Receipts (recipes) that are used during each summer’s
Fireside Feasts historic cooking workshops at the
Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum will be posted here
shortly after each individual program.
Incidentally, the dates for 2010’s Fireside Feasts
series have been set.
HUZZAH!
They are: July 8; July 22; August 12; and August 26.
Topics/themes will be announced later.
Come join the fun!
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NOTE: All receipts are presented as originally written,
odd spellings and all.
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August 27: ONE POT? NO PROBLEM!
A jugged Hare.
Cut it in little Pieces, lard them here and there
with little Slips of Bacon, season them with a very
little Pepper and Salt, put them into an earthen Jugg,
with a Blade or two of Mace, an Onion stuck with Cloves,
and a Bundle of Sweet Herbs; cover the Jugg or Jar you
do it in, so close, that nothing can get in, then set it
in a Pot of boiling Water, keep the Water boiling, and
three Hours will do it; then turn it out into the Dish,
and take out the Onion and Sweet Herbs, and send
it to Table hot.
from The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy
by A Lady (Hannah Glasse)
London, England, 1747 (1st ed.)
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To make a Hutspot from a Capon.
Take a Capon, chop it into pieces, cook in water
until well-done, take then crumbs of White-bread,
Cinnamon, Ginger, Saffron, Sugar, and Marrow
from Marrow-bones with some Dates from which
the stones have been removed and slices of a Lemon.
Let it stew for half an hour in a flat pot. It is good.
from De Verstandige Kock, 1683 Edition
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
published as The Sensible Cook
translated and edited by Peter G. Rose
Syracuse, NY, 1989
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To Make Soup Meagre
Take a bunch of celery washed clean, and cut
in pieces, a large handful of spinach, two cabbage
lettices, and some parsley; wash all very clean, and
shred them small; then take a large clean stew-pan,
put in about half a pound of butter, and when it is
quite hot, slice four large onions very thin, and put
into your butter; stir them well together for two or
three minutes; then put in the rest of your herbs;
Shake all well together for near twenty minutes;
dust in some flour, and stir them together; pour
in two quarts of boiling water; season with pepper,
salt, and beaten mace: chip a handful of crust
of bread, and put in; boil it half an hour, then
beat up the yolks of three eggs in a spoonful
of vinegar, pour it in, and stir it two or three
minutes; then send it to table.
from The Frugal Housewife
by Susannah Carter
London, England, 1772
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Switchel (modern adaptation)
1 gallon Water
2 cup Sugar
1 cup Molasses
1 cup cider Vinegar
Ginger
from unknown
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August 13: GARDEN GOODIES
To Scollop Tomatos.
Peel off the skin from large, full, ripe
tomatos—put a layer in the bottom
of a deep dish, cover it well with bread
grated fine; sprinkle on pepper and salt,
and lay some bits of butter over them—
put another layer of each, till the dish
is full—let the top be covered with
crumbs and butter—bake it a nice brown.
from The Virginia Housewife
by Mary Randolph
Washington, D.C., 1824
[NOTE: It is not necessary to remove the skin. However, if you
choose to do so, boil them briefly in hot water; the skins
should peel right off.]
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A Bean Tansey
Take two Quarts of Beans, blanch, and beat them
very fine in a Mortar; season with Pepper, Salt,
and Mace; then put in the Yolks of six Eggs, and
a quarter of a Pound of Butter, a Pint of Cream,
half a Pint of Sack,* and sweeten to your Palates.
Soak four Naples Biskets in half a Pint of Milk,
mix them with the other Ingredients. Butter
a Pan and bake it, then turn it on a Dish, and
stick Citron and Orange-peel candied, cut small,
and stuck about it. Garnish with Seville Orange.**
from The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy
by A Lady (Hannah Glasse)
London, England, 1747 (First Edition)
*sack: Sherry
**Seville Orange: nigh impossible to find; just use lemon
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to fry Cucumbers
to fry Cucumbers cut them as a Crown piece* dry them
peper & salt flour them very tick &
fry them in butter till fine brown
from the manuscript cookbook of Maria S. Van Rensselaer (1749-1830)
published as Selected Receipts of a Van Rensselaer Family
Historic Cherry Hill, Albany, NY, 1976
*a Crown piece: a coin, probably about the size of a modern half dollar
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To Boil Carrots
Let them be scraped very clean, and when they
are enough, rub them in a clean cloth, then slice
some of them into a plate and pour some melted
butter over them; and garnish the dish with the others,
either whole or cut into pieces, or split down the middle.
If they are young spring carrots, half an hour will boil
them; if large, an hour; but old Sandwich carrots* will
take two hours.
from The Frugal Housewife
by Susannah Carter
London, England, 1772
*Sandwich carrots: carrots that were cultivated in the area
of Sandwich, Kent, England; they tended to be larger and
tougher than any others
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Lemonade.
Take ripe lemons, roll them under your fingers
on a table till they appear like they are full
of juice; then squeeze the juice into a bowl,
to each pint of which allow three pints of water,
or if in summer, allow two and a half pints
of water and a lump of ice equal to the other
half pint. Sweeten it to your taste with loaf
sugar, and serve it up in small glasses.
from The Kentucky Housewife
by Mrs. Lettice Bryan
Cincinnati, OH, 1839
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August 6: LET THEM EAT CAKE! (originally scheduled for July 23,
but postponed due to rain)
Washington Cake
1/2 lb of butter 3/4 lb of Sugar
1 lb of flour 4 Eggs coffee cup
Cream pearlash. Spice. fruit
from the manuscript cookbook of Catharine Rapelye Wyckoff
unpublished
Flatlands, Long Island, NY, circa 1855
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115. To make Queen Cakes
Take a pound of flower, a pound of Butter,
a pound of Sugar, and a pound of Currans
well washed and dryed before the Fire. Then
take the Yolk of Eight Eggs, a little Rose water
and a little Sack, 3 Blades of Mace beatern
very fine. Mix all together, and set them
a little before the Fire to rise, and butter
your Tin pans but do not fill them too full.
Half an hour will bake them.
from Pleasures of Colonial Cooking
manuscript cookbook of the Ashfield Family, c. 1720s-1790s
New Jersey Historical Society
Newark, NJ, 1982
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Raspberry Shrub.
Raspberry shrub mixed with water is a pure,
delicious drink for summer; and in a country
where raspberries are abundant, it is good
economy to make it answer instead of Port
and Catalonia wine. Put raspberries in a pan,
and scarcely cover them with strong vinegar.
Add a pint of sugar to a pint of juice; (of this
you can judge by first trying your pan to see
how much it holds;) scald it, skim it, and
bottle it when cold.
from The American Frugal Housewife
by Mrs. (Lydia) Child
Boston, MA, 1833
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July 9: IS IT BREAKFAST OR SUPPER?
To make Mush.
Boil a pot of water, according to the quantity you wish
to make, and then stir in the meal till it beomes quite
thick, stirring it all the time to keep out the lumps,
season with salt, and eat it with milk or molasses.
from The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy;
A new Edition with modern Improvements.
by Mrs. (Hannah) Glasse
Alexandria, VA, 1805
The mush (aka hasty pudding/sappaen/suppawn) was made the day before;
and yes, I ate some for my supper. The remainder was allowed to cool and
set. Then during the next day’s Fireside Feasts program, it was sliced
and fried over the open fire. I used stone-ground yellow corn meal
(aka Indian meal) that I’d purchased at Philipsburg Manor’s working
water-powered grist mill in Sleepy Hollow (Tarrytown), NY.
Incidentally, when I was growing up back in Indiana, my mother often
made fried cornmeal mush for breakfast. Later, when I had my own place,
I frequently cooked it for myself. Now out there in Hoosier Land, you can
buy corn meal mush at the supermarket. I get out here, and it’s nowhere
to be found. Finally, one day I realized, “Oh, just buy polenta!” It’s the Italian
“version” of corn meal mush.
Needless to say, I love fried mush and prepare it often.
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To make Omelts divers Ways.
The Ninth Way. [of 21!]
Made with eggs and a little cream.
from The Accomplisht Cook
by Robert May
London, England, 1685
Several of the children volunteered to make this dish. They also added
a bit of rosemary from the Wyckoff garden.
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No 150. Common Pancakes.
Make a light batter of eggs, flour and milk;
fry in a small pan in hot dripping or lard,
salt, nutmeg and ginger, may be added;
or when eggs are scarce make the batter
with flour, milk and pearlash.
These are most frequently eaten without any
trimmings; but sugar grated on, or sweet,
or lemon and sugar sauce may be served
with them.
from The Cook Not Mad
Knowlton & Rice, publishers
Watertown, NY, 1830
We started with three beaten eggs, then added about a cup or a cup and
a quarter or so (total) of a milk and cream (leftover from the omlet) mixture,
and slowly stirred in flour (less than a cup) a little at a time.
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And finally,
A Made Dish. (pain perdu) aka French toast
Take stale white bread & slyce it, & lay it
in steep in white wine all night. The next
day take youlks of eggs & creame & sugar
& beat them well together; then take
the bread out of the wine, & put it
in the cream, & when it hath been in
a quarter of an houre, take it out &
lay it in a frying pan, & poure the cream
that is left upon it; & when it is fryed
enough, lay it in a dish, & strew on it
sugar & grated nutmegg, & soe
serve it up.
from Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery
(kept by MW 1749-1799, but of Medieval origin)
transcribed by Karen Hess
NYC, 1995
This is where we used the bread I’d baked at home. In addition, because I knew
there’d be children present (plus the additional time and expense), the “steep
in white wine all night” part was omitted.
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Sugar, molasses, cinnamon, and nutmeg were available for folks to “trim”
any or all of the above dishes. We also had bread for plain ol’ toast.
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Be sure to check back later for receipts from the other Fireside Feasts sessions.
Or better yet, come on out to Wyckoff and join the fun!
