New Year's Cakes

Third recipe: fair success. For this one, I did new year's cakes, which is a Victorian recipe, but from the US. Just goes to show that not all Victorian recipes are from England or Victoria : )

Original Recipe:

Seven pounds of flour, two pounds and a half of sugar*, two pounds of butter, and a pint of water, with a teaspoonful of volatile salts** dissolved in it. Work the paste well; roll it thin and cut it in small cakes*** with a tin cutter; lay them on tin plates*** and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes.

Modern Redaction:

Ingredients:

3.2kg plain flour

1.2kg sugar

900g butter

600ml water

1 tsp baking soda

Method:

Sift the flour into a bowl, dice the butter and add to the flour. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips (or cut in with pastry knives) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the sugar then dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the bowl. Bring the mixture together as a dough then turn out onto a lightly-floured work surface. Roll out about 4mm thick then transfer to a lightly-greased baking tray. Place in an oven pre-heated to 180°C**** and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until cooked through and golden brown. Allow to cool on the baking tray for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

*I used mostly sucanat, which is sugar in a very unprocessed form (basically crystallised molasses), so that’s why the cakes look a little spotty in the picture.

**Despite the ‘modern redaction’ saying baking soda, my dad and I worked out that “volatile salts” are actually closer to baking powder than baking soda.

***I used cookie sheets.

****Or 356 Fahrenheit, for those ovens that use Fahrenheit (like mine).

I may have slightly forgot to take pictures of the recipe in its earlier stages.
Also, this recipe was from a different website, so it has an ingredients table and stuff.

For this one, I'm actually going to make a different version later. I think that the dough would work quite well with savory flavorings as well as sweet, like in this recipe. The reason I had this idea is that the main bread-like part had a taste much like biscuits, which I had previously had sweet and savory. Therefore, I would like to try this same dough and shape, but yogurt and green onion flavour instead of sugar.

I would also like to try this recipe recipe with gluten-free flour, partly because I noticed they didn't rise much, and therefore would probably not need gluten to help them stick together. The other reason is that my mother is gluten sensitive, and she would like to try the new year's cakes too.

 The dough rolled out and half cut.

The cakes before baking...

...and after. 

On Sunday, I cooked my second Victorian recipe: potatoes a la maitre d’hotel. Here’s the recipe:

POTATOES A la MAITRE d'HOTEL

Wash eight potatoes, and boil them in cold water* with a pinch of salt. When thoroughly done, peel them, cut them in thin round slices**; put them--with three ounces of butter, a pinch of salt, pepper and a nutmeg***, the juice of a lemon****, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley*****--in a saucepan on the fire, and, when very hot, serve.

Fun Victorian fact: potatoes should never be served with fish.

*To “boil in cold water” means to start with cold water and bring it to a boil while the potatoes are in the water, as opposed to bringing the water to a boil, then putting the potatoes in. People used to think it made a difference.

**I slightly overdid mine, so if I tried to slice them thinly, they’d just fall apart.

***Meaning one ground nutmeg, as opposed to a volume of pre-ground nutmeg.

****At first, I forgot to put the lemon juice in, but it was still very good. After I added the lemon juice, it complimented the nutmeg quite nicely. I liked it equally both ways, however.

*****I decided not to use parsley; It seemed pointless.

The potatoes before boiling.

The butter. Nuff said.

The potatoes after boiling. You can see they’re just falling apart.

The potatoes having their little fry-up.

 

The completed dish.

  

Overall, I think this one went reasonably well, but if I were to do it again, I would have not overdone the potatoes, and added the lemon juice right away.

More coming next week! (Unless I’m sick or something.)

 

 

A few days ago, I cooked my first Victorian recipe: beef bouillon. Bouillon is usually served as more of an "appetizer" course, as opposed to a main. However, for a posh Victorian dinner, nine courses is not unheard of. Here's the recipe:

 

Put into a pot three pounds of shin beef, one pound of knuckle of veal*, and three quarts of water, and simmer gently. As soon as the scum begins to rise**, skim carefully until it ceases to appear. Then add salt, two carrots, the same of onions, turnips***, and a little celery†. Simmer gently four hours, strain, and serve in bouillon cups†† to each guest.

 

*I ended up using one pound of shin beef and three pounds of meaty beef soup bone, because the grocery store only had one pound of shin beef available, and they didn't have any "knuckle of veal", so I used meaty beef soup bone instead.

**I assumed this

 

was the "scum" they mentioned.

***I couldn't get turnips, so I used and equivalent amount of rutabaga

†I forgot to buy celery, so I used some alexanders from my backyard. They're basically celery's stronger tasting cousin, so I used less than called for.

††I don't have bouillon cups, so I used bowls.

 

The bouillon before cooking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before straining… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…after straining…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and in the bowl.

 

 

I think it turned out well, but overall was not worth the effort for something that's basically just flavoured water.

 

More recipes coming, hopefully soon!

 
 
 
 
 
 

Hello everyone! I am excited to start this project, and am starting to choose recipes at the moment. I thought I should probably do an introductory post, so I'm writing this. That's about all for now.