Today
it's my pleasure to introduce to you another guest poster, A-Z
participant Jo Wake whose blog is: JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE.
Please sample her unique point of view: we need to slow down and cook the old-fashioned way for great results worthy of the guest we entertain.
VICTORIAN
COOKING
Through
Bob Scotney of Bob’s Home for Writing, I have discovered a
wonderful series
of videos. Bob was primarily writing about Victorian kitchens, but I
was more interested in the cooking as well as the reason for the
existence of cookery books such as Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery published
in 1935 which I have mentioned many times in my blog. Today when
anyone makes something which requires stock, they use a can or a
packet of bouillon, most home cooks these days have no idea of how
the stock is made in the first place. I too have fallen into this
practice, I use age as my excuse, but I suppose time constraints are
the principle reason this practice has fallen out of use. The
ollowing video makes me want to go back to basics, although I
probably wouldn’t go so far as using a tammy cloth. This is a link
to a fascinating video which is the first of a series on Victorian
Kitchens:
I
found this video very exciting and will watch the whole series. My
mother was just such a cook as Mrs. Mott although she never worked in
the big houses nor did she ever use an old range as featured in the
video (as far as I am aware). I had never heard of tammying, which
looks like a lot of hard work, I thought using a sieve was bad
enough. But this is what the art of cookery is all about. Not just
defrosting something and shoving it in the microwave. We have lost so
much of the art of producing good food and so much is done for us
anyway. Because of that, we lose the pride of achievement which comes
from producing a good meal as well as the ability to produce food
which tastes so much better than this package stuff. Wise
Geek has
an article on the tammy cloth. This is why Matt and I love to
entertain, it allows us to stretch our cookery skills to produce
really excellent meals which we generally don’t eat every day.
I
am having a day of stealing, this recipe was from Viveca’s My
Guilty Pleasures and I asked her if I could use it. Very different
recipe, and one I shall certainly try.
Baked
Root Layer Cake, serve 6-8
350g/12oz
carrots
350g/12oz
parsnips
350g/12oz
celeriac
30ml
(2tbsp) clear honey
30ml
(2tbsp) lemon juice
85g/3oz
butter
fresh
thyme
salt
and freshly ground black pepper
1.
Preheat oven to 200C/ 390F/Gas 6. Peel and coarsely grate the
carrots, parsnip and celeriac, keeping each vegetable separate bowls.
2.
Warm honey, lemon juice and butter on low heat until melted. Season
with salt and pepper add some picked thyme leafs. Pour a third of the
honey butter mixture over each vegetable and coat well.
3.
Line a shallow 20cm/8in spring form cake tin with non-stick baking
parchment. Spoon carrots into the tin, spread evenly and press down,
repeat with parsnips and finish off with celeriac the same way.
4.
Cover with buttered foil and bake for 35 min, then remove the foil
and bake for a further 10 min until brown on top.
5.
Leave to stand for 10 min then turn out – cut in wedges and garnish
with picked thyme sprigs.
Have
a great day
Labels: Baked Root Layer Cake, Tammy
Cloth, Victorian Cooking
