Have questions? Ask!
Have questions? Ask!
ABOUT CHARLOTTE
"A pudding made in a mould with sponge fingers or bread slices. There are two principal kinds:
baked and unbaked. The best-known baked charlotte is Apple charlotte...It seems clear that this
charlotte began life in Britain. The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] gives the earliest relevant
appearance of 'charlotte' in print as 1796, and at least one recipe for Apple charlotte was
published within ten years or so. The name may have been bestowed in honour of Queen
Charlotte (1744-1818), wife of George III, said to be a patron of apple growers...The principal
unbaked charlotte is Charlotte (a la) Russe. Here the mould is lined with sponge fingers. In some
fancy versions, these are omitted from the bottom, which is covered with a decorative
arrangement of glace fruit with a layer of jelly cementing it into a mosaic. The mould is filled up
with a rich cream filling containing gelatin, so that it sets and can be turned out...The history of
this item seems to have begin with the famous French chef Careme, at the beginning of the 19th
century, probably when he was working for the Prince Regent in England, and perhaps after he
had come across the British baked charlotte. In fact he called his invention Charlotte a la
parisienne; it is said to have acquired the name russe at a banquet in honour of Tsar Alexander I,
or because of the switch in France to service a la Russe. Claudine Brecourt-Villars...dates the
appearance of the term charlotte in a French recipe book to 1806..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
157)
"The charlotte is a hot pudding consisting of fruit, typically apple, baked within a case of bread,
sponge cake, etc., in a characteristically deep round mould. It first appears on the scene at the end
of the eighteenth century (in a poem called Hasty Pudding by J. Barlow: "The Charlotte
brown, within whose crusty sides a belly soft the pulpy apple hides'), wife of George III, who
apparently was an enthusiastic patron of apple growers. The coincidence of names is probably
fortuitous, but what is certain is that as early as the first decade of the nineteenth century recipes
for the dish had begun to appear; this from M.E. Rundell, A New System of Domestic
Cookery (1807): Cut as many very thin slices of white bread as will cover the bottom and
line the sides of the baking dish, but first rub it thick with butter. Put apples, in thin slices, into the
dish.'
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2003 (p.
66)
How were the first Charlottes made?
[1807]CHARLOTTE RUSSE
"A Charlotte," A New System of Cookery, Maria Rundell[1824]
"Charlotte.
Stew any kind of fruit, and season it in any way you like best; fry some soices of bread in butter, put them, while hot, in the bottom and round the sides of a dish which has been rubbed with butter, put in your fruit, and lay slices of bread on the top; bake it a few minutes, turn it carefully into another dish, sprinkle on some powdered sugar, and glaze it with a salamander."
---The Virginia House-wife, Mary Randolph, facsimile reprint of 1848 edition with Historical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 155)
"The apple charlotte has on the whole remained a British dish, but the charlotte has achieved
wider renown in the shape of the charlotte russe, literally Russian charlotte', a cold pudding in
which custard replaces the fruit. It was supposedly invented by the French chef Antonin Careme
in 1802, who, so the story goes, initially named it charlotte a la parisienne, but later changed it to
charlotte russe in honour of his employer, Czar Alexander of Russia."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2003 (p.
66)
"Charlotte russe. A French dessert (supposedly created by Marie-Antonin Careme) made in mold
with ladyfingers and Bavarian cream...While this confection is known and made in the United
States, a simple version consisting of a square of sponge cake topped with whipped cream
(sometimes with chocolate sprinkles) and a maraschino cherry was also called a "charlotte russe,"
a variation of which appeared in Lafcadio Hearn's La Cuisine Creole (1885). This was a
standard item in eastern cities, particularly among urban Jewish Americans (some of whom
pronounce the item "charely roose" or "charlotte roosh"), who made it at home or bought it at a
pastry shop, where it was set on a frilled cardboard holder whose center would be pushed up as to
reveal more cake as the whipped cream was consumed."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 64)
CHARLEY ROOSE/BROOKLYN NY
"Growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, you got a charlotte russe at the corner candy store where
everyone hung out until a certain age. They were seasonal, arrayed in a glass container on the
counter, regarded as a special treat. They were spongecake wrapped with stiff cardboard and
whipped cream on top. There were two kinds of bakeries--bakeries that did their own baking
pastries and cakes and commissioned bakeries that got their stuff from other bakeries...Norman
Podhoretz, editor of Commentary Magazine...Although charlotte russe was by no means
Jewish--it was popular a popular Victorian dessert--it became a winter fixture in city
neighborhoods."
---Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1998 (p. 322)
"The classic French dessert called charlotte russe is an elegant mold of ladyfingers, filled iwth
flavored Bavarian cream. But to old-time Brooklynites, a charlotte russe was a round of sponge
cake topped with sweetened whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and sometimes a marashcino
cherry, surrounded by a frilled cardboard holder with a round of cardboard on the bottom. As the
cream went down, you pushed the cardboard up from the bottom, so you could eat the
cake...these were Brooklyn ambrosia."
---The Brooklyn Cookbook, Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy, Jr. [Alfred A. Knopf:New
York] 1994 (p. 386)
[NOTE: this book contains memories and a recipe.]
A SAMPLER OF CHARLOTTE RUSSE RECIPES THROUGH TIME
[1845]
"A Charlotte a la Parisienne.
This dish is sometimes called in England a Vienna cake; and it is known here also, we believe, as a Gateaux de Bordeax. Cut horizontally into half-inch slices a savoy or sponge cake, and cover each slice with a different kind of preserve; replace them in their original form, and spread equally over the cake an icing made with whites of three eggs, and four ounces of the finest pounded sugar; sift more sugar over it in every part, and put it into a very gentle oven to dry. The eggs should be whisked to snow before they are used. One kind of preserve, instead of several, can be used for this dish; and a rice or a pound cake may supply the place of the Savoy or sponge biscuit."
---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, facsimile 1845 reprint with an introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 405-6)[1846]
"An Easy Receipt for a Charlotte Russe.
Trim straightly about six ounces of savoy biscuits, so that they may fit closely to each other; line the bottom and sides of a plain mould with them, then fill it with a fine cream made in the following manner: put into a stewpan three ounces of ratafias, six of sugar, the grated rind of half and orange, the same quantity of the rind of a lemon, a small piece of cinnamon, a wine-glass full of good maraschino, a fine noyeau, one pint of cream, and the well beaten yolks of six eggs; stir this mixture for a few minutes over a stove fire, and then strain it, and add half a pint more cream, whipped, and one ounce of dissolved insinglass. Mix the whole well together, and set it in a basin imbedded in rough ice; when it has reamied a short time in the ice fill the mould with it, and then place the mould in ice, or in a cool place, till ready to serve."
---The Jewish Manual or Practical Information in Jewish & Modern Cookery With a Collection of Valuable Recipes & Hints Relating to the Toilette, Edited by A Lady, facsimile of the first Jewish Cookbook in English published in 1846, introduction by Chaim Raphael [Nightingale Books:Cold Spring NY] 1983 (p. 189-190)[1869]
"Apricot Charlotte Russe.
Line a plain mould with some finger biscuits, and put it in the ice; Make 1 pint of Apricot Puree; put it in a basin, and add 3/4 lb. Of ounded sugar and 1 oz. of gelatine, previously dissolved in 1 gill of water; put the basin on the ice, and work the contents with a spoon until the puree begins to freeze; then add 1 quart of well-whipped cream; mix, and fill the mould with the apricot cream, and cover it with a bkaing-sheet with some ice on the top; let it remain in the ice for an hour; then turn the Charlotte out of the mould on to a napkin on a dish; and serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, tranlsated from the French and adapted for English use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] Second edition, 1869 (p. 542)
[NOTE: This book also includes recipes for Coffee Charlotte Russe and Burnt Almond Charlotte Russe.][1875?]
"Charlotte Russe.
Line a plain round mould with finger biscuits, carefully put them close together, and form a round or star at the bottom of the mould. Take a pint of cream and whisk it well with a little sugar and half an ounce of gelatine dissolved in a little water. Mix with it half a pint of apple, apricot, strawberry, or any other jam, and set it to freeze. Cover it with a piece of Savoy cake the shape of the mould, and be careful to fit it exactly, so that when it is turned out it will not be likely to break. Let it rmain in the ice until it is sufficiently frozen. Turn out and serve. If fruit is not at hand the cream may be flavoured with coffee, burnt almond, vanilla, &c. Time to freeze, about an hour. Probably cost, 4s. Sufficient for a quart mould."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co:London] (p. 116)[1885]
"Charlotte Russe in various ways.
There are many varieties of the Charlotte. They are always similarly made, that is with sponge cake or lady fingers, and whipped cream, custard of blancmange. One way is to beat the whites of three eggs to a high froth, with a quarter of a pound of sugar, and a half a pint of cream, until it is quite thick and light; flavor this to your taste with lemon or vanilla, and pour it into a cake-lined mould; place some of the sliced cake or lady fingers on top of the mould and over the cream; set it on ice, and when wanted turn it on a dish and serve. Or, having lined a basin or mould, or small tin cups with any convenient cake, such as lady fingers, sliced savoy cake, or yellow lady cake, fill them with mock cream, blanc-mange or custard, made from the yolks of eggs; let them become cold, then turn them out and serve.""Plain Charlotte Russe.
Boil one ounce of isinglass in a pint of water until reduced one-half. While it is boiling, make a custard of one-half pint of milk, yolks of four eggs, and one-fourth of a pound of sugar; flavor this with vanilla or lemon. Take a quart of cream, whip it up to a fine froth, and when the isinglass is nearly cold, so that it will not curdle wth cream, stir it and the cream into the custard. Beat all thoroughly and set it on ice. This is a nice, easy way to make this dish, and may be made very ornamental, if wanted so, by lining a glass dish with lady fingers, and then pouring in the cream and laying fine fancy sugar-drops on top. If you have no lady finger sponges, you can slice any light sponge cake, and lay it on the bottom and sides of the glass bowl."
---La Cuisine Creole, Lafcadio Hearn [F.F. Hansell & Bro:New Orleans] second edition 1885 (p. 166-7)[1896]
"Charlotte Russe
1/4 box gelatine or 1 1/4 tablespoons granulated gelatine.
1/4 cup cold water
1/3 cup scalded cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Whip form 3 1/2 cups thin cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
6 ladyfingers.
Soak gelatine in cold water, dissolve in scalded cream, strain into a bowl, and add sugar and vanilla. Set bowl in pan of ice water and stir constantly until it begins to thicken, then fold in whip from cream, adding one-third at a time. Should gelatine mixture become too thick, melt over hot water, and again cool before adding whip. Trim ends and sides of lady fingers, place around inside of a mould, crust side out, one-half inch apart. Turn in mixture, spread evenly, and chill. Serve on glass dish and garnish with cubes of Wine Jelly. Charlotte Russe is sometimes made in individual moulds; these are often garnished on top with some of mixture forced through a pastry bag and tube. Individual moulds are frequently lined with thin slices of sponge cake cut to fit moulds."
---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer, facsimile first edition 1896 [Weathervane Books:New York] 1973 (p. 359-60)[1929]
"Charlottes.
Whenever the word "Charlotte" appears, the presence of whipped cream is implied, together with sponge cake or lady fingers to form a case or lining. Sometimes the mould is lined with lady fingers or strips of sponge cake and the centre consists of a Bavarian cream. In this case, the charlotte may be made several hours before serving. But if it is the ordinary type of Charlotte Russe the dish cannot stand long unless the whipped cream is stiffened by the addition of a little gelatine...[recipes provided for Charlotte Russe filling with and without gelatine, as well as chocolate, grape juice and coffee flavorings]..."Plain Charlotte Russe. Line sherbet cups with strips of sponge cake or halved lady fingers, sticking them into a little of the charlotte mixture. Full with the charlotte mixture, putting it in by means of a pastry tube and bag, and top with halves of candied cherries, whole nut meats, or candied violets."
---Mrs. Allen on Cooking Menus Services, Ida C. Bailey Allen [Doubleday, Doran & Company:Garden City NY] 1929 (p. 601-2)
[NOTE: recipes for Icebox Cakes in this book are prefaced with a note indicating they are adaptations of charlotte.][1936]
"Charlotte Russe.
Line large mold or line individual paper cases with Lady Fingers or strips of Sponge Cake...Fill with Cream Pudding...or Bavarian Cream Pudding...and chill. Remove from molds and garnish with whipped cream, candied fruit and nuts."
---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander [Settlement Cook Book Co.:Milwaukee WI], twenty-first edition enlarged and revised 1939 (p. 373)[1955]
"Charlotte Russe:
Line sherbet glasses with ladyfingers. In each, place mound of sweetened whipped cream; top with maraschino cherry. Serve at once. Or refrigerate; then serve."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Dorothy B. Marsh editor [Good Housekeeping:New York] 1955 (p. 381)[1958]
"Charlotte Russe.
1/3 cup extra-fine sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whipping cream, whipped stiff
16 split lady fingers (16 halves)
Fold the sugar and vanillla lightly but thoroughly into the cream. Place 4 lady finger halves upright against the sides of each of 4 sherbet glasses. Fill with the cream mixture and chill. This amount serves 4.
Charlotte Russe for Passover: Use 20 strips of Passover Sponge Cake cut into 1 X 2 X 1/2 inch pieces, in place of the lady fingers, in either variation of Charlotte Russe.
Chocolate Charlotte Russe: Mix 2 tablespoons cold black coffee, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 4 ounces melted bittersweet chocolate. Fold into the cream in place of the extra-fine sugar. For Passover, the vanilla may be omitted.
Strawberry Charlotte Russe: Combine 1 pint of sliced fresh strawberries with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Fold into the whipped cream in place of the extra-fine sugar and vanilla."
---The Jewish Cook Boo, Mildred Grosberg Bellin [Tudor Publishing:New York] 1958-(p. 324)NOTE: The 20th century recipes cited above were selected to illustrate America's love for convenience. Recipes for classic' charlotte russe were also printed at this time.
Ancient fare? Not quite.
"Couscous is a North African staple as far east a Tripoli, and particularly in Morocco and Algeria,
where the
local name for it is sometimes identical to the word for food' in general. It is also widely known in
neighbouring African countries from Chad to Senegal and has footholds in
Europe...Syria-Palestine...and
somewhat surprisingly in Brazil, where it is made from maize...Algerian folklore has it that
cousous was
invented by the Djinn. Certainly its early history is obscure, but the evidence does not suggest that
it dates
from remote antiquity. In the 1940s, H. Peres published in the Bulletin des Etudes Arabs
a
compilation of the earliest literary mentions of couscous then known, and all were from the
fifteenth century
or later. The only citation that even claimed to be earlier was a fourteenth-century anecdote
related in the
seventeenth-century book Nafh al-Tib, which told how the mysterious illness of a North African
visitor to
Damascus was cured by making couscous for him. Since the forties we have become aware of
thirteenth-
and fourteenth-century Arabic cookery books which contain couscous recipes. But altogether, the
suspicious silence about couscous in sources from before the thirteenth century, coupled with the
evident
Berber origin of the Arabic word kishusu, suggest that couscous arose among the period between
the
eleventh-century collapse of the Zirid Kingdom and the trimumph of the Almohads in the
thirteenth. A
peculiaritiy of the way couscous is descrived in the thirteenth-century cookery books also argues
that it was
a relatively recent invention, if we see in it an explanation for how the unique process of creating
the
couscous granules originated...The simplest explanation for this that kuskusu was originally a
small noodle,
and the peculiar stirring technique a hasty was of making a noodle. Its unique lightness when
steamed, and
perhaps its resistance to staling, would have been discovered later."
---Medieval Arab Cookery, Maxime Rodinson, A. J. Arberry & Charles Perry [Prospect
Books:Devon]
2001 "Couscous and its Cousins," Charles Perry (p. 235-8)
"Couscous is a staple food in the Maghrib that requires very little in the way of utensils for its
preparation. It is an ideal food for both nomadic and agricultural peoples. The preparation of
couscous is one that symbolizes "happiness and abundance,"...One of the first written references
to couscous is in the anonymous thirteenth-century Hispano-Muslim cooker book "Kitab al-tabikh
fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus...The fact that the name is given with the Arabic article "al" is a flag to
the linguist that the original couscous perparation probably was not an Arab dish, but a Berber
dish, because the Arabic words siksu, kuskus, and kuski, which all mean "couscous" do not take
the article...very early references to couscous show that either it is not unique to the Maghrib or it
spread with great rapidity to the Mashraq (the eastern Arab world)...Although the word
couscous might derive from the Arabic word kaskasa, to pound small," it is generally thought to
derive from one of the Berber dialects. It has also been suggested that the word derives from the
Arabic name for the perforated earthenware steamer pot used to steam the couscous, called a
kiskis...while another theory attributes the word couscous to the onomatopoeic--the sound of the
steam rising in the coucousiere, the most unlikely explanation."
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [Morrow:New York] 1999 (p. 659-660)
"The stirring and rolling process by which the couscous granules are formed amounts, it has been
suggested, to a way of preserving grain. Couscous is traditionally made from freshly ground
whole grain, which is much better suited to the purpose than bolted flour, because starch readily
accumulates around the larger and harder particles of bran and germ, much as a pearl forms
around a
grain of sand. The resulting granule is in effect a grain turned inside out, with the part of the flour
that can
deteriorate protected from the air by an envelope of starch. It can thus be kept without spoiling
from months
or years...The wide spread of couscous has been influenced also by economic and aesthetic
reasons...Couscous has continued to spread beyond the S. And E. Mediterranean. At some point
it entered
Sicilian cuisine...Couscous is now a common dish in France and increasingly elsewhere in Europe
and N.
America..."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford]
1999 (p. 220)
Tunisian food /ArabNet
An
Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century, translated by Charles Perry
Most Americans associate cranberries with Thanksgiving. They are often classed as *New World* food. Not entirely true. Notes here:
"Cranberry...the most important of the berries bourne by a group of low, scrubby, woody plants of the genus Vaccinium. These
grow on moors and mountainsides, in bogs, andother places with poor and acid soil in most parts of the world, but are best
known in N. Europe and N. America...The generic name for Baccinium is the old Latin name from cranberry, derived from
vacco (cow) and given because cows like the plant...The origin of the name cranberry is obscure, apart from the dubious
suggestion that cranes eat the berries...The plants to which the name cranberry was originally given are two species which
occur in Europe as well as in other temperate parts of the world...When the Pilgrim Fathers arrived in N. America they found
a local cranberry, V. macrocarpon, which had berries twice the size of those familiar to Europeans, and an equally good
flavour. American Indians were accustomed to eating these fresh or dried, and adding the dried fruits as an ingredient in
Pemmican (a dried, preserved meat product)...It was no dobut these large American cranberries which, at an early stage
in the evolution of Thanksgiving Day dinner, were made into sauce to accompany the turkey, which became established as its
centrepiece."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 223)
"Cranberries grow in Britain, but in medieval times they went under a variety of names such as marsh-wort, fen-wort, and moss-berry. The
term cranberry did not appear until the late seventeenth century, in America. It was a partial translation of kranberry, literally
'craneberry,' brought across the Atlantic by German immigrants (the German word is an allusions to the plant's long
beaklike stamens). It was the Germans and Scandinavians, too, who probably popularized the notion of eating cranberries with meat
in the English-speaking world, which led to today's pairing of turkey with cranberry sauce."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 94)
"Cranberry...Of the same genus as the blueberry, the cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a North American shrub that is
so named because its flower stamens resemble a beak--hence named "crane berry," a name...assigned to it by the early
European settlers in New England. The berries, which grew wild in New England, had long been used by Native Aemricans for
pemmican (dried and fat). The early European settlers found cranberries too tart to eat by themselves but made them into
pies, puddings, tarts, relishes, preserves, and cranberry sauce. Perhaps appropriately, it was in Massachusetts that commercial
cranberry production was begun in the 1840s..."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000
Volume Two (p. 1764)
"Cranberry...The Native Americans of New England, who called them sassamensesh or ibimi, long enjoyed cranberries, both raw
or sweetened with maple sugar...The first European settlers found the fruit similar to their lingonberry, but somewhat too tart
unless sweetened or made into a condiment. There is no hard evidence that the Pilgrims ate cranberries at the First Thanksgiving,
held in October of 1621, but it is a fair assumption that the Native Americans might have brought them to the feast at a time when
the cranberries were at their ripest in that region. The name "cranberry" was not English,...the settlers probably called the
berries "fenberries," after a fruit they knew at home. years later the Dutch introduced the word kranbeer...Others referred
to them as "bounce berries," because of their bouncy quality."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 104-5)
""As American as cranberry pie" makes much mores sense than the usual saying. Cranberries, after all, are native to America, and pies
or tarts made from them appear in colonial records as early as 1672. Before the middle of the nineteenth century, when
they began to be shipped to cities and larger towns, cranberries, like most fresh produce, were a local item eaten in the places
where they grew wild--in parts of New England, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin."
--- Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History, from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie, Kathleen Curtin, Sandra L. Oliver, and
Plimoth Plantation [Clarkson Potter:New YOrk] 2005 (p. 184)
Cranberries in New Jersey, Massachusetts & Wisconsin.
Why do we eat cranberries with our Thanksgiving turkey?
Food historians tell us the practice of pairing of citrus fruits with fatty meat is thousands of years
old, likely originating in the Middle East. Examples are found in many cultures and cuisines. The
acid in the fruit cuts the fat in the meat, making the dish more enjoyable and digestible. Think:
pork & applesauce; goose & cherry sauce, fish & lemon, and duck a l'orange. In the case of lean meats such as
turkey and chicken, cranberries add flavor to what is generally considered a bland food.
A SURVEY OF EARLY AMERICAN CRANBERRY RECIPES
[1798] Cranberry tart,
American Cookery, Amelia Simmons
[1832] Cranberry pie &
Cranberry pudding,
Frugal Housewife, Lydia Maria Child
[1840] Cranberry sauce,
Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie
[1845] Cranberry jelly,
Housekeeper's Assistant, Ann Allen
[1869] Cranberry preserves,
Domestic Cookery, Eliza Ellicott Lea
[1885] Cranberry sauce,
La Cuisine Creole, Lafcadio Hearn
[1896] Cranberry sauce & Cranberry Jelly,
Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer
[1911] Cranberry mold,
Good Things To Eat, Rufus Estes
[1913] Frozen cranberry sauce,
Dishes and Beverages of the Old South, Martha MaCulloch-Williams
[1919] Cranberry sauce,
International Jewish Cookbook, Florence Kreisler Greenbaum
Recommended reading: The American Cranberry/Paul Eck
The history of curry is two-fold: curried-style foods, the Indian dish composed of spices, meat and rice AND curry powder, a combination of various spices used to flavor food. In India, the basic formula for 'curry powder' is called 'garam masala', though Indian cookbooks are quick to note there are many regional variations to this powder.
"Curry. From the tamil word kari' a term for black pepper, derives the Indo-Anglian curry, which
has come to symbolize Indian food for the westerner. The term originally denoted any spiced dish
that accompanied south Indian food, and was first so referred to, using the term caril', by
Correra as early as in AD 1502...Later the word cury was greatly widened in usage to include a
liquid broth, a thicker stewed preparation, or even a spiced dry dish, all of which appear in turn in
a south Indian meal, each with its own name."
---A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, K. T. Achaya [Oxford University Press:Delhi]
1998 (p. 58)
"Spices are the key to Indian cooking. Masalas vary widely and each is designed for a special
purpose. Garam masla, for example, is a basic blend of dried spices to be used alone or with
other seasonings."
---The Cooking of India, Foods of the World [series], Time/Life (p. 6).
"Curry is from the Tamil word "kari", meaning stew. Tamil is one of the most widely spoken
languages of the whole vast Indian subcontinent. An Indian curry is indeed made rather like a
stew. It may be of meat, fish, or vegetables, and herbs and spices are added; they are mixed
together and ground to a powder which itself eventually became known as "curry." Originally
every region and every family had its own secret [curry] formula. At the end of the nineteenth
century, however, ready-prepared curry powder could be found for sale in Indian towns.
Then, so the tale goes, an Englishman named Sharwood was dining with the Maharaja of
Madras, who mentioned to him the shop kept by a famous master maker of curry powder
called Vencatachellum. The Englishman visited it and obtained the secret of Madras curry
powder, a mixture of saffron, tumeric, cumin, Kerala coriander and a selection of Orissa
chillies..."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble:New York] 1992 (p.
498-9)
"Curry, a term adopted into the English language from India...The Tamil word "kari" is the
starting point. It means a spicy sauce, one of the sorts of dressing taken in S. India with rice,
and soupy consistency...The traditional S. Indian kari does not have a fixed set of ingredients,
by a typical mixture was and remains the following, all roasted and ground to a powder: kari
patta (curry leaf), coriander, cumin, and mustard seeds, red and black pepper, fenugreek,
tumeric; and less certainly cinnamon, cloves, cardamom."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford]
1999 (p. 235-6)
"Curry, a mixture of powdered spices. Some curry powders contain up to 16 different ground
spices. Curry was at one time an epicurean rite of English army circles in India, officers
priding themselves on the special combination of spices they had invented."
---Master Dictionary of Food and Cookery, Henry Smith [Practical Press:London] 1950
(p. 74)
The history of doughnuts is interesting and complicated. Even the story about the how the hole was invented is full of conflicting evidence. Although ancient Roman cooks were known to fry sweet breads in oil, food historians generally credit the invention of deep-fried yeast pastries (oly koeks) to the people of Northern Europe. Presumably during Medieval times.
"The history of the doughnut in America had begun by the first decade of the 19th century, when
Washington Irving wrote in a comical description of Dutch settlers in New Amersterdam (later
New York) that "The table ...was sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough,
fried in hog's fat, and called dough nuts, or oly koeks." The oly koeks were Dutch in name and
possibly German in origin. They were, as Irving said, just balls of dough; there was no hole. The
same was true of the many other doughnut-like confections which could be found all over Central
Europe, where they had a long-standing association whigh carnival, saint's days, and fesivals. It
must have been around the middle of the 19th century or soon afterwards that they acquired the
characteristic hole...Not all American doughnuts have the hole. They may be filled, e.g. with a
blob of jam; this produces the jelly doughnut', similar to the Berliner Pfaannkuchen of
Germany. Fillings have been quite common in parts of Europe, e.g. an apple filling in Denmark.
The usual mixture for an American doughnut is a combination of four, eggs, and milk, raised by
baking powder or by bicarbonate of soda activated by sour milk. The formula echoes many used
in Europe in a broad region stretching from the Ukraine...through Germany...and into the
Netherlands...and Denmark....The frontier between doughnut and fritter is often indistinct.."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
254-5)
"Doughnuts are deep-fried cakes with a long European history and roots in still earlier Middle
Eastern cuisine. They were introduced to America by the Dutch in New Newtherland as
oliekoecken (oil cakes or fried cakes)...The were eaten during the Dutch Christmas season...and
for special occasions throughout the year. Once in the New World, the Dutch replaced their frying
oil with the preferred lard (far more available here), as it produced a tender and greaseless crust.
The other ethnic groups brought their own doughnut variations. The Pennsylvania Dutch and the
Moravians who settled in North Carolina made fastnachts on Shrove Tuesday, and the French
established beignets in New Orleans. Ultimately, the English American cooks adopted them as
well. By 1845 doughtnuts appeared in American Cookbooks as staples, and the weekly Saturday
baking (breads, cakes, and pies) included doughtnut frying. In this same antebellum period, two
changes in technology contributed to a basic alteration of the doughnut. Chemical leavening
(notably baking powder) was substituted for yeast, producing a more cakelike and less breadlike
product. In the same era inexpensive tin doughnut cutters with holes were manufactured
commercially and sold widely."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford
University Press:New York] 2004 (p. 408)
Who's responsible creating the doughnut hole?
Lots of theory but very little documentation. In sum? An excellent lesson in foodlore.
"The first American doughnuts did not have holes at all; they were quite literally little "nuts" of
dough. The Pilgrims, who had spent the years 1607-1620 in Holland, learned to make doughnuts
there and brought them to New England; the most direct antecedent of the pastry seems to be of
German origin, and these doughnuts came in all shapes and sizes. The first mention of the term in
print was in Washington Irving's History of New York...[1809]...
The Pennsylvania Dutch were probably the first to make doughnuts with holes in their centers,
a perfect shape for "dunking"...in coffee, which has become a standard method of eating
doughtnuts for Americans. There seems little real evidence to support the story of a Rockport,
Maine, sea captain named Hanson Crockett Gregory, who claimed to have poked out the soggy
centers of his wife's doughnuts in 1847 so that he might slip them over the spokes of his ship's
wheel, thereby being able to nibble while keeping an even keel. Nevertheless, in 1947, a centenary
plaque commemorating Gregory's alleged culinary creation was placed on the house where he had
lived. By the middle of the nineteenth century the hole must have been widely accepted, and a
housewares catalog of 1870 shows a doughnut cutter including a corer, as does the 1897 Sears,
Roebuck Catalog...By the twentieth century doughnuts, dusted with powdered sugar or
cinnamon, iced, or stuffed with jelly...or cream...had become an American favorite..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 114-5)
[NOTE: We have a copy of an article from the [Boston] Times dated Saturday Evening, January 30, 1808, containing
this phrase "...then the company sat round the large round table to their tea, while a plentiful supply of fire-cakes and dough-nuts
furnished out the repast..." "Sketches and Views, No. V. (Volume 1, No. 8, page 1)
Probable source of above information
"The man who invented the hole in the doughnut has been found. He is Capt. Hanson Gregory, at present
an inmate in Sailor's Snug Harbor, at Quincy, Mass. Doughnut cutters have made fortunes for men; millions eat doughnuts for breakfast and feel satisfied. Doctors
do not assail the doughnut. And all of this owes its being to Capt. Gregory, who made the doughnut a safe, sane and hygienic food. It's a long story, mates; but as
the 85-year-old chap relates it, it's only too short. Outside the fact that Capt. Gregory is a bit hard of hearing, he's as sound as new timber. He's a product of
Maine; and so Maine can lay claim to the discoverer of the hole in the doughnut, along with the discoverer of new ways to evade the prohibition laws. But Capt.
Gregory's discovery is of real use in the world; millions have risen, and millions more shall rise up, and call him blessed. _'Bout '47 Was the Date._ "It was way
back--oh, I don't know just what year--let me see--born in '31, shipped when I was 13--well, I guess it was about '47, when I was 16, that I was aboard ship
and discovered the hole which was later to revolutionize the doughnut industry. "I first shipped aboard the Isaac Achorn, three-masted schooner, Capt. Rhodes, in
the lime trade. Later I joined other crews and other captains, and it was on one of these cruises that I was mawing doughnuts. "Now in them days we used to cut
the doughnuts into diamond shapes, and also into long strips, bent in half, and then twisted. I don't think we called them doughnuts then--they was just 'fried cakes'
and 'twisters.' "Well, sir, they used to fry all right around the edges, but when you had the edges done the insides was all raw dough. And the twisters used to sop
up all the grease just where they bent, and they were tough on the digestion." "Pretty d--d tough, too!" profanely agreed one of the dozen pipe-smoking fellows
who were all eyes and ears, taking in their comrade's interview by The Post reporter. With a glance at the perfervid interrupter, the discoverer continued: "Well,
I says to myself, 'Why wouldn't a space inside solve the difficulty?' I thought at first I'd take one of the strips (Col. 2--ed.) and roll it around, then I got an
inspiration, a great inspiration. "I took the cover off the ship's tin pepper box, and--I cut into the middle of that doughnut the first hole ever seen by mortal eyes!"
"Were you pleased?" "Was Columbus pleased? Well, sir, them doughnuts was the finest I ever tasted. No more indigestion--no more greasy sinkers--but just
well-done, fried-through doughnuts. "That cruise over, I went home to my old mother and father in Camden, Me., where I was born. My father, Hanson
Gregory, sr., lived to be 93, and my mother lived to be 79. She was a pretty old lady then. I saw her making doughnuts in the kitchen--I can see her now, and as
fine a woman as ever-lived, was my mother. _Taught Trick to Mother._ "I says to her: 'Let me make some doughnuts for you.' She says all right, so I made her
one or two and then showed her how. "She then made several panfuls and sent them down to Rockland, just outside Camden. Everybody was delighted and they
never made doughnuts any other way except the way I showed my mother. "Well, I never took out a patent on it; I don't suppose any one can patent anything he
discovers; I don't suppose Peary could patent the north pole or Columbus patent America. But I thought I'd get out a doughnut cutter--but somebody got in ahead
of me. _Hole "Cut Out," His Joke._ "Of course a hole ain't so much; but it's the best part of the doughnut--you'd think so if you had ever tasted the doughnuts we
used to eat in '31. Of course, lots of people joke about the hole in the doughnut. I've got a joke myself: Whenever anybody says to me: 'Where's the hole in the
doughnut?' I always answer: 'It's been cut out!'" and the old chap laughed loud and longat his little sally, while the rest joined in. So there he sits--in the Snug Harbor
by the sea. And whenever there's doughnuts on the day's fare, Capt. Gregory takes a personal pride trying to do what nobody's succeeded in doing yet--in trying
to find the hole in the doughnut. And whenever the old salts rally him about it, he always springs his little joke: "The hole's been cut out, I guess!" to the delight of
the whole shipful."
---"'OLD SALT' DOUGHNUT HOLE INVENTOR TELLS JUST HOW DISCOVERY WAS MADE AND STOMACH OF EARTHS SAVED,"
The Washington Post Mar 26, 1916; ES9;
Why are they called "doughnuts?"
"The word [doughnut] is presumably an allusion to the small, rounded shape of the original
doughnuts; the element -nut is used similarly in gingernut and its now obsolete sysnonym
spicenut."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p.
113)
The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) traces the first print instance of the word doughnut to 1809. Contemporary spelling variations (donut, etc.) are typically generated by marketing firms and business owners.
Olie-koekan recipes
If you would like to see old recipes for olie-koeken ask your librarian to help you find this book:
The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and New World, tranlated and Edited by
Peter G. Rose. This recently published book reproduces De Vertandige Kock, a Dutch coobook
from 1669. This book also has some recipes that have been updated for modern kitchens.
The original edition of this book has recently been uploaded to the Web, in Dutch:
"To fry Olie-koeken"A SURVEY OF DOUGHNUT RECIPES IN AMERICAN COOKBOOKS
119 Om oliekoecken te backen Neemt tot 2 pont tarwemeel 2 pont lange rosijnen (als die schoongewassen zijn, laetse in lauw water wat staen zwellen), een kop van de beste appelen (schilt die en snijtse in heel kleyne stucxkens, de klockhuysen wel uytgedaen), een vierendeel of anderhalf gepelde amandelen, een loot caneel, een vierendeel loots witte gember, een weynigh nagelen (dit wel ondereengestoten), een half kommeken gesmolten boter, een groote lepel gist en niet wel een pintje lauwe soetemelck, want het moet heel dick beslagen zijn, dat het beslagh noch tay om de lepel blijft. En dan alle het andere daerin geroert en soo laten rijsen. Neemt daertoe een mengelen van de beste raepolie, doet daerin een korst broot, een halve appel. Settet op het vuur en laet het uytbranden. Keert het broot en appel altemet om tot het zwart en hart wort. Giet er dan een schootjen schoon water in en laet het dan in de lucht kout worden, en daernaer weder op 't vuur geset, als ghy die wilt gebruyken.
De Vertandige KockEnglish translation here:
"For 2 poond of Wheat-flour take 2 poond long Raisins, when they have been washed clean soak them in lukewarm water, a cup of the best Apples, peel them and cut them in very smallpieces without the cores, a quarter poond or one and a half [quarter poond: 6 ounces] peeled Almonds, a loot Cinnamon, a quarter loot white Ginger, a few Cloves this crushed together, half a small bowl of melted Butter, a large spoon Yeast, and not quiet a pint of lukewarm sweet Milk, because it must be a thick batter [so thick] that the batter is tough when spooned and then everything stirred together. Let it rise then take a mengelen of the best Rapseed [Colza] oil, add a crust of Bread, a half Apple. Place it on the fire and let it burn, keep turning the bread and the Apple until it blackens and hardens, then pour in a dash of clean water, let it cool in the air, then put it back on the fire when you want to use it."
--- The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and the New World, Translated and Edited by Peter G. Rose [Syracuse University Press:New York] 1989 (p. 78)
[NOTE: a Loot is about 14 grams]"Olie-koeken, in New Netherland usage variously spelled as olicook, or olykoecks: one of the forerunners of the doughnut. A ball of dough prepared from flour, milk, and yeast, with or without sweetener and various fillings and deep fried in hot oil (for which they get their name), or lard."
---The Sensible Cook (p. 126)
[1828]
"Dough Nuts
Three pounds sifted flour.
A pound of powdered sugar.
Three quarters of a pound of butter.
Four eggs.
Half a large tea-cup full of best brewer's yeast.
A pint and a half of milk.
A tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon.
A grated nutmeg.
A table-spoonful of rose-water.
Cut up the butter in the flour. Add the sugar, spice, and rose-water. Beat the eggs very light, and pour them into the mixture. Add the yeast, (half a ttea-cup, or two wine-glasses full,) and then stir in the milk by degrees, so as to make it a soft dough. Cover it, and set it to rise. When quite light, cut it in diamonds wiht a jagging-iron, or a sharp knife, and fry them in lard. Grate loaf sugar over them when done."
---Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats By A Lady of Philadelphia (Eliza Leslie), facsimile reprint of 1828 Munrow and Francis:Boston edition [Applewood Books:Chester CT] (p. 70)[1847]
"To Make Doughnuts
Take of risen wheatbread dough the size of a quart bowl; work into it a teacup of butter, two teacups of clean brown sugar, rolled fine, half a nutmeg, greated, a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, and two eggs; work it into a smooth paste; strew some flour over a paste table and rolling-pin; put on some of the paste, and roll it to a quarter of an inch thickness; rub and roll it to a quarter of an inch thickness; rub more flour over the rolling-pin, if the paste sticks; cut it in small squares, stars, or diamonds; fry in hot fat."
---Mrs. Crowen's American Lady's Cookery Book, Mrs. T. J. Crowen [Dick & Fitzgerald:New York] 1847 (p. 286)"To Fry Doughnuts and Crullers.--Have a small iron or porcelain kettle; put into it a pound of lard, set it over a gentle fire; when it is boiling hot, drop a bit of the dough in to try it; if the fat is not hot enough, the cakes will absorb it, and thereby be rendered unfit for eating; if too hot, it will make them dark brown outside before the inside is cooked: boiling hot is about the heat the fat should be; if it is at a right heat, the dough nuts will in about ten minutes be of a delicate brown outside, and nicely cooked inside: five or siz minutes will cook a cruller; try the fat, by dropping a bit of the dough in; if it is right, the fat will boil up when it is put in: keep the kettle in motion all the time the cakes are in, that they may boil evenly: when the cakes are a fine color, take them out with a skimmer on to an inverted sieve."
---ibid (p. 286)"Doughnuts, without Yeast--Half a pound of butter, a pint of sour milk or buttermilk, three quarters of a pound of sugar, a small teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in a little hot water, two well-beaten eggs, and as much flour as will make a smooth dough; flavor with half a teaspoonful of lemon extract, and half a nutmeg, grated; rub a little flour over a paste-board or table, roll the dough to a quarter of an inch thickness; cut them in squares, or diamonds, or round cakes, and fry in boiling lard as directed. These cakes may be made in rings, and fried."
---ibid (p. 287)[1849]
"Dough Nuts
Take two deep dishes, and sift three quarters of a pound of flour into each. Make a hole in the centre of one of them, and pour a wine glass of the best brewer's yeast; mix the flour gradually into it, wetting it with lukewarm milk; cover it, and set it by the fire to rise for about two hours. This is setting a sponge. In the mean time, cut up five ounces of butter into the other dish of flour, and rub it fine with your hands; add half a pound of powdered sugar, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, a grated nutmeg, a table-spoonful of rose water, and a half a pint of milk. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them hard into the mixture. Then when the sponge is pergectly light, add it to the other ingredients, mixing them all thoroughly with a knife. Cover it, and set it again by the fire for another hour. When it is quite light, flour your paste-board, turn out the lump of dough, and cut it into thick diamond shaped cakes with a jagging iron. If you find the dough so soft as to be unmanageable, mix in a little more flour; but not else. Have ready a skillet of boiling lard; put the dough-nuts into it, and fry them brown; and then cool grate loaf-sugar over them. They should be eaten quite fresh, as next day they will be tough and heavy; therefore it is best to make no more than you want for immediate use.. The New York Oley Koeks are dough-nuts with currants and raisins in them"
--- Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches, Miss [Eliza] Leslie [Carey & Hart:Philadelphia] 1849 (p. 358-9)[1877]
"Albert's Favorite Doughnuts.
One pint sour milk, one cup sugar, tw eggs, one tea-spoon soda, half cup lard, nutmeg to flavor; mix to a moderately stiff dough, roll to half inch in thickness, cut in rings or twists, drop into boiling lard, and fry to a light brown.--Mrs. A.F. Ziegler."Doughnuts. One egg, a cup rich milk, a cup sugar, flour enough to roll out, three tea-spoons baking-powder.--Mrs Jenks, Bellfontaine.
"Raised Doughnuts.
Warm together one pint milk and one small tea-sup lard, and add one cup yeast; stirr in flour to make a batter, let rise over night; add four eggs, two and a half cups sugar, two tea-spoons cassia, half tea-spoon soda, and a tea-spoon salt; knead and let rise again; roll, cut out, and let rise fifteen minutes before frying."
---Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, facsimile reprint of 1877 edition printed by the Buckeye Publishing Company:Minnealpolis MN, [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] (p. 77)[1884]
Doughnut recipes, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D.A. Lincoln (page through for crullers & fritters)
History of some popular American doughnuts
Doughnut Day, Salvation Army [1917]
Krispy Kreme [1937]
Dunkin
Donuts [1950]
ABOUT FRITTERS
Fritters (aka frytors, frytos) are deep-fried batters containing sweet (fruit & nuts) or savory
(cheese, fish, vegetables) fillings. Like doughnuts, pancakes, and waffles, they are often associated
with Northern European cooks and connected with Christian feast days. About deep frying.
"Fritter. The English word for a small portion of deep-fried batter, usually but not always
containing a piece of fruit, meat, fish or vegetable. Fritters are generally eaten immediately after
cooking, as, like all deep-fried foods, they taste best hot and fresh...Fritters are often sold at fairs,
freshly cooked a special stalls. In several countries they are made as part of the carnival binge of
rich foods, eaten before the fast of Lent begins...The Roman scriblita, described by Cato in the
2nd Century BC, was probably a precursor of both fritters and doughnuts. Lumps of moist dough
(leavened with sourdough) were spooned into hot fat, and allowed to stream in random shapes.
Medieval cryspeys were described in the Harlean MS of 1430; a liquid yeast batter using the
whites of eggs only was run down the cook's fingers so that five narrow streams entered the hot
oil, where they set into a tangle. They were served sprinkled with sugar...Medieval batters for
sweet fritters, like those for pancakes, contained wine or ale, sometimes cream, and more eggs
than are usual today. Choux paste mixtures were in use for making fritters in France by the end of
the 16th century...in the 18th century [fritters] were piped with a forcing bag. This shape survives
in the old French bugne and the American cruller.""
"Fritters are portions of food--fruit, vegetables, seafood--coated in batter and deep-fried. The
name reflects the method of cooking; it was borrowed in the fourteenth century from Old French
friture, which came ultimately from Latin frigere, fry'. The cooking method itself is said to have
been introduced from the Middle East by Crusaders returning to Wester Europe...The Japanese
equivalent to fritters is tempura."
"Egg-batter fritters containing meat, fish or fruit were fried in lard or oil. Apple fritters, strewn
with sugar when it was available, were prehaps the best loved, but fritters of skirrets or parsnips
were well liked too, because of their natural sweetness. The physicians condemned fritters as
indigestible, but they remained irresistable to the layman and appeared regularly in medieval
menus, usually as part of the last course. John Russell observed that "apple fritter is good hot, but
the cold ye [should] not touch." Herb fritters, the batter aerated with a little yeast, and "fritters of
milk" were made from curds and egg whites were two other popular versions."
"Bugne
Karen Hess makes this connection between fritters and french fries:
Fritter recipes through time:
ABOUT FUNNEL CAKES
Food historians frequently remind us that recipes often predate their current "popular" names.
Such is the case with funnel cakes. Modern dictionaries and food references generally place
"funnel cakes" in the 20th century. Culinary evidence confirms the recipe is much older.
The oldest authentic German recipe we have for an item that would create what we now call
"funnel cakes" is from 1879. The original cookbook is in German. Gisela Harpell, one of our
colleagues at the Morris County Library, was kind enough to offer this translation:
Recipe: p.468. #248 "Pressed Pastry cooked in melted Butter"
#246, p466-467 listed detailed instructions for baking in butter, lard and oil.
[TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: This is a more literal translation because I wanted to keep some of
the flavor of the original. The title page also mentions that this cookbook is designed for
beginning cooks and new housewives. The author also states that the recipes are reliable and
have been tested by Henriette Davidis. She also includes instructions for entertaining and
menues for the various seasons.]
Related foods? bunuelos & churros, doughnuts, pancakes, waffles, sopaipillas
& fry bread
Dumplings are an ancient food, known to cooks in many cultures and cuisines. The ingredients
(grain, meat, vegetable, fruit), serving customs (with gravy, in soup, as dessert), and cooking
methods (steamed, fried, boiled) vary according to cultural taste. Ancient Roman isicium, Czech knedliky,
Hungarian tesztak, Jewish matzo balls, Russian pel'meni, Chinese wontons
and Italian ravioli & gnocchi are all variations along the same culinary theme.
"Dumpling. A term of uncertain origin which first appeared in print at the beginning of the 17th
century, athough the object it denotes--a small and usually globular mass of boiled or steamed
dough--no doubt existed long before that. A dumpling is a food with few, indeed no, social
pretentions, and of such simplicity that it may plausibly be supposed to have evoloved
independently in the peasant cuisines of various parts of Europe and probably in other parts of the
world too. Such cuisines feature soups and stews, in which vegetables may be enhanced by a little
meat. Dumplings, added to the soup or stew, are still, as they were centuries ago, a simple and
economical way of extending such dishes. The dough for most dumplings has always been based
either on cereal, whichever was the staple in a given region (oats, wheat, maize, etc.), or on one
of vegetables from which bread dough can be made...(potato, pulses, etc.)...However, despite its
simplicity, the humble dumpling, or anyway the range of foods to which the name is applied, has
evolved in the course of time from the prototypes into something more complex. A first step was
provided by the filled dumpling, in which the dough encloses something else, for example apple in
an apple dumpling, and a sour Zwetschke cooking plum (its stone replaced by a lump of sugar) in
the Austrian and Czech Zwetschkenknodel...[in] Europe, it would be fair to say that dumplings
are almost ubiquitous in that continent, but by no means of equal importance in the various
countries. They are more popular in colder climates...there are three regions in which they have
flourished most: England...the much larger area of C. Europe (including Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia)...and the specialized
habitat provided by Italy for gnocchi."
"Dumpling. A ball of dough, originally savoury and served as an accompaniment to meat or as a
dessert...A simple, satisfying food, dumplings were boiled and served to extend small amounts of
meat. Originally made by shaping small portions from a batch of bread dough before specific
mixtures were developed using flour, cereals, pulses, stale bread, potatoes or cheese, sometimes
with a raising agent added or enriched with fat in the form of suet, were developed. Local
ingredients and method are used across Europe to make a variety of large or small dumplings,
plain or flavoured with herbs, vegetables, spices or other ingredients...Dumplings are closely
related to pasta. Italian gnocchi are good examples of small dumplings usually grouped with pasta
and the spatzle of German and Austria, made from batter simmered until set in finger noodles,
also hover between the two descriptions. Polish plain or filled dumplings are also very similar to
gnocchi or filled pasta...The name dumpling is also used for Oriental specialties, such as the small
filled dumplings of Chinese cookery, related more closely to pasta than European-style
dumplings."
ANCIENT ROMAN DUMPLINGS
Apicius offers three dumpling recipes in his famous text. The are:
[49] Dumplings and Hydrogarym [Hydrogarata Isicia]
[52] Plain Dumplings with Broth [Isicium Simplex]
CENTRAL EUROPEAN DUMPLINGS
"In the region of Bavaria...Austria and Bohemia...the common material of dumplings is stale bread. This is broken into small
pieces and soaked in water or milk, and combined with any available enriching ingredients: bacon, eggs, cheese, chopped liver, or herbs.
There are several sweet types stuffed with fruit...Another kind is the Nockerl, made from a softer dough of flour with butter,
milk and egg (or leftover noodle dough...) Because the dough is soft, it is not rolled into balls to make the dumplings; small
pieces are picked off with the fingers and throw into the boiling water...Another related dumpling, made in a similar manner,,
is the Spatzle...most common in the Alsace and S. Germany...The Dampfnudel ('steamed noodle') is...a medium-sized German dumpling
made of yeast dough, cooked in a shallow bath of milk in a tightly lidded pan...Potato dumpling tupes are exemplified by
Kartoffelkloss...Other potato dumplings include the Russian Pampuska..."
Gnocchi
Gnocchi is a classic example of what happened when "New World" foods met "Old World"
recipes. It took a century or two, but eventually most European countries and cuisines embraced
the potato and made it their own. Early potato recipes were not new inventions, they were new
twists on familiar traditions. Gnocchi were inspired by dumplings.
"We don't know when the potato was introduced to Italy. It seems likely to have arrived via
Spain sometime between 1569 and 1588, when it is clearly described in a document as fodder for
pigs. Gnocchi, before the introduction of the potato, referred to little balls of flour or bread or
both that were boiled. The earliest of these recipes that I am aware of is the nochi of the
anonymous early fifteenth-century cookbook by the writer known as Anonimo Meridianale. But
even by 1692, when Antonio Latini published his Lo scallo alla moderna, gnocchi were still
made of flour and considered a kind of macaroni. In Genoa gnocchi are today called trofie, but
were originally a form of pasta secca in the Middle Ages, made from hard wheat flour and not
potatoes. Eventually the potato was used for making gnocchi and the result was heavenly."
"Gnocchi, essentially a kind of dumpling, are distinguished from other dumplings by being
Italian and having a close link with pasta. The are made either from a pasta dough or from a
mixture of potato flour and wheat flour, or from semolina or maize (polenta)...The origin of
gnocchi is inescapably tied up with that of pasta, partly because at first a simliar mixture was used
to make both, and partly because many old works called both 'm'caroni'. (The confusion persists
in modern Padua). It has been suggested that the macaroni method mentioned in the Decameron
(1351) as being rolled down a mountain of grated Parmesan by the inhabitants of the mythical
land of Bengodi were actually gnocchi or they would not have rolled. The original four and water
mixture for gnocchi is still used in some parts of Italy, but mostly they are now made of potato
flour with a little wheat flour. This usage dates only from about 1860, but the curious Manutan
gnocchi made from pumpkin are two or three centuries older than that."
"Although some authorities believe gnocchi may have originated in Piedmont, potato recipes
were far more popular in Liguria by the early 19th century, and there is a recipe for an elaborate
form of potato gnocchi containing veal fat and hard-boiled eggs in the fifth edition of Vincenzo
Corrado's Il Cuoco galante (1801)...Gnocchi is also the name of a small, rippled dried pasta
shell. The name gnocchi may derive from the Latin 'nucleus'..., though some authorites believe it
may derive from the Middle High German 'knochel' (knuckle.)
"Gnocchi is the plural of gnoccho, which is an alteration of nocchio, 'knot in wood, lump',
perhaps of Germanic origin. The dish is first mentioned in an English cookery book in 1891, in
A.B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes."
The French connection
"Gnocchi. Small dumplings made of flour...or choux pastry. They are usually poached, then they
may be cooked au gratin in the oven and served as a hot entree. This dish is Italian in origin (the
word means lumps') and is classified with pasta, but it is also found in Austro-Hungarian and
Alsatian cookery in the form of knepfle, knodel, noques, or quenelles, which are all quite
familiar. Italian gnocci all Romana are made with semolina, egg and cheese' gnocci a la
parisienne are prepared from choux pastry with milk and cheese; and gnocchi a la piemontaise or
a l'alsacienne are made with potato puree, eggs and flour."
Escoffier (Le Guide Culinaire, 1903) contains four recipes for gnocchi: Gnocchi au Gratin,
Gnocchi a la Romaine, Gnocchi de Pommes de Terres, Noques au Parmesan. If you need these
recipes let us know.
Polish gnocchi?
Knedliky (Czech and Slovak dumplings)
"Czech dumplings a (knedliky) are unforgettable. The huge loaf-sized ones, which are served in
slices with stews, are one of the first things which a visitor notices...tiny liver dumplings...are
traditionally served in soup by the bride to her new husband...[also popular are] ham dumplings,
cheese/curd dumplings, sweet fruit dumplings, and many others."
[Polish]"'Little ear' Soup Dumplings (uszka)...The mushroom filled of these dainty little dumplings are the classic
accompaniment to the clear beetroot barszcz served on Christmas Eve."
"Dumplings (Tesztak). A friend visiting Hungary recently wrote to me that he had always thought that dumplings were used to repel
the Turks in the Battle of Buda, but after sampling them he was sure that even a fool would not have thrown such admirable
food. There is such a vast selection of dumpling recipes...The Hungarian housewife uses dumplings for many occasions: as luncheon
dishes, as desserts, as part of a dinner, even as a snack. And of course some are sued as soup garnishes...Flour, wheat, rye and
all other types of cereal are truly the staff of life in Hungary. Hungarians used these grains to develop the dumpling family to
bewildering variety...Here are some of the basic varieties: Galuska...Gomboc...Kasa"
JEWISH MATZO BALLS
About matzo
"Matzo. A word which has now entered the English language from the Hebrew matzah."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 484)
"Unleavened cakes of bread, azymi, symbolizing purity, were eaten...on solemn occasions, and constituted
the ritual offering. Cooked at home on the hearth, in the embers, on a griddle, or on a stone or tile covered
with an earthenware bell, the thick pancake would swell to a certain extent, but assumed no definate shape,
and perhaps looked all the more artistic a creation for that. This kind of bread was maza."
"A classic Passover dish that has undergone a metamorphosis in this country is the
venerable matzah ball. In the early nineteen hundreds, before commercial matza meal was
available, these matzah dumplings were made with soaked or ground-up matzah, onions,
eggs, chicken fat, and spices. They were also called "klose," "Kneidel," "kleis," or
"kneidlach." Florence Kresiler Greenbaum in her Jewish Cook Nook in the twenties
includes and early recipe for what she called "matsah meal kleis." Soon after, the B.
Manishewitz Company, in its Tempting Kosher Dishes Cookbook of 1930, called them
"feather balls, Alsatian style," a matzah ball made from processed matzah meal with one
whole cup of chicken fat (!). The term "matza balls rose to prominence in the 1930s--accompanied by all the Jewish mother jokes. The matza business was started by families
like Goodman, Manischewitz, and Horowitz, all baked by Manischewitz today...The
publication of Passover reicpes almost kept pace with the volumen of matzah production.
Recipes were printed in company-sponsored cookbooks...and...on the backs of matzah
packages. Other recipe evolved naturally as Jews adapted local dishes for Passover use."
Compare these 19th & 20th century Matso ball soup recipes:
Matzoth Meal Kleis, International Jewish Cookbook/Florence Kreisler Greenbaum [1919]
RUSSIAN DUMPLINGS
"Almost every national cuisine boasts its own version of boiled dumplings wrapped around pockets of seasoned meat...
Pel'meni are the Siberian version, now popular throughout the Soviet Union. Moscow alone has several pel'menyanas, cafes
specializing in these dumplings. Pel'meni are pratical for the harsh Siberian winter. Prepared in large quantities, they can be
buried in the snow where they keep for months on end, ready to boil up at a moment's notice. Siberians swear by a mustard and
vinegar sauce for pel'meni: place a spoonful of hot mustard on the edge of each plate and mix it with concentrated vinegar to
taste. Muscovites prefer a milder garnish, slathering butter and soured cream on the dumplings in lavish amounts. Pel'meni are most
often served steaming hot, mounded high on a platter, but they may also be boiled in chicken broth and eaten with soup."
"Pel'meni are filled with dumplings made of noodle dough, similar to ravioli. A Siberian contribution to Russian cuisine,
they are of Mongolian origin. In Siberia...the filling is made of young horsemeat, which is frozen, cut into shavings, and seasoned
with onion, salt, and pepper. Small squares of noodle dough are filled, sealed, and then frozen in sacks for the whole winter, to
be cooked as needed. Nowadays, in European Russia, uncooked ground beef is used instead of horsemeat, and mushroom-filled pelmeni
are an accepted variation. Pel'meni are served in several ways: they can be cooked in stock or consomme and served in a bowl
with some of the soup. As a delicious main course for lunch or dinner, they can be served drenched in butter or Siberian-style...
sprinkled with vinegar and spiced with freshly ground pepper. In late nineteenth-century France, where Russian food had already
made a considerable impact on haute cuisine, pel'meni began to appear on restaurant menus, and, contrary to Russian custom, Escoffier
included them in his Guide Culinaire as a hot hors d'oeuvre. In Moscow, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century,
the best restaurant to eat pel'meni was Lopashov's, one of the oldest taverns in town...Lopashov's was the showcase of authentic
Russian cuisine, and the most distinguised foreign visitors were invited there for intimate dinners in the izba...Lopashov was as
much a perfectionist in shaping his menu as in furnishing his establishment. To offer genuine Siberian pel'meni, he brought the
best-known pel'meni chef from Siberia, and pel'meni connoisseiurs were his most devoted fans. When, in the 1880s, the owners of the
most important Siberian gold mines had an exhibit in Moscow, their dinner at Lopahsov's Tavern made the front pages of the
Moscow newspapers. In memory of the conqueror of Siberia, cossack chieftain Yermak, the dinner was named "A Feast in Yermak's
Field Camp." It consisted of two courses only: zakuski (hors d'oeuvre) and pel'meni. For the twelve participants, 2,500 pel'meni were
cooked. There were meat pel'meni and fish pel'meni, and, as an innovation, fruit pel'meni in rose champagne glasses were
introduced as a dessert."
ASIAN DUMPLINGS
"These are different from European ones. Indeed what English-speakers in the Orient call dumplings are more like what would be called
filled pasta in Europe. The Chinese type of dumpling...bears close resemblance to ravioli. Chinese records of dumplings go back at
least as far as te Sung dynasty (AD 960-1279), when they were described as being sold..from stall much in the way that snacks
are in modern China. Mantou are among the best-known Chinese manifestations of the genre, but probably originated in C. Asia
rather than China. Whatever the truth may be about their ultimate origin, this type of oriental filled 'dumpling' has spread westwards;
it is met in Tibet as momo, in Russia as Pelmeni...and in Jewish cuisine the similar kreplach...In many parts of Asia the dumplings
commonly met are rice dumplings...Japan...has glutinous rice dumplings, mochi...Onde onde is the name of a small Indonesian
sweet dumpling...from Thailand...[come] saku sai mooh: small sago dumplings enclosing a filling of pork, onion, and groundnuts;
cooked by steaming; served hot or cold."
About wontons
Food historians generally agree that classic English trifles are products of the Renaissance.
Related foods are medieval fools and (in very recent times) tiramisu.
The Oxford English
Dictionary traces the trifle (as it relates to food) in printed English texts to 1598 and defines it
thusly: "A dish composed of cream boiled with various ingredients. Obs. A light confection of
sponge-cake or the like, esp. flavoured with wine or spirit, and served with custard and whipped
cream." Related recipe? Zuppa Inglese.
The food historians add these notes:
"Trifle: a traditional English sweet or dessert. The essential ingredients are sponge cake soaked in
sherry or white wine, rich custard, fruit or jam, and whipped cream, layered in a glass dish in that
order. The cream is often decorated with, for example, slivers of almond, glace cherries, angelica.
The word trifle derives from the Middle English trufl which in turn came from the Old
French trufe (or truffle), meaning something of little importance. Originally, in the late 16th
century, the culinary meaning of the word trifle was a dish composed of cream boiled with
various ingredients...The first known recipe entitled trifle was in The Good Hyswife's
Jewell,
1596 by T. Dawson, and there were many such recipes in the 17th century, including a Triffel
from the great cookery writer Robert May (1685), but these were little more than spiced and
sweetened cream, latterly thickened by renneting. It was not until the mid-18th century that
something like the modern trifle began to emerge. Biscuits wetted with wine were then in place at
the bottom of the bowl, and custard was on top of them, while the topmost layer could be
achieved by pouring whipped syllabub froth over all. When this froth was replaced by plain
whipped cream, the process of evolution was virtually complete."
"In Elizabethan times trifles were simply cream warmed through and flavoured with sugar, ginger,
etc., but
gradually, in successive recipes, we find them being thickened up by boiling and adding rennet,
enlivened
by additional ingredients such as crushed macaroons, and decorated on top with comfits, until by
the mid-eighteenth century they are very much as we would recognize them today. Hannah Glasse
in the 1755
edition of her Art of Cookery gives a recipe for a 'Grand Trifle' which includes naples biscuits,
ratafias, and
macaroons soaked in sack with custard poured over them and topped with syllabub, and which
she
describes as 'fit fto go to the King's table, if well made...'. Trifles were indeed very popular in the
eighteenth
century, and there were several different variants...The original meaning of the word in medieval
English
was 'an inconsequential or insubstantial tale, told either to amuse or to deceive', but it was not
long before
this broadened out to 'a thing or matter of little importance', from which the dish took its name.
The
immediate source of the word was Old French truffle, a variant of truffe, meaning 'deceit,
trickery', but
where this came from is not clear; there may be some connection with truffle the fungus, though
this has
never been established for certain...The French call trifle creme anglaise."
"Among the creamy dishes of the Tudor and Stuart period were trifles, fools and white pots. An
Elizabethan trifle was made thus: Take a pint of thick cream, and season it with sugar and ginger,
and rosewater, so stir it as you would then have it, and lake it luke warm in a dish on a
chafingdish and coals, and after put it into a silver piece or bowl, and so service it to the board.
In later recipes the cream was boiled and lightly renneted to make it thicker and when you serve
it in, strew on some French comfits. By 1751 trifle was being made with broken Naples biscuits,
macaroons and ratafia cakes wetted with sack at the bottom of the bowl, good boiled custard in
the middle, and then put a syllabub over tha'. Subsequent recipes replaced the syllabub with
whipped cream, milled in a chocolate mill; and the modern trifle was established."
EARLY TRIFLE RECIPES
[1685] "To make a Triffel
[1769] "To Make a Trifle.
If you need more details, ask your librarian to help you find this article from Petits Propos
Culinaires, a British food history journal: "Whims and Fancies of the Trifle," Helen Saberi
issue 50, page 11.
Related foods? Tipsy Parson &
Victorian Sandwich Cakes.
Tiramisu
Food historians generally date the invention of tiramisu in the 1960s-1970s and acknowledge its
zenith of popularity in the 1980s. The first restaurant to serve Tiramisu is generally thought to be El Toula (est. 1968) in Italy.
Or...was it invented in
Baltimore? Either way, the
ancestors of this dessert (minus the chocolate and the coffee) are Renaissance-era English trifles, 18th
century Tipsy cake and
19th century Zuppa Inglese. Before this? Ancient Romans enjoyed breads steeped in honey, wine and
spices.
"Eating habits are notable in that they don't change quickly and cultures resist new foods probably
as often as they accept them. People are deeply attached to their traditional foods. Occasionally
foods appear to be rapidly accepted. An example of the coffee sponge cake called tiramisu,
meaning literally "pick-me-up," that was invented in the 1960s by the chef at El Toula restaurant
in Trevisio in the Veneto region of Italy and is now ubiquitious in Italian restaurants in
America."
"If memory serves, it was Gael Greene, restaurant reviewer for New York Magazine, who
first
swooned over this rich mocha Italian sweet. I also believe it happened in the early 80s, but
perhaps the late 70s. In any event, nearly every Italian restaurant of status scrambled to put
tiramasu on is menu. Soon, however, tiramisu began to suffer from overexposure and by the 90s,
to vanish from menus."
"Tirami su
"Tiramasu. Italian dessert invented during the 1970s, based on plain cake or a yeasted sweet
bread soaked in spirits of liqueur and coffee, topped with a mascarpone mixture, sometimes
containing beaten egg yolks lightened with whisked egg whites."
"Mascarpone...a fresh Italian cheese made from cream coagulated by citric or tartaric acid, and
therefore a kind of cream cheese. This product does not keep, and is mainly produced in the
autumn and winter. It is usually sold in small containers and is eaten by itself or in various
mixtures with cocoa, coffee, liqueurs, etc. One such confection is the Venetian dessert tiramasu,
meaning pick-me-up..."
Zuppa Inglese
" Dessert made of sponge cake soaked in liqueur and topped with custard or whipped cream. The
name translates literally in Italian as English Soup and may in fact connote its similarily to
English trifle. Others believe it is a dialectical corruption of the verb inzuppare, meaning to
sop."
"A dessert invented by Neapolitan pastrycooks of Europe during the 19th century. Inspired by
English puddings that were fashionalbe at the time, zupp inglese...usually consists of a sponge
soaked wtih kirsch, filled with confectioner's custard (pastry cream) and crystallized (candied)
fruits macerated in kirsch or Maraschino, then covered with Italian meringue and browned in the
oven..."
"A dukedom, a country palace, and this rich dessert were among the many tributes bestowed on
Lord Nelson by the grateful Neapolitans after his victory over Napoleon in the Nile in 1798.
"English Soup," as it was called, was the creation of an anonymous pastry cook smitten with the
admiral, the English, and their spirit-soaked Trifles."
Food historians agree that [cheese] fondue began in Switzerland there is no exact inventor or
date. The cooking method, dipping pieces bread into melted (fondue means melted in French)
cheese, is not disimilar to that of tempura (dipping pieces of shrimp into hot oil for cooking) and
other quick cook methods employed in the Middle East and Asia. These were popular in the
middle ages. The simple ingredients suggest it was a peasant meal. This is perhaps confirmed by
the fact that Ude, Gouffe and Escoffier do not include recipes for "classic" cheese fondue in their
master works. Escoffier (1903) does, however, include recipes for tomato fondue (a tomato
reduction) and Fondus au Parmesean. The latter recipe is described as having nothing to do with
Swiss Fondue au Fromage.
One of the first print references (and most often quoted) to fondue was written by Jean-Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin in his Physiologie du Gout, 1826. His description and recipe is
unanimously regarded by fondue connosieurs as incorrect. Why? Because a real cheese fondue
does not contain eggs.
Culinary evidence confirms recipes for fondue have changed through time. While the Swiss
(rightfully) claim the original recipe, the French and Americans have skillfully tweaked the
concept to create new dishes with alternative ingredients and cooking methods. Until the
mid-20th century, American fondue recipes were a cross between cheese souffle and casserole.
Traditional Swiss fondue was embraced by American cooks as a party novelty in the 1960s.
McCall's Cook Book [1963] makes a distinction between these two recipes, naming one
"Cheese Fondue," (p. 27) and the other "Fondue Americaine," (p. 34). Both recipes are listed
under the appetizer category. In the 1960s and 70s many American households added "fondue
pots" to their party ware. These were often colorfully glazed pots with legs secured over a Sterno
(small open fire) can.
Chocolate fondue is mid-20th century with several claimants with regards to "invention."
"Fondue originated in Switzerland, where it was part of peasant families' one pot cooking
methods and a means of using hardened cheese. The word comes comes from the French verb
fondre,' "to melt." The classic fondue, called fondue neuchateloise, is made with Emmenthaler or
Gruyere cheeses and a Swiss white wine intended to provide acidity...Although the French
gastronome Brillat-Savarin referred to fondue in the nineteenth century, the dish actually remained
a peasant meal of little interest until it was introduced in the United States in the 1950s. In 1952
chef-owner Konrad Elgi of New York's Chalet Swiss restaurant made a fondue bourguignonne,
made with beef cubes cooked in hot oil, that became an overnight sensation that spread rapidly to
other restaurants. In the early 1960s Egli, who noticed that many of his diet-conscious customers
avoided his rich chocolate desserts, consulted with his public-relations agent, Beverly Allen, and
came up with a chocolate fondue (introduced on July 4, 1964) into which one dipped pieces of
cake, fruit, or cream-puff pastry--a variation completely unknown in Switzerland but one that
became popular even there within the last few years."
"Fondue, the French word for 'melted', is the name of a Swiss dish made of melted cheese...There
are many recipes for cheese fondue, including that given by Brillat-Savarin (1826) which has been
condemned by Swiss authorities as being for scambled eggs with cheese rather than true fondue.
Eggs do not appear in classic Swiss recipes. Most Swiss would agree that a proper fondue is
made with a blend of cheeses--of gruyere, emmental, and a softer local sheese such as raclette or
appenzell--white wine, a little kirsh, a spoonful of flour to prevent curdling, salt, pepper, nutmeg,
and nothing else. Fonduta, the Italian version of fondue, is made with fontina cheese...There is
also a similar Dutch dish called kaasdoop (cheese dip)."
"Cheese fondue. Thumb through almost any basic, late-nineteenth-century cookbook and you will
find something called fondu' or fondue." but this is not the Swiss classic that became so popular
in the 50s and 60s. Those early fondues were mock cheese souffles plumped with bread
crumbs."
"Chocolate fondue, unlike cheese fondue, is not Swiss. According to Jane and Michael Stern
(American Gourmet, 1991), it was dreamed up in the Madison Avenue test kitchens of the
Switzerland Association to promote Toblerone Swiss chocolate. The Stern's don't say when the
great event took place, but I distinctly remember chocolate fondue being a late-'50s to early'60s
phenomenon."
"Fondue--Le terme fondue s'applique a diverses perparations qui different sensiblement les unes
des autres. Ansi, on designe sous ce nom une sorte des creme au fromage, orginaire de Suisse, et
dont nous donnons les recettes plus loin. Sous le meme nome, et cela de facon impropre, on
designe un appret d'oeufs brouilles au fromage, appret dont, dans la Physiolgie du gout,
Brillat-Savarin donne une recette assez originale. V. Plus loin Fondue au fromage. On appelle
aussi
fondue un mode de preparation des legumes qui, apres avoir ete cuits longuement dans du beurre,
de la graisse ou de l'huille, sont complement fondus. Ces diverses fondues de legumes sont
employees come elements complementaires dans un tres grand nombre d'apprets."
The oldest recipe for fondue on our (small) collection is dated 1913. It is the one generally cited
for denouncing Brillat-Savarin's bon mots.
Fondue gruyerienne au vacherin.
Modern American fondue
"Cheese Fondue. Thumb hrough almost any basic, late-nineteenth century cookbook and you will find something called
"fondu" or "fondue." But this is not the Swiss classic that became so popular in the '50s and '60s. Those early fondues
were mock cheese souffles with bread crumbs."
"Cheese Fondue
Related foods? Welsh Rabbit, Grilled Cheese & Tempura.
The origin and evolution of Welsh Rabbit (aka Welsh Rarebit) differs according to one's point of view. Certainly, combinations of melted cheese and toasted bread have been
enjoyed in several cultures and cuisines for thousands of years. The proceedings of this particular recipe hinges on political persuasion.
"There is no evidence that the Welsh actually originated this dish of toasted cheese, although they have always had a reputation as cheese-lovers. A more likely
derivation of the name is that Welsh in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was used as a patronizingly humorous epithet for any inferior grade or varitey of
article, or for a substitute for the real thing...Welsh rabbit may therefore have started life as a dish resorted to when meat was not avialable. The first record of the
word comes in John Byron's Literary Remains (1725): 'I did not eat of cold beef, but of Welsh rabbit and stewed cheese.' Although the term is often used simply
for a slice of bread topped with cheese and put under the grill, the fully-fledged Welsh rabbit is a more complicated affiar, with several variations: the cheese
(classically Cheddar or Double Gloucester...) can be mixed with butter or mustard, beer or wine, and it can be pre-melted and poured over the toast rather than
grilled...Welsh rabbit has of course produced one of the great linguistic causes celebres of gastronomy with it genteel variant Welsh rarebit. There is little doubt that
rabbit is the original form, and that rarebit (first recorded in 1785) is an attempt to folk-etymologize it--that is, to reinterpret the odd and inappropriate-sounding
rabbit as something more fitting to the dish. Precisely how this took place is not clear; it has been speculated that rarebit was originally rearbit, that is, something
eaten at the end of a meal, but there is no actual evidence for this. However that may be, the spurious rarebit has continued to be preferred up to the present day by
those who apparently find honest-to-goodness rabbit slightly vulgar."
"One thing which is not in doubt is Welsh fondness for cheese...The real problem is to find a plausible explanation for 'rabbit'. This difficulty has caused some
authorities to declare that the term should really be 'rarebit', meaning a choice morsel. However, this does not work. The 'rabbit' version has been found in print as
early as 1725, whereas 'welshe rarebit' was first recorded 60 years later...One piece of evidence of which the significance is difficult to discern is that Hannah
Glasse (1747) gives four of these rabbit-cheese recipes: one for Scotch-Rabbit, one for Welch-Rabbit, and two for an English-Rabbit....Graham (1988) is one
recent authority who should definitely be consulted about these mysteries, to which he devotes several pages. He remarks that: 'The French have always prized the
Welsh rabbit. To the best of my knowledge, the dish first appeared in a French cookbook in 1814, when Antoine Beauvilliers published a recipe for wouelsch
rabette (lapin gallois) in his L'Arte du cuisiner. But it really came into fashion when Anglomania was at its height around the turn of the century. In L'art des mets,
published in 1959, the French gourmet Francis Amunategui remembers the atmosphere, decades earlier, at the then very British restaurant, The Criterion...
Anglophiles flocked there specially to order Welsh rabbit (by that time spelt correctly but usually abbreviated to le welsh) and wash it down with English ale in
pewter mugs.'"
"The English, the Scots, and the Welsh do not always get along as well as most Americans might presume. The English traditionally scorned the Welsh as poor and
not always trustworthy...When a new dish of melted cheese on toast was devised in the eighteenth century, it was jokingly called Welsh Rabbit, meaning that a
Welshman, too poor to have meat, would call his cheese a rabbit. The alternative spelling, Welsh Rarebit, developed later and is imitative. If a Welshman had some
cheeese, it would be a "rare bit."
"I like the story that this dish, so much like fondue, got its name when Welsh wives, waiting anxiously, spied ther husbands or sons returning from a hunt
empty-handed and set cheese before the fire to melt, as a substitute for a dinner of game. But my friend Paul Leyton,...has delved into the musty past to come up
with an explanation of why Welsh Rabbit is sometimes called Welsh Rarebit. In England...there was a time when hors d'oeuvre were known as "forebits," because
they were served in advance, and the characteristic savouries that come at a meal's end on British menus were called "rearbits"--hence the rarified pronunciation
"rarebit.""
"Welsh Rabbit.--Let the Welsh tell their own take in the words of Lady Llanover:--"Welsh toasted cheese and the melted cheese of England are as different in the
mode of preparation as is the cheese itself; the one being adapted to strong digestions, and the other being so easily digested that the Hermit frequently gave it to
his invalid patients when they were recovering from illness. Cut a slice of the real Welsh cheese, made of sheep and cow's milk; toast it at the fire on both sides,
but not so much as to drop; toast a piece of bread less than a quarter of an inch thick, to be quite crisp, and spread it very thinly with fresh cold butter on one side
(it must not be saturated with butter); then lay the toasted cheese upon the bread, and serve immediately on a very hot plate. The butter on the toast can of course
be omitted if not liked, and it is more frequently eaten without butter." It is quite intelligible that one cheese should be more wholesome than another; but that there
is any marked difference in digestibility between cheese toasted and cheese melted or stewed, is difficult to believe. In case the wandering Englishman should
suddenly feel in his travels of a sort of home-sickness, and desire to partake of Welsh rabbit, let it be known that in Viard's cookery book, which has a great
reputation, the recipe is quite correctly given; and that on this authoritiy the said Englishman may safely call either for Wouelche Rabette or for Lapin Gallois."
Origin of this dish from the Welsh point of view:
"The Welsh had an early passion for roasted, or toasted, cheese--caws pobi (caws cheese, pobi roasted), the forerunner of what became known eventually as
Welsh Rarebit. From medieval times there are numerous references to it, and by Tudor times it had become something of a national dish. References to Welsh
efforts to trade for the hard cheeses, especially of Cheddar, they coveted for roasting, confirm that the acidity of the soil in such a large part of Wales produced
milk more suited to making soft cheeses of whole, or at least only semi-skimmed milk matured for a short time; though this is not to say that hard, well-matured,
less rich cheeses were not made in some places. The poem in dialect by Dewi Emrys contains the line (in translation)'...and a hunk of a fine cheese', yet the soil in
that part of west Wales is notoriously acid--hence the proliferation of lime kilns along that coast. But perhaps the cheese was made from ewes' milk, always
specified as an alternative to Cheddar for caws pobi because of its sharp-flavoured hardness."
"The Welsh loved the hard English cheeses which they could not easily produce themselves because of the soft, acid soil which covered such a lard part of Wales.
Those who lived in east Wale, in the old counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, and perhaps parts of Breconshire and Radnorshire, too, drove their flocks of sheep
to barter for the Cheddar cheese they wanted above oall for their saws pobi (literally toasted or roasted cheese) for which they had a passion since at least
medieval times. In areas of Wales where Cheddar cheese was unavailable, ewes' milk cheese was used for caws pobi, as it had been form earliest times. Eventually
this Welsh specialty became known as 'Welsh Rabbit'; finally, about the end of the 18th century we find the term 'rare-bit' coming into use. Nearly all the southern
and western English counties had a 'rabbit', and all were on the same lines--either toasted or melted cheese, or a cheese sauce with the addition of beer and
mustard, and sometimes onion. I think caws pobi was a part of Welsh fare much too early on, and the term rabbit too commonplace throughout Britian to give
credence to the popular tradition that the dish was meant to replace the rabbits the English landlords forbade their Welsh tenants to catch. But it is a fact that there
are few recipes in Welsh collections for rabbit dishes, though rabbits mush have been taken to supplement an impoverished diet...Lady Llanover gave precise
instructions for caws pobi in her Good Cookery."
English Welsh Rabbit recipes through time:
[1753]
[1861]
[1875]
"Cheese, Toasted or Welsh rarebit.--Cut some slices of the crumb of bread about half an inch in thickness, and toast them lightly on both sides. Lay on them in some slices of good, rich cheese, and put them in a cheese toaster till the cheese is melted. Spread a little made mustard and pepper over them, and serve on very hot plates. It is most desirable to send this dish to table quite hot, as without this it is enirely worthless."
[1902]
"A Homely Rarebit
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford]
1999 (p. 320-1)
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 133)
---Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Ann Wilson
[Academy Chicago Publishers:Chicago] 1991 (p. 143)
[NOTE: the author is referencing Medieval English cuisine]
A large fritter from the Lyonnais region, traditionally eaten on feast days, especially Shrove
Tuesday. In the Middle Ages, fritter makers sold bugnes in the open air, from Arles to Dijon.
They have become a specialty of Lyon, as common during the vogues (fairs) as waffles are in
other regions. Bugne dough was originally made from flour, water, yeast, and orange flowers.
When the eating of dairy products until Ash Wednesday became permitted, it was enriched with
milk, butter, and eggs and bugnes have become true pastries. They are cut with a pastry wheel
into ribbons which are then knotted. Bugnes are better hot than cold."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Jenifer Harvey Lang (ed.) [Crown Publishers:New York]
1988 (p. 156)
"The earliest receipt that can unequivocally be identified as calling for the frying of sliced raw
potatoes that I have found is one given in La Cuisiniere R‚publicaine. Among some thirty-five
receipts for pommes de terre there is one for '[Pommes de terre] Enfriture", which involves the
classic fritter method, that is, thin slices, dipped in batter and fried in deep fat, an ancient
procedure recorded in medieval manuscripts, early making its way to English court cuisine as in
this archetypical receipt for 'Fretoure' calling for making the batter, then 'take fayre Applys, & kut
hem in man'er of Fretourys,' dipping the slices of apple in the batter and frying them in 'layre Oyle.'
In short, a procedure already so established even in early fifteenth-century England that one is to
'kut hem in man'er of Fretourys,' that is, raw in slices, and so understood. Note that all the terms
come directly from the French: Frire and friture always refer to frying in deep fat. Always. What
we now know as French fries may have started out as potato fritters, but it would not have taken
long for French cooks to realise that potatoes are starchy enough not to need the coating of batter
to provide the attractive characterizing crust of deep fried foods; that may well have occurred
long before 1795, given the historical lag between practice and the printed word. I note that La
Cuisiniere Republicaine is thought to have been written by a woman, not a chef (the cover title,
Paix au Chaumieres, salutes women who are out of work - an early feminist cookbook).3 Chefs
had other worries in 1795, and many of them had already fled France, among them Louis
Eustache Ude and very likely Honore Julien, who was to become chef de cuisine at the President's
House."
The Origin of
French
Fries, Petits Propos Culinaires, Number 68
Although fried breads of many kinds were eaten by Ancient Romans and Greeks, food historians
generally agree the idea
of funnel cakes (as we know them today) were probably created in Northern Europe. They are
quite similar in recipe and
method to fritters, doughnuts , and cryspes. These foods are
historically connected with holidays and street fairs. Notes here:
[1879]
The oldest recipe we find for a recipe titled "funnel cake"in an English language book is
this:
Source:Practical Cookbook for the ordinary and elegant Kitchen by Henriette
Davidis. 23rd Edition. Pub. Velhagen & Klasing. Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1879.
200 gr. fine flour, an equivalent amount of water, 100 gr. butter, 5 eggs,1 tablespoon sugar,
grated rind of 1/2 lemon.
Bring water and butter to the boil, gradually add the flour,and stir until the dough turns
dry and does not stick to the pot. Remove the pot from the fire, to the hot mixture add 1 egg,
lemon rind, sugar, and when cooled gradually add the remaining eggs one at a time. The
dough is then firmly beaten, added to a syringe, pressed into the hot melted butter, baked to a
yellow color according to the instructions in #246, dusted with sugar and cinnamon.
[1935]
"Mix 1 pint of sweet milk, 2 eggs well beaten, (yolks and whites together), enough flour to make
a thin batter, 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder, 1/4 teaspoonful salt. Mix in a pan thoroughly. Place
enough lard in a pan to cover the bottom. Let it get quite hot before cooking the batter. Now put
the batter through a funnel into the hot lard, beginning at center of pan, and turning the stream
around in a gradual enlarging circle, being careful not to touch the sides of the other dough. Fry a
light brown and serve hot with any tart jelly."
---Pennsylvania Dutch Cookery, J. George Frederick, reprint of 1935 edition [Favorite
Recipes Press:Lousiville KY] 1966 (p. 137)
Dumplings
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p.
261)
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:New
York] 1002 (p. 437-8)
[48] Dumplings of the Pheasant [Isiia Plena]
[Lightly roast choice] fresh pheasants [cut them into dice and mix these with a ] stiff forcemeat made of the fat and the
trimmings of the pheasant, season with pepper, broth and reduced wine, shape into croquettes or spoon dumplings, and poach in
hydrogarum [water seasoned with garum, or even plain salt water].
Crush pepper, lovage and just a suspicion of pellitory, moisten with stock and well water, allow it to draw, place it in a
sauce pan, boil it down, and strain. Poach your little dumplings or forcemeat in this liquor and when they are done served in a
dish for isicia, to be sipped at the table."
To 1 acetabulum of stock add 7 of water, a little green celery, a little spoonful of ground pepper, and boil this with the
sausage meat of dumplings. If you intend taking this to move the bowels the sediment salts of hydrogarum have to be added."
---Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, Apicius, edited and translated by Joserphy Dommers Vehling [Dover:New York]
1977(p. 65-66)
---Oxford Companion to Food, (p. 262)
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p. 61-2)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 341)
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1997 (p.
118-9)
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 143)
About pasta & potatoes
The current edition of Larousse Gastonomique clues us in on French gnocchi variations:
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001
(p. 563-4)
Kopytka (aka potato dumplings) are a traditional Polish food.
"Kopytka from Potatoes
Tb 2 lbs. cooked, warm potatoes through a sieve, or put through a meat grinder. Cool the potatoes and beat in 1 large
(or 2 small) egg, add about 14-16 oz. flour and salt to taste. Mix, place on a pastry board dusted with flour and knead to a smooth
dough. Divide the dough into 2-4 parts, form into finger-thick rolls and slice diagonally into small dumplings 1 inch thick.
Cook in a large amount of salted boiling water. Take out the cooked kopytka with a straining spoon and drain well. On a dish pour
hot butter or pork fat with cracklings over this. 1 small, very finely chopped onion may be fried in the pork fat. The
Kopytka may be cooked a day ahead. Before serving, throw them into boiling salted water and bing to a boil only once. They will be like
fresh. They also taste exquisitely if reheated by frying."
---Old Polish Traditions: In the kitchen and at the table, Maria Lemnis & Henryk Vitry [Hippocrene Books:New York] 1996 (p. 264)
"Knedliky or knedlicky: dumplings. The variety made is staggering. Anything that will form a stiff
dough and can be made steamed or poached seems to qualify: rice, potatoes, many vegetables
alone or in combination, chopped or mashed, bread crumbs or cake crumbs, brains, liver, ham,
smoked meat, arrow-all combined with enough egg, milk, and flour or crumbs to be shaped. May
be served alone with sour cream, cream, chopped nuts, caraway seeds, poppy seeds, gravy, fruit
sauces, or served with meats, fish or in soups."
---You Eat What You Are: People, Culture and Food Traditions, Thelma Barer-Stein
[Firefly
Books: Ontario] 1999 (p. 106)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
239)
---Polish Heritage Cookery, Robert & Maria Strybel [Hippocrene:New York] 2005, Expanded and Illustrated Edition (p. 226)
---The Cuisine of Hungary, George Lang [Atheneum:New YOrk] 1982 (p. 295-296)
Matzo balls belong to the "dumpling" family. These filling, doughy knots are known in
many cultures and cuisines.
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble:New York] 1992 (p. 223)
---Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1998 (p. 107)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Your
librarian will be happy to help you find a copy.]
"Matso Soup.
Boil down half a shin of beef, four pounds of gravy beef, and a calf's
food may be added, if approved, in three or four quarts of water;
season with celery, carrots turnips, pepper and salt, and a bunch of
sweet herbs; let the whole stew gently for eight hours, then strain and
let it stand to get cold, when the fat must be removed, then return to
the saucepan to warm up. Ten minutes before serving, throw in the
balls, from which the soup takes its name, and which are made in the
following manner: Take half a pound of matso flour, two ounces of
chopped suet, season with a little pepper, salt, ginger, and nutmeg;
mix with this, four beaten eggs, and make it into a paste, a small
onion shred and browned in a desert spoonful of oil is sometimes
added; the paste should be made into rather large balls, and care
should be taken to make them very light."
---The Jewish Manual, edited by A Lady, facsimile of the first Jewish
cookbook printed in English published in 1846, introduction by Chaim
Raphael [Nightingale Books:New York] 1983 (p. 9-10)
---A Taste of Russia, Darra Goldstein [Jill Norman:London] 1983 (p. 183-184)
---The Art of Russian Cuisine, Anne Volokh [Macmillan Publishing:New York] 1983(p. 188-189)
---Oxford Companion to Food, (p. 262-263)
English trifle
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford]
1999 (p. 805)
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p.
349-50)
---Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson
[Academy Chicago Publishers:Chicago] 1991(p.
168-9)
[1596] "To make a Trifle
Karen Hess, food historian, explains the connection between fools and trifles:
"The oldest meaning of fool in English cookery, long since obsolete, is a custard dish. There is
some dispute over the derivation of the word; a cook might opt for French fouler (to press or
crush) given the present composition of the dish, but OED [Oxford English Dictionary] spurns
this construction and agrees with those who link it with trifle, or a bit of foolishness. The earliest
citation, from Florio, 1598, "a kinde of clouted cream called a fool or a trifle in English," is
compelling....In later English cookery, the sort of dish described in our recipe above [To Make a
Fool] came to be known as a trifle, nowadays typically made of stale sponge cake, custard sauce,
and sherry...."
Take a pint of thick cream, and season it with sugar and ginger, and rose water. So stir it as you
would then have it and make it luke warm in a dish on a chafing dish and coals. And after put it
into a silver piece or a bowl, and so serve it to the board."
---The Good Housewife's Jewell, Thomas Dawson, with introduction by Maggie Black
[Southover Press:East Sussex] 1996 (p. 90)
Take a quart of the best and thickest cream, set it on the fire in a clean skillet, and put to it whole
mace, cinnamon, and sugar, boil it well in the cream before you put in the sugar then your cream
being well boiled, pour it into a fine silver piece or dish, and take out the spices, let it cool till it be
no more than blood-warm, then put in a spoonful of good rennet, and set it well together being
cold scrape sugar on it, and trim the dish sides finely."
---The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May, facsimile of 1685 edition [Prospect Books:2000]
(p. 292)
Put three large macaroons in the middle of your dish, pour as much white wine over them as they
will drink. Then take a quart of cream, put in as much sugar as will make it sweet, rub your sugar
upon the rind of a lemon to fetch out the essence. Put your cream into a pot, mill it to a strong
groth, lay as much froth upon a sieve as will fill the dish you intend to put your trifle in. Put the
remainder of your cream into a tossing pan with a stick of cinnamon, the yolks of four eggs well
beat, and sugar to your taste. Set them over a gentle fire, stir it one way till it is thick, then take if
off the fire, pour it upon your macaroons. When it is cold put on your frothed cream, lay round it
different coloured sweetmeats and [put] small shot comfits in, and figures or flowers."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, with an introduction by Roy
Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 128-9)
---Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, transcribed by Karen Hess [Columbia
University
Press:1995] (p. 132)
[1747] "Westminster-Fool.
Take a Penny-loaf, cut it into thin Slices, wet them with Sac, lay them in the Bottom of a Dish,
take a Quart of Cream, beat up six Eggs, two Spoonfuls of Rose-water, a Blade of Mace, some
grated Nutmeg, sweeten to your Taste. Put this all into a Sauce-pan, and keep stirring all the time
over a slow Fire for fear of curdling. When it begins to be thick, pour it into the Dish over the
Bread; let it stand till it is cold, and serve it up."
---The Art of Cookery, Hannah Glasse, facsimile of the first (1747) edition, [Prospect
Books:Devon] 1995 (p.79)
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright, [William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p. 37)
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean
Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 416)
"'Pick me up'. A rich dessert made of layers of ladyfingers, mascarpone, espresso, and chocolate.
The dish was created in the 1960s at El Toula restaurant in Treviso and has since become one of
the classic and international Italian desserts."
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998
(p. 258)
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:New
York] 2001 (p. 1214)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
483)
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998
(p. 286)
---Larousse Gastromique, Completely Updated and Revised [Clarkson Potter:New York]
2001 (p. 1310)
---The Horizon Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking through the
Ages, American Heritage [Doubleday:New York] 1968 (p. 710)
Fondue
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 130).
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
312)
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean
Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 207)
---The American Century Cookbook (p. 403)
---Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagne [Library Larousse:Paris] 1938 (p. 483)
[NOTE: This book contains 17 different recipes for fondue, including the one by Brillat-Savarin.]
Voici la recette de la vrai fondue,--de la fondue fribourgeoise et gruyerienne, qui est un mets de
fete, un plat de regalade dans son pays d'origine. Brillat-Savarin donne la recette d'une fondue au
fromage qui est toute differente, et qui ne saurait etre appreciee des gourmets et des gourmands
comme cell ci:
Prenez un kilogramme de vacherin frais et blanc; coupez-le en petits cubes dans une marmite de
terre ou de tole emaillee, et protez le tout sur un feu doux.
Surveillez, sans vous laisser distraire par la fumee ordorante que degage le vacherin fondant, et
remuez continuellement avec une fouchette de bois neuve, jusqu'a ce que la masse, qui present
alors l'aspect et la consistance d'une creme epaisse et filante, commence a bouillonner.
A ce moment precis, retirez du feu et ajoutez du poivre (mais pas de sel). Puis servez sur un
rechaud la marmite elle-meme ou s'est operee la fondue, et mange bien chaud.
Les petits cubes de pain frais, qui, piques a la fourchette, sont plonges et retournes dans la
marmite, placee au milieu de la table; une fois bien enrobe dans la fourchette, sont la table; une
fois bien enrobe dans la creme fumante, chaque petit fragment de pain est ressorti au bout de la
fourchette et savore deliciusement entre deux verres de vin blanc, Yvorne ou Villeneuve. De cette
facon la fondue reste bien au chaud dans le reciepient meme ou elle s'est fabriquee, et ne subit pas
de transvasement. Un kilogramme de vacherin suffit pour rassasier de fondue quatre personnes.
C'est un plat extremement nourrissant et trais sain. Et en effet, le vacherin qui en est la matiere
premiere se fait absolutment comme le fromage de Gruyere--si ce n'est que pour celui-ci, le lait
est chauffe a un degree superieur.Le vacherin a meme un gros avantage sur le fromage de
Gruyere: it contient tout le lait (creme, petit-lait, etc.), tandis que, au course de al fabrication du
fromage, de nombreuz accessoires sont elimines (petit-lait, serac, etc.). Le vacherin de fabrique
dans la Suisse francaise, surtout dans la Gruyere; il s'expedier par pieces de 5 a 15 kilogrammes,
et vaut de 1 fr. 40 a 1 fr. 60 le kilogramme. Victor Tissot."
---L'Art du Bien Manger, Edmond Richardin [Paris:1913] (p. 44-45)
NOTE: Our French passages are missing accents marks and other diacritical notation. If you
need the exact passage we can mail or fax.
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 207)
[1955]
"Swiss Fondue
2 cups grated natural Swiss cheese (1/2 lb.)
1 1/2 teasp. flour
1 clove garlic (optional)
3/4 cup Chablis or sauterne
1/4 teasp. salt
Speck pepper
Nutmeg
2 tablsp. kirsch or cognac (optional)
French bread, cut into bite-size chunks
Toss cheese with flour. Rub skillet or blazer of chafing dish with garlic; pour in wine; heat over low heat till almost
boiling. Add cheese; stir until melted. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, kirsch. When fondue bubbles, lower heat; serve. To serve:
let each eprson spear bread with fork or toothpick, then dunk it into fondue, stirring. (If fondue becomes too thick, add a little
heated wine.) Makes 3 or 4 servings as main dish, 6 yo 8 as nibbler, served kitchen, living-room or dining-room style."
2 1/4 cups milk
2 cups coarse day-old bread crumbs
2 2/3 cups grated process American cheese (2/3 lb)
1 teasp. salt
Dash cayenne pepper
1 tablesp. bottled thick meat sauce
2 tbsp. minced onions
1 teasp. dry mustard
4 eggs
Start heating oven to 325 degrees F. Scald milk in double boiler; then cool. In large bowl combine rest of ingredients except eggs;
add milk; stir well. Separate eggs. Beat yolks until thick and lemon-colored; slowly stir into bread mixutre. Beat whites till
stiff but not dry; fold into bread mixture. Pour into greased 2-qt. casserole; set in pan filled with warm water to 1" from top
of casserole. Bake, uncovered, 1 1/2 hr., or until delicate brown and firm when touched in center. Serve at once, as is or
with Tomato Sauce...Makes 6 servings."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Dorothy B. Marsh [Good Housekeeping:New York] 1955 (p. 214)
Welsh Rabbit
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 365)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 844)
[NOTE: See below for Hannah Glasse's recipes & others]
---Rare Bits: The Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [University of Ohio Press:Athens OH] 1998 (p. 124)
---The World of Cheese, Evan Jones [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1970 (p. 158)
---Kettner's Book of the Table, E.S. Dallas, facsimile 1877, preface by Derek Hudson, London edition [Centaur Press:London] 1968 (p. 486)
---Traditional Food from Wales, Bobby Freeman [Hippocrene:New York] 1997 (p. 31)
---ibid (p. 153-4)
[NOTE: See Kettner for Lady Llanover's discourse.]
[1747]
"To Make a Scotch-Rabbit. Toast a piece of Bread very nicely on both Sides, butter it, cut a Slice of Cheese, about as big as the Bread, toast it on both Sides, and lay it on the Bread.
"To make a Welsh-Rabbit. Toast the Bread on both Sides, then toast the Cheese on one Side, and lay it on the Toast, and with a hot Iron brown the other Side. You may rub it over with Mustard.
"To make an English-Rabbit. Toast a Slice of Bread brown on both Sides, then lay it in a Plate before the Fire, pour a Glass of Red Wine over it, and let it soak the
Wine up; then cut some Cheese very thin, and lay it very thick over the Bread; put it in a Tin Oven before the Fire, and it will be toasted and brown presently. Serve
it away hot."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 97)
"To make a Scotch Rabbit. Toast a Piece of Bread on both Sides, butter it, cut a Slice of Cheese about as big as the Bread, toast it on both sides, and lay it on the Bread."
"To make a Welch Rabbit. Toast the Bread on both Sides, then toast the Cheese on one Side, lay it on the Toast, and with a hot Iron brown the other Side. You may rub it over with Mustard."
"To make a Portugal Rabbit. Toast a Slice of Bread brown on both Sides, then lay it in a Plate before the Fire, pour a Glass of red Wine over it, and let it soak the Wine up; then cut some Cheese very thin, and lay it very thick over the Bread; put it in a Tin Oven before the Fire, and it will be toasted and brown'd presently. Serve it away hot with Sugar over it, and Wine poured over."
"Or do it thus. Toast the Bread and soak it in the Wine, set it before the Fire, cut your Cheese in very thin Slices, rub Butter over the Bottom of a Plate, lay the Cheese on, pour in two or three Spoonfuls of White Wine, cover it with another Plate, set it over a Chafing-dish of hot Coals for two or three Minutes, then stir it till it is done, and well mixed. You may stir in a little Mustard; when it is enough lay it on the Bread, a just brown with a hot Shovel. Serve it away hot."
"An Italian Rabbit. Toast a Slice of Bread, butter it, put upon it a Slice of Cheese the Length of your Bread, Let that be toasted; then put upon the Cheese some Mustard and Pepper, then Parsley minced, and upon the whole some Anchovies, in Pieces, very thick, to serve away."
---The Lady's Companion [J. Hodges:London], 6th edition with large additions, 1753 (p. 264-5)
"TOASTED CHEESE, or WELSH RARE-BIT.
1652. INGREDIENTS.—Slices of bread, butter, Cheshire or Gloucester cheese, mustard, and pepper.
Mode.—Cut the bread into slices about 1/2 inch in thickness; pare off the crust, toast the bread slightly without hardening or burning it, and spread it with butter. Cut some slices, not quite so large as the bread, from a good rich fat cheese; lay them on the toasted bread in a cheese-toaster; be careful that the cheese does not burn, and let it be equally melted. Spread over the top a little made mustard and a seasoning of pepper, and serve very hot, with very hot plates. To facilitate the melting of the cheese, it may be cut into thin flakes or toasted on one side before it is laid on the bread. As it is so essential to send this dish hot to table, it is a good plan to melt the cheese in small round silver or metal pans, and to send these pans to table, allowing one for each guest. Slices of dry or buttered toast should always accompany them, with mustard, pepper, and salt.
Time.—About 5 minutes to melt the cheese.
Average cost, 1–1/2d. each slice.
Sufficient.—Allow a slice to each person. Seasonable at any time.
Note.—Should the cheese be dry, a little butter mixed with it will be an improvement."
---Mrs. Beeton's Book of Cookery, Isabella Beeton: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/beeton/isabella/household/chapter33.html
"Welsh Rarebit.---Cut half a pound of a mellow Gloucester cheese into thin slices. Put an ounce and a half of butter upon a plate and knead it before the fire with a tea-spoonful of unmixed mustard and a pinch of cayenne till it looks like thick cream. Cut from a large laof a round of bread half an inch thick. Trim away the crust, toast the bread, and butter thickly. Lay half the cheese upon it, pour half the seasoned butter upon that, and add, first the remainder of the cheese, then the rest of the butter. Put the bread in a Dutch oven before a clear fire, and let it remain until the cheese is melted. Serve very hot. Time to toast the cheese, twenty minutes. Probalbe cost, 6d. Sufficient for two or three persons."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations, [Cassell, Petter, Galpin:London] 1875 (p. 1107)
---ibid (p. 120)
"Welsh Rarebit
Like every other cook, my own recipe for Welsh rarebit exeed all others in quality. There is not a dish in the whole list that has
so many methods of making, all more or less alike, but the simple change of seasoning gives different results. To each pound of
soft Aemrican cheese allow a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, six tablespoonfuls of musty ale or beer, a saltspoonful
of salt, a dash of red pepper, a saltspoonful of white pepper, a teaspoonful of horeseradish, one clove of garlic. Chop or grate
the cheese. Rub the pan or chafing dish with the garlic. Mix all the seasoning with the cheese. Put the ale or beer into the
saucepan; as soon as it is hot and boiling, throw in the cheese and stir constantly and continuously until smooth and creamy.
Toward the last, beat rapidly. Turn it on to a very hot platter that has been nicely covered with toasted bread. Serve at once. The yolks of
two eggs may be added to the cheese before heating."
1 pound of chcese
A teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoonfuls of cream
Yolks of three eggs
1/2