Dreamsicle Trifle

Just this once, I will tell you some things about the future. Usually I would not do so because of the terrible, horrifying consequences that could result from disrupting the time line, but this dessert is really good. So keep it under your hats, but right after the cupcake phase has waned, puddings will rise. The recent history of above-average cakes and puddings will then lead naturally into a resurgence of the trifle.

I will let you in on this particular trifle recipe both because it is fantastically delicious, and because it seems to date back to right now. So that's all right!



Dreamsicle Trifle
2 large cans mandarin oranges
1 small pkg. orange gelatin powder
1 pint orange sherbet
1 cup whipping cream, whipped (no sugar or vanilla, just whipped.)
1 angel food cake, cubed
whipped topping

Drain 1 cup liquid from mandarin oranges. Bring to a boil in the microwave. Add gelatin, and stir to dissolve. Cool until just warm. Add orange sherbet, and mix until melted. Gently fold in whipped cream. It is okay if there are uneven streaks, just don't smash those fluffy whipped cream bubbles. Put half the cake cubes in the trifle dish (or other dish that is not as fancy), cramming them together so they will stay in a tight layer. Pour half the orange mixture over the top, cover with a thin layer of whipped topping, and top with half the oranges. On top of the oranges, put the remaining of the cake cubes in, pour over the remaining orange mixture, cover with the remaining oranges, and cover with whipped topping. Refrigerate.


Bonus Garnish Tip:
For attractive orange curls, use a tool like the one shown below (or skill with a knife) to make a long strip of orange peel.



Wind it around a drinking straw, secure the ends with tape, and freeze overnight.

The Delights of Christmas Time

This is from A Woman's Favorite Cook Book [1890's-1900's] , which I have made food from before. Isn't this gorgeous?

Click to enbiggen

I mean, I never thought I'd want to dig into a whole pig, but suddenly it looks so festive and enticing! I also love the little boy's sailor suit, the long baby dress, the candles on the tree... although that little girl should probably watch where that baby's hands are reaching. This could end in tears.

Look at that selection of gorgeous, beautiful food though!

Devonshire Junket II

Do you remember Attempt #1 at Devonshire Junket? I failed miserably. But I shall not be defeated! Upon careful reading of the directions, I discovered that it doesn't work if you use canned milk. Which I was, oddly enough. It was on sale. Please do not judge me.

From A New System of Domestic Cookery, Formed Upon Principles of Economy, and Adapted to the Use of Private Families [1807].



Devonshire Junket.
Put warm milk into a bowl; turn it with rennet; then put some scalded cream, sugar, and cinnamon, on the top, without breaking the curd.



Not actually very hard to find at the grocery store.

More Helpful Directions:
2 cups milk
1 Junket Rennet tablet
1 T. cold water

1. Have 4 individual dessert dishes ready.
2. Heat milk to lukewarm while stirring (110 degrees F.). Dissolve rennet tablet in water by crushing. Add to warm milk and stir for a FEW SECONDS ONLY. Pour at once, while still liquid, into dessert dishes.
3. Let stand UNDISTURBED for 10 minutes. Chill.
4. Drizzle cream over and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Don't stir it in, leave it alone and eat it by spoonfuls. The more the curd is broken, the more the structure breaks down and releases whey, looking unsightly.


Verdict: This is totally easy! Really, about the same difficulty level as Jello. As long as you don't use canned milk. And it is pretty delicious, too! It is sort of like a cross between Jello and custard. I did this a couple times more, once with vanilla mixed into the milk, which was delicious, and and once with orange flavoring. And yet, my favorite is still brown sugar and cream. Yum. An accurate flavoring for the time period would be rosewater or orange blossom water*, which I think would be delightful, and intend to try.

If you're having a Regency party, or just in the mood for a unique dessert, you should try this. It is super easy and unique.


*Which, I have discovered, can be found near the drink mixers at the grocery store.

Potage of Venison

The English and French Cook [1674]

Now for the second part of my venison series!


This would probably make poor Mrs. Kellogg cry.

Potage of Venison.
Take a Haunch of Venison, and cut it into six pieces, and place them in the bottom of a Pan or Pot, then put in no more Water than will cover it, let it boil, then scum it, after that add to it a good quantity of whole Pepper; when it is half boiled, put in four whole Onions, Cloves, and large Mace, some sliced Ginger, Nutmeg, three or four faggots of sweet Herbs,


I had no faggots of sweet herbs. :'(

let it boil till the Venison be very tender, and a good part of the broth be wasted; after this pour out the broth from the meat into a Pipkin, keep your Venison hot in the same Pot by adding other hot broth unto it; then take a couple of red-Beet roots, having very well parboil'd them before, cut them into square pieces as big as a shilling, and put them into the broth which is in your Pipkin, and let them boil till they are very tender, add unto the boiling four Anchovies minced,

Yes, I really did. For science.

then dish up your Venison on Sippets of French-bread, then pour on your broth, so much as will near-upon fill the Dish, then take your roots by themselves, and toss them in a little drawn Butter, and lay them all over the Venison; if the Beets be good, it will make the broth red enough, which you must have visible round about the Dish sides, but if it prove pale, put to it some Saunders: This is a very savory Potage.




Verdict:

The peculiar blend of flavors (to modern taste buds) makes it taste oddly of pickled beets with red meat. I could taste the anchovies not at all, which was actually kind of a let-down after being brave enough to throw them in. It was so very dry and tough, but that is not necessarily the recipe's fault. When simmering meat, the longer you simmer it, the tougher it gets until a certain point, when it gets more and more tender. Unfortunately, I was impatient and impetuous, qualities which lead to the ruination of many dishes. If you are an impatient and impetuous type who wishes to recreate this dish, I highly recommend the use of a slow cooker.

The quality of this dish which occasioned the most comment was the color. The beets turned the sauce a deep, rich, gorgeous red. Disturbingly, however, it was also precisely the color of fresh blood. When poured over the meat, the color made it seem like it was almost raw. The speedy absorption caused by the dryness of the meat made it look like it was oozing blood, a quality you cannot fully appreciate in the pictures. In person, it looks almost precisely like very very rare meat swimming in coagulating blood.

Not bad though, in the end, if you like pickled beets. Which I do. I can recommend it as long as you 1.) take the time (or the slow cooker) to cook the meat until it is tender, ignoring my bad example and 2.) are not a person turned off by the description above.

Betty Crocker's Gelatin Foolishness

More from Betty Crocker's New Cooking for Two Cookbook! [1972]


Ah, an arrangement of complementary foods nestling together harmoniously. Gelatin, pears, tomatoes, radishes, and peas, all melded together in a jellied loaf.

Wait a second, back that truck up.

To roest Veneson/To bake Veneson

A Propre New Book of Cookery [1545]



Readers, both gentle and common, I have for you today roasted venison with sauce, the first in a three-part series about medieval venison, which you can read about in this informative article. "But Jana!" I hear you say. "Where can get venison in case I want to replicate this recipe?" Never fear. I have a list of options:

*Get a hunting license
*Find a friend who hunts
*Buy it from specialty shops for large amounts of cash
*Find a butcher that processes wild game for people. Sometimes people do not come back to pick up their meat, because they no longer want to pay for the service.
*Time travel to medieval England for authentic venison (only recommended if you are a smooth talker, the medieval penalty for poaching the King's deer is a hand or your life).




To bake Veneson.
Take nothing but pepper and salte, but let it have inough, and if the Veneson be lene lard it through with bakon.

To bake Venison- Revised
Take nothing but pepper and salt, but let it have enough, and if the venison be lean, lard it through with bacon.

To bake Venison- Further revised
Sprinkle healthy amounts of salt and pepper on the roast. Lay strips of bacon over the top, and bake until it is done to your liking.



To roest Veneson
Rosted Veneson must have vinegre suger and sinamon and butter boyled upon a chafyng disshe with coles, but the sauce maie not be to tarte and then laie the veneson upon the sauce.

To roest Veneson- Revised
Roasted venison must have vinegar, sugar and cinnamon and butter boiled, upon a chafing dish with coals, but the sauce may not be too tarte, and then lay the venison upon the sauce.

To roest Veneson- Further revised
For a lovely sauce for the baked venison, melt 1/2 cup butter in a pan over low heat. Stir in about 1 t. cinnamon and 1 T. sugar. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar until it is tangy, but not sour. I found about 1 T. worked well. Heat until bubby and hot. Pour into a dish, then serve the venison on top. An even better idea would be to put the venison on a dish and then pour the sauce over the top.


Verdict: I will admit that before making this recipe, I was really disparaging about medieval people's love of sugar and meat together. It sounds wrong. It sounds stupid. But in this recipe, it is soooooooooo right. It's... it's really good. Now that I've had it, I understand why it works so perfectly when it doesn't sound as if it should.

First of all, the bacon. Wild game is very very lean. If you lay bacon across the top before cooking, the fat from the bacon will slooooooooowly melt and be absorbed into the meat, making it more tender and delicious. It is like an automatic basting device.

Second of all, the sauce. It's sort of the same principle as sweet and sour sauce, but better. Instead of a sticky pink goo (which I like, by the way), it is a smooth buttery sauce that absorbs into the meat, which desperately needs a little extra fat. Yes, fat. Don't look at me like that, this is not a cow that has been standing in a field and napping for all its life, this is a wild deer. The vinegar (I used a strawberry infused apple cider vinegar) adds just a little bit of tang. You will have to trust me on this, the sauce was really delicious. Husband said he would very happily eat it on steak, and I think it would go fabulously on pork. Pork goes well with a little bit of sweet, and 21st century pigs are ridiculously lean compared to the pig breeds of the past.

Syrup of Pippins

Remember Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight? Maker of the incomparable Savory Tosted or Melted Cheese, as detailed in his cookbook The closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened [1669]? So cool that men wanted him to impregnate their wives?

Well. Another of his rare recipes that is not comprised mainly of booze is his "Syrup of Pippins."



SYRUP OF PIPPINS
Quarter and Core your Pippins; then stamp them in a Mortar, and strain out the Juyce. Let it settle, that the thick dregs may go to the bottom; then pour off the clear; and to have it more clear and pure, filter it through sucking Paper in a glass funnel. To one pound of this take one pound and an half of pure double refined Sugar, and boil it very gently (scarce simpringly, and but a very little while) till you have scummed away all the froth and foulness (which will be but little) and that it be of the consistence of Syrup. If you put two pound of Sugar to one pound of juyce, you must boil it more & stronglier. This will keep longer, but the colour is not so fine. It is of a deeper yellow. If you put but equal parts of juyce and Sugar, you must not boil it, but set it in a Cucurbite in bulliente Balneo, till all the scum be taken away, and the Sugar well dissolved. This will be very pale and pleasant, but will not keep long.

You may make your Syrup with a strong decoction of Apples in water (as when you make gelly of Pippins) when they are green; but when they are old and mellow, the substance of the Apple will dissolve into pap, by boiling in water.


Look I made a swan!

Take three or four spoonfuls of this Syrup in a large draught of fountain water, or small posset-Ale, pro ardore urinæ to cool and smoothen, two or three times a day.


Verdict: So nice! Instead of stamping pippins [apples] in a mortar, straining them, etc., I bought some apple cider. If you wish to try stamping pippins, you may do it with my blessing. The resulting syrup is delicious, and is exactly like apple-flavored honey. Think of the delightful applications! It is delicious on oatmeal and drizzled on fresh fruit. The beverage is really nice too. Sweet, cold, and appley. Yum. Those that drink ale should try this and report.