Winter Solstice cooking - Page 2

I think Irish Whiskey would be good, but Bailey's might be a bit of overkill; already being creamy and sweet...added to a creamy sweet drink, it might get lost. Cinnamon would be lovely, I think. (I like Bourbon in egg nog.)

That's a great summation, KK. Eggnog is a fortified, drinkable, cold custard. Very good!

Nowadays just about any spirits are used for eggnog, but, orginally, brandy was the booze of choice. You pretty much go with what you like, but, personally, I'd shy away from Rye. Brandy, Bourbon, or Irish Whiskey would be my choices.

There are a number of dairy-based drinks, btw. If you leave out the eggs, and use wine instead of brandy, you have the makings of a syllabub. Or use ale instead of brandy, and serve it hot, and you have a posset. Combining Sack (i.e., Sherry) with ale leads to a caudle. Perhaps the simplest of them all is plain milk punch.

If you'd like an historical touch (always makes a nice conversation point at a party, donchathink), here's a Colonial era eggnog recipe from Virginia:

Beat well the Yolks of three Dozen Eggs, then slowly beat in two and one half Pounds of fine Sugar. Add slowly, Drop by Drop, one Pint of choice French Brandy, and let it stand while you beat the Whites of the Eggs very light with one half Pound of Sugar. Add to the Yolks two Quarts of Milk, two Quarts of Cream and one Gallon of Brandy. Add the Egg Whites and grate in a fresh Nutmeg.

kk,

 bourbon, cognac or brandy usually, not baileys....i prefer rum. fresh grated nutmeg is essential and it needs time to really chill down. i would suggest making it the day before or at the very latest, the morning of your party. yes, it is a drinkable custard, but lighter...creme anglaise in a glass, sort of, but boozy. of course you can choose not to add the booze, but what would be the point of all those calories!!!

joey

I find cinnamon overdone, KK, and nutmeg is more subtle, but that's my taste.  Who am I to say.  Try tasting some first, and put a little in a glass with one and then a little in glass with the other.  If it's cinnamon, my feeling is you'll taste cinnamon and lose the taste of the eggnog.  Try some of the alcohol you think might go with it and it will also tell you which is best.  Though if you taste them all, you may not care any more. 

KY i didn;t realize that the Martha Washington cookbook was a handwritten book.  Then someone might well have copied the thorn letter (which is not a y) thinking it was a y.  That's how we got "Ye olde" - from 18th century people thinking the thorn was a y.  To me, frankly, it looks more like a p.  but in gothic and secretarial scripts it was similar to the y

The long s is not an f, but an s, just that in many old scripts, from insular minuscule to certain italic fonts, and later typographer fonts, the long s shape was used a lot.  If you notice it's like an f but the cross line is only on one side or sometimes missing altogether.  (I'm an amateur calligrapher, and have some interests in the language and history of the middle ages, which is where i found this out.  I don;t know, however, how late the thorn (and edth which is like a d with a line through it) were used for the "th" sounds).

Siduri, Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery didn't exist under that name until the 1930s---'32 iirc---when it was published in hardback by the folks at Williamsburg. The whole name was carefully devised as a marketing ploy. Even the finale E in Booke is incorrect, cuz by Martha's time it had mostly been dropped, in words like book, art, shop, etc. See for instance the works of Hanna Glasse and John Foley.

I drop the long S (and, yes, it is an ess not an eff) when posting recipes for two reasons: first, I don't want to have a special font installed in my keyboard, and second, and more important, it's confusing to most people who do, indeed, see it as an eff. Besides which, typographically there were specific rules for its use (it did not, you may notice, replace every ess in a printed book), which many modern printers ignore when using it.

It's one thing to produce facsimile copies of an original. It's quite another to slap a finale E on everything, and substitute a long ess every time, just to be cute, or because you think that adds a note of autenticity to a work. A lot of publishers need to learn a bit of typographical history, IMO, or else just use modern fonts and be done.

I often get a laugh from visitors talking about that. When describing the kind of adventure it can be proving and adapting 18th century recipes I'll start by saying, "to begin with, all their esses look like effs." Smiles and knowing nods from everyone, cuz they've all run into it somewhere. Then I tell them I spoke to Thom Jefferson about the problem. "Tommy," I said to him, "Tommy, this declaration thingy you wrote, nobody's gonna sign it. Ya know why? Cuz nobody understands it. What the heck is 'purfute of happineff'" At which time they're all but rolling on the floor.

Anyway, this is taking us far from our mutton, and is probably boring to everyone else. So maybe we should return this thread to KK's originally scheduled program.

kk,

one other little thing....besides serving the eggnog very chilled, serve it in small glasses(cups). punch cups are the perfect size. you really can't drink all that much of the stuff..it's very, very rich and extremely filling! 

how's the rest of your menu coming? oh what fun you'll have kk....all the decorating, and a roomful of guests laughing and toasty warm, eating great food...nice visual.....

joey

Living in central Fla. Winter solstice means little.  I do tend to braise more in the winter but if I waited for cold weather to braise I would not be doing it very often. 

kk,

while eggnog would be the most festive in a small punch bowl with the cups surrounding it, it may not be the practical choice for you if space is a problem. second to that a nice glass pitcher will work just fine. as for the mulled wine, that might be trickier in keeping it warm....i have had it set stove top barely on warm and then have ladled it out from there. again, that might not be practical for you in that it occupies a burner.(it does make the house smell intoxicatingly warm and fuzzy however).... so, while not as pretty, a nice coffee thermos(brushed stailness etc.) or an airpot would work just fine i think. you can also use punch cups for the mulled wine if they are the old fashioned heavy type, and heatproof of course. i think mulled wine looks great in those simple glass mugs, if you have any. someone always has a punch bowl set packed away(buried) somewhere! 

joey

Quote:

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer 

Siduri, Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery didn't exist under that name until the 1930s---'32 iirc---when it was published in hardback by the folks at Williamsburg. The whole name was carefully devised as a marketing ploy. Even the finale E in Booke is incorrect, cuz by Martha's time it had mostly been dropped, in words like book, art, shop, etc. See for instance the works of Hanna Glasse and John Foley.

 

I drop the long S (and, yes, it is an ess not an eff) when posting recipes for two reasons: first, I don't want to have a special font installed in my keyboard, and second, and more important, it's confusing to most people who do, indeed, see it as an eff. Besides which, typographically there were specific rules for its use (it did not, you may notice, replace every ess in a printed book), which many modern printers ignore when using it.

 

It's one thing to produce facsimile copies of an original. It's quite another to slap a finale E on everything, and substitute a long ess every time, just to be cute, or because you think that adds a note of autenticity to a work. A lot of publishers need to learn a bit of typographical history, IMO, or else just use modern fonts and be done.

 

I often get a laugh from visitors talking about that. When describing the kind of adventure it can be proving and adapting 18th century recipes I'll start by saying, "to begin with, all their esses look like effs." Smiles and knowing nods from everyone, cuz they've all run into it somewhere. Then I tell them I spoke to Thom Jefferson about the problem. "Tommy," I said to him, "Tommy, this declaration thingy you wrote, nobody's gonna sign it. Ya know why? Cuz nobody understands it. What the heck is 'purfute of happineff'" At which time they're all but rolling on the floor.

 

Anyway, this is taking us far from our mutton, and is probably boring to everyone else. So maybe we should return this thread to KK's originally scheduled program.

Yes, but it's interesting to us, and maybe someone else.  Anyway, the anachronistic final Es are also a giveaway.  And no need to reproduce an older font.  If i write an s in ariel it's the same letter as if i wrote it in uncial. 

And no need to reproduce an older font.

Not from my point of view. If I were doing facsimile or quasi-facsimile work that would be important. But I'm not, so it's not.

The one thing I really diflike is when, in an attempt to feem af if they're writing in the old style, they fubftitute a regular eff for all the effef, even though they're ufing modern typefacef and typografic ftylef. Many of the earlier works published by Williamsburg suffer from that.

In addiiton to being stupid it just makes the document hard to read. Original documents, on the other hand, which follow the usage rules, aren't hard to read at all.

I completely agree.  Now to get WAY off the original track, i HATE when movies about ancient times have people talking in some sort of fake archaic English.  "Troy" for instance, suffered from that - the ancient Greeks did not speak a form of Greek that people spoke two hundred years before them, they spoke what was modern greek at the time.  It would not have sounded archaic to THEM! (And this even worse when the "greeks" depicted are blonde and look like they'd be more at home with an ipod in their hand than a broadsword, or riding a surfboard than a ship, and their accents, in speaking archaic English, sound like they'd feel more at home at the mall than declaiming on the battlefield!)!

Now, just to get back on track I just made the base for my hypocras (medieval mulled wine) using a variation on the recipe from "The forme of cury".written in 1390 at the court, so it says, of Richard II.  The version i have comes from the metropolitan museum of art.   I boil the spices (whole, smashed) cinnamon, clove, cardamon, nutmeg, a slice of fresh ginger and an orange peel (zest only) in water with sugar till it reduces.  I keep it in a jar then when i need it i strain it into a pot with the wine (red or white) and heat it together.  (the original uses a different procedure, and some spices not available here,.  I add more sugar and water when it runs out, and boil some more. There's plenty of flavor in them there spices. 

Interesting use of a flavored simple sugar, Siduri. Which is something modern chef's would do well to relearn, the way compound butters have become the new old thing.

When I developed my sweet potato timbales recipe, for instance, I wanted something that would add a note of sweetness, but not be cloying the way, say, maple syrup so often is. So I made an orange/ginger syrup, and it worked perfectly. The acid of the orange juice and zest cuts through the sugar, and the ginger is just a natural mating with sweet potatoes. As a result, I suspect I'll be experimenting with more of these flavored syrups for savory applications.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koukouvagia 

Hollywood likes to make everyone speak in either an american accent (if the movie is set in the US) or a British accent (if the movie is set in any other country outside of the US)

 

Actually the ancient greeks were widely believed to be blonde.  There are many accounts that the Dorians were very blonde.  Hmm, I wonder what you all picture me to be in your minds.... I'm blonde with blue eyes yet 100% greek as is my whole family.

Well, the accent should be of whoever is actually acting, since it wouldn;t make sense to do a greek accent in english - the greeks didn;'t speak english with a greek accent
 

Ok, though i thought the traces of encaustic painting on the statues showed dark hair - and i think I remember on the reconstruction of the temple of knossos that they had black hair on the paintings, but maybe i'm remembering wrong.  anyway, the REST of the greeks in these films are always black haired, it's only the main young film star who is blonde!  and speaks in archaic english with a california accent!  "O Father" and other phrases like that.  Bla.  Also note that the hollywood historical films usually have the main characters with modern hairdos, while all the others are more historically relevant.  I remember the film of the Kossacks, they all had bald hair and a ponytail but the young star, who was perfect hollywood wavy black hair. 

Now what might make some greeks blonde and others dark - i wonder what influences there were.  In Sicily, where there's a big greek influence, there are blondes, but they are descended from the normans, who were actually vikings who settled in france.  All very innerestin'.

So, we're getting down to the wire, KK. Have you finalized your menu?

Ho! Ho! Ho!

There ya go. That should help.

kk,

how's the party prep going? can i do anything to help? not to worry, you'll get your groove back as soon as you start cooking! you do have lots to do though....did you make the yule cake?  i'm impressed as it's alot of work, especially not having done one before...not on a difficult level, but labor intensive...just remember, you live in a place with GREAT bakeries!...best of luck and remember to have a swell time at your own party.  happy holidays...

joey

I'm on my way. What time are you serving!