to catch, but the meat is very lean. It was the only food source for some people, but didn't have adequate amounts of fat for the human body's needs. So even though their bellies were full, they were hungry, as their bodies craved fat. Unable to get any, they died of "starvation."
Isn't that a cheerful subject.
*ahem*
The browned pieces were then set aside for later.
Onion pieces were then added to the pan the rabbit was browned in. I found myself needing to add more bacon fat, though, as the pan was really dry.
At this point, if our hypothetical settlers had had other veggies, they'd add the cut up pieces now.
When the onion (and any other veggies that might be there) were softened, I added about 3 cups of chicken broth that had the last of the dredging flour mixed into it. Orignally, the broth might have been made from Prairie Chickens, other game, vegetables, or just plain water.
The broth was cooked down to about half it's volume, give or take. With the flour in it, it started to thicken a bit, too.
Once the broth was cooked down, the browned pieces were returned to the pan and left to simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.
It went over really well at the dinner. Both of the girls found it delicious. I had one person comment that this was the first time she'd had rabbit, and it won't be the last! *L* With 20 people, we all took only a little bit each, and there was actually some left. For a while. A couple of the kids discovered them, and polished them off. *L*
This is definitly something we'd do again - if we're ever willing to spend that much money on it again! *L*
The rabbit we got was frozen - fresh wasn't even an option. Friggin' expensive, too. Just over $25 for the one. The bison roast was more expensive, though, and wasn't really much more meat, so we stuck with the bunny.
Ingredients for this dish:
1 whole rabbit
about 1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
3 cups chicken broth (or water)
Once it was thawed, we figured out why we couldn't see the hind legs. They were tucked into the body cavity, where we also found the liver (which fell out, so it isn't in the photo) and kidneys (which were still attached).
If this had been an old rabbit, I would have soaked it in salt water for a while, first. As it was, I just rinsed it out.
I then had to figure out how to cut the carcass into pieces. I've never butchered a bunny before. The legs were easy enough, but the body took a bit more figuring out.
I've decided I need a cleaver, though. Making do with a chef's knife will only go so far. Bunny bones are weak enough to go through, but it still took a bit more than I was comfortable doing with the knife I had.
Isn't that a cheerful subject.
*ahem*
The browned pieces were then set aside for later.
Onion pieces were then added to the pan the rabbit was browned in. I found myself needing to add more bacon fat, though, as the pan was really dry.
At this point, if our hypothetical settlers had had other veggies, they'd add the cut up pieces now.
The broth was cooked down to about half it's volume, give or take. With the flour in it, it started to thicken a bit, too.
It went over really well at the dinner. Both of the girls found it delicious. I had one person comment that this was the first time she'd had rabbit, and it won't be the last! *L* With 20 people, we all took only a little bit each, and there was actually some left. For a while. A couple of the kids discovered them, and polished them off. *L*
This is definitly something we'd do again - if we're ever willing to spend that much money on it again! *L*
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Mushroom Pasty
Last night, we had a very successful evening of historical cooking and eating. More on that later, but first, here's how we made our mushroom pasty, using a recipe from this site.
The ingredients:
1 - 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms (the girls chose a mix of white button and crimini, and this is actually closer to 2 pounds)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/2 tsp each of salt and ginger
1/4 tsp pepper
dough for one pie
We started off by sauteing the mushrooms in the oil, though I did end up adding a bit of butter, too. I cooked them until the liquid was gone.
Then added the other ingredients and mixed it all together well.
The recipe was for a pie or tart, but I decided to make individual pasties, instead. Using small tart pans as forms, I divided the dough into 8 and rolled out the pieces to cover the bottoms of the pans. Then I added the filling.
These can be made with or without a top. A single recipe of dough, which should have been enough for top and bottom of 1 pie shell, was just enough to cover the bottoms. I didn't like how they looked, so I tucked the edges over the filling a bit, then rolled out another 1/2 recipe of dough (I'd pre-made 3 recipes in anticipation of other baking) and used a glass to cut circles. I wet one side of the circles with water before putting them onto the pasties, so that the dough would stick better.
These were then baked at 350F until golden.
The hardest part of making these was to stick to the recipe. I kept wanting to add garlic or other flavorings. I'm glad I didn't. They were so delicious, just the way they were!
Strangely, I neglected to get a photo of what they looked like when I took them out of the oven. Ah, well.
The entire meal was made up of 3 removes. The pasties were served with the stewed chicken our guests brought, which was incredibly good. They, too, had to resist adding at least garlic to their recipe. *L* Their leek soup was wonderful, too. Very light.
The most challenging part of the meal was the strawberry tart and baked apples in the third remove. The recipes were originals, not translated to modern cooking. What instructions were vague and confusing, and there was one ingredient we couldn't figure out at all. We used strawberry syrup instead. They were good, though we'd definitely change things if we made them again - like not including egg yolks with the baked apple. (One of the dishes Eldest wanted to make didn't pan out, as we couldn't find elderberry blossums for it.)
At the end of the meal, we were all quite full and satisfied. They sure knew how to cook well in the 12th century! Unfortunately, our guests had to leave rather suddenly as a storm moved in. We were on the balcony when the wind, rain and what we thought was hail started - the "hail" turned out to be pieces of a neighboring tree. The real hail started later on. Thankfully, we'd brought most of our planters in by then. The electricity flickered a bit, but we didn't have an actual power outage. We were lucky. I've spoken to one person who was without power for 16 hours, and today we saw one area where the power was still out.
No surprise about the outages, judging from the carnage we saw today. The streets were littered with broken branches, and we saw downed trees all over the place. One street was completely blocked by a huge elm - thankfully, no vehicles had been parked where it fell, and only some branches at its top hit the house on the opposite side of the street it had fallen on. An apartment block we passed had a patio and second floor balcony filled with a downed tree. Many others were seen in various parks we drove past. There's going to be a lot of clean up in the next few days. For now, the city must be focusing on those areas there the power was knocked out.
We didn't even get the worst of it. After the storm blew over us, I went onto the balcony a few times. We have a clear view of about 1/3rd of the horizon from our balcony. To the south and east, we continually saw lightning strikes that must've been outside the city. The small towns in those directions would have been hit far harder than we were. Quite a wild night!
As for our medieval themed evening, we all had a great time and really look forward to doing it again. Nothing like the combination of good food and great company! The only question is, what time in history shall we do next? Eldest brought up ancient Egypt and the pioneer area, both of which I would love to try out.
Whatever we end up doing, it's going to be a blast! :-D
The ingredients:1 - 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms (the girls chose a mix of white button and crimini, and this is actually closer to 2 pounds)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/2 tsp each of salt and ginger
1/4 tsp pepper
dough for one pie
We started off by sauteing the mushrooms in the oil, though I did end up adding a bit of butter, too. I cooked them until the liquid was gone.
Then added the other ingredients and mixed it all together well.
The recipe was for a pie or tart, but I decided to make individual pasties, instead. Using small tart pans as forms, I divided the dough into 8 and rolled out the pieces to cover the bottoms of the pans. Then I added the filling.
These can be made with or without a top. A single recipe of dough, which should have been enough for top and bottom of 1 pie shell, was just enough to cover the bottoms. I didn't like how they looked, so I tucked the edges over the filling a bit, then rolled out another 1/2 recipe of dough (I'd pre-made 3 recipes in anticipation of other baking) and used a glass to cut circles. I wet one side of the circles with water before putting them onto the pasties, so that the dough would stick better.These were then baked at 350F until golden.
The hardest part of making these was to stick to the recipe. I kept wanting to add garlic or other flavorings. I'm glad I didn't. They were so delicious, just the way they were!
Strangely, I neglected to get a photo of what they looked like when I took them out of the oven. Ah, well.
The entire meal was made up of 3 removes. The pasties were served with the stewed chicken our guests brought, which was incredibly good. They, too, had to resist adding at least garlic to their recipe. *L* Their leek soup was wonderful, too. Very light.
The most challenging part of the meal was the strawberry tart and baked apples in the third remove. The recipes were originals, not translated to modern cooking. What instructions were vague and confusing, and there was one ingredient we couldn't figure out at all. We used strawberry syrup instead. They were good, though we'd definitely change things if we made them again - like not including egg yolks with the baked apple. (One of the dishes Eldest wanted to make didn't pan out, as we couldn't find elderberry blossums for it.)
At the end of the meal, we were all quite full and satisfied. They sure knew how to cook well in the 12th century! Unfortunately, our guests had to leave rather suddenly as a storm moved in. We were on the balcony when the wind, rain and what we thought was hail started - the "hail" turned out to be pieces of a neighboring tree. The real hail started later on. Thankfully, we'd brought most of our planters in by then. The electricity flickered a bit, but we didn't have an actual power outage. We were lucky. I've spoken to one person who was without power for 16 hours, and today we saw one area where the power was still out.
No surprise about the outages, judging from the carnage we saw today. The streets were littered with broken branches, and we saw downed trees all over the place. One street was completely blocked by a huge elm - thankfully, no vehicles had been parked where it fell, and only some branches at its top hit the house on the opposite side of the street it had fallen on. An apartment block we passed had a patio and second floor balcony filled with a downed tree. Many others were seen in various parks we drove past. There's going to be a lot of clean up in the next few days. For now, the city must be focusing on those areas there the power was knocked out.
We didn't even get the worst of it. After the storm blew over us, I went onto the balcony a few times. We have a clear view of about 1/3rd of the horizon from our balcony. To the south and east, we continually saw lightning strikes that must've been outside the city. The small towns in those directions would have been hit far harder than we were. Quite a wild night!
As for our medieval themed evening, we all had a great time and really look forward to doing it again. Nothing like the combination of good food and great company! The only question is, what time in history shall we do next? Eldest brought up ancient Egypt and the pioneer area, both of which I would love to try out.
Whatever we end up doing, it's going to be a blast! :-D
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Preparing for history
I've been pretty quite on this blog lately, though I've been posting on my other blog more often. It's not that we haven't been doing homeschool related to post; I just haven't managed to keep up with posting about it. *L* Ah, well.
With summer here, we've been enjoying some of the local festive events, with more to come. We're also planning and working on an event of our own. This weekend, we're having our first historical food evening. I'm trying to start up a group among my foodie friends centered on friendship and re-creating historical eating. The idea is for different families in the group to host an evening, perhaps as often as once a month, with each gathering based on a specific time period/theme. The hosting family comes up with the theme, provides the location, and does the organizing while everyone who can make it brings a dish or two that's as close to historically accurate as can be replicated.
For our first attempt, we chose a Brother Cadfael theme. This puts the time period in the early to mid-1100's. While the location is England and Whales, the Brother Cadfael character had a well traveled life, so dishes from other countries would be quite appropriate.
Only one family was able to make it for this weekend - though that had as much to do with cat allergies as interest, unfortunately. That still makes for 7 people, which I think is just fine for a first time! We won't be able to do a whole lot for setting the mood - I'd love to dress up and all, but we just won't be able to do that. Mostly, it'll be centred around the food.
Which means that today, I've been baking trenchers. A typical trencher was a slice or three of thick, day old bread that were used instead of plates. I chose, however, to use this recipe. I've got one in the oven right now, two more in different stages of rising, one almost cool enough to freeze - and one we've already eaten like regular bread with supper. Trenchers weren't normally eaten by the diners. Instead, they would be tossed to the dogs or given to the poor. These ones will be quite edible, if anyone is hungry enough. ;-)
One of the dishes our guests will be bringing is a stewed chicken, though it has beef in it as well. I look forward to trying it. The girls will be making sweets for the end - Eldest has found a couple of recipes already.
I will be cheating on a few things. Wine was the usual drink of the time period, and one of our favorite grocery
... back again. I now have two trenchers cooling, one in the oven, and one last one shaped for its second rising.
Where was I?
Oh, right. Our favorite specialty grocery store carries a non-alcoholic spiced wine that's perfect for the theme. The recipe for it may well go back to the time period; this recipe sounds like it would produce a very similar drink. They even carry a brand of "small ale" that would work quite well, if we wanted to go that route. They also carry a line of forno-type breads (in fact, I think they really are baked in a forno) that are perfect for the evening, as well as cheese types that go back to that period and earlier. Some spiced wine, bread, cheese and some fruit and we've got a decent meal all on its own.
We'll be having only three "removes" (courses), so it won't be a big medieval feast by any stretch. Brother Cadfael, after all, was a monk and generally had simple fare, though with the character's adventures, he dined with the noble set as well.
The first remove will include a Welsh leek soup, with bread, herbed butter (using herbs from our own balcony garden), cheeses and probably fruit, depending on what I can find that would suit the time period. The second remove will have the chicken stew, but I still have to decide on the salad and side dish to go with it. This is where the trenchers will be used, though I will have plates under them, too. ;-) The final remove will be the sweets - I don't know where my daughter found the recipes, so I'll link to them later, unless they find other recipes they prefer. Edlerflower Worms and a Strawberry Tart are the plan. I think we can get elderflowers at a health food store.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. It should be fun. :-)
With summer here, we've been enjoying some of the local festive events, with more to come. We're also planning and working on an event of our own. This weekend, we're having our first historical food evening. I'm trying to start up a group among my foodie friends centered on friendship and re-creating historical eating. The idea is for different families in the group to host an evening, perhaps as often as once a month, with each gathering based on a specific time period/theme. The hosting family comes up with the theme, provides the location, and does the organizing while everyone who can make it brings a dish or two that's as close to historically accurate as can be replicated.
For our first attempt, we chose a Brother Cadfael theme. This puts the time period in the early to mid-1100's. While the location is England and Whales, the Brother Cadfael character had a well traveled life, so dishes from other countries would be quite appropriate.
Only one family was able to make it for this weekend - though that had as much to do with cat allergies as interest, unfortunately. That still makes for 7 people, which I think is just fine for a first time! We won't be able to do a whole lot for setting the mood - I'd love to dress up and all, but we just won't be able to do that. Mostly, it'll be centred around the food.
Which means that today, I've been baking trenchers. A typical trencher was a slice or three of thick, day old bread that were used instead of plates. I chose, however, to use this recipe. I've got one in the oven right now, two more in different stages of rising, one almost cool enough to freeze - and one we've already eaten like regular bread with supper. Trenchers weren't normally eaten by the diners. Instead, they would be tossed to the dogs or given to the poor. These ones will be quite edible, if anyone is hungry enough. ;-)
One of the dishes our guests will be bringing is a stewed chicken, though it has beef in it as well. I look forward to trying it. The girls will be making sweets for the end - Eldest has found a couple of recipes already.
I will be cheating on a few things. Wine was the usual drink of the time period, and one of our favorite grocery
... back again. I now have two trenchers cooling, one in the oven, and one last one shaped for its second rising.
Where was I?
Oh, right. Our favorite specialty grocery store carries a non-alcoholic spiced wine that's perfect for the theme. The recipe for it may well go back to the time period; this recipe sounds like it would produce a very similar drink. They even carry a brand of "small ale" that would work quite well, if we wanted to go that route. They also carry a line of forno-type breads (in fact, I think they really are baked in a forno) that are perfect for the evening, as well as cheese types that go back to that period and earlier. Some spiced wine, bread, cheese and some fruit and we've got a decent meal all on its own.
We'll be having only three "removes" (courses), so it won't be a big medieval feast by any stretch. Brother Cadfael, after all, was a monk and generally had simple fare, though with the character's adventures, he dined with the noble set as well.
The first remove will include a Welsh leek soup, with bread, herbed butter (using herbs from our own balcony garden), cheeses and probably fruit, depending on what I can find that would suit the time period. The second remove will have the chicken stew, but I still have to decide on the salad and side dish to go with it. This is where the trenchers will be used, though I will have plates under them, too. ;-) The final remove will be the sweets - I don't know where my daughter found the recipes, so I'll link to them later, unless they find other recipes they prefer. Edlerflower Worms and a Strawberry Tart are the plan. I think we can get elderflowers at a health food store.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. It should be fun. :-)
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