Peach Pudding

Aunt Babette's Cookbook: Foreign and domestic receipts for the household: A valuable collection of receipts and hints for the housewife, many of which are not to be found elsewhere, by "Aunt Babette" [1889]

PEACH PUDDING.
LINE the bottom of a pudding dish with stale sponge or cup cake and shave enough peaches to cover thickly (you may use preserves orcompote instead). Sprinkle a cupful of pulverized sugar over the fruit.Now let a pint of milk get boiling hot by setting it in a pot of boiling water. Add the yelks of three eggs, well beaten, one tablespoonful ofcornstarch, made smooth with a little cold milk, and stir it all the time. As soon as thickened, pour over the fruit. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, adding a tablespoonful of sugar, and spread over the top for frosting. Set it in the oven for a few minutes to harden. Eat cold, with or without cream.

Verdict: I had a bunch of peaches from my mother's tree, a wedge of strawberry birthday cake my mother in law brought me, and some leftover key lime poke cake my mother made for a party.  These leftovers put it in the best tradition of trifles.  The lime and strawberry was a little weird, but whatever.  I thought the lack of sugar in the custard would be weird too, but there's so much nonsense going on here that it wasn't noticeable.  I thought it was very attractive and pretty tasty.  The kids picked at it and husband had one bite.  I recommend using one flavor of a plainly flavored cake.  

Plain Swiss (Suet) Pudding

Things A Lady Would Like To Know [1876]

True love, like the eye, can bear no flaw. --Laveter.

Once again showing a lamentable taste in quotations, we proceed, at last, to the long-awaited suet pudding. Queen Victoria, like most Victorians, had a basic distrust of vegetables. Her Majesty in particular lived on a diet made up almost entirely of beef and puddings.

In the absence of a pudding mold, I ended up smooshing it into a metal bowl and setting it on top of a coil of aluminum foil inside a pot of boiling water. I took great care with the smooshing, so that it would detach from the bowl easily and lie there in a beautiful, smooth hemisphere.

Not so much.

Plain Swiss Pudding
Chop very fine 6 oz. of beef suet, and mix it well with 8 oz. of breadcrumbs, 1/2 lb. of apples, pared, cored, and minced fine; add 8 oz. of powdered white sugar*, the juice of 1 lemon, and the peel grated, with a pinch of salt. Well mix all the above ingredients, and put it into a buttered mold; boil it, and when done, turn it out and serve.

From the White House Cook Book [1887] "Sauces for Puddings" section:

Milk or Cream Sauce:
Cream or rich milk, simply sweetened with plenty of white sugar and flavored, answers the purpose of some kinds of pudding, and can be made very quickly.

Verdict: Um. Mixed. The flavor was really, really, really good. Rich and sweet and buttery tasting and fruity and luscious. Really, it is one of the best things my tongue has ever had the pleasure of tasting. That is saying something, considering what I used for breadcrumbs was failed whole wheat bread that was as dense as a brick. Not a bit like beef. But. Every bite leaves a heavy, waxy coating all around the inside of the mouth. It coats the back of the teeth and doesn't leave. It is awful. The bits from the bottom of the bowl were the worst, I think the suet kind of pooled there. The bits from the top were much better. Husband ate all of his portion and only noticed the fattiness after I pointed it out. I ate a few bites, then couldn't stand the wax build-up any more.

I am unsure whether this result is just because that is how suet puddings are, or because this particular recipe or cookbook has a particularly high ratio of suet to other stuff.

*"Powdered" here means "Smashed up from the brick or cone it came in."

Milk

From Advice to a Wife [1880]:

Passion is injurious to the mother's milk, and consequently to the child. Sudden joy and grief frequently disorder the infant's bowels, producing griping, looseness, &c.; hence, a mother who has a mild, placid, even temper generally makes an excellent nurse, on which account it is a fortunate circumstance that she is frequently better-tempered during suckling than at any other period of her life; indeed, she usually, at such times, experiences great joy and gladness.

If the mother or the wet nurse be good-tempered, the milk will be more likely to be wholesome, which will of course make him more healthy, and consequently better tempered. While, on the other hand, if the mother or the nurse be of an irritable, cross temper, the milk will suffer, and will thus cause disarrangement to the system; and hence, ill-health and ill-temper will be likely to ensue.

Verdict:

Approved.

Rhubarb, or Pie-Plant Pudding

The White House Cookbook: A Selection of Choice Recipes Original and Selected, During a Period of Forty Years' Practical Housekeeping, by Fanny Lamira Gillette, [1887]

IN presenting this book of recipes to the public, I do so at the urgent request of friends and relatives. During forty years of practical housekeeping, it has been my custom, after trying and testing a recipe, and finding it invariably a success, and also one of the best of its kind, to copy it in a book, thereby accumulating a considerable amount of reliable and useful information in the culinary line.

Rhubarb, or Pie-Plant Pudding
Chop rhubarb pretty fine, put in a pudding-dish, and sprinkle sugar over it; make a batter of one cupful of sour milk*, two eggs, a piece of butter the size of an egg, half a teaspoonful of soda, and enough flour to make batter about as thick as for cake. Spread it over the rhubarb, and bake till done. Turn out on a platter upside down, so that the rhubarb will be on top. Serve with sugar and cream.


Verdict:

Another name for rhubarb is "pie-plant", because of rhubarb's excellence in pie making. I think this is outstanding. Any produce so intimately connected with the manufacture of pie can only be a source of good in the world.

This was quite tasty! Kind of like a rhubarb upside-down cake, except that the cakey bit wasn't sweetened. That was all right, because the sweetened rhubarb made it just sweet enough. That, and the cream and sugar on top. I would have just drizzled the cream on, but I've got all this unsweetened whipped cream in my fridge from a failed butter-making attempt.** Besides being tasty, it was also quick and easy to make. Consequently, I'll probably be making it again some time. Next time, though, I shall add a little bit of sugar to the batter, some vanilla, and some nutmeg. Mmm. Delightful.

This is a great recipe to practice on if imprecise recipes make you nervous.



*For every cup of milk, add about 1 tsp. of lemon juice or vinegar and stir it around. If you lived in the days before pasteurization, you'd be drinking milk that gradually soured due to bacterial formation. Pasteurized milk does not do this. It just goes nasty. The reason for using sour milk instead of fresh milk is not economy; it is cleverness! You need some acidity to react with the baking soda to leaven the batter, making your end result light and fluffy instead of dense and brick-like. This is why you must add acid in the form of lemon juice or vinegar to achieve the same result.

**Remember this post on butter-making? It is much easier with a stand mixer in a room-temperature house than on a chilly day in 1917 with a hand-cranked churn.

Beef Roly-Poly, Onions-Boiled, Carrots-Mashed, Baked Berry Roll

This guest post is from Bethany, also known as my sister and Captain of The Good Ship Lollipop. She did a guest post for me once before -HERE. I look forward to seeing more guest posts from all you other loyal readers out there!


I have been planning to guest post for my sister for several weeks, but finding the perfect recipes turned out to be quite the tall order. Between my list of criteria and hers, it took me awhile to find something:

It had to be historical.
It had to be interesting.
It had to be something that 4 kids ages 6 and under would try.
It had to be free of eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, and dairy (unless baked into the product)

Not an easy task I tell you! I finally settled on The White House Cookbook from 1887. I found the title quite deceiving. I thought for sure that it wold be recipes from the White House cooks. Not so. The author is simply a fan of the wives of the Presidents, and dedicated the book to them. Though reading through some of the recipes, it made me wonder what she REALLY meant by dedicating the book to them . . . if you know what I mean.

Beef Roly-Poly
One quart flour, two teaspoonfuls of cream tarter mixed with the flour, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a teacupful of milk; a teaspoonful of salt; do not use shortening of any kind, but roll out the mixture half an inch thick, and on it lay minced chicken, veal or mutton (I used ground beef, okay?! I wasn't about to go to the work of mincing my own chicken, veal or mutton when I had ground beef in the freezer). The meat must be seasoned with pepper and salt, and be free from gristle. Roll the crust over and over, and put it on a buttered plate and place in a steamer for half an hour. Serve for breakfast or lunch (I served it for dinner), giving a slice to each person with gravy served with it.

Onions - Boiled
The white silver-skins are the best species. To boil them peel off the outside, cut off the ends, put them into cold water and into stew-pan, and let them scald two minutes; then turn off that water, pour on cold water, salted a little and boil slowly till tender, which will be in thirty or forty minutes, according to their size; when done drain them quite dry, pour a little melted butter over them, sprinkle them with pepper and salt and serve hot. An excellent way to peel onions so as not to affect the eyes is to take a pan full of water, and hold and peel them under the water.

Carrots - Mashed
Scape and wash them; cook them tender in boiling water salted slightly. Drain well and mash them. Work in a good piece of butter and season with pepper and salt. Heap up on a vegetable dish and serve hot.

Baked Berry Rolls
Roll rich biscuit-dough thin, cut it into little squares four inches wide and seven inches long. Spread over with berries. (I used blueberries) Roll up the crust and put the rolls in a dripping pan just a little apart Put a piece of butter on each roll, spices if you like. Strew over a large handful of sugar, a little hot water. Set in the oven and bake like dumpling. Served with a sweet sauce.

Sweet Sauce
Into a pint of water stir a paste made of a tablespoonful of corn-starch or flour (rubbed smooth with a little cold water); add a cupful of sugar and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Cook well for three minutes. Take from the fire and add a piece of butter as large as a small egg; when cool, flavor with a tablespoonful of vanilla or
lemon extract.


Verdict:

Beef Roly-Poly - The weird part of this is that it was steamed. The texture of the dough turned out very much like the dumplings in Chicken and Dumpling Soup. My husband and I both found this quite bland. My 6,4, and 2 year olds all ate it up. My 4 year old even had seconds. We also doused theirs with a heavy layer of ketchup. Ketchup makes everything go down easier. My 10 month old happily gnawed on the bread part and didn't seem to object too strongly to it. My husband objected the most and I thought I heard whispers about Taco Bell.

Onions - Boiled - Yummy! If you like the onions that are cooked with roast beef, then you will like these onions. My husband had thirds of them - but they might also have been the only thing on the table that he found edible. My 6 year old at two - but she also dislikes onions in general, so I was pleased with her spirit of at least attempting them.

Carrots - Mashed - These were like baby food. My baby ate them like baby food. Except for he isn't a fan of mashed carrots anyway, so he took two bites and went back to the Beef Roly-Poly dough. Everyone kind of picked at these. It is weird because they tasted and were seasoned just like I make carrots normally with butter, salt, and pepper. So it must be something about that mashed texture.

Baked Berry Rolls - These were good enough. They would have been quite bland without the sugar sauce. Nothing to write home about but the kids ate them all up. Of course I suspect that everyone still had empty spots in their stomach from dinner. So who knows?


Overall we have concluded that either our family's food limitations weed out the good stuff, or the people of 1887 ate very bland stuff indeed. Now I'm headed to Taco Bell.

Rabbit Ragout, Hot Buns, also watermelon

A couple sundries from Aunt Babette's Cookbook [1889].

The rabbit has most assuredly died.

Rabbit Ragout (Sweet and Sour)
Prepare as usual. Set on to boil with one onion, a bay leaf, a few whole peppercorns, some cloves and stick cinnamon. Boil until tender, not forgetting the necessary salt.

Add half a teacupful of vinegar and the crust of a rye loaf.

When tender, remove the rabbit to a heated platter. Keep covered until the gravy has boiled down quite thick, adding brown sugar and ginger snaps to thicken the gravy.

Mmmm, buns in the oven.

Hot Buns
Dissolve one piece, or two cents' worth of yeast in half a cupful of lukewarm milk, add a pinch of salt and a little sugar; let this raise. Mix a dough (soft dough) with three cups of milk and sufficient flour to make it just thick enough to roll. Next morning roll, cut round or mold into half-moons. You may add half a cup of butter and sugar, if you wish them extra nice. Let them raise again, about half an hour after putting them in the pan, and when half baked brush them with beaten egg.

Watermelon: Because I felt like it.


Verdict:

Rabbit Ragout: Better than the jugged hare recipe I made, actually. The gravy was pretty good, too. I'm afraid I'm still not a rabbit fan, though, even though it does taste like chicken. The joints... are just so slightly wrong. I did not eat very much. I will also be honest here and say that my mother actually took care of this recipe, as looking at it was making me feel ill.

Hot Buns: Tasty! I didn't add the butter or sugar that would've made it "extra nice", but still just fine. It is just a soft white roll recipe. There was some lovely homemade raspberry jam that went with them delightfully. What is the difference between a roll and a bun, anyway?

Watermelon: I swallowed a watermelon seed.

Parsnip Fritters

Every sort of culinary vegetable is much better when freshly gathered and cooked as soon as possible, and , when done, thoroughly drained, and served immediately while hot. ~White House Cook Book: A Selection of Choice Recipes Original and Selected, During a Period of Forty Years' Practical Housekeeping, by Mrs. F. L. Gilette [1887].






Parsnip Fritters
Boil four or five parsnips; when tender take off the skin and mash them fine; add to them a teaspoonful of wheat flour and a beaten egg; put a tablespoonful of lard or beef drippings in a frying-pan over the fire, add to it a saltspoonful of salt; when boiling hot put in the parsnips; make it in small cakes with a spoon; when one side is a delicate brown turn the other; when both are done take them on a dish, put a very little of the fat in which they were fried over and serve hot. These resemble very nearly the taste of the salsify or oyster plant, and will generally be preferred.




Verdict: Parsnips look like white carrots, and taste like either carroty potatoes or potatoey carrots. These smelled great when they cooked! Husband sneaky snuck in and nabbed one in the midst of picture taking, so tasty did they smell. The taste, however, was just kind of fine. They tasted exactly like the fried combination of potatoes and carrots. I cannot say how it compares to salsify, however, as I haven't been able to find any salsify.

Salsify is a root vegetable which used to be popular, and apparently tastes like oysters. Thus, it was used to make mock oyster stew a lot. Many more root vegetables used to be popular, actually. Now we're basically down to potatoes, carrots, and onions. Possibly beets, as well. When is the last time you ate salsify, parsnips, rutabagas, Jerusalem artichokes, or turnips?

I figure that when the only vegetables you eat during the winter are those you can store in your root cellar, you want to grow as much of a variety as you can. Since we can get pretty much any vegetable any time we want, a wide variety of root vegetables is no longer a priority.

Hasty Pudding

Hasty pudding is not hasty. Perhaps the name is ironical.

CORN-MEAL MUSH OR HASTY PUDDING.

Put two quarts of water into a clean dinner-pot or stew-pan, cover it, and let it become boiling hot over the fire; then add a tablespoonful of salt, take off the light scum from the top, have sweet, fresh yellow or white corn-meal; take a handful of the meal with the left hand, and a pudding-stick* in the right, then with the stick, stir the water around, and by degrees let fall the meal; when one handful is exhausted, refill it; continue to stir and add meal until it is as thick as you can stir easily, or until the stick will stand in it; stir it a while longer, let the fire be gentle; when it is sufficiently cooked, which will be in half an hour, it will bubble or puff up; turn it into a deep basin. This is eaten cold or hot, with milk or with butter, and syrup or sugar, or with meat and gravy, the same as potatoes or rice.
~WHITE HOUSE COOK BOOK: A SELECTION OF CHOICE RECIPES Original and Selected, During a period of FORTY YEARS' Practical Housekeeping [1887]


Verdict: This was really difficult to make without lumps. You really do have to put it in a pinch at a time. It was kind of glutinous, but it tasted fine. I also took it off the heat just a few minutes after I had put the last few pinches of cornmeal in. It is just like cream of wheat or oatmeal, only corn flavored. I topped it with butter and plum jam. If you are in need of a hot, filling breakfast, and are a fan of cream of wheat, this may just be the recipe for you to try.


*Probably a spurtle.