Victorian Era and 19th C Recipes Thread

[GCCC]

Dinner in Mysore in 1867:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/02/dinner-in-mysore-in-1867.html

Excerpted from the article:

"POLAO WITH ANARAS (Pine apple )
Required:- Meat 1 seer, rice 1 seer, pine-apple peeled, and cut into medium pieces 1 ½ seer, lemon juice ½ powa, or more if desired, sugar ½ seer, ginger 3 tolas, coriander-seeds 1 ½ tolas, black cumin seeds 1 tola, cloves ¼ tola, cinnamon ¼ tola, cardamom ¼ tola, saffron ¼ tola, salt 4 tolas, ghee ½ seer, and water 4 seers.
Method:- Make a saturated solution of the sugar and boil the pieces of pine-apple in it with the lemon-juice after seasoning them for about an hour or more with one tola of salt. Then boil the meat in about 4 seers of water until the latter reduces half, to less than [sic]. Heat about ½ powa of ghee in a pan and season it by frying ½ tola of black cumin, and then fry the boiled meat in the ghee after separating them from the water, till they are slightly brown and do not stick to one another, Then add the water again and allow the whole thing to boil. In the meantime heat on another oven about ½ powa of ghee in another pan and slightly fry the remaining ½ tola of black -cumin, cloves, cinnamons and cardamoms, all entire, in it. A few cassia leaves may also be fried. When the flavour of the spices fill your nose, add the rice, washed, dried and smeared with saffron, ginger and coriander seeds, all pasted, and stir till some, of the rice begin to burst. Then add the boiling meat with the water to the rice, add salt and allow the whole thing to boil under cover after stirring it well. About 10 minutes before taking it down from the oven add the pieces of pine-apples with the sugar solution. When the water dries up, pour about one powa of hot ghee and stir to render the whole mass non-sticky. Polao is now ready for the dish. Always be careful to add hot water if at any time during the preparation water runs short in the pan. This preparation and also the following ones in this chapter must be made on slow heat."

(A translation of the measurements are given at the article.)

[GCCC]

Dinner in a Pullman Dining Car in 1869:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/02/dinner-in-pullman-dining-car-in-1869.html

Excerpted from the article:

"As the source for the recipe for the day, I feel compelled to go to The table: how to buy food, how to cook it, and how to serve it (1895), by Alessandro Filippini - one-time chef at Delmonico’s famous New York restaurant.

Fillipini notes that 'antelope may be generally had through the autumn and winter months,' and gives recipes for various cuts of antelope (steak, chops, saddle, stewed, civet) cooked and served in various ways (à la Francaise, and with chestnut puree, currant jelly, cranberry sauce, port wine sauce, sauce poivrade, and sauce Colbert.) One of the suggestions is that antelope steak be cooked like venison, and served with Russian sauce. Russian Sauce is referenced multiple times in the book as recipe 211, but in the text, recipe 211 is mistakenly named Prussian sauce. Here it is:

211. Prussian Sauce. — Add to three-quarters of a pint of hot bechamel sauce (No. 154), a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, a scant teaspoonful of red pepper, three tablespoonfuls of grated horseradish, and two tablespoonfuls of cold cream. Let it boil for four minutes, meanwhile stirring it well, and use when needed."

[GCCC]

Semolina Pudding:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/02/semolina-pudding.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Semolina Pudding.
Take a pint and a half of milk, when boiling drop into it three tablespoonfuls of semolina, and stir it all together for about fifteen minutes; throw in two ounces of butter, and three ounces and a half of sifted sugar, with the grated rind of one lemon. Whilst the semolina still remains hot, beat gradually and briskly into it four eggs. Bake in a moderate oven.
Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery, c.1870."

[GCCC]

A Menu for February 19, 1892:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/02/a-menu-for-february-19-1892.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Ribs of Beef, Italian Fashion.
[From the Marketing advice for the day: One Rib of Beef, taken from the middle ribs, boned, rolled, and weighing about four pounds; or if preferred, a slice of tender Steak can be chosen, two inches thick, and weighing about three pounds.]

Put the rolled beef into a saucepan with a lump of dripping melted, and let it brown. When done upon one side, turn it to the other. Lift it up (of course being careful not to stick a fork into the fleshy part), and put it into a brown earthenware pan, not too large. Have ready a handful of parsley leaves, and the white part of two leeks cut into dice. Fry these in the fat in which the meat was browned, and when they are cooked without being at all burnt, drain them, and put them upon the beef. Add also two pickled gherkins chopped small, four cloves, and one or two outer sticks of celery cut into one-inch lengths. Pour over all a pint of the stock in which the chicken bones were stewed, and sprinkle a little pepper and salt over the meat. Cover the pan closely, and bake in a gentle oven for an hour and a half, then add a moderate-sized turnip and a carrot, cover again and bake for another hour. Take up the turnip and carrot; cut them separately into dice, and toss them in a saucepan over the fire with a small piece of butter. Put the meat on a hot dish, strain the gravy over it, and by way of garnish place the minced vegetables in little heaps here and there upon it. Serve immediately upon hot plates."

[GCCC]

Things to do with Gooseberries:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/02/things-to-do-with-gooseberries.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Gooseberry Wine of the Best Quality, resembling Champagne.
To each pint of full ripe gooseberries, mashed, add one pint of water, milk warm, in which has been dissolved one pound of single-refined sugar; stir the whole weel, and cover up the tub with a blanket, to preserve the heat generated by the fermentation of the ingredients: let them remain in this vessel 3 days, stirring them once or twice or thrice a day; strain off the liquor through a sieve, afterwards through a coarse linen cloth; put it into the cask; it will ferment without yeast. Let the cast be kept full with some of the liquor reserved for the purpose. It will ferment for 10 days, sometimes for 3 weeks; when ceased, and only a hissing noise remains, draw off 2 or 3 bottles, according to the strength you wish it to have, from every 20 pint cask, and fill up the cask with brandy or whiskey, but brandy is preferable. To make it very good, and that it may keep well, add as much Sherry, together with ¼ oz. of isinglass dissolved in water to make it quite liquid: stir the whole well. Bung the cask up, and surround the bung with clay; the closer it is bunged, the better; a fortnight after, if it be clear at top, taste it;  if not sweet enough, add more sugar: 22 lbs. is the just quantity in all for 20 pints of wine; leave the wine 6 months in the cask; but after being quite fine, the sooner it is bottled the more it will sparkle and resemble Champagne. The process s should be carried on in a place where the heat is between 48o and 54o Fahr. Currrant wine may be made in the same manner.

Mackenzie’s Ten Thousand Receipts (Philadelphia, 1865) by Colin MacKenzie."

[GCCC]

Quails, Diverse Ways:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/02/quails-diverse-ways.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Quails au Gratin.
Bone nine quails; cut a piece of bread in the form of a cork, about two inches and a half in diameter, and two inches and a half high; surround it with a very thin slice of bacon fat; place it in the middle of the dish; garnish this round with farce fine (No. 34), sloping off to the edge of the dish all round. Season the quails with a little herbaceous mixture,* fines herbes, and salt; nil them with farce, so as to give them their original plumpness; place these with the breasts outwards on the farce: put a little more farce on the birds, so as to leave the breasts bare only; cover these with a thin slice of fat bacon, and bake them in a sharp oven about three quarters of an hour: when done, take out the roll of bread, and, with a sponge, soak up all the fat; fill this well with a good brown Italian (No. 68), or scolloped truffles, in a gipsey sauce (No. 71) When served with truffles, an under fillet larded with truffles may be served between the birds; otherwise put a fried comb of bread or larded fillet. Glaze the breasts and serve.
Simpson's Cookery, Improved and Modernised (London, 1834) by John Simpson (Cook)"

[GCCC]

A Food Tale: Trinidad, 1840:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/02/a-food-tale-trinidad-1840.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Today’s recipes are for plantain, and they are taken from Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book, printed in Madras in 1860 for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Green plantain.
Roast four green plantains, and peel off their skin; grind up a spoonful of dhall, four dry red chillies, and fry in a little ghee; then grind the whole together, adding a little salt.

Plantain Pudding.
Take some plantains, and have them fried in their skins; which when done, you must peel and cut the fruit in slices; add sugar to the taste, the juice of two or three limes, the peel of one cut into small thin pieces, a glass of white wine, half a teaspoonful of cloves with a little butter; this is to be put into a paste, and boiled as an apple pudding. Cream or lemon and sugar with butter is a great improvement."

[GCCC]

"Feast of St. James the Greater"

No dates for this one, so if anyone would care to chime in, that would be appreciated...

Excerpted from the article:

"It is also customary for the English to eat oysters today. It is said that 'Who eats oysters on St James's Day will never want!' In France, it is not the oyster that is eaten, but the scallop -- named 'coquilles St.Jacques' -- 'shells of St. James' -- in his honor. A few recipes to try:

    Coquilles St. Jacques à la Provençale (serves 6)

    1/3 cup yellow onions, minced
    1 TBSP butter
    1 1/2 TBSP minced scallions
    1 clove garlic, minced
    1 1/2 pounds washed bay scallops (or sea scallops, quartered)
    Salt and pepper
    3/4 cup sifted flour, in a dish
    2 TBSP butter
    1 TBSP olive oil
    2/3 cup dry white wine
    1 small bay leaf
    1/8 teaspoon thyme
    6 buttered scallop dishes or baking shells
    1/4 cup grated good-quality Gruyère or Swiss cheese
    2 TBSP butter in 6 pieces

    Cook onions in 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan for about 5 minutes, or until they are tender and translucent but not brown. Stir in scallions and garlic and sauté slowly 1 minute more. Dry scallops and cut them into slices 1/4 inch thick. Just before cooking, sprinkle the scallops with salt and pepper, roll in flour and shake off excess flour. Sauté scallops quickly in very hot 2 tablespoons butter mixed with olive oil until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Pour wine into skillet with scallops, add herbs and cooked onion mixture. Cover skillet and simmer 5 minutes. Then uncover and, if necessary, remove scallops and boil down sauce rapidly for a few minutes until slightly thickened. Correct seasoning and discard bay leaf. Spoon scallops and sauce into shells. Sprinkle with cheese and dot with butter. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to broil. Just before serving, run under moderately hot broiler 3 to 4 minutes to heat through and melt cheese."

Other recipes are in the article.

[GCCC]

"Stocking Your Kitchen, 1888"

http://gailcarriger.blogspot.com/2012/09/stocking-your-kitchen-1888.html

"A list of necessities for the kitchen of a Middle Class Victorian family of four in India, 1888."

[GCCC]

Trembling Beef and Bombarded Veal:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/trembling-beef-and-bombarded-veal.html

Excerpted from the article:

"BOMBARDED VEAL is a fillet of veal having the bone taken out its place supplied with a rich stuffing of which fat scraped bacon forms a great part, with various condiments to which are added cream and egg; besides which cuts are made into the fillet at about an inch apart, into some of which is put a portion of the stuffing, into others boiled and minced spinach, and into others chopped oysters and beef marrow. In this state having a veal caul wrapped round it, it is placed in a pot with a small quantity of water and baked. The time necessary for its being done will of course depend upon the weight of the fillet. See BAKING. We pass no opinion on this dish."

[GCCC]

What Tripe Is, and Is Not, and How to Cook It:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/what-tripe-is-and-is-not-and-how-to.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Fried Tripe and Onions.
Cut the tripe into slips of four inches long and three inches wide, dip them in batter and fry them in boiling lard. On serving, put under it slices of onions cut one inch thick, and fry them in the same manner. Or instead of slips of tripe, pieces of cow-heel may be used; and let melted butter be sent in a sauce-boat with a little mustard in it, and, if approved, a table spoonful of vinegar."

[GCCC]

Elegant Sauces for Fish from the 14th to 19th Centuries:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/elegant-sauces-for-fish-from-14th-to.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Artichoke, an elegant Fish-sauce.
When bottoms are prepared for winter use, collect nil the leaves, cut off the coarser part, and let them simmer till they will pulp; strain the liquor, let it settle, and to every pint add three pints and a half of white wine and one of vinegar; put it into an earthen vessel, and let it simmer half an hour in a bain-marie; let it cool, and bottle it. When it is used, rub a little flour into a quarter of a pound of butter, and put it into three table-spoonfuls of the sauce, or put it in, in pieces, and melt it, mixed with a little flour, as melted butter; add four table-spoonfuls of cream, veloute, or rich stock, and let it boil."

[GCCC]

How to Cook a Sea-Gull:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/how-to-cook-sea-gull.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Sea Gulls, to Cook.
Take a sharp knife and put in under the skin at the back part of the neck, and carry down to the tail feathers; after which pull off the skin down to the middle of the legs, and next take out the intestines. Leave the birds in salt and water for eight hours, when their fishy taste will be found to be quite gone, and you can either cook them as you would pigeon pie or in any other way.
The country house, a collection of useful information and recipes, ed. by I.E.B.C. (1866)"

[GCCC]

Nineteenth Century Ideas for Carrots:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/nineteenth-century-ideas-for-carrots.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Carrot Jam.
No. 1.—Boil the carrots soft enough to be eaten, then peel and mash them; weigh equal carrot and sugar (lump) ; make a syrup of the sugar by first boiling it with a little water, put in the carrot and boil until the jam (when cold) will shape and is stiff.
No. 2.—Boil a few fresh carrots quite tender, rub them through a colander, and afterwards through a sieve; then to every pound of pulp add a pound of loaf sugar, and boil it to a jam. When nearly cold add the juice of two lemons and the rind grated very fine. Choose deep-coloured carrots, and use good sugar. When the lemon-juice and rind are well mixed put it into jars and cover with brandied paper.
No. 3.—Pare some good carrots, and to every 10lb. add 1 ½ pints of cold water; cover them close in the preserving-pan, and let them boil till the fruit will mash with a spoon. To every pound of fruit put 3/4 lb. of loaf sugar. Keep the carrots well stirred, to prevent burning; let it boil till it will set firm. To imitate apricot jam, put a few bruised kernels of apricots to flavour.
No. 4.—Take 5 lb. of carrots, clean them, and boil until quite soft, as for dinner. Mash them very fine, rub through a wire-sieve, boil the pulp again with 5 lb. of sugar twenty minutes, add the juice of two lemons whilst boiling. Then take it off the fire, and stir in 1oz. of tartaric acid, and ½ pint of orange wine.
No. 5.—Take a pound of carrots, boil them till quite soft, strain the water from them, mash them to a fine pulp; add ½ lb. sugar and the peel of a candied lemon, and boil together for half an hour.
The Country House, a collection of useful information and recipes, ed. by I.E.B.C. (1866)"

[GCCC]

Gingered Lettuce or Lettuce as Ginger?:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/gingered-lettuce-or-lettuce-as-ginger.html

Excerpted from the article:

"... In truth, these are recipes for mock ginger.

Lettuce Ginger.
Peel off the outer coat of the tender stalks of shot lettuce; cut in 1 in. or 2 in. lengths; throw it into water; for each 1 lb. throw in a teaspoonful of cayenne pepper, and a little salt. Let it stand two days. Strain and wash in clean water. Clarify an equal weight of fine loaf-sugar. Take 1 ½ oz. of good ginger for every 1 lb.; soak it in boiling water and slice it; boil with the sugar fifteen minutes. Pour it boiling hot over the lettuce, which must be well drained. Keep back the ginger, which boil with the syrup three times (at intervals of two or three days), and pour boiling hot on the lettuce. At the last boiling add the juice of two or three lemons. If the syrup is allowed to cool, it spoils the colour of the ginger.

Lettuce, to Preserve.
Take the stalks of white cos-lettuce, when tender and not stringy; skin it and cut it in pieces; blanch it in water two or three days. Make a thin syrup, to a quart of which add 3oz. of sliced ginger; when cold pour it on the lettuce. Boil up the syrup every other day for a fortnight, and at the last time make it thick, and add lemon-peel. The syrup will require to be boiled up often, and reduced or strengthened as found necessary.

As it turns out, recipes for making mock ginger with lettuce stalks are quite common in nineteenth century cookery books..."

[GCCC]

Hot Sauce: some recipes from history:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/hot-sauce-some-recipes-from-history.html

Excerpted from the article:

"...The following recipe comes from a wonderful British Colonial cookery book with the full title of Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book: Comprising Numerous Directions for Plain Wholesome Cookery, Both Oriental and English, with Much Miscellaneous Matter, Answering All General Purposes of Reference Connected with Household Affairs Likely to be Immediately Required by Families, Messes, and Private Individuals, Residing at the Presidencies Or Out-stations (Madras, 1860.)

Tapp’s Sauce
Take of green sliced mangoes, salt, sugar and raisins each eight ounces; red chillies and garlic each four ounces; green ginger six ounces; vinegar three bottles; lime-juice one pint. Pound the several ingredients well; then add the vinegar and lime juice; stop the vessel close, and expose it to the sun a whole month, stirring or shaking it well daily; then strain it through a cloth, bottle and cork it tight. Obs.—The residue makes an excellent chutney."

[GCCC]

A Beverage for your Pocket Flask (1866):

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/a-beverage-for-your-pocket-flask-1866.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Beverage for the Pocket Flask.
Melt or dissolve by a gentle heat l oz. of black currant jelly in pint of syrup; when cold, add the same quantity of rum. In summer the above is best; for the winter months, do as follows :—Pick fine dry black currants, put them into a stone jar, and then the jar in a saucepan of boiling water till the juice is extracted; strain, and to every pint add ½ lb. of loaf sugar; give one boil, and skim well; when cold add the same quantity of rum (or gin, if you prefer it), shake well, and bottle.
The Country House: A Collection of Useful Information and Recipes … by I.E.B.C. (1866)"

[GCCC]

Carrot as a substitute for eggs?:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/carrot-as-substitute-for-eggs.html

Excerpted from the article:

"...from the Adelaide Observer (South Australia), of 19 July 1845.

Carrots a Substitute for Eggs in Puddings.
It is not generally known, and will not, perhaps, be credited, when it is observed that boiled carrots, when properly prepared, form an admirable succedaneum for eggs in the making of puddings. They must, for this purpose, be well boiled and mashed, and afterwards passed through a coarse cloth, or horsehair sieve. The pulp, when thus cleared of any chance fibrous or granular matter, may be introduced among the other ingredients constituting the pudding, with the total omission of eggs, in a quantity proportionate to the size of the former. A pudding composed partly of the above material will be found to be considerably lighter than if the same had been made with eggs, and will impart a far more grateful and agreeable flavour. Upon the principle of economy, the above fact is well worthy the prudent housewife's attention, and there are some housekeepers, approved culinary practitioners too, who, in making their Christmas plum-puddings, adopt the recipe under notice in preference to using eggs for this purpose. Any person who will try the above experiment upon a small scale, will be fully satisfied with the justice of the remarks here submitted. —Sun."

[GCCC]

You Say Tomato, I Say Tomata:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/you-say-tomato-i-say-tomata.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Mock Tomata.
Pulp some roasted apples, colour them with turmeric and cochineal, or beet-juice; add chili vinegar, and bring it as near as possible to the taste and colour of the tomata; stir into each quart a quarter of an ounce of garlic, half an ounce of shalot, a tea-spoonful of cayenne, and a little salt; simmer gently for some time; it ought to be of the consistency of thick cream; put it well up in half pint bottles. This is an elegant sauce: if well made, it is hardly distinguishable from the real tomata. Great attention is necessary to give it the colour and taste. Fresh chilis are better than cayenne."

[GCCC]

All Aboard for Oxtail Soup:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/all-aboard-for-oxtail-soup.html

Excerpted from the article:

"... As the dish of the day, I have chosen Oxtail Soup – it was a staple winter dish when I was growing up in the north of England, and I cannot believe I have not given you a recipe for it before. I have chosen one from a book I have just discovered, and which I am sure I will use again. The book is indeed as it claims “A book that every family needs.” The full title I will abbreviate as: Consult Me, to Know how to Cook ... Consult Me on Confectionery ... Consult Me on Household Management and Economy ... Consult Me on Diseases and Their Remedies ... on a Thousand Other Things (London, 1871.) They don’t publish books like that anymore.

Oxtail Soup.
Joint the tails, and let them soak for some time in warm water. Put into a gallon stew-pan 8 cloves, 2 or 3 onions; allspice and black pepper, of each # a drachm; cayenne pepper, 1 chm; cover with cold water; skim as long as any scum rises; cover the pan very close, and simmer till the meat becomes tender, and will easily leave the bones. A table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup and a glass of wine will be a great improvement."

[GCCC]

Provisions for a Migrant Voyage to Canada (1851):

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/provisions-for-migrant-voyage-to-canada.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Sea-Voyage Gingerbread.
Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, and cut up in it a pound and a quarter of fresh butter; rub the butter well into the flour, and then mix in a pint of West India molasses and a pound of the best brown sugar. Beat eight eggs till very light. Stir into the beaten egg two glasses or a jill [gill] of brandy. Add also to the egg a teacup-full of ground ginger, and a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, with a tea-spoonful of soda melted in a little warm water. Wet the flour, &C., with this mixture till it becomes a soft dough. Sprinkle a little flour on your paste-board, and with a broad knife spread portions of the mixture thickly and smoothly upon it. The thickness must be equal all through; therefore spread it carefully and evenly, as the dough will be too soft to roll out. Then with the edge of a tumbler dipped in flour, cut it out into round cakes. Have ready square pans, slightly buttered; lay the cakes in them sufficiently far apart to prevent their running into each other when baked. Set the pans into a brisk oven, and bake the cakes well, seeing that they do not burn.
You may cut them out small with the lid of a cannister (or something similar) the usual size of gingerbread nuts.

These cakes will keep during a long voyage, and are frequently carried to sea. Many persons find highly-spiced gingerbread a preventive to sea-sickness."

[GCCC]

Spanish Ham, and a recipe for Meat Omelet (1851):

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/spanish-ham-and-recipe-for-meat-omelet.html

Excerpted from the article:

"Therefore all writing is a sham,
Where there is wanting Spanish ham."

"…So much space has been filled with these meritorious bacons and hams, that we must be brief with our remaining bill of fare. For a pisto or meat omelette take eggs, which are to be got almost everywhere; see that they are fresh by being pellucid; beat these huevos trasparentes well up; chop up onions and whatever savoury herbs you have with you; add small slices of any meat out of your hamper, cold turkey, ham, &c.; beat it all up together and fry it quickly. Most Spaniards have a peculiar knack in making these tortillas, revueltas de huevos, which to fastidious stomachs are, as in most parts of the Continent, a sure resource to fall back upon. The Guisado, or stew, like the olla, can only be really done in a Spanish pipkin, and of those which we import, the Andalucian ones draw flavour out the best. This dish is always well done by every cook in every venta, barring that they are apt to put in bad oil, and too much garlic, pepper, and saffron. Superintend it, therefore, yourself, and take hare, partridge, rabbit, chicken, or whatever you may have foraged on the road; it is capital also with pheasant, as we proved only yesterday; cut it up, save the blood, the liver, and the giblets; do not wash the pieces, but dry them in a cloth; fry them with onions in a teacup of oil till browned; take an olla, put in these bits with the oil, equal portions of wine and water, but stock is better than water; claret answers well, Valdepeñas better; add a bit of bacon, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, pimientos, a bunch of thyme or herbs; let it simmer, carefully skimming it; half an hour before serving add the giblets; when done, which can be tested by feeling with a fork, serve hot. The stew should be constantly stirred with a wooden spoon, and grease, the ruin of all cookery, carefully skimmed off as it rises to the surface. When made with proper care and with a good salad, it forms a supper for a cardinal, or for Santiago himself."

[GCCC]

The Garbanzo in Spanish Cookery in 1851:

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2015/07/the-garbanzo-in-spanish-cookery-in-1841.html

Excerpted from the article:

"... This is the olla en grande, such as Don Quixote says was eaten only by canons and presidents of colleges; like turtle-soup, it is so rich and satisfactory that it is a dinner of itself. A worthy dignitary of Seville, in the good old times, before reform and appropriation had put out the churches' kitchen fire, and whose daily pot-luck was transcendental, told us, as a wrinkle, that he on feast-days used turkeys instead of chickens, and added two sharp Ronda apples, and three sweet potatoes of Malaga. His advice is worth attention: he was a good Roman Catholic canon, who believed everything, absolved everything, drank everything, ate everything, and digested everything. In fact, as a general rule, anything that is good in itself is good for an olla, provided, as old Spanish books always conclude, that it contains nothing contrary to the holy mother church, to orthodoxy, and to good manners—"que no contiene cosa que se oponga d nuestra madre Iglesia, y santa fe catolica, y buenas costumbres." Such an olla as this is not to be got on the road, but may be made to restore exhausted nature when halting in the cities. Of course, every olla must everywhere be made according to what can be got. In private families the contents of No. 1, the soup, is served up with bread, in a tureen, and the frugal table decked with the separate contents of the olla in separate platters; the remains coldly serve, or are warmed up, for supper. The vegetables and bacon are absolute necessaries; without the former an olla has neither grace nor sustenance; la olla sin verdura, ni tiene gracia ni hartura, while the latter is as essential in this stew as a text from Saint Augustine is in a sermon:
No hay olla sin tocino,
Ni sermon sin Agustino.

(No pot without bacon,
Nor sermon without Augustine.)"

[J. Wilhelm]

If I may make a suggestion, Mr. GCCC:

I've noticed you have amassed quite a collection of Victorian Era or at least historical recipes.  There was talk some time ago between Uncle Bert and myself about starting a thread with Victorian Era recipes, on account that progress in the Victorian Era Foods thread has slowed down quite a bit (since we have collected so many brand names).

Would you care to contribute to this new thread?  Perhaps split this topic to start a bona fide historical recipe thread?  

[GCCC]

I have no objections; it just seemed like this was "the" place.

If I understand you correctly, the historical recipes would go on the new thread?