Favorite 18th Century Recipes

For several years I wrote an 18th-century cooking column for the local early music magazine, Tijdschrift voor Oude Muziek. This involved buying lots of 17th- and 18th-century cookery books, both in facsimile and originals, and trying out lots of strange and often wonderful dishes (also some terrible ones, but never fear, I shall not bother you with those!) made from strange and exotic ingredients (goat's feet, rooster's combs, sheep's testicles...I never did manage to get hold of nightingale's tongues though...). Some of my favorites will appear here from time to time, with period table manners where appropriate. Please let me know how you like them if you do try them out.

Pepper Cake

Preheat oven to 375 F or 190 C.
Butter and flour the baking form.
Beat butter till light and fluffy, then cream with sugar. One by one add the eggs. Beat in the treacle, spices and orange zest. Measure the baking soda into a small bowl, add the vinegar and blend the fizzy mixture into the batter. Add flour and milk alternately, pour batter into the pan and bake 50-60 minutes. Remove and let cool on a rack. Make a glaze by warming orange marmalade, apricot jam and a bit of sugar in a small saucepan. Brush glaze over cooled Pepper Cake and decorate by pressing blanched almonds into the stickiness.

Shoo-fly Cake

Crumbs: Liquour:

Mix dry ingredients together and cut in butter to make crumbs. Set aside.
Combine wet ingredients with baking soda, ginger and pepper to make a liquour.
Alternate crumbs and liquour in a fully pre-baked (but not too browned) pastry shell, ending with a layer of crumbs. Bake at 450 F (230 C) for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350 F (180 C) and bake about 20 minutes more. The filling will firm up as it cools, so in order to have that deliciously gooey, melt-in-your-mouth, wet-bottom texture, make sure the filling is still jiggly when you take the pie out of the oven.

Quince Trifle

I am posting this recipe at the request of several friends who had it at my house and enjoyed its unusual taste . Fall is in the air, which is good news for lovers of the sour taste of quinces, and while this dessert may not be 18th-century, its flavours are certainly old-fashioned:

Peel and slice quinces and remove the cores. Cook until soft in white or red wine, sweetened with sugar and spiced with a few cloves. When soft remove and let cool. The liquid should have reduced to a syrup, if it is too thin remove the fruit and boil down to desired consistency. Line the bottom of your serving dish with Italian almond cookies (you know the ones I mean). Spoon some of the quince syrup over them to soften them, then cover with a layer of fruit, then add a layer of freshly whipped cream. Continue to build up layers to desired height, topping it all off with more whipped cream decorated with lemon and orange zest and slivered almonds. Serve chilled but not cold.

Wild Mushroom Pie

This is a 17th-century Dutch recipie, and I think it is quite delicious. For the crust I use a pâte brisé with an added egg, you could also add some cream if you like...I've seen many variant pastry recipies in the cookbooks of the time (I sometimes like to add a bit of pepper to the pastry too).

Clean and slice a nice variety of wild mushrooms, mix in a bowl with fresh white breadcrumbs, lots of chopped parsely, lots of freshly grated nutmeg, salt, pepper and lime juice. Line a pie pan with pastry, add the filling and dot with many small clumps of butter. Mix together an egg and some beef broth, pour over the filling to moisten (should not be soupy). Quickly cover the pie with a pastry top and punch several air vents into it. Decorate the top and brush with egg glaze. Bake 45-50 minutes at 250 C. Serve warm or cold with lemon or lime juice (bottom crust will not be crisp, but you can't have everything...you could just do a top crust if it really bothers you).

Roasted Chicken with Marmalade

This recipe is a bit of a Frankenstein's Monster: it is basically 18th-century Dutch, but I have added a few elements from German sources as well. I usually serve it cold for lunch just with bread, salad and an earthy red wine.

Skin a roasting chicken. Cut a lemon into quarters, rub the outside chicken with it. Rub the bird inside with salt and pepper and stuff it with the lemon pieces. Cover the chicken with good quality bacon strips, "nailed" in place with whole cloves. Paint the whole bird with bitter marmalade (with bits of peel in it) and dust with cinnamon. You may find it easier to paint if you warm the marmalade first....Roast the chicken in the oven as normal. When done, take it out to cool and, if you don't like cloves, remove them! They are edible of course, but the taste is very strong ....While the marmalade is still warm decorate the top with shaved almonds, orange zest and just a hint of cinnamon for the perfume.

Cherry Soup

adapted from Das Brandenburgisches Kochbuch (circa 1750)

In a large frying pan, gently warm a large can of pitted cherries (never fear, they would have used preserved cherries in the 18th-century as well) in butter, having discarded the canning syrup. Add a bottle of nice dry red wine (this wine needs to be tasty, cooking wine will not do). Add sugar and cinnamon to taste. When throughly warmed put the contents of the pan through a food mill and serve. In the 18th century the soup plates would have been lined with cinnamon-bread, I prefer to float cinnamon toast croutons on top. A sweet first course to whet the appetite!