What the Housewife Had 10 Contend With in Ye Goode Olde Days 'A perusal of old-fashiond cookery Books, especially those of the 18th century, shows that our ancestors: took a Wegree of pains that would stagger the modern housewife: certainly if the cook of to-day were handed such a book, she would give notice on the spot!, We find a vast number of dishes requiring the most tedious preparation, and many of the ingredients—which we now buy ready-made—had themselves to be con-cooted from raw materials." We should Probably be startled if we were called upon to make not only the dishes but also the wines for a dinner party! Yet we read that much of the "port wine" drunk in the 18th century, at least in the Provincial towns, was compounded by the owner himself, usually of cider skilfully coloured. recipe for "Lord Pembroke's Port" gives cider, coloured with cochineal and brimstone, to which Ys added alum and sugar candy, with a generous lacing of French brandy. Possibly, however, the concoction was not more unwholesome than some of the chemical fluids which masquerade as port" to-day.
Then there was the seasoning, or, to our poor palates, the over-seasoning of the dishes, The kitchen garden supplied 4 long list of tasty herbs which were used without stint; no doubt they helped the flagging appetite to grapple with the enormous meals provided, and, more specially, stimulated an enviable thirst, But think of the cost (in modern terms) of the ingredients for those long-forgotten dishes. When cheerfully hidden start off with a dozen fresh eggs and quart or so of cream, the modern house-se—"and in that book Ignoring this aspect of the matter, however, those who are 4&8 litle weary of imported mutton, plain and simple, may perhaps care to try "a leg of mutton stuffed with oysters. Here runs the old recipe: "Take a little grated bread, some beef suet, yolks of hard eggs, 3 anchovies, a bit of onion, salt, pepper, ryme and winter savoury, 12 oysters, some grated nutmeg. Mix all these together, shred very fine, and work them up with raw eggs like a paste, and stuff your mutton under the skin, and roast it, For sauce take of the yester liquor, some claret, 2 or 8 anchovies," nutmeg, onion, and the rest of the oysters; stew them together: then take out the onion and put it under the mutton." (Date, early eighteenth "To make a Turiener" we require beef steaks, veal steaks, bacon, young chickens, rabbits, pigeons, sweetbreads, cockscombs, tongues, eggs, pistachio nuts, forcement, lemons, barberries, oyster: and, skipping a number of other gradients, we are hidden to cover the whole with thick pastry, and are informed that "eight hours will bake it." Not having as yet tried this dish, the writer cannot say what happens afterwards.
It is probably of academic' interest only to read how "to pot a swan" or "to make abattalia Pye," but possibly a recipe of Queen Anne's day for making "Plum Porridge" (the early form of our Chri mas dish) will appeal to some reade "Take a leg and shin of beef to 10 gal-Ions of water, boil it very tender, and when the broth is strong strain it out, wipe the pot, and put in the broth again; lice 6 penny loaves thin, put some of the liquor to it, cover, and let stand 15 minutes; then put it in your pot and boil 15 minutes. Then put in sibs. currants, Gibs. raisins, ibs. of prunes, bail Hil they swell; then put in 2oz. mace, ox. cloves, 2 nutmegs, beaten fine and mixed with a little liquor cold; in a little while, take off the pot and put in Sibs. euger, some salt, 4 quart of sack, a quart
earthen pans, em for use.
claret, jules of s ins pour into "Skirret Pye" might puzzle a modern 'cook, even when: she shad learnt that. a
tansy," composgd'of}a quart, of, orea aktreet" is water paranip;, and a a milliona: ton: ell and, rem Take the white of & ears, boat few caraway seeds, beaten; work all these into a stiff paste and-make them into what form you please; bake them on white paper."
It is surprising to find that certain dishes which are familiar to us all were equally familiar to our ancestors two centuries ago. "Spread-eagle pudding" is no more than our old friend "bread and butter pudding," and "college pudding" still survives, although we do not use sack in the making of it.
We find marmalade appearing at the "beginning of the 18th century, together with varieties. of jam.. Lemon cheese-cakes have changed but little since then, and possibly the modern cook may recognize an equivalent in the following recipe for making "the light wigs": "Mix a 14iIb. flour and pint of milk, warm, Let stand by the fire hour. Take 2Ib. sugar and Ib, butter; work these into the paste and make it into wigs, with as little flour as possible. Let the oven be pretty hot and they will rise very much."
"Quince cream" las a fine old-world flavour: "Seald your quinces till they are soft, then pare and mash them, and pulp through a sieve; add to them an equal quantity of sifted sugar and the white of eggs, and beat it till it is as white as snow, then put it into dishes."
If we want a complete menu for a light little supper, we have only to turn to "She Stoops to Conquer" and borrow old Hard-castle's: "Pig and bruin sauce at the top; calf's brains and tongue at the bottom; item, a pork pie, a boiled rabbit und sausages, a florentine, a shaking pudding, arid a dish of taffety cream."
Having trodden so far on terra firma, when we come to concoctions of a more
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.