Elaby's LiveJournal - 57 Academics

As many of you have probably noticed, we're back from the cruise! It was incredibly awesome. I plan on writing up a hugemongous post about it at some point, but first, boiled pudding!

Yeah, so, the day I got out of work before Christmas (er, December 23rd, I think) I decided that I HAD TO MAKE A PLUM PUDDING. I had always wanted to try a recipe from a Victorian cookbook like Cassell's Household Guide, and I was reading through the section about Christmas food and decorations to get me into the proper festive spirit. So I called up caitirin and told her that I really wanted to make a boiled pudding that night. She was v. amused. So I stopped at the fabric store and got a yard of unbleached muslin, and then we went to the grocery store for the few ingredients we needed.

Here's the recipe we used:

Another Recipe.—Half a pound of currants, half a pound of raisins stoned, three table-spoonfuls of flour, three tablespoonfuls of bread grated fine, six ounces of beef suet minced, eight eggs beaten up, five ounces of brown sugar, a small grated nutmeg, a pinch of salt, three cloves pounded, and half a teaspoonful of ground allspice; a glass of brandy may be added, if it be liked; mix all the ingredients carefully together, and boil for three or four hours.

The only thing we didn't use was beef suet (we couldn't find any at our grocery store, and caitirin was happy to veto it in favor of vegetable Crisco). We also halved the recipe and modified the amounts of flour and bread. I mean, I'm no master baker, but I can't quite imagine a pleasing consistency being the result of eight eggs and only three tablespoons of flour and three of grated bread. I could be wrong O_o

Considering that the recipe for Plum Pudding right above this one calls for only six eggs and a whole pound of flour, I figure people generally put in whatever they had on hand or could easily acquire. Also, other recipes for puddings include such helpfully vague measurements as "the quantity of flour and bread-crumbs added will depend upon the richness required in the pudding." Another recipe said to add enough flour to make the batter the proper consistency. I guess they assume you know what that is.

( Pictures under the cut! )

We got back from Vermont yesterday, and it's so wonderful to have three whole days before we have to go back to work. Yay for Labor Day! We stayed at a beautiful Victorian inn where I went nuts for the architecture and tried (with limited success) to map the whole place. I couldn't quite figure out the outside shape - that is, they gave us a very bare-bones map, but I had serious issues reconciling it with the inside - so I just drew up how I thought the inside worked. There were lots of fascinating little sets of staircases that led to other halls full of rooms, and they obviously were shorter than the staircase that went down to the ground floor, so the whole place had to have multiple levels. It was so neat. Anyway, the awesome Victorianness propelled me into finally scanning those pictures I bought when we went antiquing.

( Photographs and amusing magazine ads )

I just had an epiphany - the reason I've been spelling the word traveling "wrong" for so long is that I persist in using the British English "travelling" with two Ls! That makes me feel better.

www.victorianlondon.org is not only a great research site (yay primary sources!), it's also a pretty never-ending source of amusement. I thought I'd post a bunch of my favorite snippets here :D They're things that I either find particularly adorable, funny, or mind-boggling. I get such a kick out of the way things are put in the Victorian style of writing. I'm sure you'll see what I mean XD

These are all from www.victorianlondon.org, and there's something about the way the site is coded that I can't figure out how to link to specific articles. If there's anything you're particularly interested in, ask me and I'll tell you how to find it. The search feature on the left is also useful.

( First, adorable Victorian letters from gentlemen to their BFFs on the occasion of their marriage )

( Everyday advice for ladies )

The next advice book I delved into was Cassell's Household Guide, which is four volumes of just about everything you could ever want to know, from how to manage your household expenses to first aid to training dogs. I found the link for this one, actually! Cassell's Household Guide. Particularly interesting (and useful for both Watson fic and my own Victorian characters, one of whom is a medical student) are the "Domestic Medicine" sections, which these next excerpts come from.

( What to do when your clothes catch fire, and other things )