HFF: Roasts

5. Roasts (February 26 - March 10) They’re a staple of the historic table, in many different shapes and forms and types. It’s also a cooking technique. Try a historic recipe for a roast, or a recipe that involves roasting, and tell us how it turned out.

I picked up a Lamb Belly at my butcher's yesterday. (My husband and I are trying to reduce the high-methane-producing animals in our diet - so beef and pig are out.) Never having cooked this cut, nor much lamb at all, I asked the butcher what she recommended. Apparently, some people roast it, some people braise it, some people fry it on high heat and slice it thin. Roast! Well, that caught my ear, as I had a roast challenge!

The only problem with this lamb roast is that it's not a leg of lamb -- which is the traditional lamb roast. A lamb belly is a wide, thin slab of meat. No biggie, I figure. I'll make a roulade-type thing and stuff it. And lucky me, but my whole meal wound up being recipes printed back to back!

Roast Lamb
A leg of lamb is usually sent from market wrapped in caul; remove caul, wipe meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place on rack in dripping-pan, and dredge meat and bottom of pan with flour. Place in hot oven, and baste as soon as flour in pan is brown, and every fifteen minutes afterwards until the meat is done, which will take about one and three-fourths hours. It may be necessary to put a small quantity of water in pan while meat is cooking. Leg of lamb may be boned and stuffed for roasting. See stuffing, under Braised Mutton.
Make gravy, following directions for Roast Beef Gravy on page 202, or serve with Currant Jelly Sauce.

Hmm, see stuffing under braised mutton?

Stuffing
1 cup cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 tablespoon Poultry Seasoning, 1/4 cup boiling water.

Directions for gravy on page 202?

Roast Beef Gravy. Remove some of the fat from the pan, leaving four tablespoons. Place on front of range, add four tablespoons flour, and stir until well browned. The flour, dredged and browned in pan, should give additional color to gravy. Add gradually one and one-half cups boiling water, cook five minutes, season with salt and pepper, and strain. If flour should burn in pan, gravy will be full of black particles.

Well that looks like it'll be tasty. But let's cast our eyes over more of this chapter to make sure I picked the right recipe for tonight. Hmm, what's this "Lamb Bretonne"...?

Lamb Bretonne
Serve hot thinly sliced roast lamb with
Beans Bretonne. Soak one and one-half cups pea beans over night in cold water to cover, drain, and parboil until soft; again drain, put in earthen-ware dish or bean pt, add tomato sauce, cover, and cook until beans have nearly absorbed sauce.
Tomato Sauce. Mix one cup stewed and strained tomatoes, one cup white stock, six canned pimentoes rubbed through a sieve, one onion finely chopped, two cloves garlic finely chopped, one-fourth cup butter, and two teaspoons salt.

And thus, my whole meal was easily planned with back-to-back recipes.



Roundup:
The Challenge: Roasts
The Recipe: Lamb Bretonne (Roast Lamb, Stuffing, Beans Bretonne)
The Date/Year and Region: 1922 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer, published Boston, MA
How Did You Make It: The alterations I made to the roast lamb were to a) make it a roulade (omg I officially hate tying up a round roast soooo much!) b) stuff it and c) instead of using a rack I used porcelain chopstick rests. I also never noticed the flour browning (I'm cooking at 350F), so I basted it with smaltz starting at an hour in.
The alterations I made to the stuffing were to use corn flake crumbs instead of cracker crumbs, and to use a mix of spices instead of poultry seasoning. (Oregano, Rosemary, Nutmeg, Cayenne)
The alterations I made to the Beans Bretonne were to use one pickled pepper snagged from a pickle jar and some red pepper flakes instead of the six canned pimentos.
Time to Complete: overnight soaking for beans, cooking beans for 2 hours during the day, and then 30 mins prep for beans and 2 hours cooking. 10 mins prep for lamb, 1 3/4 hours cooking for lamb. 5 mins cooking for gravy. Not very much ACTIVE cooking.
Total Cost: $9.90 for the lamb. Everything else was in storage.
How Successful Was It?: Pretty tasty! The lamb was tastiest with lamb + stuffing + gravy + beans/tomato sauce. It was a little too dry otherwise.
How Accurate Is It?: I'd say pretty accurate. All of my alterations are fairly normal ones.

And a final comment from my husband: We should make this again, but with an actual roast, not the stuffed one. And serve it with biscuits. Maybe cheesy ones? (*hopeful face)

Cooking

Because I've been reading almost nothing but cookbooks lately*, I've been craving cooking and baking. I actively want to make pies and cakes and all sorts of things. What I HAVE made so far has been "Rys" aka medieval rice pudding with almond milk (aka our normal milk), which was ok but not great. I also wanted to make rice waffles using leftover brown rice from last night's dinner and the shiny brand-new waffle maker I received as a wedding present from a student. Surprise surprise, the waffle cookbook she'd also given didn't have rice waffles. Neither did the Breakfasts & Brunches cookbook. Nor did the King Arthur Flour Baking Companion. So I thought to myself: what of my antique cookbooks would have rice waffles? And lo and behold, my first guess was correct. Mrs. Tyree's "Housekeeping in Old Virginia" (pub. 1879) had THREE recipes for rice waffles. I made some slight adjustments, as I didn't have eggs (I added apple sauce and sour cream), but they turned out tasty! "Amusingly", my husband had to go with his third option for topping. As our maple syrup had mold (ew), most of the honey accessible has crystalized, and so it was butter and powdered sugar as the final option.

But all of this has not cured my lust for cookery. And so, having asked my husband to thaw the leftover dumpling filling from the last time I made potstickers (good gods, that was 8/27/15), I am making dumplings today. They are so simple, it's almost a crime to purchase them. I use the pork version from Use Real Butter. And so we shall have tasty tasty potstickers for dinner, with dipping sauce based on what I have in the cupboards more than anything specific. I think it'll be soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, red pepper flakes, minced garlic, grated ginger, and sesame seeds. This will go along with our rice and beans -- new attempts to actually EAT what's in the pantry!

* I'm reading up for the next HFF challenge. I think I'm going to wind up using a French recipe, because I'll have to translate the French and that is enough of a mystery for me! Most of the cookbooks I use are clear enough to follow -- or I have been reading/cooking with them long enough that they're clear to me. I mean, if I see a cake recipe that's only ingredients, I know what to do with them. Either that, or they'll say "make as a sponge cake" and I'd have to just double check the beginning of the cake chapter for sponge cakes. So, I'm going with "I've read them too much to be confused".

HFF 2: Culinary Vices

2. Culinary Vices (January 15 - January 28) Some foods are really, really naughty. Globs of butter, lashings of sugar and syrup, decadent chocolate and wine. Bring out your naughty, indecorous side with foods associated with all the bad things, in the best ways.


We had every intention of having our culinary vice meal involve foie gras, because what's more decadent than feeding a goose to death and then eating only it's liver? But I couldn't find a single recipe involving it in any of the cookbooks I read, French or otherwise. I did come across one mention of fattening geese for dinner, and that many hundreds of such geese are prepared every year in France, but that was it.

So I did something else. Part of my personal naughty, indecorous side is obsessed with china, dishes and fancy settings. I had gotten as a gift, a soup tureen that I had never used. It sat in my cupboard and taunted me. I also have salad tongs (the kind that look like hnads!) that I never use, because it's just as easy to use your own fork to get a handful of salad. I also have a cake stand that I never use because they're really impractical when you have no space. The only thing I didn't bother getting out was nice china (it's in storage) or silver (it's really hard to get to). My culinary vices use up my very very limited cupboards, and don't actually involve food. :-P But here is my meal from yesterday using my fancy serving dishes.

Menu:
Squash Soup
Salad
Spice Cake


The soup is from Marion Harland's Complete Cookbook, a very very useful turn-of-the-century work full of adorable "familiar talk" with the help, or how to clean kid gloves and old lace. She's opinionated and very knowledgeable.

Squash Soup: one cupful of cold boiled squash, run through a colander, one quart of milk, heated, with a pinch of soda, one teaspoonful, each, of salt and sugar, a quarter as much pepper, and a pinch of mace, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, one tablespoonful of onion juice, and two of minced celery.

Make a roux of butter and flour, and stir into the hot milk. Beat together the squash, celery and seasoning until light; heat quickly in a saucepan, stirring all the while. When very hot, put into the tureen, turn in the milk, stirring all well together, and serve.

Notes: I had cooked two squash the day before, so just used what squash there was. It wound up looking closer to 2 or 3 cups of squash. I heated a whole half gallon of whole milk, and didn't bother with a roux -- just tossing all those ingredients into the milk. I mixed the minced celery and MORE spices into the squash, and heated it. I was concerned that it would burn before it actually heated, but it turned out fine. I then put the squash in the tureen and ladled as much milk in as it took to make a consistency I liked. I have about a pint left of flavored milk. Oh, and instead of onion juice I used chopped garlic and some of the juice from the garlic jar. I served it in a pre-warmed tureen and with roasted squash seeds on top.


The salad was mixed greens with dried cranberries, walnuts, cheddar cheese, chopped apple and a vinaigrette.


The cake was from a box -- I had had every intention of making one, but every recipe called for eggs and we had none in the house and time was a factor. So I made boxed spice cake, using applesauce instead of the 3 eggs. Between the layers I put applesauce cooked down with basil sugar and I put powdered sugar on top because I don't like frosting. I served it on my cake stand. Y'know, it's been years since I had a cake bx cake, and it was really fluffy! The cakes I've made in recent years have all been denser than that and it was a surreal feeling to be eating and not even really feel the food in my mouth.

Roundup:
The Challenge:Culinary Vices
The Recipe: Marion Harland's Complete Cookbook
The Date/Year and Region:original copyright 1903, this edition 1906, published in Indianapololis, Indiana, USA
How Did You Make It: see above
Time to Complete:Not counting the cooking of squash, under an hour. It took a while for the milk to come up to temp.
Total Cost:I bought a half gallon of organic whole milk for $4.79 and that was the only cost of the entire meal. Everything else was already in storage.
How Successful Was It?:It was delicious! It was really quite tasty, and very easy to make. And I'm in love with using my soup tureen. Honestly, I FELT quite decadent, eating this creamy delicious soup with my gorgeous tureen full of even more tasty soup. I would make this again. I think it also would have done well with the addition of corn or something, as it tasted quite chowder-like.
How Accurate Is It?:I think I doubled the spices, by heating the milk with seasonings AND the squash. So this was probably more flavorful than the original recipe intended. I also did a garlic substitution for the onion. But other than that, I think this was very accurate. This isn't that old of a recipe, and cooking was very similar to today.

Historical Food Fortnightly

So I found out about a historical food challenge from Romantic History. What fun! As anyone who knows me in real life can attest, I collect vintage and antique cookbooks. The rules of the game are that the recipe has to be from before 1960. Upon mentioning to my husband, he requested no 1940s or 1950s food. :-P

Here are the challenges!

1. Meat-and-Potatoes (January 1 - January 14) They’re a staple for the tables in the most rustic cottages as well as the fanciest banquet tables - and it’s also an idiom meaning a staple or the most basic parts of something. Make a historic “meat-and-potatoes” recipe - however you interpret it.

2. Culinary Vices (January 15 - January 28) Some foods are really, really naughty. Globs of butter, lashings of sugar and syrup, decadent chocolate and wine. Bring out your naughty, indecorous side with foods associated with all the bad things, in the best ways.

3. History Detective (January 29 - February 11) For this challenge, you get to be the detective! Either use clues from multiple recipes to make a composite recipe, or choose a very vague recipe and investigate how it was made.

4. Sweets for the Sweet (February 12 - February 25) It’s sugar, and maybe spice, and definitely everything nice. Test out a historic recipe for sweets, sweetmeats and candies - but don’t let them spoil your appetite!

5. Roasts (February 26 - March 10) They’re a staple of the historic table, in many different shapes and forms and types. It’s also a cooking technique. Try a historic recipe for a roast, or a recipe that involves roasting, and tell us how it turned out.

6. Juicy Fruits (March 11 - March 24) It’s fruits! Do something with fruits. It doesn’t get more simple than that. Bonus points for use of heritage crops and ingredients!

7. Pretty As A Picture (March 25 - April 7) If you’re a fan of cooking competition shows (like I am!), you know how the saying goes: we eat first with our eyes. Make a dish that looks just as spectacular as it tastes. Extra points for historically accurate plating - and don’t forget to post pictures!

8. Literary Foods (April 8 - April 21) Food is described in great detail in much of the literature of the past. Make a dish that has been mentioned in a work of literature, based on historical documentation about that food item.

9. Mock Foods (April 22 - May 5) Historic cookbooks are full of recipes meant to imitate rare, expensive or impractical ingredients. It’s your turn to help your food pretend it’s something that it isn’t!

10. Breakfast Foods (May 6 - May 19) It’s simple - make a breakfast dish. Get creative, but make sure to provide your documentation for its place at the breakfast table!

11. Picnic Foods (May 20 - June 2) Some foods are just meant to be eaten in the outdoors! Concoct a dish that is documented for al fresco dining, or foods that might particularly lend themselves to eating at a picnic. Bonus points for putting it to the test!

12. In A Jam...or Jelly, or Pickle (June 3 - June 16) In a world before refrigeration, preserving food was an important task. For this challenge, make your favorite preserved food - bonus points if it’s seasonal!

13. Pies (June 17 - June 30) Make a pie! Meat, fruit, sweet or savory; traditional pies, hand pies, standing pies, or galottes - get creative, but make sure it’s documented!

14. Waste Not, Want Not (July 1 - July 14) Good housekeeping in any historic era included making the most of your food items. Pick a recipe that involves avoiding waste (maybe reusing leftovers, or utilizing things commonly thrown out) and show us how historically-green you can be!

15. Smell, Sight, Sound, Touch (July 15 - July 28) For this challenge, create a feast for the senses. Cook a dish that is a treat for more than just the tastebuds, whether it is scent, texture, visual appeal, or sound.

16. Foods Named After People (July 29 - August 11) Beef Wellington? Charlotte Russe? Choose a dish named after a person (either fictional or real) to create. Bonus points if you tell us about the link between the person and the dish!

17. Myths and Legends (August 12 - August 25) It’s time to make some legendary food! Pick a story from folklore (a myth, fantasy, legend, or fairy tale) that features food, and use a historical recipe to recreate it.

18. Let’s Get Saucy! (August 26 - September 8) They can be the perfect addition to a delicious dish, the crowning glory, or stand on their own. Make your best sauce and show us how to use it!

19. Ethnic Foods (September 9 - September 22) Foodways and cuisine are at the heart of every ethnic group around the world and throughout time. Choose one ethnic group, research their traditional dishes or food, and prepare one as it is traditionally made.

20. Foods Mentioned in Songs (September 23 - October 6) Find a historic song that mentions a food - and then cook a historic recipe around that food and the time of the song. Whether it’s Yankee Doodle’s macaroni, mussels a la Molly Malone, or the Muffin Man’s muffins, make sure it’s documented!

21. Party Foods (October 7 - October 20) If there’s a party, there has to be food! Pick a dish meant to be served to a crowd, or at a festive gathering, and show your work!

22. Soups, Stews and Porridges (October 21 - November 3) Whether it’s a delicate broth or a hearty porridge, if it’s served in a bowl, it’s fair game!

23. Sweet Sips and Potent Potables (November 4 - November 17) Whether it’s hard or soft, we all enjoy a refreshing beverage! Pick a historic beverage to recreate - remember to sip responsibly!

24. Redo! (November 18 - December 1) Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Or, sometimes they go so well, you just want to do it again! Pick a challenge you already did and want to revisit, and try it once more.

25. “Foreign” Foods (December 2 - December 15) Make a dish that reflects the historical idea of “foreign” - either foods with a loose connection to foreign lands, named after faraway places, or attributed to foreigners. Real connections to actual foreign countries not necessary (or recommended) - the more tenuous the connection, the better.

26. Descriptively-Named Foods (December 16 - 19) We all know those recipes that come attached to interesting and imaginative names - slumps, crumbles, buckles, trifles, flummery. Pick a historic recipe that has a descriptive title.

I'm looking forward to this!