Boston Baked Beans -- the Classic Way!

The weather today is gray, cold, and wet.  In my opinion, the perfect time for a fire in the fireplace.  And, while I'm at it, why not cook something historical, too?

My taste buds said, "Baked Beans", the kind that you are supposed to cook slowly for hours and hours.  I checked several books and found a recipe, "Boston Baked Beans", in Pioneer Recipes and Remedies by Millie Foster Cheesman (page 168).

ISBN 0-9658406-0-3

A quick internet search told me:  "Back in colonial days, a favorite Boston food was beans baked in molasses for several hours. Back then, Boston was sort of awash in molasses - it was part of the 'triangular trade' in which slaves in the Caribbean grew sugar cane to be shipped to Boston to be made into rum to be sent to West Africa to buy more slaves to send to the West Indies. Even after the end of this practice, Boston continued as big rum producing city."  (About.com: Boston)

6 cups pea or navy beans
1 pound salt pork (I used bacon)
1 Tbsp dry mustard
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup molasses
1 small onion (optional)

Pick over beans (you are taking out pebbles and ugly, shriveled beans), cover with cold water, and soak overnight.  In the morning, drain, cover with fresh water, bring to a boil very slowly, then simmer until the skins burst...

My note:  6 cups is a lot of beans.  This filled my 6 quart soup kettle!  You might want to start with a half recipe.   I did the soaking and simmering on the stove, saving the long term cooking for the fireplace.  Also, I skimmed off and threw away the white foam from the surface of the simmering beans.

Just starting to simmer. 

Drain beans.  Scald the salt pork, which should be well streaked with lean, by letting it stand in boiling water for five to 10 minutes.

Note:  I used bacon, since salt pork was out of stock at my butcher's.  So I didn't scald it.

Cut off two thin slices, one to place in bottom of pot, the other to cut into bits.  Score rind of the remaining piece with sharp knife.  Mix dry mustard, salt, black pepper and molasses.

Note:  I put two slices of bacon in the bottom of my large Dutch oven and cut up one slice to bits.

Alternate the layers of beans in the pot with the molasses mixture and the bits of pork.  If you use an onion, bury it in the middle.

This is about half of the beans, with some sauce, bacon bits, and onion.

When the bean pot is full, push the large piece of pork down into the beans with the rind sticking up.  Add boiling water to cover, put the lid on, and bake all day (a minimum of six to eight hours) in a 250 degree F oven.  Check from time to time and add boiling water if needed.  Uncover the pot during last hour of baking so the rind can brown and crisp.

Notes:  Once I got the Dutch oven to the fireplace and put in the boiling water (in that order!), I surrounded it with small coals and put some on the lid, too.  It is supposed to cook slowly, so I didn't put many coals underneath, just mostly ringed it.  It certainly was hot enough.  It was bubbling and steaming.  I kept moving coals away until it was at a very slow simmer.

The coals to the side are a "stockpile" to keep the heat going for hours.

I set a timer to check it every thirty minutes or so.  After a few hours, I added some more hot water, just to make sure it was covered.  This only needed to be done once.

The coals were nearly out after about 8 hours so I took the pan off the fire.  I had to stir the beans to see them and their taste was "watery".  So I put the pan over the stove with the lid off to thicken them a bit; it took about 30 minutes.

I love the color!

The Verdict:
The taste was good!  It was very close to what I recalled having once a long time ago; the only thing I thought was that I wanted it to be a little richer.  It could be that my sweet tooth was talking, but it tasted better with another 1/2 cup of molasses stirred in.  And I thought the flavor was even better the second day.  The bacon had cooked to little pieces and were fun to find in a mouthful.  Definitely a success.

I think this would be good with a plate of hot cornbread or a slice of ham and a green salad.

You don't have to have a fireplace to cook Boston Baked Beans.  As the recipe says, you can put it into a ceramic bean pot or any oven-safe deep casserole with a lid and bake it in your oven.  I was just interested in trying it in my fireplace!

Harry Potter Fans! Buttered Beer!

Oh Wow.  A whole year of blogging has gone by as of today, January 1, 2013.  I am astonished that the site has had over 1200 page views.  I'm also pleased with myself at having maintained my personal goal of posting at least twice a month.

I've learned a few things over the year:  I should put more of myself into the writing, instead of making it a neutral report; many recipes from the past are simple to make and yet surprisingly flavorful; and eggs exposed to too much heat too quickly explode with a startling boom.

I've also learned how much fun it is to plan out the recipes, shop for them, document their production, and then share them with you.  I fully expect to continue this blog in 2013 and look forward to exploring the historical food of different eras and different cultures.

Now, on to the recipe.  One aspect I like of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is how the author did her homework -- Latin words really mean what the spell is doing and concepts from history are accurately utilized.  But what really put me over the top in my admiration for Ms. Rowling's writing was discovering this Elizabethan recipe for Buttered Beer.

To make Buttered Beere.

1594  The good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin
S. Wallace (ed.)

Take three pintes of Beere, put five yolkes of Egges to it, straine them together, and set it in a pewter pot to the fyre, and put to it halfe a pound of Sugar, one penniworth of Nutmegs beaten, one penniworth of Cloues beaten, and a halfepenniworth of Ginger beaten, and when it is all in, take another pewter pot and brewe them together, and set it to the fire againe, and when it is readie to boyle, take it from the fire, and put a dish of sweet butter into it, and brewe them together out of one pot into an other.

3 pints beer

5 egg yolks

½ lb sugar

nutmeg

cloves

ginger

butter (sweet)

Mix beer and egg yolks, strain into a pot. Put over the fire and add sugar and spices.

Stir well. Remove before it boils, add butter, stir, and reheat.

This one is made with oatmeal stout

My Notes:  Medieval eggs were smaller than ours, so either use small eggs or fewer large eggs.  Straining allows the chunks of yolk to be removed.  Do the spices to taste -- this means you get to taste the mixture a lot while creating it! -- mine ended up reminiscent of a good chai tea.

What you want to avoid is boiling the brew.  Just get it hot enough to dissolve the sugar, infuse the spices, and melt the butter.  Serve it warm as soon as possible to avoid the beer going completely flat.

The Verdict:  Success!  This is very good.  The beer is one of a variety of flavors and does not dominate.  The spices were enough to pique the tastebuds but not overwhelm.  The butter adds a lovely mouthfeel to make the whole experience rich and with depth.  I recommend it for a winter party beverage!

Spiced Cranberry Relish

I'm having a hard time justifying this post as an historical recipe.  My only defense is that I've been making it at least once a year since 1988 (I have records on this!).  I cannot recall where the recipe came from, although I have a vague recollection of a newspaper insert.

But I figured that this, the last post of my first year of blogging, could be on whatever recipe I wanted (ignoring that all the other posts were on whatever I wanted) and what I wanted to do was share with you my Most Favorite Cranberry Recipe Ever.

For those of you who only know the canned, jellied cranberry stuff that pops out of its container in a cylindrical shape, you really have no idea what cranberry sauce is all about.

This recipe is called a relish, probably because it is not just cranberries and sugar.  However it is thick, flavorful, fun to look at, and easy to make.  I can tell you with confidence that people who do not like cranberry sauce often like this recipe.

So here goes.  I am thrilled to present to you:

Spiced Cranberry Relish

4 C. fresh cranberries (a 12 oz bag).  Can be frozen and slightly defrosted.
1 to 2 cups sugar (I use closer to one)
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup currants (dried)
1/2 cup water or orange juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger (I use more but I am an addict)
1/2 cup candied orange peel or the zest of one medium sized orange, finely shredded

 
Mix cranberries and sugar in a large, non-aluminum saucepan, then mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Cranberries and sugar

Everything!

Cook over low heat for 20 - 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.  You are looking to see that most of the berries have burst.

Cool then refrigerate.  Serve chilled.  Best if made in advance and will last a while if not quickly consumed.

The Verdict:  If I didn't think this was excellent, I wouldn't be making it year after year.  I love how it is sweet yet tart, thick and spreadable on bread for sandwiches, and yet still an excellent side spoonful as an accompaniment for roast turkey or really any roast meat.  It is so easy to make -- just toss everything into the saucepan and stir while cooking.  And if you don't measure everything precisely, you will still end up with a good dish.

So give it a try -- it is posted just in time for your Christmas celebration.

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading my blog!

Tracy  

 

And Yet More on Fruitcake

Recently I attended a fruitcake competition in a local town.  

The rules were simple:  Bring a fruitcake (with recipe) to the given location at the given time.  The judges were the lead actors in a play that involved fruitcakes and they were a treat to watch as they were in character the whole time.  

There were no limits on what could go in your fruitcake and we were invited to present our recipe to the judges.  I took the opportunity to point out that this was from an original 1845 recipe and that it didn't have that sticky, imitation-colored, dried fruit mix or even baking soda or yeast.  I emphasized how the fruitcake was baked in August, soaked with brandy (they liked that part!), and wrapped and stored for three months.

The Verdict:  In the end, they awarded my fruitcake with the title of "Best Traditional".  I was thrilled!

It was a fun day and we were all allowed to taste the entries.  You just can't go wrong with that!

Mine is front row, right

And now you can call Mrs. Elizabeth Ellicott Lea's recipe, "An Award-Winning Fruitcake!"

Bring Us a Figgy Pudding

It started with this website discussing various English pudding techniques:  http://www.historicfood.com/English%20Puddings.htm

Then it got pushed along when I broke all the "rules" and started listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

It occurred to me that I really wanted to make a boiled pudding for this blog and do it early enough that it could be posted before Christmas.

I have many recipes for puddings but what I really wanted was the classic "figgy pudding" referenced by my beloved Christmas songs.  Or at least what I imagined was classic!

There was really only one source I felt was worthy of this:  Hearthside Cooking by Nancy Carter Crump.  Ms. Crump, a culinary historian, does historical cooking demonstrations (and thus is near and dear to my heart); this book is a compilation of her research which includes recipes from colonial Virginia families.  The treat is that all her recipes first have instructions for cooking at the hearth and side notes for using more modern equipment.

ISBN  0-914440-94-2

In particular, on pages 244 and 245, she gives detailed instructions on how to make a pudding cloth, prepare it for use, and how to actually boil a pudding.  This was what I had been looking for when I acquired her book.

Ms. Crump did not disappoint.  On page 257 is:

Mrs. Alexander Cameron's Fig Pudding

Original recipe:
1/2 lb stale bread crumbs.  1/2 lb figs put through meat chopper.  2 eggs.  6 oz. brown sugar, 2 oz. flour  1/4 lb suet, a little milk, about half a cup.  flavor with nutmeg.  Boil 2 hours & serve with or without sauce.   (From the Shirley Plantation Collection, link: Shirley Plantation)

What excited me was the tiny footnote:  "Best cooked a week or two before use.  Wrap and store in air-tight container.  Warm through before serving."  Hey, I can make this in advance!

Instructions

1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk (I used half and half, rather than non-fat milk)
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup finely chopped suet (I used solid shortening, just a little less than a cup)
4 cups stale bread crumbs
2 teaspoons nutmeg  (one "nut" made about this much)
1/2 cup flour
2 cups chopped fresh figs or 3/4 cup dried (I used dried)

(My note:  I bought a loaf of French bread the night before I made this, sliced it thinly, and laid the slices out on a tray to stale overnight.  Then I processed them to crumbs.)

1.  Combine egg, milk, and brown sugar, blending well.

2.  Combine suet, bread crumbs, and nutmeg in a bowl.  Add liquid and mix thoroughly.

My Notes:  Since I used solid shortening instead of suet, I felt it was important to make sure it was well-distributed throughout the bread crumbs.  So I put it in a spoonful at a time, "mashing" it through the nutmeg and crumbs mixture, sort of like the way I would mix a pie crust.  At the end of the mixing, it looked pretty uniform.

I mixed in one little spoonful at a time

Crumbly like a pie crust

3.  Combine flour with figs, mixing well.  Fold into batter.

4.  Wet and butter a pudding cloth and gather around the batter.  Tie secure with string, leaving room for pudding to expand.

Dip the heavy linen cloth in boiling water, drain, spread with butter, dust with flour

Pudding mixture

Make sure ALL edges are tied up so nothing comes out during boiling

5.  Set an iron pot of water on crane and bring to a boil over flames.  Drop in pudding and boil 2 hours, turning occasionally and keeping water at a boil.  Replenish with additional boiling water as needed.

I have no crane, but this will do.  It barely fit in my biggest pot.

6.  Pull crane away from fire and carefully remove pudding.  Drain thoroughly in colander, then cut away string and put pudding in serving dish.

Steaming while draining

Unwrapped and cooling

7.  Serve hot, with or without sauce.

I want to serve it at Thanksgiving, so I am wrapping it and storing it away as per the footnote.

Other notes:
I made my first boiled pudding last spring in my own Tudor kitchen (see June 1, 2012 posting) and the recipe I used said to put a ball of butter in the middle of the pudding.  When that butter was seen in the boiling water, you knew the pudding was done.  That worked well.  This time I just went with the recommended two hour time.

Since my pot was so full during the boiling, I had to decide how hot it should really be.  I couldn't do a full, rolling boil without splashing all over, so I made it as hot as I could without making a mess.  I kept the pot very full of water, adding hot water from a kettle as needed, and turning the pudding every 15 minutes or so.  It swelled up visibly.

*******
Post-Thanksgiving Feedback 

Here is the pudding after about 10 days of being tightly wrapped and stored in the refrigerator:

It was firm and smelled nice.

I heated it up (first in the oven, then in the microwave oven to get it thoroughly hot) and served it at Thanksgiving dinner without any sauce.  I considered it a side dish.

The Verdict:  I liked it!  The flavor with definitely "figgy" with a mild spice complement.  The texture was firm and slightly creamy.  The bread crumb "matrix" that held the fig bits was a little bland, which was a good thing.  It was only mildly sweet so the figs could add their sweetness and keep it from being more of a dessert.

In summary, I would recommend it.  It was easy to make and fun to serve, as a bit of true England.  Success!

If I were to make it over again, I think I would chop the figs finer, so you don't get such a big bite of all fig when you do hit a chunk.  However, that would spread the fig bits more thoroughly through the whole pudding -- I'm not sure if that would be good or not!

One thing I like about figs is how their seeds crunch, and I got that in this pudding.


A quote from Ms. Crump's book:  "Blessed be he that invented pudding, for it is a manna that hits the palates of all sorts of people."  Happy Holidays!

Steak and Ale Hash

What should one do when one finds a boneless New York steak and a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale in the refrigerator?   Why, make a beef hash, of course!

Actually, I was inspired by the recent arrival of the Jas. Townsend and Son 2013 calendar
(www.jas-townsend.com) that comes complete with recipes.  It happened to be opened to August's tempting picture.

They cited this book:  The House-keeper's Pocket-book by Mrs. Sarah Harrison.  I found a copy of the ebook here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=3IcEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Published in 1739!!!

The recipe was for "A Hash of Beef fine, without Expence".

Page 41

The original rendition is:  

Cut your Beef in thin slices, then make your Sauce for it as follows; take an Onion cut in two, some Pepper and Salt, a little Water and some strong Beer; then take a piece of Butter roll'd in Flour in your Pan, stirring it till it burns; then put in your Sauce, and let it boil a Minute or two; then put in your Beef, and let it just warm through, for if you let it lye too long it will harden it.

A little Claret may be put in just before you take it off the Fire; if you use no Beer, some Mushroom or Walnut liquors; garnish with Pickles.

I tried the calendar's redaction:

1 lb of beef, sliced as thinly as possible across the grain
2 - 3 T butter
flour
1 small onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 pint strong ale or red wine
2 tsp mushroom ketchup (the calendar has a recipe for this) or Worcestershire sauce (I used this)

I trimmed the fat off the steak before slicing

Directions:

Roll your butter into a ball and roll it in flour, being careful not to shake off any more than 
naturally falls off.  

Too cold to make a ball, so I just coated the chunk with flour

Melt the butter in a hot Dutch oven.  Add the onion and a bit of salt and black pepper.  
Stir until the flour has turned a golden brown.

That is as brown as it got before I added the ale

Add the ale or red wine to the browned flour, along with the mushroom ketchup or 
Worcestershire sauce.  Bring to a boil and allow to thicken, stirring continually.

Add the slices of beef to the broth and stir around, just until they are heated through -- a 
couple of minutes.  Do not heat too long, otherwise the meat will become tough.  
Serve immediately.

The meat is cooked enough

Notes:
I had less than a pound of steak but it still made a good quantity using the given amounts of 
the other ingredients.

The pint (well, almost, after I made sure the taste was acceptable!) of ale was plenty and had 
to be reduced quite a bit.  The best part of this was how wonderful it smelled while the sauce 
was reducing.  Heavenly!  It was hard to wait until the sauce got thick.

The meat goes in pink but don't wait until it looks cooked before taking it out.  The thin 
slices cook quickly and will continue to cook from the heat of the sauce once you take it 
off the stove.

This is really quite simple and easy to prepare.

The Verdict:  Success!  Definitely a winner and a repeater because the taste was robust and 
flavorful.  There was some bitter from the ale, more so than just the ale itself; I think this is 
from the reducing.  If you don't like bitter, pick an ale that is not!

I think I could have put in more flour but that would have made the sauce more like a gravy
 -- a fine idea but that might change the flavor.

I wish I would have remembered to garnish with pickles!  I think that would be good.

Serve this with a hunk of warm, buttered bread.  You'll need it to sop up the sauce. 

Come to think of it, this would make a good "sloppy"-style sandwich on a roll.  Just reduce
the sauce a bit more.

An Elizabethan Field Kitchen

A little while ago I set up an Elizabethan Field Kitchen to demonstrate historical cooking techniques.  This is different from the big set up I did last spring as I only had a small area, two tables on which to display my wares, a small metal fire pit and a tripod space, and NO FENCE so people could walk right up and talk to me.  The best part:  I could give the public a taste of my food!

Here's how it looked the first morning, after it was set up and ready to start cooking:

The view as you approach.  Fire pit on the left.

A close up of my bowls, platters, and implements

On the other table, foodstuffs and fun things to talk about

My various cooking pots, plus tripod and grates and fire moving tools

I cooked a variety of recipes, always in normal quantities (I'm not trying to feed the public, just give them a bite of what I had made).

My favorite recipe of the weekend was this:

Erbolate  (Baked Herbed Eggs)

To the King’s Taste, page 78

ISBN: 0-312-80748-1

Original
Take parsley, mint, savory, sage, tansy, vervain, clary, rue, dittany, fennel, southernwood.  Chop them and grind them small.  Mix them with eggs.  Put butter in a baking dish and put the mixture in it.  Bake it and serve it in portions.

In other words...

6 Tbsp fresh herbs from the list above or to taste

5 eggs, lightly beaten

1/8 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter

Mince herbs.  Mix with eggs and salt, beating a few moments.

Melt butter in an 8 inch baking dish.

Pour in egg mixture.

Bake in a preheated 325 degree F oven until eggs are set and top is brown. (about 35 min)

Serve as you would a pie.

Notes:  I used a blend of flat-leaf parsley, apple mint, peppermint, sage, and rue.  It was delightful, especially the mint.  I ended up cooking mine in a fry pan that was already greased from cooking bacon.  The coals were very low so the eggs cooked without scorching the bottom.  All the herbs floated to the top and made the omelet look very pretty.  I think this is the best way to make a simple, flavorful omelet that I have ever experienced (and much, much better than dried herbs, even if they have the chance to rehydrate!).

 *****

I took a mincemeat pie to share with my fellow re-enactors and the public.  Professional photographer Gar Travis took some excellent pictures of it:

I have a pie pan now!

Sharing it with friends.

Credit where it is due!  These two photos were graciously given to me by:

Gar Travis / GT©
www.garphoto.com

The Verdict:  The weekend demonstration was a success.  The site was great to work at, the people were interested and interesting, and nearly every recipe was tasty and fun.  Only one was a border-line success but I think I just needed to measure things a bit more carefully.  I hope to retry some of the recipes at home to see what else I could do or if I could improve upon them.  And I recommend you try the Erbolate.  It is yummy.