Oh, Victorians.
Mar. 19th, 2010 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elabyI love Victorians so much! I've been reading a Victorian guide to cookery bit by bit over the past couple of months (it's part of Cassell's Household Guide, I think, available on www.victorianlondon.org) and along with recipes ranging from the tantalizing to the frightening, I've come across several bizarre and amusing gems. Here are a handful:
Large forks should not be admitted into modern kitchens, where they only do mischief.
??? Forks? Mischief? I can't say those two words have ever come together in my head before XD
In short, considering the carp's intelligent and familiar disposition ; considering that it is a want of the respect due to age to partake of a creature who may be older than your great-grandfather, should he be alive; and considering that, to eat, he is only a fourth-rate fish, we prefer petting and feeding a carp to feeding on him.
Hee! Only the Victorians would insist on politeness when dealing with fish XD
On the virtues of fat, with a surprise bonus of the romanticized working class:
The housewife at least ought to be thoroughly convinced of the great importance of all kinds of fat in family dishes, and never to waste any; but, on the contrary, to procure all she can at an economical rate. There are families in which every scrap of fat which we helped to its members seated at table is left on the plate, and thrown to the cat or the pig. This ought never to be. It will not often happen in families who live by outdoor employment, but it will when their occupations are different. We have no right to say an unkind word about "daintiness" and the rest, if persons who are confined nearly all day long to sedentary and monotonous employment, in a close, in-door atmosphere, have not the sharp-set appetite of the ploughman who hears the singing of the lark and feels the freshness of the winds of March, from misty daybreak to ruddy sunset; only, if they can eat no meat but lean, we urge them to use the fat under some disguise.
From the muffin recipe:
Once possessed of the iron plate (which you will be able to obtain without difficulty from any ironmonger), a few trials will put you in the way; and if you have one or two failures at first, they will be eaten with the greater relish because they are your failures.
Uh. Okay. Your failures taste better because you failed!
Before toasting a muffin, cut it nearly in two, leaving it slightly attached in the middle. When toasted brown and crisp on both sides, slip the butter into the gaping slit, and serve on a plate not quite red-hot.
OMFG NOM. This sounds so delicious.
And on the merits of sugar! Man, so much in our lives is a backlash against Victorian society.
And as we have said a few words about fat, so now we would call the attention of house-wives to the importance of sugar as an article of food. Its effects on the constitution are similar to those of fat, and it may be used as a partial substitute for, or in addition to it.
The way these recipes are written is just so ridiculously endearing XD Talking about apple dumplings:
Then work the crust round them [the apples], closing it at the top with a clever twist, and tie them, not too tight, nor yet too loose, in cloths floured inside, and boil galloping an hour and a half.
Then, out of baking and into fish:
After cleaning your fish, salt them for a night. Throw them into as much boiling water as will cover them.
The use of "throw" here, after such delicate language throughout the whole thing leading up to it, gives me the best mental images of a modest and thrifty Victorian housewife violently hurling fish into boiling water.
For broiled mackerel:
Remove the head; you may leave the tail - it will make the dish look more important.
*cracks up* LOVE VICTORIANS.
Large forks should not be admitted into modern kitchens, where they only do mischief.
??? Forks? Mischief? I can't say those two words have ever come together in my head before XD
In short, considering the carp's intelligent and familiar disposition ; considering that it is a want of the respect due to age to partake of a creature who may be older than your great-grandfather, should he be alive; and considering that, to eat, he is only a fourth-rate fish, we prefer petting and feeding a carp to feeding on him.
Hee! Only the Victorians would insist on politeness when dealing with fish XD
On the virtues of fat, with a surprise bonus of the romanticized working class:
The housewife at least ought to be thoroughly convinced of the great importance of all kinds of fat in family dishes, and never to waste any; but, on the contrary, to procure all she can at an economical rate. There are families in which every scrap of fat which we helped to its members seated at table is left on the plate, and thrown to the cat or the pig. This ought never to be. It will not often happen in families who live by outdoor employment, but it will when their occupations are different. We have no right to say an unkind word about "daintiness" and the rest, if persons who are confined nearly all day long to sedentary and monotonous employment, in a close, in-door atmosphere, have not the sharp-set appetite of the ploughman who hears the singing of the lark and feels the freshness of the winds of March, from misty daybreak to ruddy sunset; only, if they can eat no meat but lean, we urge them to use the fat under some disguise.
From the muffin recipe:
Once possessed of the iron plate (which you will be able to obtain without difficulty from any ironmonger), a few trials will put you in the way; and if you have one or two failures at first, they will be eaten with the greater relish because they are your failures.
Uh. Okay. Your failures taste better because you failed!
Before toasting a muffin, cut it nearly in two, leaving it slightly attached in the middle. When toasted brown and crisp on both sides, slip the butter into the gaping slit, and serve on a plate not quite red-hot.
OMFG NOM. This sounds so delicious.
And on the merits of sugar! Man, so much in our lives is a backlash against Victorian society.
And as we have said a few words about fat, so now we would call the attention of house-wives to the importance of sugar as an article of food. Its effects on the constitution are similar to those of fat, and it may be used as a partial substitute for, or in addition to it.
The way these recipes are written is just so ridiculously endearing XD Talking about apple dumplings:
Then work the crust round them [the apples], closing it at the top with a clever twist, and tie them, not too tight, nor yet too loose, in cloths floured inside, and boil galloping an hour and a half.
Then, out of baking and into fish:
After cleaning your fish, salt them for a night. Throw them into as much boiling water as will cover them.
The use of "throw" here, after such delicate language throughout the whole thing leading up to it, gives me the best mental images of a modest and thrifty Victorian housewife violently hurling fish into boiling water.
For broiled mackerel:
Remove the head; you may leave the tail - it will make the dish look more important.
*cracks up* LOVE VICTORIANS.
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Date: 2010-03-20 01:31 am (UTC)But seriously, marvelous, all of this--thank you for sharing :))
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Date: 2010-03-20 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 07:10 am (UTC)Victorians, you are so wrong.
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Date: 2010-03-20 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 07:13 am (UTC)I, of course, am Jack Sprat, and get most of my modest fat ration hidden in potato cakes because I'm aware that I do need a certain amount of it to function. But I suspect I am highly unusual in this respect!
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Date: 2010-03-20 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 11:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 11:41 am (UTC)And also vaguely pornographic.
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Date: 2010-03-20 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-20 08:39 pm (UTC)...Were they in the habit of petting fish? Slimy! Presumably not enjoyable for either carp or person! Then again, perhaps it just means "taking fond care of"?
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Date: 2010-03-21 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 03:54 am (UTC)And then he ran into my fork ... he ran into my fork ten times! *giggle*
You find the best stuff!
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Date: 2010-03-21 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 01:32 pm (UTC)