Tarte of strawberyes

Another fantastic guest post! This time from Anje of Kitchen Historic.

***

I have a good friend who went on a summer trip to England a few years ago and she brought me back this wonderful book, A Recipe Book in the Tudor Fashion. In this book is a Tudor recipe for a strawberry tart, taken from the cookbook A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye. Books dating this far back can be a little difficult to decipher, but luckily the book did all the work for me. I halved this recipe because it's just me and Mr. Man and I didn't want to make too much, however this recipe only makes enough for two 18-inch pans, so it's really not a lot to begin with.

To make short paest for tarte.

Take fyne floure and a cursey of
fayre water and a dysche of swete butter and
a lyttel saffron, and the yolckes of two egges
and make it thynne and as tender as ye
maye.

To make a tarte of strawberyes.

Take and strayne theym wyth the yolkes
of foure egges, and a lyttle whyte breade
grated, then season it up wyth suger and
swete butter and so bake it.

The Verdict:
The taste was not necessarily bad, however the texture of the strawberries inside was a little strange for me. I also think I should've baked my tart a bit longer, so that may be part of it. I much prefer my strawberries at least partially intact. This tart was not very sweet either, but I've come to find that a lot of historical recipes are not very sweet. Probably due to changing tastes, I imagine. Anyway, this is okay, but I would not make it again. I'd rather eat a strawberry pie.

Modernized Recipe:
(Adapted from A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye)

Pastry Crust
250 grams PLAIN FLOUR
100 grams UNSALTED BUTTER, softened
pinch of SAFFRON (for color, omit if desired)
2 EGG YOLKS, beaten
4 tablespoons COLD WATER

1. Grind the saffron to powder (use the back of a spoon if you don't have a mortar and pestle) and add to the flour.
2. Add the flour to the soft butter and rub it between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add the egg yolks and some water if necessary to create a dough which sticks together.
4. Roll out thin and use to line a greased 18cm flan tin.

Strawberry Tart
250 grams STRAWBERRIES
3 EGG YOLKS, beaten
50 grams WHITE BREADCRUMBS
3 tablespoons SUGAR
25 grams UNSALTED BUTTER, softened

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Puree the strawberries in a blender and pour into a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
2. Pour strawberry mixture into the prepared (unbaked) tart crust and decorate the top with the trimmings.
3. Use milk or egg yolk as a glaze and bake until the pastry is golden.

***

That is a fine looking tart, is it not? Also a very attractive picture.

Chicken a la King

Today's guest post is from Alison, The Domestic Engineer. I have found that the 1970's has a mysterious allure. Alison is not immune, and her recipe comes from the 1974 edition of the Campbell's Soup cookbook.

Chicken a la King
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped green pepper
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken or mushroom soup
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken, ham, or turkey
2 tablespoons diced pimiento
Dash pepper
Toast

Cook onion and green pepper in butter until tender. Blend in soup and milk; add chicken, pimento, and pepper. Heat slowly; stir often. Serve over toast. Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

The recipe is called Chicken a la King and sounds fancy even though it's just a mixture of cream of chicken soup with chicken, onions, and green peppers and served over toast. Not too daring of a recipe really but it was out of an old cookbook and a big hit with the family that my husband wants it again! I should be more daring next time though and try something even older or bizarre sounding.

Also, now that I think of it, this recipe really is pretty much like Hawaiian haystacks but on toast rather than rice and without the extra toppings. I'm going to try and branch out further next time because this is kinda fun! I'll also keep my eye out for some cool old cookbooks at Goodwill!


That is some nice looking Chicken a la King, Alison! I would eat it.

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.

Worm Castles

This guest post is from nali (also known as "my mom"), who informs us about hardtack. Splendid! Hopefully this is the first of a few guest posts. Try out those recipes and send them in, readers!


When the traveler must travel in space as well as time, life-sustaining travel food is a necessity. A food staple of the Civil War soldier was hardtack, also sometimes called worm castles due to the infestation of ‘worms’ living in the hardtack. During the war, most hardtack was made in government bakeries, but it could also easily be made at home.



The objective with hardtack is to make a food that will not spoil or mold before it is eaten. It must also last a long time. I have made hardtack that was perfectly edible after a year in storage with no refrigeration. So what is the downside? It is bland....horribly, horribly bland. Still, it will sustain life. The secret to its long life is the lack of ingredients which are prone to spoilage.

Mix together:
5 cups of flour
1 cup of water
1 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Sometimes it is necessary to add just a bit more water, but don’t put in much! Knead the ingredients until they hang together enough to roll out with a rolling pin. I usually put the dough in a pastry cloth to help it stay together while I work on it. Roll the dough out until it is about 3/8 inch thick. This is not as simple as it sounds. This dough is rather dry and doesn’t roll easily. You’ll give your arm muscles a really good workout!

After it is rolled out, cut it into 3 inch squares, then use a fork to poke lots of holes into the hardtack.




Next the hardtack must be baked until all moisture is gone. I have tried it two different ways. Way #1 is to bake it at 400 F for 30 minutes. I found it did not get quite dry all the way through. Way #2 is to bake it at 225F for about 2 hours. Whichever way you choose to do it, make sure it is completely cooked.

Once it is cooked, it is almost ready to eat....or saved for traveling.

Like soldiers anytime in history, Civil War soldiers were inventive with the ways they ate their ration of hardtack. Eating it plain is just an invitation to break a tooth. Here are 3 ways to use your hardtack. First, put your hardtack on a hard surface and use your rifle butt to crush it.



Once it is crushed you are ready to begin to prepare your meal.


1. Hardtack Mush: Mix hardtack crumbs with hot water until softened. Eat.


2. Hardtack Pancake: Mix hardtack crumbs with hot water until softened. Form into a little pancake and cook in pan over fire. If you can find some syrup or jam, that would go well with it.


3. Hardtack Pudding: Mix hardtack crumbs with hot water until softened. Mix in a little bit of brown sugar before serving.


For a verdict, we enlisted the services of two actual soldiers in order to get a genuine reaction. To my surprise, they both ate all three items and cleaned their plates. Maybe a true soldier will just eat everything. One commented he’d had worse and he’d had better.

The least favorite was the mush. This was just warm, soggy hardtack crumbs. Still, if a person were hungry enough, it IS edible.

The easy favorite was the pancake. The crispiness from cooking made a nice texture. I’m sure the maple syrup also helped.

The pudding with the brown sugar wasn’t too bad either. In a travel situation, it would probably be easier to prepare than the pancake as it doesn’t require extra cooking.

Happy Trails to you!

Nutty Pups, Pineapple-carrot Toss, Potato Chips, Popcorn Pops, Milk

Guest-posting today is my sister, Bethany, captain of The Good Ship Lollipop.

My sister came to visit me this weekend and while she was here, I showed her a cookbook I have, that used to belong to our grandma. Checking the date inside the cover, we discovered it is a sixth printing of a 1968 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. You know - the red and white checked cookbook that everyone in the country has on their bookshelf. I compared it to a more recent version done in the 1990's and discovered that other than the cover, there was very little that was the same about these books!

I told Jana that she needed to borrow my book for this blog and instead, she invited me to do a guest blog post. It was really fun going through the book. It had a great section in the back for meal planning and entertaining. I finally settled on a menu called "Children's Lunch"

Nutty Pups, Pineapple-carrot Toss, Potato Chips, Popcorn Pops, Milk

Nutty Pups

Broil Frankfurters over hot coals. Serve in a hot toasted buns spread with chunk-style peanut butter. Pass pickle relish

"Frank"ly I was very skeptical about this one. I had no hot coals, so I cooked the hot dogs under the broiler and since my daughter is allergic to peanutbutter, I used sunflower seed butter instead (which tastes very similar). This is what she thought:

She ate every single bite of this hot dog! My three year old ate just the hot dog and half the bun. My 2 year old just ate the bun. Then again - I didn't even give her a hot dog because she doesn't eat them when I serve them normally.
I found it to be edible. It wasn't disgusting like you would think it would be - it had a bit of that sweet/salty thing going actually. I wouldn't serve it again on purpose but if somebody served it to me for dinner I would eat it politely.


Pineapple-carrot Toss
Drain one 8 3/4 ounce can pineapple tidbits well. Mix with 2 cups shredded carrots and 1/2 cup plumped raisins. Chill. Just before serving, add mayonnaise to moisten.

The only change I made to this is that I used Vegannaise (soy mayo) instead of mayo. My daughter is also allergic to egg so the substitution was necessary.

This is my 3 year old smiling at the camera and nodding that she likes this salad:

However, when the meal was over, this cup was still just as full as you see it. In fact my 5 year old, who also liked it on first bite, didn't eat hers either. My 2 year old picked out the pineapple pieces and ate those. I thought for sure this would be the hit of the meal but it was definitely the miss instead! I thought it tasted a whole lot like a jello salad my grandma used to make - minus the jello. In my opinion, the mayo didn't ruin it at all like you would think it would but clearly my kids (who the meal was designed for according to the cookbook!) didn't like it.

Potato Chips - I served these straight out of the Lays bag. The cookbook didn't include a recipe so I assumed they didn't want them homemade. My kids ate every single chip. Shocking.

Milk - I thought it was weird that they listed milk as part of the menu, but I guess they were thorough in including a drink as well! Milk in a cup is a rare "treat" for my younger kids since my 5 year old is allergic to dairy as well. My 3 year old said, "MMMM! I like milk!"

Popcorn Pops
4 quarts popped corn (2/3 cup unpopped)

1 cup peanuts
1 cup light molasses
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt


Combine popped corn and peanuts in a large bowl or pan. In 2-quart saucepan, combine molasses, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat to hard ball stage (260*) Pour syrup slowly over popped corn and nuts, stirring till mixture is well coated. press into 5 ouce cold-drink cups. Insert a wooden skewer in each. let cool. Push on bottoms of cups to remove. Makes 16

I have owned a candy thermometer for 10 years and have never used it until today. I actually had to test it first because I live at a high altitude and adjust the temperature accordingly. Also I deleted the peanuts due to the peanut allergy. Basically these tasted like Cracker Jacks. I didn't have sticks or the right sized cups, so you can see in the picture at the top, that I made them into popcorn balls instead.


I'll close this up with a few words from the editors at the beginning of the cookbook:

"A homemaker's kitchen is a personal, creative world of her own where convenience and proficiency in food preparation are supreme. The Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen helps provide inspiration and ideas for homemakers who want the best in creative food preparation."

I'll give them that - these recipes certainly were ... creative.