Mrs. Charles Darwin's Fish Croquettes

Sometimes I just pick a cookbook off the shelf and look for a recipe to make from it.  Today's recipe is from Mrs. Charles Darwin's Recipe Book, Revived and Illustrated, by Dusha Bateson and Weslie Janeway.

ISBN: 978-0-9801557-3-0

Like many wives, before and since, Emma Wedgwood Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin, compile a cookery notebook.  ... this book offers a glimpse behind the kitchen and dining-room doors of one of the Victorian era's most eminent families. ... More than a cookbook, Mrs. Charles Darwin's Recipe Book delineates a lifestyle at the top of English society and intelligentsia.   (quoted from inside flap)

I bought the book because I am a Charles Darwin fan of sorts, so when you combine that with cookery and yet more Victoriana information, well, it had to happen.  The production of the book is lovely, with botanical art scattered throughout and reproductions of Mrs. Darwin's recipes in her own writing.  In other words, very pretty and visually appealing.  

The recipes themselves aren't necessarily very different from other Victorian era recipes I've seen before, although some didn't look familiar when I skimmed the book.  I was particularly drawn to the desserts section because like Charles Darwin, I have a sweet tooth.  However for this post, I was well-behaved and chose to make a savory dish.

The fish croquettes recipe appealed to me because it looked fairly straightforward but it also has one twist:  instead of binding the fish flakes together with the usual cooked potato, it uses a very thick white sauce.  Please see page 61 for this recipe.

Fish Croquettes

1 pound (450 g) cooked fish, chilled

1 ounce (30 g) butter

1 ounce (30 g) flour

1/2 cup (125 ml) milk from cooking the fish

1 tablespoon cream

1 egg yolk

Salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten and breadcrumbs for coating

Butter for frying

1. Flake the fish into a bowl, being careful to remove any skin and bones.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour, cook for 1 - 2 minutes.

3. Add enough of the reserved cooking liquid, stirring constantly to make a thick, smooth sauce.  Let it bubble gently for a few minutes.  Add the cream.

4. Add the egg yolk, give the sauce a quick stir, and remove the pan from the heat.

5. Stir the fish into the sauce and mix gently to combine the two without breaking up the flakes of fish too much.  The mixture should be fairly stiff; it will become more so as it cools.  Let it get cold.

6. When ready to cook, take spoonfuls about the size of an egg and dip them in the beaten egg, then into the breadcrumbs.  Flatten them slightly and fry gently in butter for 8-10 minutes, turning them once.  They are done when crisp and golden on the outside and well heated through.

My Notes

The authors comment that if you don't start with leftover fish, you can poach the fresh fish "in a little milk together with some parsley, a sprig of thyme, and a bay leaf."  Note that if you do start with leftover fish, you still need that milk-based poaching liquid, so plan ahead.  

They also commented that many different kinds of fish can be used; they used smoked haddock and fresh cod.  From this I decided that the big piece of bonita I had would work.  Bonita is a sea fish (I caught it myself!) and has a fairly strong flavor.  Since the authors had used smoked haddock, I felt that a strong flavor wouldn't go wrong.

I didn't have any milk but I did have half-in-half, so I made up a poaching liquid of that with a small bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, and a bay leaf.

The liquid and herbs were combined in a pan, then the fish set on top of it.  Since the fish was a big piece, I placed it in the cold liquid.  The whole thing was brought to just the beginning of a boil, then I reduced the temperature to make it have a slow simmer.  After about 4 minutes, I turned the fish pieces over, then cooked it for another 3 minutes.  

The fish was removed from the liquid to drain, and both fish and liquid were allowed to cool.

I used my hands to skin, debone, and flake the fish.  This made it easy to find the bones, pick off the little bits of skin, and to remove the dark red meat that bonita always has.  I have never liked that part and decided it would be best to leave it behind.  I tried to make the flakes large, considering that they would be broken up more when I mixed in the white sauce.

The recipe didn't specify when to add the salt and pepper, so I chose to add 1/4 teaspoon of each to the fish, using forks to toss it in well.

I made the roux in a cast iron frying pan, using a fork to mix the butter and flour well.  It was very thick, and stayed that way even after I mixed in the poaching liquid and egg yolk.  Since I used a half cream/half milk liquid for the base, I did not add the cream listed in the recipe.

The completed white sauce.

I used a rubber scraper and the technique of folding to mix the sauce and the fish together.  This worked well and didn't break the fish flakes up too much.

All together now.  

The mixture went into the refrigerator for about 45 minutes to chill.

In the meantime, I used the leftover egg white and one more egg, all beaten together, to make the egg wash.  

Then I formed the patties.  The authors said this should make 8 to 10 croquettes; I got 9 comfortably-sized ones.  

Fish patties and the breading station.

Each patty was dunked in the egg wash, rolled in breadcrumbs, and placed in the hot butter.  I estimate the butter was about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.  I kept the butter hot enough to make the food bubble when it went in but was careful to not let the butter burn.  The instructions said to cook the patties gently, and this seemed to achieve that.

The foaming butter did a good job of cooking the sides.

I shifted the patties around as they cooked to make sure they were all getting that golden brown coloring on both sides.  

It took about 8 to 10 minutes to cook them, as the recipe suggested.

Voila!  Croquettes!

The Verdict

We didn't have them as a meal, really.  It was more like a taste test.  I was primarily interested to see what my guest taster thought of them because he didn't know how they were prepared.  I interrogated him at length  : )  and here are his thoughts:

He could taste the fish but also got a definite herbal taste.  This showed me that using the poaching liquid was a good idea -- it put the parsley, thyme, and bay flavors into the dish.  

He could not taste the pepper but thought it might be there in a subtle way.  The salt content was just right.

The texture was nice:  a crunchy exterior with a good interior that was not creamy because "it has some substance."  In fact, he said the "crust is excellent."

It was not greasy or spicy, and was heated through to the center.

He tried them just as they were out of the frying pan, which he thought was very good.

He also tried them with some adornments, and thought they were best with either tartar sauce (homemade with mayonnaise, mustard, capers, sweet pickle relish, and a dash of white wine vinegar) or a sprinkling of lemon juice.  It was okay with a drizzle of a very aged balsamic vinegar but he wasn't as thrilled with that.

The tomatoes were a nice side for the croquettes.

We imagined them being served at a buffet, and we thought they could be topped with a piping of tartar sauce to look more interesting and to make the sauce readily available.

Like this but with a star tip for piping to make it prettier.

We declared it a success!  I think the keys here were using the poaching liquid, keeping the flakes big, and gently cooking the patties.  

The authors commented that they had to be careful or the croquettes would fall apart while cooking.  I did not have that issue.  They were firmly together the whole time and I used a metal spatula below and a fork above to turn them.

The only thing I would change in my process is the chilling time -- the mixture wasn't chilled to the center when I formed the patties, which I think would have been better for handling.  So chill at least an hour, or even longer.  This is a bonus because you could make the mixture in advance of cooking.  What a convenience!

A Brown and Polson Fruit Pudding

 I was back perusing Mr. Charles Elmé Francatelli's book, A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Class.  I first wrote about it in this recipe:  Sausage Rolls and Queen Victoria.  The book was published in 1861.

Something that caught my attention was recipe #47:  Brown and Polson Pudding.  In the ingredients list he has "six ounces of Brown and Polson's prepared Indian corn", which he later describes as 

a most excellent and economical article of food, equal to arrow-root, and will prove, on trial, to be both substantial and nutritive, and also easy of digestion to the most delicate stomachs.

My first thought was that he was describing corn meal, and I would expect this recipe to be something like a spoonbread.  But that connection to arrowroot made me rethink it.  

A quick surfing around the internet produced this result from  http://letslookagain.com/tag/history-of-brown-polson/:

John Polson Jr (1825 - 1900) discovered a method for manufacturing pure starch from maize, which he called corn flour.  He patented the process in 1854.  It was the first corn flour to be manufactured in Britain.

In fact, the site says Brown and Polson's is still for sale in Britain!  Here is what the vintage container looked like:

At this point I really wanted to try a pudding made from cornflour, but I moved to recipe #48, 

Brown and Polson Fruit Pudding

Prepare the pudding batter as indicated in the foregoing Number, and when you have poured one-half of it into the greased pie dish, strew about two pounds of any kind of fruit upon this, such as gooseberries, currants, plums, cherries, etc., and then pour the remainder of the batter all over the fruit.  Bake the pudding an hour and a quarter.  Peeled apples or pears may be used for the same purpose.

Here is the foregoing Number:

No. 47.  Brown and Polson Pudding

Ingredients, six ounces of Brown and Polson's prepared Indian corn, two quarts of milk, two ounces of sugar, a bit of cinnamon or lemon-peel, a pinch of salt, three eggs.  Mix all the above ingredients (except the eggs) in a saucepan, and stir them on the fire till they come to a boil; then add the eggs beat up; mix thoroughly, pour the batter into a pie-dish greased with butter, and bake the pudding for one hour.

I chose to do a half-recipe.

 My Redaction

1 quart whole milk

3 ounces cornstarch (not Brown and Polson, sadly)

1 ounce sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

2 eggs, well-beaten

24 ounce jar Morello cherries, drained (reserve the liquid)

The milk went into the saucepan, then I weighed out the dry ingredients.  I whisked them together in the bowl and then whisked them into the cold milk.  

The saucepan went onto the stove over medium heat.  I didn't stir it the whole time, but I did stir it often.  As it heated, the mixture became thicker and foamy.  

When it just started boiling, I took it off the heat, and poured in the beaten eggs while whisking.  This thickened the mixture even more, so I quickly poured half into the greased pie-dish.  Then I spooned the cherries over it (they sank) until they were fairly evenly distributed.

At that point I poured and spooned the rest of the batter over the top.  Some of it was very thick and sticking to the bottom of the saucepan, but it didn't scorch.  I used a scraper to get the rest.

It went into a preheated 350 degree F oven.

After one hour, the top was browning nicely but the center was still very jiggly, so I reduced the temperature to 325 degrees F while it cooked another 15 minutes.

It smelled lovely!

While it was baking, I decided to make a sauce from the cherry juice.  There was about 1 cup juice (my estimation) so I put in two big spoonfuls of sugar, and 1 tablespoon cornstarch.  That all was whisked well and then placed over medium high heat.  I whisked it constantly until it boiled, then reduced the heat and simmered it (while whisking) for one minute.  It cleared and thickened.  Once that minute was over, I took it off the heat and mixed in a splash of almond extract.  It cooled while the pudding continued to bake.

After baking it for one hour and a quarter, I took the now well-browned pudding out of the oven.  It was still very jiggly but a stick put into the middle came out clean.  I left it to cool.

The Verdict

I tasted the batter right out of the saucepan.  It was good!  Thick, creamy, mild in flavor, slightly sweet.  I could have eaten it as it was, with a spoon.  This made me look back at his recipe #49, Brown and Polson Thick Milk, which is very similar to this batter but without the eggs.  He has you boil it for ten minutes to make a dish that "is most excellent for children's breakfast or supper, and would be found both cheaper and better for their health than a sloppy mess of tea."

As the pudding cooled, the top sank and the center firmed up nicely.  

I tried to serve it by cutting it into wedges, but only the top crust cut; the interior was soft and would not hold a shape.  I ended up serving it with a spoon.  It was still warm when we tried it.

The flavor was mild, slightly sweet, and the cherries were prominent.  My guest taster wondered if there was cheese in it.  I wished for more cinnamon to add some complexity to it.

Overall, it was good.  We both felt it was "a keeper."  

After we tasted it thoroughly as it came out of the pan, we tried it with the cherry sauce I had made.

Oh, my!  That added a lot more flavor and interest to the dish!  It was a hit and my guest taster said, "I think I'm hooked on this."  We ate our fill and enjoyed it very much.

Success!

I tried the leftovers the next day.  This dish chilled had a texture that reminded me strongly of bread pudding.  And it was still tasty!  I'm so glad I made it with cherries.

Dead Men's Bones -- a dessert biscuit

I enjoy watching the Great British Baking Show.  This does not surprise anyone!  I am not a dedicated baker -- I tend to wander here and there in the cooking world (again, not a surprise) -- but that show is a delight.  I often wonder what I would do if I was in the contestants' shoes, and honestly assess my skills as seriously lacking in comparison with theirs.

The technical challenge is especially intriguing to someone who plays with old recipes.  The "pared down" recipes sound so much like what old recipes say!  "Mix it, cook it, and serve" quite often are the type of directions old recipes have, or they say things like "boil" without specifying how hard, how long.  (Note to my gentle readers:  "boiling beef" means use a gentle simmer, or the meat becomes tough and chewy.  Trust me on this one.)

So when I was reading The Cookery Book of Lady Clark of Tillypronie and spotted the sweet biscuit recipe called "Dead Men's Bones," I was intrigued.  I didn't realize how much like a GBBS technical challenge it would be until I set out to try it.

The Lady's book was written during her lifetime and published by her husband after her death.  It is a compilation of Victorian era recipes and, because of the large number of them as well as their simplicity and the variations due to many cooks contributing, is considered to be very important and representative of the time.  In a previous post, I made the recipe for Frontignac (elderflower syrup).  Click here to read it.

Halloween is rapidly approaching and I wanted to make this recipe available in time for it.  

From page 27, in the "Biscuits, Sweet" section, we are given:

This looks pretty straightforward.

5 ounces all-purpose flour

4 ounces sugar

3 egg whites

vanilla to taste

My Notes

I used vanilla-scented sugar, so I did not add any more vanilla.  

Now here is where the technical challenge jumped right in:   How much should the egg whites be whipped?  

I decided to take them to about firm peak.

Here is where the trouble began.  When I mixed in the flour and sugar, the whole thing became thick and stiff.

I suspected (and I was right) that there was no way this would go through a funnel.  I decided to drop spoonfuls onto my baking sheet and bake them at 325 degrees F.  After 11 minutes they were very light brown on the bottom.

When they cooled, they were crunchy but not crisp.  They had a nice vanilla and sweet flavor.  

However nice they were, they were not what I expected from the recipe.

Take Two

I decided to add about 3 tablespoons water to thin the batter down and make it runny enough to pass through a funnel.

It worked but it flowed so slooooooooowly that I ended up using a chopstick to push it through.

You can see above that I made them small.  I tried the round (ratafia) and the long shapes and a few creations of my own.

I had no idea how long to let them "rise a little before the fire" and the batter was spreading so I waited maybe five minutes before putting them into the oven at 325 deg F.  It took 8 minutes to get the bottoms lightly browned.

Then I glazed them with just powdered sugar mixed with a little water and brushed on them while they were hot.

They weren't really crisp as much as they were chewy, and too sticky from the glaze, even after they cooled.  The flavor was a nice vanilla but, frankly, they weren't interesting to eat.  After a few hours, they were downright hard to bite.

Take Three

I used the same quantities but this time didn't beat the whites very much.  Really just until foamy and not showing liquid white below the foam.

The flour and sugar mix still made it stiff so I added a little bit of water until it was thick but flowed smoothly.

I put some on my silicone-coated pan and some on a standard baking sheet and baked them at 350 degrees F.  My hope was that baking them a little faster would crisp them.  

At 10 minutes, they weren't looking baked.  At 12 minutes they were almost there.  And then life intervened and I didn't get back to them until 14 minutes...

The ones on the silicone pan came off and were obviously overbaked.  You can see that they flowed together while baking as I had left a good 1/2 inch or more between them.  

They did not taste good as they were tough and dry.

The ones on the standard baking sheet were glued solid on the surface.  

You can see the broken one -- that is where I used a spatula with great effort to remove the cookie.  The rest had to be soaked about an hour in hot water to be removed.

The Verdict

I was glad I was not in the tent and that Paul and Prue were not watching.  What a disaster!  I ended up throwing the cookies away.

Failure.

I have since done some reading.  I probably should have baked them at a lower temperature (say, 300 degrees F) instead of increasing it to 350.  

I'm not sure how much the egg whites should have been beaten.  

The addition of the flour is what bothered me.  If it had been just sugar, the cookies would have been a crispy meringue.  The flour seemed to bring the whole mixture to a thick dough instead of a batter.

What Lady Clark would have done is beyond me.

Sausage Rolls and Queen Victoria

 Wow.  I watched the entire three seasons of Masterpiece Theater's Victoria series.  I am excited for the fourth season!  I think the actors are wonderful and I am thoroughly caught up in the stories of their lives.  But, as what happened when I watched Downton Abbey, my attention got riveted on the kitchen scenes.

I was impressed with the actor, Ferdinand Kingsley, who played the chef Charles Elmé Francatelli.  Something they showed several times was him vigorously mixing things in bowls -- and the actor looked like he was really putting in the effort it took to make mayonnaise and other goodies.  

My favorite guest taster noticed my interest, did some research, and discovered that Mr. Francatelli (the real one!) had published some cookbooks.  He bought me A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes.  It was originally published in 1861.  

What I like about this book is that the man who wrote it was in charge of cooking for Queen Victoria and her royal household.  Later, he was a cook/chef/manager for a number of notable clubs in England, mixing with all sorts of upper class people, I'm sure.  He could have looked down upon the working class as not worthy of tasty food that is prepared well.  He could have thought his talents and experience were too high for the common folk.  But he wrote this book, for them.  He included tips and advice to the woman of the house, encouraging her to think broadly about what she can fix with inexpensive cuts of meat, or to treat her family, or to stretch what she can afford.  To me, he comes across as a kind man.

There are several recipes I want to try.  This one, Sausage Rolls, is quick and convenient because today I have bread dough.  Usually I make one big loaf with my sourdough starter but today I used half to make a loaf and the other half is reserved for this recipe.  It is recipe number 85 on page 44.

Sausage Rolls

Procure a quartern of dough from the baker's, knead this with four ounces of butter, dripping, or chopped suet; divide it into twelve equal parts, and use each piece of paste to enfold a beef sausage in it; place these rolls on a baking-tin, and bake them in the oven for about twenty minutes or half an hour.

My Redaction

1 pound and a little more sourdough bread dough

1 ounce and a little more butter (softened)

1/2 pound homemade sausage, blend #3  (click here to learn what this is)

My Notes

A quartern of dough was about four pounds by weight.  My dough was a little over 1 pound, so I kneaded it with a little over 1 ounce of butter.  This made the dough very slippery and buttery. 

I didn't have beef sausages but, being a resourceful working-class cook, I made do with some of my homemade sausage.  I cut the meat into four equal pieces and patted them into beef sausage shapes.  

I cut the dough into four equal pieces, flattened them out as best I could, and embedded a piece of sausage in each one.  This was challenging because buttery dough does not really want to stick to itself.  I persevered and encased the sausage completely, although I don't think the rolls were really very attractive to view.

They baked in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F. for 30 minutes, which made them lightly brown and smell really good.  

The Verdict

I let them cool to be comfortable to handle, and served them with a good, coarse mustard.  My guest taster and I weren't hungry enough for a full meal, so we just had one roll each and some pinot noir on the side.

I worried that the bread-to-sausage ratio would be too big, that we would feel like we were eating chunks of bread that might have some sausage in it somewhere, but that wasn't the case.  There was a lot of bread but it wasn't dominating over the sausage except near the ends, which is usually what happens when you have a bread-encased whatever.  

The butter proved to be a good addition.  The bread was flaky, not doughy or dense, which my guest taster commented on favorably.  I was pleased with the result.  A few places were a little undercooked but not in any way that put me off.

The flavor was what you might expect:  tasty bread with tasty sausage.  The mustard was a good addition, as long as it was put on lightly, or you couldn't really taste the meat.  The bread and meat combination was a good one, but that is not surprising.  I enjoyed it and so did my guest taster.

It might have been better to cook them at 400 degrees F instead.  The bread soaked up the fat from the sausage, especially on the dough between the meat and the metal tray.  It was moist but not raw or sticky.  I think a higher temperature might have browned the surface better, and cooked the dough more to the middle, but I do have to point out that the sausage was cooked all the way through.

I suspect that I should have kneaded the dough longer to mix the butter in.  I'm not sure why I think that but it seems like it might have given the dough more time to absorb it before shaping and baking.

Success!  I would do this again for a simple dinner or fun food for a gathering.  We had the two other sausages for breakfast the next morning, which was tasty and fun.  I might try it again (the next time I make bread!) with actual sausages, and attempt to make the bread casing thinner.

And, just for kicks and bragging rights, here is my loaf of sourdough bread:

The "Making Do" Challenge -- Frontignac (Elderflower Syrup)

I am still attempting to keep this blog going by doing historical recipes but using just what I have at hand.  My elder tree is flowering, so what to do with all those blooms?  I have enough dried for tea and other recipes.  Some recipes are for making elderflower fritters but I am not in the mood for that.

I revisited a book I have used before, Flower Cookery -- The Art of Cooking with Flowers.

No ISBN; the Library of Congress Number is 67-24072

The author is Mary MacNicol and the book was published in 1967 in New York by the Fleet Press Corporation.

I feel very strongly that Ms. MacNicol did not test all these recipes; rather her goal was to gather them into one volume.  She cites her sources in many cases.

There are seven pages of recipes for the elder flowers and berries.  Jam, wine, fritters, vinegar, pickled buds, sauces, ices, even pancakes.

The one that caught my attention is on page 57 and is listed as

Elder Flower Water, "Frontignac"

When elders are in flower gather them on a dry day.  They should be in full but fresh blossom.  Put the flowers in a preserving pan with sufficient water to cover them, and boil for 1/2 hour.  Then strain through a fine sieve, or woolen bag, and let it stand.  When cold put again in the pan, and allow 1/2 lb. of sugar for each pint of the flavoured water.  Boil 10 minutes, skimming well all the time.

When cold, bottle for use, corking the bottles tight and sealing them down.

For an ordinary shape of ice use a breakfastcupful of this syrup and make like any other ice, but use less sugar.

                                                                          The Cookery Book of Lady Clark of Tillypronie


I thought it was interesting the recipe is called a "water", when it truly is a syrup.  I thought waters were distilled and did not have sugar in them.  But I learn new ideas all the time.

The name Tillypronie was amusing to me, so I decided to see if I could look it up and find out more about Lady Clark and her book.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot about it.

Tillypronie is in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  You can read in detail about it here.

The house was originally built 150 years ago in 1867 by Sir John Clark, the diplomat son of Queen Victoria’s physician, Sir James Clark, who was himself the son of a butler from Banffshire. 

There are some pictures of the grounds and it is a gorgeous place to live.

I was more interested in Lady Clark, so here is what I learned about her:

 Lady Clark was not just an exemplary hostess; she was also a highly accomplished cook. After her death in 1897, Sir John arranged for the thousands of recipes she had collected throughout her lifetime, and particularly during his diplomatic postings in Brussels, Paris and Turin, to be edited into a single volume which was published in 1909. Virginia Woolf gave the resulting book a glowing review in The Times Literary Supplement at the time.

It made me sad that her book was published after she died.  You can read more about it here.

The book is considered a valuable compilation of Victorian era recipes. Lady Clark obtained the recipes by asking hostesses or cooks, and then testing each one at Tillypronie. She documented each recipe's source with the name of her source, and often also the date. There is comprehensive coverage of plain British cooking, especially of meat and game, but the book has sections on all aspects of contemporary cooking including bread, cakes, eggs, cooking for invalids, jams, pies, sauces, sweets (puddings) and vegetables. She had lived in Italy and France, and the cuisines of these countries are represented by many dishes, as is Anglo-Indian cooking with a section called "Curries".

It looks so interesting!  I looked around the 'net and found a digital copy of her book (you can also buy print copies).  Her recipe is found here, under the Ices category.  Ms. MacNicol cited it word-for-word in her book.

My Notes

Elderflowers, sugar, and water are all that are needed here.  Here are my flowers:



That is how many I picked.  Here is what was left after I removed most of the stems:



"Water to cover" meant they were floating a little off the bottom, but not too much.  I measured 8 cups.




When the water got hot, the flowers and water darkened.  After it reached a boil, I turned down the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes.



I used a coarse strainer first to get out the flowers and stems.  Then I poured it through a fine strainer to get out the small particles.

It measured 6 cups (3 pints).  I let it cool for a few hours.

Three pints meant 1 1/2 pounds sugar, which I weighed and then added to the liquid.  I heated it to a boil, stirring to dissolve all the sugar, then set it to a slow boil for 10 minutes.  I did not stir it and there was nothing to skim.

Once that cooled down, I bottled it.  I measured 5 1/4 cups syrup.  They are stored in the refrigerator.

The Verdict


Sweet, but not too sweet.  Flavorful and if you don't know what elderflowers taste like, I think it is hard to describe.  Floral but not perfumy, light and yet enticing.

I enjoyed sipping it from a spoon and putting some in my tea.

I had some leftover pie crust so I rolled that into strips, baked them, and then brushed them with the syrup (three times) while they were still hot.  I served them cool, with an unbrushed crust for a taste comparison.  The flavor was enhanced by the syrup but it was very subtle.



I also put together a simple dessert of sliced oranges and fresh strawberries, and drizzled a little of the syrup over them.  That was tasty.

Recently I was looking at a recipe for Roman honey cakes, made of cheese and flour and an egg, baked, then soaked in honey.  I think this syrup would be good to use instead of honey, too.  I don't have much honey in my pantry, so it is worth a try.

Success!  Worthwhile and perhaps I will try Lady Clark's suggestion to turn it into an ice.

What are you cooking?

More On Mincemeat -- The Pie

A few days after I covered the mincemeat in brandy and set it into a dark, cool cabinet, I looked in on it.

Interestingly enough, all the brandy on top was gone.  The mixture itself looked like it had absorbed a lot of the liquid throughout -- it was thick and not as fluid in the jar.  I took this to be a good sign for its "ripening" and poured more brandy over the top.  I felt it was important to have a 1/4 to 1/2 inch layer of brandy to help avoid mold growth.

After a month had passed, it was time to try it in a pie.  I kept it simple, as Mrs. Leslie suggested:  "These pies are always made with covers, and should be eaten warm."  (Here is her ebook:  Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches.)

Just two ingredients

I took that to mean that I should put down a crust, fill it with mincemeat, cover it with a second crust, and bake it until done.

Crust plus filling

With its top cover

The filling was thick and a little juicy.  Not at all what I had put into the container originally and for this I was glad.  Before I used it I inspected it carefully -- there was no mold in the jar and no "off" smells, so I think it was fine to use.  I tasted a little of it and liked the overall flavor although the brandy was strong for my tastes. 

My ancient copy of "The Joy of Cooking" said to bake it at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and cook it for another 30 minutes.  This was for a store-bought mincemeat filling.  I wasn't certain if my filling needed significant cooking time but I guessed that at least the suet needed a chance to melt and make the filling rich. I really didn't want to take a bite of pie and get a mouthful of uncooked beef fat, even if it had been marinating in Madeira and brandy for a month!

I ended up cooking it for 35 minutes at 350.  It probably could have gone a little longer to be more browned on top.

I estimate that I used about 3 cups of the filling in this pie.  It looks like I could get another 5 to 6 pies out of what was left.  This looks to be a fun holiday season.

Hot out of the oven

The Verdict:  I sliced the pie when it was cool enough to handle but still warm.  With each bite I could still taste the brandy -- it was strong enough to warm me on the way down but not so strong as to make me want to stop eating it.  The juices, sugar, and spices combined to make a lovely syrup around the dried fruit and meat.  Occasionally I got a taste of meat as it was chewier than the fruit.  The flavor overall was very, very good; hearty, rich, flavorful, and in its way, old-fashioned.  It reminded me of the mince pies I've had before but was still different.  Partly, I think, because it wasn't as sweet as regular mince.  Yes, definitely a success!  I can imagine people eating this one to two hundred years ago, savoring the rich flavor with spice, brandy, meat, and fruits.

Other thoughts about it:  This is definitely an "adult" dessert.  The brandy was too strong for children, I think.  Also, as Mrs. Leslie recommends, it is best warmed.  When cold the flavors were harsh and the suet congealed.  I really didn't like seeing cold bits of fat in my pie.

Old-fashioned delicious

Mrs. Leslie leaves us with one more piece of her wisdom:  "Whenever you take out any for use, pour some additional brandy into the jar before you cover it again, and add some more sugar."  Done!  I mixed in about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed the filling down to remove air bubbles, wiped the sides of the jar above the filling level, and poured in enough brandy to cover the top.  Then I cleaned the outside of the jar well and put it back in the cabinet.