Colonial Williamsburg Ginger Cake Cookies - circa 1717
Cook time: 15 Min Prep time: 30 Min Serves: 25 - 30 Cakes Ingredients 1/2 c sugar 1 tsp ginger 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt 3/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 c butter or margarine, melted** 1/4 c evaporated milk* 1/2 c unsulfered molasses** 2 c stone-ground or unbleached flour, unsifted Directions 1. Combine the sugar, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Mix well. 2. Add melted margarine, evaporated milk, and molasses. Mix well. 3. Add flour 1 cup at a time, stirring constantly. The dough should be stiff enough to handle without sticking to fingers. 4. Knead dough for a smoother texture. Add up to ½ cup additional flour if needed to prevent sticking. 5. When dough is smooth, roll it out ¼ inch thick on a floured surface and cut it into cookies. You may roll the dough slightly thicker if you desire a taller cookie. 6. Bake on floured or greased cookie sheets in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 - 12 minutes. The cookies are done if they spring back when touched. Favorite Ginger Cookies Recipe - circa 2019 Cook time: 15 Min Prep time: 20 Min Serves: 24 Cookies Ingredients· ¾ cup unsalted butter softened · 1 cup granulated sugar · 1 large egg · ¼ cup molasses · 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour · 2 tsp baking soda · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp cinnamon · ½ tsp ginger Instructions1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 2. First, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer. 3. Next, add egg and molasses and mix well. 4. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger, stirring to combine. 5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until well combined. 6. Form or scoop balls of dough that are slightly smaller than a golf ball. Place them on a baking sheet approximately 2” to 3” apart to allow room for cookies to spread. 7. Finally, bake for 10-12 minutes, remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on baking for approximately ten minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Here is the original recipe from Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife, published in 1824: *********************** Ginger Cakes Take three pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, one pound of butter rubbed in very fine, two ounces of ginger beat fine, one large nutmeg grated, then take a pound of treacle, a quarter of a pint of cream, make them warm together, and make up the bread stiff; roll it out, and make it up into thin cakes, cut them out with a teacup, or small glass; or roll them out like nuts, and bake them on tin plates in a slack oven. Misses Randolph 1796 Click here to watch how Ginger Cakes were made in Colonial America. ************************ How Is Molasses Made in 2019? How to Make Evaporated MilkThis is not so much a recipe but a method. To make evaporated milk you simply simmer milk for around 25 minutes. You do this slowly over medium-low heat as to really allow the excess water in the milk to evaporate. Be sure to never boil the milk, though, as the only thing you ever let come to a boil in my house is water! After just a short time simmering, what you’re left with is the exact same thing you get in a can you buy at the store — it’s creamy in color and texture, and naturally sweet from the sugars in the milk. What Do You Use Evaporated Milk For?Evaporated milk was initially made with the intention of being rehydrated, meaning it was milk that was reduced down for storage and shelf-life. In the process, cooks discovered its lovely flavor and thin-yet-creamy texture is great for adding to all kinds of things. I love to add this to soups, chowders, drinks, oatmeal, fudge, and more. Cooking with Evaporated MilkEvaporated milk can stand high temperatures without curdling, making it a good choice in recipes that require a high cooking temperature. Historical Research – Colonial Times – 1700s *Milk was not easily stored in the 1700s due to lack of refrigeration and would be stored using evaporation so they could make butter and items that come from milk. They would use passive cooling from water evaporation. This takes a few different forms depending on the region. The simplest is putting a damp cloth, something with a loose weave like muslin, over a box. How did the colonial American housewife bake her bread & cakes? "The home brick oven--whether adjacent to the hearth in the kitchen or a separate structure outside--was designed and used exclusively for bread, cake, and pastry. If the niceties of regulating several fires on the hearth at one time challenged the skill of the cook, even more difficult was the proper regulation of the oven. One built a fire directly in it for the purpose of heating the walls, which had to hold enough heat long enough to complete that particular baking load. Since the oven had no flue, the fire smothered if the door was closed, therefore, the door was left partly open to supply oxygen for the fire and to allow the smoke to escape. The open door also allowed the cook to watch the fire. For even heat she stirred it periodically and pushed it about to different spots on the oven floor. When the fuel had burned to ashy coals, she raked them out and then tested the heat with her hand. If the oven was too hot, she allowed it to cool to the proper temperature; if it was not hot enough, she had to repeat the heating procedure with another fire. Using an oven peel to protect her hands, she put in the bread, which had been kneaded earlier and set to rise so as to be ready to bake when the oven was ready, and closed the door, not to open it again until she judged the bread done. small loaves could be baked directly on the bricks without scorching the bottom crusts. Large loaves or a very hot oven floor dictated the use of bread pans, as did cakes and pies of all sorts."---Colonial Virginia Cookery: Procedures, Equipment, and Ingredients in Colonial Cooking, Jane Carson [Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: Williamsburg VA] 1985 (p. 71). "Baking in the beehive oven has traditionally been an all-day task. Once one has done it, it is easily understood why colonial cooks only did one major baking each week. On baking day the family meal would most likely be a simple stew or cold meats and pies. The cook rose before dawn to set her dough and start the fire in the oven, and it would be nightfall before the products of her efforts would be finished and ready to grace the cupboard shelves. The procedure was time consuming but not complicated. The oven floor was, or should have been, swept clean with the long-handled hearth broom kept for this purpose. A small fire was started on the oven floor using the same principles used in starting a fire on the hearth. As the fire took hold, larger and larger pieces of wood were added to the oven. The oven door was closed between each addition of wood. After the largest logs were added to the oven, the door was closed and the fire allowed to burn to ashes. This process took anywhere from three to five hours, depending on the type of wood being used, the construction of the oven, and the efficiency of its draft system. "When the fire had burned to ashes, the iron peel or a fire-shovel was used to remove any of the larger pieces of charred wood. The hearth broom was dipped in water to keep it from catching fire, and the rest of the ashes were swept out of the oven. In a beehive oven with a built-n ash chute, the ashes could be pushed right down onto the hearth. There were many methods used by colonial cooks to test the readiness of the oven for baking. They might hold their arms just inside the oven opening and see how high they could count--less than five, too hot--more than fifteen, not hot enough. Sometimes the cook tossed cornmeal onto the oven floor. If it turned black immediately, the oven was too hot; if it turned a nice, even brown, then the oven was ready. Having determined that the oven was ready for baking, the items to be baked were placed into the various parts of the oven, dense breads in the middle, and light breads or cakes toward the front. This permitted easy removal when their cooking time was done. The door was sealed and the food left to bake in the heat retained in these brick ovens. "One essential piece of equipment for handling baked goods was the peel, a long-handled, shovel-like tool that permitted the cook safely to put breads and baked dishes into the heated oven and remove them once baked. Peels were either made of wood (similar to those used today by pizza bakers) or of sheet iron. When bread was to be baked without a pan, right on the oven floor, the dough was placed on the flat wide face of the peel and, with a twisting motion of the wrist by the cook, was turned off the peel onto the oven floor." ---Pleasures of Colonial Cooking, prepared by the Miller-Cory House Museum [New Jersey Historical Society: Newark NJ] 1982 (p. 14-16). How much did they charge? "As in Europe, the price of bread was usually kept constant and the weight of each loaf varied with the price of grain...New Haven in 1650 directed that when wheat was six and one-half shillings a bushel, the one-penny white loaf should weigh six ounces...Unfortunately for the bakers, these town regulations were not offset, as they were in Europe, by a guild monopoly ...Throughout the colonial period the baking trade continued to be regulated, although the bread laws became less severe both in scope and impact as the 18th century drew to a close..."---Baking in America (p. 27) Colonial food preservation & cold storage How did people in colonial times keep food cold? Excellent question! As we know, folks in 17th-18th century Canada/North America did not have ready access to the power-generated refrigerators we know today. Wealthy people sometimes had underground cellars packed with ice and straw, offering "natural" cooling space. Most folks in your target period still relied on ancient preservation methods which were not temperature-dependent. In sum? Drying, dehydrating, canning & salting. How were the foods we normally refrigerate today stored in colonial times? Depends upon the item:
0 Comments
|
Archives
May 2021
CategoriesHonor CodeI am a unique child whose actions are based on these fundamental beliefs, my word is the truth, work is my own, I respect the rights feelings, and properties of others.
|