Molasses Toffee

Molasses and chocolate toffee cooling before cutting

Today is Sugar High Friday and Derrick chose Molasses.

Here is a recipe for the most delicious, chewy candy you'll ever eat. Stir together 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon molasses, and 1 stick butter (4 oz) over a medium flame until a small amount dropped into cold water forms a hard, chewy ball. Pour immediately onto a buttered marble slab and allow to cool. Cut into pieces and if you can restrain yourself from not eating them all in one fell swoop, wrap them in waxed paper and store in an airtight tin.

petits pois & agneau

cliquez sur la photo pour des restes comme ragoût d'agneau

"La nourriture dont les classes meilleures des Français ont mangée était comme suit : pour le dîner, le potage clair avec des morceaux de pain de blé et les divers goûts ; puis un plat de viande cuite, parfois frit après avoir été fait cuire. . . Souvent les pois composés troisième par cours." Voyages de Peter Kalm en Amérique du nord, la version anglaise de 1770. Douvres, New York, 1987, p. 383.

J'ai combiné ces deux cours d'agneau cuit avec des légumes pour ce mois blog appétit.

Prenez les règlages et les cubes d'agneau et de brun en un peu d'huile et de beurre d'olive. Quand tous les morceaux sont bruns, enlevez sur le marmite et le sauté plusieurs clous de girofle d'ail écrasé et de marjolaine écrasée part en huile. Deglaze la casserole avec une tasse de la Madère et fermentent pendant une minute pour mélanger les saveurs, puis versent partout l'agneau, ajoutent l'eau à la couverture juste et ont placé pour fermenter en charbons lents.

Au sujet d'une demi-heure avant que l'agneau soit fini, écossez les pois, épluchez et coupez dedans les eighths quelques navets et pommes de terre et coupez en tranches quelques carottes. Placez dans un poêle, couvrez avec de l'eau et fermentez jusqu'à ce qu'offre. Vidangez et ajoutez à l'agneau dans le marmite aux saveurs de mélange pendant environ 5 minutes ; sel et poivre à goûter. Vous pouvez servir des légumes séparément ou remuer ensemble comme en ragoût. Bon de goût très réchauffé. Servez un pain semé de seigle et beurre avec l'agneau et un fruit au goût âpre dans la saison pour le dessert.

Vin : Le Bordeaux 1982 de Calon-Segur Saint Estèphe de chateau - robuste et à vie longue, retenu, mais la société, un manque de jamminess avec une finition au goût âpre - juste juste avec de la sauce à agneau et à ail.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"The food which the better classes of Frenchmen ate was as follows: for dinner, clear soup with pieces of wheat bread and various relishes; then a dish of cooked meat, sometimes fried after being cooked. . . . Often the third course consisted of green peas." Peter Kalm's Travels in North America, the English Version of 1770. Dover, New York, 1987, p. 383.

I have combined these two courses in stewed lamb with vegetables for this month's blog appétit.

Take trimmings and cubes of lamb and brown in a bit of olive oil and butter. When all pieces are brown, remove to marmite and sauté several cloves of crushed garlic and crushed marjoram leaves in oil. Deglaze the pan with a cup of madeira and simmer for a minute to blend the flavors, then pour all over lamb, add water to just cover and set to simmer in slow coals.

About half an hour before lamb is finished, shell peas, pare and cut in eighths some turnips and potatoes and slice some carrots. Place in a poêle, cover with water and simmer until tender. Drain and add to lamb in marmite to blend flavors for about 5 minutes; salt and pepper to taste. You can serve vegetables separately or stir together as in stew. Tastes very good reheated. Serve a seeded rye bread and butter with the lamb and a fruit tart in season for dessert.

Wine: Chateau Calon-Segur Saint Estèphe Bordeaux 1982 - Robust and long lived, restrained, but firm, a lack of jamminess with a tart finish - just right with the lamb and garlic sauce.

Metroactive Dining Online Magazine

Just in: a press clipping regarding an interview on verjus occurred in Metroactive Dining online magazine from the Bay Area of California. Click here for a recipe for verjus.

Menues espices

Prenes z iiij de Gingembre z iiii de canelle z ii de poyure rond z i poyure long ij de noix de muscade z i de cloux Giroffle z i de Graine de paradis z i de muscade z i Garingal et i le tout mis en pouldre et passes par lesset.

Livre fort excellent de cuysine (1555), 27vº.

A Spice Mixture

7 tablespoons powdered ginger
1/4 cup ground pepper
7 1/4 teaspoons grated nutmeg
5 teaspoons ground cardamom (if grains of paradise unavailable)
5 3/4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons long pepper
4 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 tablespoons powdered galingale (laos)

Sift all the ingredients together and store in a cool place in a tightly covered container.

Faites secher du sel, puis vous le mettrez en poudre, et vous en mettrez autant pesant qu'il y aura d'épisse, gardez-la dans un lieu qui ne soit pas humide.

Le Pâtissier françois (1652)

Salted Spice

Dry some salt, beat it to a powder, and add an equal quantity by weight to the spice mixture. Store in a dry place.

Uses for theses mixtures:

I do not use pork or pork fat when I make pâté and pyes so I was looking for a spice mixture that would unite the others meats I use into that well-remembered taste and smell of charcuterie. This mixture, even though very old, produces an incredible taste, and some of the ingredients will later be known as French "four spice" or Quatre-épice. You will be able to find long pepper and grains of paradise and galingale in out of the way spice shops or online. Do give this a try, especially if you're looking to have an indefinable "taste" in a contest or new recipe. The salted spice works very well in stews. Bon appétit!


Wheaton, Barbara. Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789, p 247 & 253.


Check out New Orleans Cuisine's Creole Seasoning for a modern American French taste.

Faïence Brune

A curious peddler, by the name of ebay, came by the other day with some beautiful plates for sale at an outrageous price. I had several plates that had been broken and patched with lead rivets, and I had my heart set on getting a few more to place on the shelves of my vaisselier (dresser or hutch) to use for guests.


Photo from ebay peddler

The plates were the familiar Faïence brune, a Rouen blue-on-white front with a brown glazed back that I'd brought with me from home, but I couldn't bring myself to pay the exorbitant price he was asking.


Photo from Mobile Archaeology

Some of my cousins down in Mobile threw their plates out when the pieces couldn't be mended anymore. If the peddlers cannot supply us with more reasonably priced wares, we'll have to resort to using Native ceramics or woodware, or hope the next ship's hold has some barrels of dishes among the sugar and rum.

Archaeological information:
Historical Ceramics
Mobile Pottery Shards

Carrot Marmelade

copper preserving pan with marmelade

A parishioner's knock at the door brought a small basketful of scraggly carrots, some of the last from her cellar. After thanking her for her contribution, I set them on the table, wondering what to do with them, as several other baskets had arrived in a similar manner recently. I now had plenty for soups and stews and an occasional pie. Aha! I had an orange and a lemon--I would make marmelade.

I scrubbed and peeled the carrots, removing any core, and then finely grated them into my large copper preserving pan. I sliced the orange and lemon into very fine slices and then cut the slices into eighths, adding them and their juice to the carrots, along with some sugar. A quick stir to help in dissolving the sugar and then I set the pan on the trivet in the fireplace, adding coals underneath to start the pan simmering. After the carrots began to soften, I checked the set of my preserves by dropping a bit of the syrup onto a cold plate. When I counted to 25, I tilted the plate and since the syrup stayed where it was and didn't run, I took the pan off the heat and immediately ladled the marmelade into pots, set them to cool, then sealed them with circles of white paper dipped in brandy. A square of cloth tied over the rim of the pot and into the jam cupboard they went, ready to use for breakfast, dessert or to cheer someone on my next visiting round.

Cream of Leek Soup

Elm Treenware Bowl from Old Bedford Mercers

Spring is just around the corner and leeks have such a fresh green taste this time of year. I washed my leeks very well and then sliced them very thinly. In a hot pan with a dab of butter I carmelized the leeks and added some light cream bringing it to a simmer. I then kneaded butter and an equal portion of flour into a beurre manie and whisked it into the simmering soup. When it was thick and bubbly, I served it with a spinkle of white pepper and salt to taste.

Biscuits de Chocolat

Small Cakes of Chocolate Biscuit

2 one-ounce tablets of chocolate, grated
1 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
8 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1/2 cup cake flour
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Beat the grated chocolate, sugar, and egg yolks until thick and creamy. Fold in the beaten egg whites. Sift the flour over the mixture and fold it in gently. Set cupcake papers out on a cooky sheet and spoon a small amount of batter--not more than 1/4 cup--into each one. Sift the confectioners' sugar over the batter. Bake at once in a slow (325ºF) oven, until the tops of the cakes are just firm. This should take 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Wheaton, Savoring the Past, the French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1769 (1983), p. 262.

Biscuits de chocolat

Mettez dans une terrine deux tablettes de chocolat rappé, avec une demie livre de sucre fin passé au tamis, quatre jaunes d'oeufs, battez le tout ensemble avec une espatule, ensuite vous y mettez huit blancs d'oeufs fouettês, que vous mêlez bien avec le sucre et le chocolat, vous avez un quarteron de farine un peu séchée au four que vous mettez dans un tamis, passez-la au travers dans la composition de biscuits, que vous remuez à mesure qu'elle tombe, pour la bien mêler avec; dressez vos buiscuits dans des les moules de papier, jettez un peu de sucre fin dessus en le faisant tomber lêgerement d'un tamis; mettez cuire dans un four doux.

Menon, La Science du maître d'hotel, confiseur (1750), p. 408.

Things I would do differently: I would melt the chocolate and cool it. I would beat the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar had dissolved, then I would have folded in the cooled chocolate. Next I would have added the flour, then the stiffly beaten egg whites. I would have only used 4 egg whites, not the eight called for. Because the chocolate was grated, it sunk to the bottom of the paper and looked like mini chocolate chips on the top (bottom) of the little cakes. Melting the chocolate would have allowed for it to blend with the eggs and, I believe, would have resulted in a darker, richer looking chocolate biscuit. I would add a pinch of salt to the egg whites before beating. Because of the lack of leavening, the egg white causes a crust that subsides--not a problem--just remove the crust after you remove the paper mold and turn the little cakes upside down on a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar after baking, not before; otherwise, it just sits there. As Wheaton states, spices had ceased being a major factor in use with chocolate by mid-18thC, but I will add a pinch of cinnamon or chili and/or black pepper next time--the taste was almost too sweet, and would have benefited from the addition of spices.

My submission for IMBB #13, My Little Cupcake, hosted by Makiko Itoh of I was just really very hungry.

Do look at this site for another way of "cooking" cakes in the 18thC, steaming cakes in tea cups, the original "cupcake."

Caramel Sauce

Caramel is mentioned in La Varenne's The French Cook, Englished in 1653, so it is time that I add this technique to my repertoire. I have some winter pears that will do nicely as a glacé or sorbet, as well.

Peel and core 1.5 pounds Comice pears and cut into rough slices. Cook in a small amount of boiling water until slices are translucent. Drain and puree cooked pears; stir in 3/4 cup sugar while the puree is still warm. Chill mixture and once cooled, add a few drops of Armagnac or brandy. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to instructions.

To make the caramel sauce, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Boil for a good 10 minutes or until sugar starts to caramelize. Turn heat down and, stirring constantly, continue to cook until sauce becomes a deep, rich caramel color. Quickly add 1/4 cup heavy cream and stand back, as mixture will splatter. Then stir caramel sauce again until smooth.

To assemble, place three scoops of pear sorbet into a dish or tuile cup, ladle warm caramel sauce over the sorbet and top with chopped, toasted walnuts. Serves 4. I added a curl of lemon zest as a garnish.

Debbie at Words to Eat By chose caramel as this month's Sugar High Friday.

Sorbet & Caramel Recipe: W, February 10-17, 1986, p. 48.

Crème Fraîche

Rich, thick crème fraîche, sometimes so thick you can stand a spoon in it or cut it with a knife into cubes, is a specialty of France. I have tried several ways of making my own crème fraîche and I'd like to share my secret with you.

Take 1 cup of heavy cream (whipping creme in America) and warm it to wrist temperature (105ºF) in a non-reactive pan, then stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of buttermilk. Pour into a warmed crock, cover it, then leave on the counter to rest in a warm place until thick (may take 12-36 hours at room temperature). Stir and place into the cool spring house. Use for desserts, sauces, slathered on bread--enjoy!

poireaux & st jacques

For dinner I prepared a first course, leek fettuccine and some "scallops" (cut circles) of white fish, as I live too far inland to be able to purchase coquilles. Lake Huron, even though frozen way beyond the shore, provides lovely fish if you are brave enough to face the cold and chop through the ice for a catch.

I cut my leeks where the white part ends and saved the green for potato soup later in the week. Next I sliced the whites length-wise into julienne, which I poached until tender in a pot of salted water. After draining them I began a sauce of leek broth and some cream with a bay leaf, reducing it by half. I tossed the leeks in the cream sauce and made a bed of them in the serving dishes.

From the filets of fish that had been skinned I cut circles to resemble scallops and dusted them with a sprinkle of flour and seared them in a splash of oil and a dollop of butter until a rich brown color on both sides and the flesh had just set. I removed them to the bed of leeks and added some minced shallots and mushrooms to the pan. When the mushrooms and shallots were golden, I deglazed the pan with some verjus and added some cream and again reduced the sauce by half. After spooning the sauce over the "scallops," I sprinkled on some bread crumbs mixed with grated cheese and a pinch of cayenne and placed them into the oven to heat through and then passed a fire shovel with coals over the top to brown the crumbs slightly.

The chef recommends: Pessac blanc 2003 Château Haut Lagrange

Chocolat Chaud

Analysis of residue from a ceramic vessel similar to a "teapot" suggests that the Maya, and their ancestors, may have been drinking chocolate as far back as 2,600 years ago, pushing back the earliest evidence of cacao use more than 1,000 years.

It was an art to make a good Spanish chocolate because it had many spices, much too much for the refined palate of the French. One even recognizes a touch of hot red pepper and cinnamon, and the cocoa paste required multiple ingredients and a delicate proportioning to arrive at harmony. For 100 roasted, crushed and degreased cocoa grains, one needed 12 crushed almonds and 12 hazel nuts, a half crushed sugar loaf, a spoonful of honey, anise grains and two grains pepper of Mexico or grains of Chile, six pinks of Alexandria, a pod of campêche and two drachmas of cinnamon.

Diderot's Encyclopédie gives the following recipe:
cocoa, powdered sugar, cinnamon, one egg, water or milk, one drop of distilled orange flower water and 2 drops of ambergris. "There had been a lot of discussions and lots of articles published on the virtues and dangers of the use of chocolate, depending on what was added to it. Some almonds could be added to the hazelnuts. There had been a big debate (religious) to decide if chocolate was "food" or "liquid". Because liquids could be had on Catholic Fast Days. The rumor has it that Louis XV himself drank chocolate only on Fast Days." FandIWomen



Chocolate seems to have been a staple in the 18thC preacher, Jonathan Edwards, household, as it was in many American colonial homes. "In the 18th century, one of the larger general merchandise firms in Philadelphia was Baynton, Wharton and Morgan. When the F&I war ended and the old Northwest territory became British property, the company seized on the opportunity to open a new market. They sent the junior partner, George Morgan, to the small village Kaskaskia, on the east bank of the Mississippi river in what is now Illinois to set up an outlying store. All the goods on my list were ordered for that store, not for any particular number of individuals. Still, even for a store, the amounts are impressive, considering the location. In the spring he ordered: 6000 Wt Loaf Sugar, . . . and 2000 pounds Chocolate"--quite an order for so remote a village.

A recipe I use for making chocolate tablets is: 200 grams pure good unsweetened chocolate (30 grams = 1 ounce), 4 medium size cinnamon sticks (about 2" long), 1 teaspoon anise seeds, 2 tablespoons almonds or hazelnuts ground, and 1 vanilla bean split and seeds scraped to be ground with spices. Melt all ingredients together in bain marie and pour out as dollops on paper to make tablets about 1 1/2 tablespoons each.

To make a chocolate drink, grate one tablet into your chocolatière and add 6 ounces of water per person. Froth with your molenillo or moulinet. Add sugar to taste. Recipe courtesy Hélène Gousse. You could experiment with cayenne pepper, orange flower water or ambergris and different types of sugars. Aztecs used corn flour and eggs, too.



Porcelaine chocolate pots are being reproduced today and in-depth information is also available.

Life on the Margins

Walthall p. 252

A treasure box under a young boy's bed reveals broken sherds of faience, usually a type of eating plate found only in established areas, but found in this case, at 21-Mo-20, a French outpost in the wilds of Minnesota, and the possible location of the Fort Duquesne of Jospeh Marin. Broken personal accoutrements here highlight the type of life lived on the margins fully two and one half centuries ago--a life with faience dishes and glassware lugged deep into the bush and used for only a season and a half during the winter of 1752 and part of the following year. Not only do the faience sherds speak to the fineness of the table, but the design on one plate illustrates typical colonial French housing.

Walthall p.258

Today, we laugh at the native porters in safari flicks lugging trunks deep into the bush so the commandant can have his tea at a table covered by white linen using silver and porcelaine dishes. But evidently our ancestors liked to keep up appearances, even in the bush, on the margins between Native cultural overlap in American fur trading areas.

Sherds recovered from Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia and Fort Massac on the Ohio in the Pays Illinois show evidence of mending using channels drilled and filled with lead. It would seem that pretty dishes were so treasured that when broken were mended, whether to sit on a sideboard or for actual use.

Faience recovered from Fortress Louisbourg excavations

We appreciate that special plate to highlight our latest culinary creation--but that spot of color used on the wall or nestled among the rails of the sideboard brings pleasure, too.

1991 French Colonial Achaeology: The Illinois country and the western Great Lakes, edited by John A. Walthall. Springfield, IL

Close Your Eyes and Take a Bite!

This is for Jennifer's Fond Food Memories .

One of the church elders' inlaws had come to town and I wanted to have them all over for dinner, as I also knew them. This particular elder had raved about my cooking from the pulpit and I was out to impress. My favorite food at the time was Hungarian Goulash served on a bed of sauerkraut and potatoes--I could eat it seven days a week and cold for breakfast. My teenage children liked it too, but they are not good judges, because unlike most children today, my kids would eat all kinds of vegetables and were always willing to try my new cooking experiments. They usually found that when I told them to "close your eyes and take a bite" they were in for a taste treat that most mothers didn't even dare to proffer.

My recipe for goulash takes about 6 hours to prepare, and may indeed look a little strange if ethnic food is not one's choice, but I was pleased with the taste and aroma and proudly bore the tureens to the table. When the elder removed the lids from the goulash and the kraut and took a deep breath and said, "Carolyn, I thought you always cooked something good when you had company," I was crushed. I told him, "Fred, you know I would never serve a guest something that was not scrumptious--close your eyes and take a bite--I promise you won't be disappointed." He steeled himself to take a tiny bite of each onto his plate and then into his mouth--and he did close his eyes! And he wasn't disappointed, he even told his teenage kids that they had to eat some. But I learned a valuable lesson--when you're out to impress--it has to look as good as it tastes!

Hungarian Goulash with Sauerkraut from McCall's Cooking School Magazine

For the Goulash:
3 lb boneless beef chuck cut into 1 1/2" cubes
1 lb onions sliced
1/4 cup salad oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 can (10 1/2 oz) condensed beef broth, undiluted

For the Sauerkraut:
2 cans (14-oz size) or 1 quart bag sauerkraut
1 large potato
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Boiling water

For the Finish:
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup sour cream

In a large skillet, heat oil over high heat and sauté beef cubes until brown on all sides. Remove to a Dutch oven as it browns. It will take 30 minutes or so. Add sliced onions to drippings, cooking and stirring until golden, about 10 minutes. Spoon over beef. Add paprika, salt and pepper. Stir 3/4 cup beef broth into skillet to deglaze pan and bring to boiling. Scrape all into Dutch oven over meat and onions. Place into 300ºF oven and cook, covered about 4-5 hours. When it is done, it will look brown and soft, and the onions will be melted away. Just before beef is done, prepare sauerkraut.

Drain sauerkraut well. Pare potato or not, and grate enough to measure 3/4 cup. In hot butter in a large skillet, sauté chopped onion until golden. Add sauerkraut, potato, caraway seed, brown sugar and 2 cups boiling water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated.

To finish, stir remaining beef broth into flour until smooth and then stir into beef goulash, stirring constantly. Simmer on the stove, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Just before serving, slowly stir 1/2 cup hot gravy into sour cream in a small bowl. Mix and add slowly back to beef mixture. Stir well to blend, reheat, but do not boil. Serve goulash over sauerkraut. Makes 8 servings.

Chandeleur

- Telling Time

February 1 marks a cross-quarter day, halfway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox and is celebrated both in religious and cultural ways.

In France and Canada February 2 is known as Chandeleur--Candlemas, and Navettes in the shape of boats that brought Mary Magdalene to France are eaten. Another food used to celebrate this day is the crepe or pancake in the shape of the solar disk, a reminder that the days are getting longer and Spring will eventually come.