Imagine: After a trying day of being genteel, you collapse in an oaken chair at your English countryside home sometime in the 1700s for a nice, warm snack -- fish custard! Yum!
According to Alyssa Connell and Marissa Nicosia, however, "yum" is decidedly NOT a reaction elicited by the dish they say resembled more of a fishy bar cookie. (Goodbye, appetite.) They'd know, of course, as the founders of Cooking in the Archives, a blog devoted to testing out early modern recipes in a present-day kitchen. Both are English literature instructors with an at-times masochistic interest in historical oddities.
Luckily for everyone, most of the recipes Connell and Nicosia have unearthed from the University of Pennsylvania's special collections library haven't been as stomach-churning. And the recipe books and manuscripts, Nicosia told The Huffington Post, actually represent a "rare written archive of female knowledge."
"The current consensus among scholars," she explained, "is that manuscript recipe books were household books ... largely managed by women and their servants or helpers."
Men also wrote and prepared recipes, such as the one for Shrewsbury Cakes -- a kind of snickerdoodle cookie -- which a male student jotted down in a culinary class taught by the esteemed pastry chef Edward Kidder. But the majority contain women's knowledge of food and medicinal treatments.
Delving into the volumes, Connell and Nicosia found that people in the early modern period seemed especially interested in getting the most bang for their buck. Food was expensive, so people cooked in bulk and preserved whatever they could. That emphasis, Nicosia explains, leads them to believe the manuscripts represent common practices that all social classes "lived and ate by." The pair hopes modern-day chefs and historians alike will try the recipes for themselves and show off the (hopefully delicious) results.
As for us, we'd especially like to try some of that "Maccarony Cheese." Made with eggs, sherry and whatever cheese you've got, the dish calls for browning by "salamander." Turns out that's just an old-fashioned broiler.
For more fun history lessons wrapped into a (probably) amazing recipe, check out the blog here.
White Bean and Brassica Ragout with Creamed Potatoes "It's a hearty, soothing meal that you just want to sop up every drop of on your plate, but it's also very healthy and low in fat-- totally vegetarian but you won't miss a thing." (Full Recipe Here)
Stay At Stove Dad
Roman Shrimp "This unique and easy-to-make dish is a treat when the weather starts to get cooler and the socializing moves indoors. The chili peppers in it give off warmth, the browned garlic lends it richness, and the mint is like an unexpected, crisp breeze. The recipe comes from Mark Bittman, but I’ve made a change or two. I reduced the number of chili peppers based on the high BTUs of the ones I get at the Park Slope Food Coop (but you should make it as hot as you might like) and I added a step. I slice the shrimp lengthwise into two pieces, which makes then curl up into little corkscrews as they are cooked. This is a beautiful effect, and they hold the sauce better. Roman Shrimp is fancy and unusual, which makes it a perfect dish for guests, yet also simple enough for a weeknight." (Full Recipe Here)
Big Girls Small Kitchen
When fall rolls around, I happily return to hibernation mode—which means hiding under grandpa sweaters and eating big bowls of Brisket & Pumpkin Chili. This recipe is bold and spicy, which means dual-purpose warming, even if it also means my guests are popping Zantac and reaching for water. Better yet, it incorporates some of the pumpkins hanging around the farmer’s market that are too precious to be carved. (Full Recipe Here)
A Chicken In Every Granny Cart
Shaker Fall Soup "My favorite fall (I must say, early fall) recipe is a Shaker tomato soup. How is tomato soup fall-y? Well, there's a frost warning Upstate, which means it's last licks for the tomatoes and it also means it's soup time again. And what could be better than a warm, thick, comforting bowl of soup made with summer's last tomatoes? I'm telling you, this stuff is heaven in a bowl! So, I know it's not exactly pumpkins and beets and kale, but it's a really good soup (coincidentally, it goes really, really well with no-knead bread)." (Full Recipe Here)
Sugar Laws
Two-Ingredient Maple Souffle "I picked this dish because maple is such a perfect fall flavor -- this dessert makes me think of sitting in some cute Vermont inn next to a roaring fire, except it's easy enough to make in a Manhattan kitchen any day of the week. Who knew two such common ingredients could make something this delicious?" (Full Recipe Here)
The Amateur Gourmet
Gina DePalma's Zucchini Olive Oil Cake "When I think fall, I think cinnamon, I think nutmeg, I think ginger. This recipe is a great transition recipe, using an overly abundant summer ingredient (zucchini) in something that fills your apartment with the best smells of autumn. Make sure to use real nutmeg that you grate yourself; the pre-ground stuff has all the charm of sawdust." (Full Recipe Here)
Choosing Raw
Beet “Ravioli” Stuffed with Sweet Root Vegetable Mash "This beet "ravioli" with sweet root vegetable puree is my favorite way to usher in the fall season. It shows off the best of fall produce, it's simple, and it's easy to modify according to taste. It also happens to be an easy way to introduce friends or family with conventional foodie tastes to the fun world of semi-raw and vegan eating." (Full Recipe Here)
A Whisk And A Spoon
Fresh Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze "Fall is my favorite time of the year to bake, and this cake will be a staple of mine during apple season. It's so moist that it keeps really well, and is great with or without the glaze. The cake is flavored with vanilla, which is a nice change from the usual apple-cinnamon combination." (Full Recipe Here)
Five more alternate jurors were selected Friday following questioning from prosecution and defense lawyers, rounding out the 12 jurors and six alternates needed for the case against Trump to proceed.
Former New York Yankees left-hander Fritz Peterson died at the age of 82. He is probably best known exchanging wives with teammate Mike Kekich in the 1970s.
Fantasy baseball analyst Andy Behrens offers up a series of pickups to assist every manager, starting with a duo of Rockies ahead of a Colorado homestand.
Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman give their early season assessment of all thirty MLB teams at the three week mark, as well as discuss the long-awaited debut of Texas Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter.
