I often wonder what it would be like to wake up in a different age. How different would my outlook on life be? Would I relish the structure or rebel? Would I struggle to accept societal expectations? I think I know I the answer to these questions as through the ages every class and gender has questioned preconceived ideas we have about how to live, what should be accepted and tolerated and what should not.
Like ideas and philosophies on life, food has also changed and develop. In our narrow span of life it’s often not seen how much living has been done and that those which have gone before us have influenced our way of life far more then we even realise. We have many people telling us how we should be living and what we should be putting our energies into but it’s the people who have gone before, who have experienced the worse and the best that can steer us today. Food is just an example of how we change things for a combination of reasons, time pressures, a wider range of ingredients, flavours from across the world and changing diets have all played there part in the development of our food.
These recipes from the Tudor’s remind me that some ingredients they thought were good then were in fact deadly, convenience foods were unknown and everything would take a very long time to prepare and with great effort. That tried a tested methods meant preserving food was of importance and the techniques of cooking some now lost is different since we have different cooking equipment. Even our meal itinerary of the day was different in Tudor times. Eating at there dinner at 11am for instance since lunch did not exist and supper later on in the early evening.
I begin my quest for historic food with two books Elinor Fettiplace’s receipt book with Hilary Spurling instruction and The good housewife’s jewel by Thomas Dawson introduction by Maggie Black. Both have been enjoyable reads and I hope to extend my library with historical cookbooks in the future.
The first recipe I’ll attempt is from Elinor Fettiplace’s book. It’s an almond pudding on page 49. This pudding is steamed and as Hilary Spurling mention steam pudding have fallen out of fashion. Only Christmas pudding is steamed today and many of us buy them from a factory which has done the hard work for us. There are a number of steamed pudding in the book and it did make me think the only steamed pudding I’ve had is at a pub lunch when I was a child. Since then I haven’t seen them. I don’t remember having steamed puddings at school either. But there is no denying how succulent they are, so I began with this one.
I followed Hilary Spurling advice and followed her measurements. It was very easy to make, the time taken up by the steaming alone. The taste was wonderful, though the texture was quite heavy. I could only manage a few mouthfuls after a meal as a sweet treat.
I then then thought how I would modernise, since I liked the flavours so much. I made again and this time removed the breadcrumbs for flour, and the cream for butter, almonds, almond essence, rose water, butter, veg suet, mace, nutmeg. Eggs. Etc. This turned it into a light springy sponge but with the same flavours of the original. Delicious.
110g Self-raising flour
75g Almonds
2 eggs
110g sugar
55g Butter
55g Vegetable Suet
1 tsp Almond Essence
3 tbsp Rose water
½ tsp mace
½ tsp nutmeg
Combine butter, sugar, spices, essence and rose water, add in eggs, one at a time. Then fold in the suet, almonds and sieve in the flour. Fold until it is all combined and place into a heat proof bowl. Cover with grease proof paper and foil making sure to fold in the middle to allow for expansion. Place the bowl into a saucepan of water, put a saucer at the bottom so the bowl doesn’t sit on the bottom of the saucepan and fill the water up to about ¾ and cover with a lid. Check every of often that the water hasn’t boiled away. Steam for one hour.
Comments