A Lemon Cordial - with milk

I was perusing a book in my collection that caught my attention (again) because it had nothing printed on the spine.  But it did have print on the front cover and that was A Book of Cookery.  It is an intriguing book because the author, Kimberly K. Walters, does historical reenactment, and she compiled these recipes from a variety of historical sources to aid her reenactment work.

ISBN 978-0-692-26980-0

Her focus is the 18th century, the American Revolutionary War, and George Washington, but she notes in the "Forword" that she sometimes took from sources just before and after that time when she felt it was appropriate.  

The book contains more than just recipes, which she properly calls "receipts."  It also offers information on how to choose good food items, lists of what items are in season "in the colonies", a detailed description of how and what to serve for dinner courses ("removes"), how the table is to be set, and descriptions of cooking equipment.

As someone who has experience in historical cooking reenactment, I would judge this book to be quite valuable to anyone who wants to learn how to be a Colonial American cooking reenactor.  All you would have to add is equipment, costuming, and a location in which to cook.  

I had fun reading through the recipes.  My goal was to find one that used lemons because my neighbor had left a bag full of them on my doorstep.  There were several recipes that I considered, especially the Lemon Gingerbread on page 190, but I decided to try the Lemon Cordial on page 260.  I have made many cordials and liqueurs before but never one that had milk in it.  I wanted to see what it was like.

Lemon Cordial

Cut six fresh lemons in thin slices, put them into a quart and a half of milk, boil it until the whey is very clear, then pass it through a sieve; put to this whey, one and a half quarts of French brandy, and three pounds of powdered loaf sugar; stir it till the sugar is dissolved - let it stand to refine, and bottle it; pare some of the yellow rind of the lemons very thin, and put a little in each bottle. (Randolph).

My Notes

I decided to scale the recipe down a little.  "A quart and a half" is 6 cups, so the proportions for 2/3 of the amounts are pretty straightforward:

4 lemons (washed!)

4 cups milk

4 cups brandy

2 pounds powdered sugar

After the lemons were sliced and the milk was added, I turned the heat onto high to get the cooking going.  

I notice the curdling started right away.  This is a good thing!  It is how you get the curds and whey.

You can see the curds forming.

Once I saw some bubbles forming in the milk, I turned the heat to medium low.  

And this is where I started running into trouble.  You see, I have made curds and whey before with milk and vinegar (click here to see the post), so I expected the curds to be big and to clearly see the whey.

But that didn't happen here.  I let the mixture simmer for quite a while (a few hours!) and never saw the whey separate as I expected.  After the lemons looked very cooked, I turned the heat off and thought about what to do.

The lemons have gone limp. 

The curds were all tiny.  There was whey but everything was mixed.  I decided to pass it through a strainer lined with cheesecloth, but I was not confident this would work.

And it didn't.  Very little liquid came through; it all looked like it was still captured in the curds and lemon.

Then I decided to use some more fresh milk (1 cup) to rinse the curds off of the lemon slices, with hope I could get all that to sieve out.  I used my hands to gently squeeze the slices and to wipe the curds off of them.  This got the curds off the lemons but it still would not get the moisture out of the curds.  I had a thick, creamy liquid now.  I threw away the lemon slices.

At this point I thought that I would just have to expect a creamy, curdy cordial.  Maybe that would taste good?  So I added the powdered sugar and the brandy, mixing well.

This is a one-half gallon container

I tasted it and it was good!  But I didn't think this was supposed to be the desired result.  The container sat on the counter overnight.  The next day I saw that the curds had begun to settle -- and it was forming layers of what looked like curds in liquid at the bottom, liquid alone in the middle, and a foam on the top.  It made me think of syllabub.  I was not happy with this.

Then it occurred to me.  I should strain it through a cloth bag!  This is what I did when I made liquamen and it worked well to remove very fine particles.  Why did this take so long for me to consider?

Straining it through the bag worked really well.  The liquid was clear!

Unfiltered on the left.  Filtered on the right.

It took two days to let it all filter through.  Patience is a virtue here.  I felt confident that I was getting all the cordial through the bag.  In the end, I had just a little under 1/2 gallon of cordial.

The Verdict

The flavor was a lovely blend of lemon and brandy.  It did not strike my taste buds hard with lemon and it did not taste entirely of lemon.  It was definitely a blend.  The mouthfeel was good - enough of a syrupy texture to make me feel like I was sipping something substantial.  My guest taster and I both liked it very much and would love to have it either before or after a meal, or to go with some cheese and fruit as part of a dessert.

When I made curds and whey previously, I warmed up the milk before I added the acid for curdling.  Perhaps I should have done that here.

I should have filtered just the curds and whey through the bag before adding the sugar and brandy.  I think it would have gone faster as it wouldn't have been as thick. 

I did throw off the proportions a little by using the one extra cup of milk to rinse the lemons.  I think it curdled a little.  I doubt it affected the taste much.

I honestly don't know why the milk was important.  When I made lemon liqueur previously, I just soaked lemon peels in vodka for a few months, strained them out, and added sugar.  This worked just fine and the soaked peels were saved as zest for cooking.  

Of course this cordial took only a few days and it was ready for drinking right away.  I suspect it will improve with aging, which tends to smooth the flavors out.  I guess that the whey might add some thickness or improve the mouthfeel of the finished product.  This is all guesswork!

I call it a success.  I have enough to last a while so it will continue to age in the cupboard.  I need to add some lemon zest to it as per the recipe's recommendation.

Just so you know, "cordial" and "liqueur" are often used interchangeably.  They are both typically vodka or brandy infused with flavors, and sweetened.  Cordials are sometimes considered to be sweeter than a standard liqueur.  This was definitely sweet but not overwhelmingly so.

Empanadas de calabaza sazonas -- Seasoned Pumpkin Empanadas

I had a wonderful sweet pumpkin sitting around and the time to make something with it.  I recalled that Miss Pinedo had some recipes involving pumpkin empanadas, so I decided to give it a try.  I have never made empanadas before, but I have eaten some with great enthusiasm.

From pages 91 and 92 in her book, I found and translated:

Empanadas--Dough for.

         To a pound and a half of flour, put two egg yolks and one white, a little bit of fat and salt: stir everything with cold water, knead well, and when it is of a regular temper, form the puff pastries, fill them, and put in the oven. 

Seasoned pumpkin empanadas.

         Put the pumpkin in large pieces to cook, and after cooked it is removed from the heat. It is mashed well and passed through a sieve, seasoning it with ground cinnamon and a very little clove and sugar.

         The dough is stuffed, folded, and crimped; cook them in the oven.

Time to experiment!

I didn't take pictures of the pumpkin cooking process, so I will just describe it:  I cut the pumpkin in half, scooped out the seeds and strings, then cut it into quarters.  The pieces went into a big kettle to steam cook:  they rested on a pierced metal stand that had water underneath.  The water got to a slow boil (just enough to produce some steam) and I cooked the pumpkin for about an hour with a lid on the pot.  I checked it regularly to see if I needed to add more hot water (I did a few times) and to see if the pumpkin was tender all the way through.  

Then I turned off the heat, removed the lid, and let the pumpkin cool so I could handle it easily.  Using a spoon, I scraped the flesh off the shell.  The flesh went into the refrigerator until Iit was time to make the filling.

My Redaction

Dough:

I found that 1 1/2 pounds of flour was about 5 cups. 

5 cups flour (plus a little extra as needed)

2 egg yolks

1 egg white

7 ounces of fat (I used about 1/2 vegetable shortening and 1/2 butter)

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

cold water

Pulse the flour, egg yolks and white, salt, and fat together in the food processor until mixed.  Add cold water and run the processor until the dough comes together into a ball.  Remove from bowl and knead gently.  Wrap or put into a covered container and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Basically, I treated it like a pie crust.

Filling:

The pumpkin chunks were put in a deep kettle and pureed with a stick blender.  I estimated it to be about 7 cups of puree.

7 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 pinches cloves

Gently warm the puree, adding in the other ingredients and stirring well.  Allow some time for the flavors to blend and let cool. It should be very thick.  

Before pureeing

After pureeing, and with the sugar and spices.

Making the empanadas:

Roll out the dough, cut into rounds, put a spoonful of filling on the dough.  Fold and crimp the edges.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown.

My Notes

I wanted to try my nifty little gadget that is supposed to make beautiful dumplings like empanadas.  

I rolled the dough to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick and used one part of the gadget to cut the circles.

The other part of the gadget is what folds and crimps the dough.

The dough sits on top and the filling sits in the middle.

It took some experimenting to get the dough thin enough and to find the right amount of filling to put in.  Too much filling squished out of the dough when it was folded over and crimped.  This is too much filling and the dough is too thick:

This is better on the dough thickness (although I kept trying to make it thinner) and about right on the filling quantity.

The extra dough tears off easily. All the scraps that didn't have filling smeared on it got rerolled and cut.

They were so cute on the baking sheet!

Before baking, some batches were sprinkled with sugar.  Other batches has a little cream brushed on top and were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  And sometimes I just put ginger sugar on top.

This is cream with cinnamon sugar.

I had problems with them opening up, both before and during baking.

Look at the one at the top.  It is opening up.

Not the result I wanted.

I also tried sealing them up with my fingers instead of using the gadget.  I also tried brushing water along the edges to help them seal.

None were very successful, although I did think of open clams or oysters when I looked at them (no pearls, though).

The Verdict

I kept making empanadas until I ran out of dough.  I still had filling left over.  

So some were open and some were closed and I tasted both kinds (and all of the toppings!).  

They were good!  I liked the thinnest dough with the most filling -- not surprising because the filling was the best part.  The pumpkin flavor came shining through and it was lightly sweet.  It had just enough spice to keep it from being bland; it was a good balance with the pumpkin.

The dough needed to be crisper, I thought, but it still did the job.  Not heavy in any way.  It just didn't have much crunch.

The ones eaten after the first day were heated until the outside crisped up a little and got more brown.  This was fine. 

I will call them a success for my first attempt.  And I forgot to take a picture of any in a decorative way.  

The leftover pumpkin filling got turned into a savory soup with corn, onions, and pieces of chicken.  It was really, really tasty.

I think if you wanted to put in more spice, you could do so and it would still be good.  I was really looking for the pumpkin flavor, which influenced my measurements.  A really cinnamon-y filling would be fine.

Boston Brown Bread

 I was perusing a little, spiral bound cookbook titled Slow Cooking for Crock Enthusiasts.

Published in 1982 by G & R Publishing, it is a very unassuming little book.  There is no fanfare with it - once you open the cover pages, the index is next, then the recipes.  There is no author listed, no preface, just a "get down to business" attitude.

The recipes are typical of the very early '80s:  most of the beef recipes are made with ground beef, there are very few "trendy" ingredients, and the recipes are what I associate with solid, midwestern American cooking.  I see beef stew, baked chicken, rice pudding, Swiss steak, stewed tomatoes.  And I saw something that sparked a memory of my childhood:  Boston Brown Bread.

Most likely what I recalled tasting when I was a kid was brown bread from a can.  You can still buy it.  But I had a strong memory of what it tasted and felt like.  I wanted to try this at home.  Would my recall be correct?

Boston Brown Bread  (page 107)

1 cup corn meal

1 cup rye flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup molasses

2 cups buttermilk

Combine all dry ingredients.  Mix together buttermilk and molasses.  Add a little at a time to dry ingredients.  Stir enough to blend.  Place in 2 greased 1-pound coffee cans.  Cover with foil and tie foil down.  Place cans on metal rack in bottom of slow cooker.  Pour 2 cups hot water around cans.  Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Remove from cooker and let stand about 10 minutes before removing from cans.

My Notes

I mixed the dry ingredients in a big bowl and the wet ingredients in a large, glass measuring cup.

That made it easy to pour the wet ingredients into the dry while mixing.

The challenge today is getting metal coffee cans as most brands I've seen use either bags or plastic containers.  Fortunately, I already had some cans from long ago that I saved for such purposes.  They look rusty but once they were cleaned and greased (I used cooking spray), I did not worry about them.

My challenge was realizing the two cans won't fit in my crock pot.  But they did fit in a bigger kettle, with enough room that I could put the lid on the kettle. 

I started heating water in my tea kettle.

A test fit.

After I put half the batter into a can, I decided to add two handfuls of raisins to the other half.  My recall was that I loved the raisins.

Each can was filled to about the same height.  (Whew!)

Raisin on the left.

Then on with the foil and the ties, and into the kettle!  Two cups of water put enough to bring the level up to the bottom of the rack.

You can see the water in the bottom.

After the lid went on, I turned the heat onto medium high until steam started coming out, then I turned the heat down so that the steam was barely coming out.

Every 30 minutes or so I checked on the water level, replenishing with hot water as needed.

After 2 1/2 hours I decided (hoped) it was done.  The cans were removed and set on the counter to cool.  Then I used a narrow spatula to loosen the sides of the bread.  The loaves popped out of the cans easily.

The Verdict

I chose to sample the one with raisins.  Slicing it in the middle gave me a view that matched my recall.  I could see they were cooked all the way through, too.

I ate it plain and also tried it with a little cream cheese.

It tasted exactly as I remembered it!  Sweet from the raisins with a heavy, almost meaty texture or mouthfeel.  Rich with molasses flavor but not overwhelming.  This is a bold bread, not delicate at all.  The cream cheese was a good compliment.

This was easy to make and a good success. I think it would make a good sandwich bread (with or without the raisins) with ham or chicken and cheese, or as a breakfast bread.  But it also makes a good "just as a snack" bread.

Happy New Year 2022 - A recipe from a Peanuts cartoon cookbook

This post starts my eleventh year of food blogging.  This blog has had over 103,000 page views, which pleases me to no end.  I am honored and humbled that people want to look at it.  There are 242 posts, most of which were successful.

I also started another food blog, the California Food Project, in which I am exploring the history of California food stuffs and recipes from my "interested amateur" point-of-view.  I've also been translating an historical cookbook that relates to California food history and trying out some of the recipes.  Those results are posted on at least the CA Food Project blog; some are on this blog, too. 

The last two years have been challenging, to say the least:  a pandemic and its associated struggles, supply chain issues, political stress, learning to work from home, and more.  I found myself thinking back to happier, less stressful times.  For me, that often means my childhood.  While I don't mind the responsibilities and expectations of adulthood, there are days when I wish I could return to the innocence of my youth.

A conversation with my friend, GL, a life-long Peanuts cartoon fan, made me think of this cookbook:

Cartoons by Charles Schulz. Recipes by June Dutton.  Pub. 1969 by Determined Productions, Inc.

It is one of the first cookbooks I ever owned.  (The wear and tear on it shows its age!)  The even numbered pages have a recipe, and the odd numbered pages have an appropriate Peanuts cartoon.  The intensely pink paper with bright green borders is representative of the popular colors of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The recipes are accessible to a novice cook, with examples like "Frieda's French Toast" and "Red Baron Root Beer" but also increase in complexity, like "Linus Van Pelt's Mother's Clam Chowder" and "Snoopy's Pizza."  As a kid, I know I learned from it.

I decided I wanted to start off 2022 by revisiting the memories of my childhood with a recipe that is tasty, simple to make, and fun to share with others:  lemon square cookies (page 84).

Lucy's Lemon Squares

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Blend with fingertips until well mixed.  Pat evenly into the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch baking pan.  Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Meanwhile, beat together:

2 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

dash of salt

Pour over baked crust and return to oven for 20-25 minutes at same temperature.

Cool on rack.  Cut in squares.  Sprinkle with sifted, powdered sugar.

My Notes

The butter was cold from the refrigerator and I wanted it that way.  I cut it into pieces before putting into the flour and powdered sugar.

Butter not cut up enough

These pieces were not small enough to blend with the dry ingredients.  I used a knife to cut them up into smaller pieces while in the bowl, then I was able to mix and blend them using my fingers.  I worked it until the mixture formed a dough, like a pie crust dough.

The pan I used (can you believe I don't have an 8 x 8 inch pan?) was 11 x 7, so more square inches than the recipe called for, but I used it anyway.  I patted the dough evenly across the bottom.  I remember to grease the pan first!

It baked for about 17 minutes and then it looked ready.  My oven sometimes runs a bit hot so I watched it for the last five minutes and pulled it early.

While the crust was baking, I mixed the topping ingredients, except the baking powder.  I put that in just before pouring the mixture over the crust.  Note that you put the topping on while the crust is still hot.

 

The pan went back into the oven for 15 minutes.  The lovely scent warned me it was ready, even before the 20 minutes was up.  

After it cooled, I sprinkled on some powdered sugar and cut it into rectangles (yes, not squares!).

The Verdict

I cut it into 15 pieces.  The ones near the edges caramelized somewhat so they were harder to remove than the ones in the center.  However, I did get them out.

You can see the layers.

Pretty with a light sprinkle of powdered sugar.

The taste:  the crust was crispy and very buttery.  The topping was lemony and sweet.  Not tart at all.   It was very rich!

As a kid, I would have loved this.  As an adult, it was very sweet, and I wanted it to be less sweet and more lemony and more tart.  One piece was enough.  I think I would decrease the sugar in the topping and increase lemon juice.  But it was good.  I think it would be nice to take to a gathering where I knew kids would be around.  Still, I would cut them into small pieces -- yes, it is that rich.  

So success.  Mostly success for kids, so it succeeded in reminding me of my childhood.

Happy New Year!  May we have a good and bountiful year.

Monastery Bean Soup - one of my Most Favorites

I reserve the last post of the year for one of my most favorite recipes.  Today's is one that I have made since the early 1990s:  Monastery Bean Soup.  I like it because it is different from most bean soups in that it is more brothy, very garlicky, and rich on the tongue.

I have no idea why it is called "Monastery".  I can only speculate and will probably be completely wrong.  This makes me laugh!

In 1993, my mom's side of the family organized a big reunion in Branson, Missouri. Many of us decided to contribute something memorable to the event, like performing skits, singing songs, telling family stories, and more.  I chose to gather family recipes and create a cookbook, and I put this soup recipe into it as part of my contribution.  I was able to assemble and print the entire thing before we gathered, and was happy to be able to hand out copies to everyone who wanted one.  Now, nearly 30 years later, it is fun and touching to read it over.  I think of that good time and of the really nice people in my family.

It is fitting to include this recipe in my most favorites list.  

Monastery Bean Soup

3/4 cup dried navy beans, soaked in hot water for 2 hours or in cold water overnight

6 cups broth (I actually prefer 8 to 12)

1 cup onion, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cup diced carrots

1 seeded and diced yellow pepper

5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or more!)

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon soy sauce

garnish with croutons, red wine vinegar, plain yogurt

The broth is in the saucepan.

Drain beans, then add the broth and simmer for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, sauté the onions and carrots in a little olive oil until the carrots are tender and the onions are limp and clear.  Add pepper, garlic, and caraway.  Cook 1 minute more.

Add a ladle of bean liquid to the onion mixture and stir.  Add onion mixture to the beans.

Simmer, covered, until beans are tender, about 20 minutes.  Thicken the soup a little by crushing some of the beans with a wooden spoon or potato masher.

Add tomatoes and soy sauce and cook 5 minutes more.

At the table, add croutons to the individual bowls, pour on soup, and add a splash of vinegar or a spoonful of yogurt.

My Notes

Today I soaked the beans in water that I heated on the stove until it was steaming.  Once it was hot I put the beans in, turned off the heat, put the lid on the pot, and let them stand for 2 hours.

Then I drained them and added them to the 6 cups of lovely, rich stock I had made from the Thanksgiving turkey carcass.  Once they started simmering I set the timer and got busy on the vegetables.

The broth is still jellied, so the beans sat on top.

The onions and carrots were so pretty as they cooked in the pan!  There was no rush to get them cooked and I noticed it took about 15 minutes to reach the desired level of tenderness.

Just starting.

I turned off the heat and let them wait until the bean simmer was nearly over.  Then I added the pepper, garlic, and caraway.  Now I love the garlic in this soup and I used garlic that was already chopped (from a jar).  I probably put in more than 5 cloves' worth, and I didn't mind at all.

The veggies!

It took about 30 minutes on the second simmer to get the beans tender.  Once they were ready, I added the tomatoes and soy sauce.  

Ready for the tomatoes.

I served the soup about 30 minutes after the tomatoes were added, so to avoid over cooking them, I turned the heat off as soon their five minutes was up.  Then I quickly reheated the soup to steaming just before serving.

The Verdict

How many croutons you put in the bowl is a personal choice.  They tend to soak up the broth and turn the soup into a stew, so judge accordingly.  I used seasoned croutons ("homestyle", meaning they were big) which add some extra flavor to the mix.  My guest taster and I both put a lot of croutons in!

Yum!

Our soup did turn into a stew.  We wished there was more broth, which is why I put my note in the ingredient list about using more.  Nevertheless, it was tasty, as I expected.

The dark is the balsamic drizzle.

My guest taster had never had it before and really enjoyed it.  He liked the amount of garlic, the croutons and the little crunch they added, and the flavor.  

I liked all of that as well as the fresh (not really cooked) tomatoes along with all the other vegetables.  He was surprised that the pepper was in it as he expected it to have a chile bite from it.  The yellow pepper I used is not fiery, just flavorful, and adds a different background note to the broth.

I also love the caraway in it.  Caraway is one of my favorite flavors, so I can't really go wrong here.  I think it brings the soup's flavor to a higher level.

When I put the recipe into the family cookbook, I had not yet learned about the joys of balsamic vinegar.  I was out of red wine vinegar and have a very nice aged balsamic (with a syrup-like consistency), which went very well on this soup/stew.  In the past I have also put sour cream on instead of plain yogurt.  It is all good.

This is a hearty main course dish, and made enough for 2 to 4 servings -- more if there is more broth to go around.  All we added to the meal was a good pinot noir.

Success, as always.  I hope you enjoy this personal favorite.  Think of good times and good people when you serve it.