June Meals According To Mrs. Beeton

Plain Family Dinners for:
Sunday - 1 Salmon, trout and parsley and butter, new potatoes. 2 fillet of veal, boiled bacon, cheek, spinach, vegetables. 3 Gooseberry tart, custard.
Monday - 1 Light gravy soup, Small meat pie, minced veal with rolled bacon, spinach and potatoes. 2 Raspberry and currant tart.
Tuesday - 1 Baked mackerol, potatoes. 2 Boiled leg of lamb with young carrots. 3 Lemon pudding. Wednesday - 1 Vegetable soup. 2 Calf s liver and bacon, peas hashed lamb from remains of cold joint. 3 Baked gooseberry pudding.
Thursday - 1 Roast ribs of beef, Yorkshire pudding, peas, potatoes. 2 Stewed rhubarb and boiled rice.
Friday - 1 Cold beef and salad, cutlets and peas. 2 Boiled gooseberry pudding and baked custard pudding.
Saturday - 1 Rump steak pudding, broiled beef bones and cucumber, vegetables. 2 Bread pudding.

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Sunday - 1 Roast fore-quarter of lamb, mint sauce, peas and new potatoes. 2 Gooseberry pudding, strawberry tartlets, fondue.
Monday - 1 Cold lamb and salad, stowed neck of veal and peas, young carrots and new potatoes. 2 Almond pudding.
Tuesday - 1 Green pea soup,2 Roast ducks stuffed, gravy, peas and new potatoes. 3 Baked ratafia pudding.
Wednesday - Roast leg of mutton, summer cabbage, potatoes. 2 Gooseberry and rice pudding.
Thursday - 1 Fried soles, melted butter, potatoes. 2 Sweetbreads, hashed mutton, vegetables. 3 Bread and butter pudding.
Friday - 1 Asparagus soup. 2 Boiled beef, young carrots and new potatoes, suet dumplings. 3 College puddings.
Saturday - 1 Cold boiled beef and salad, lamb cutlets and green peas. 2 Boiled gooseberry pudding and plain cream.
 
 Things in Season
Fish - Carp, crayfish, herrings, lobsters, mackerel, mullet, pike, prawns, salmon, soles, tench, trout, turbot.
Meat - Beef, lamb, mutton, veal, buck venison.
Poultry - Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, plovers, pullets, rabbits, turkey poults, wheatears.
Vegetables - Artichokes, asparagus, beans, cabbages, carrots, cucumbers, lettuces, onions, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radishes, small salads, sea kale, spinach, various herbs.
Fruit - Apricots, cherries, currants, gooseberries, melons, nectarines, peaches, pears, pineapples, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries.

Spring Onions

I have harvested a nice bunch of spring onions and now am in need of something to do with them.

Spring Onions

The Kitchen & Flower Garden 1856
"Spring onions being in great request to be eaten raw in salads, as well as for other culinary purposes, the superabundant plants may be drawn from the rows as wanted. But great care should be taken, in so doing not to disturb the rest, nor should the completion of the thinning be too long delayed."

The Young Housewife's Daily Assistant 1864
"SALADS GENERALLY USED - Cos lettuces, cabbage lettuces, endive, beetroot (boiled), celery, cucumber, spring onions, shalots, watercresses, radishes, tarragon, chervil, chives, mustard and cress, &c. Every kind of salad must be quite fresh cut; it must be trimmed, and carefully washed in two or three waters; then put into a coarse cloth and dried, by shaking it up and down; cut or break the salad into pieces half an inch broad; then add the dressing as directed in the following receipt; or it may be served with oil and vinegar, two table-spoonfils of oil to one of vinegar, a saltspoonful of salt, and half a saltspoonful of white pepper."

 "SALAD DRESSING - Boil three fresh eggs for ten minutes; when cold, rub the yolks to powder; season with half a saltspoonful of white pepper, a saltspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of flour of mustard, a saltspoonful of sifted loaf sugar; mix in the beaten yolk of one egg; add by degrees four tablespoonfuls of salad (Lucca) oil, and drop by drop two teaspoonfuls of tarragon vinegar, and one tablespoonful and a half of vinegar. Be careful to stir the same way all the time. The dressing should look like rich cream. Pour it on to the salad; stir lightly with a fork and spoon, and serve immediately. This quantity will be sufficient for four persons."

The Gastronomic Regenerator 1852
"Oignons Printaniers au Sirop doree - Peel about forty spring onions, each about the size of a walnut, put them into a stewpan, with one ounce of butter and one of powdered sugar, toss them occasionally over the fire, (but be careful not to break the outer skin,) until covered with a light glaze; cover with a white stock and stew very gently till quite done, drain them upon a cloth, dress neatly upon a border of mashed potatoes, reduce and skim the stock till nearly a glaze, add two pats of butter, sauce over and serve."

May Meals According To Mrs. Beeton

MAY
Plain Family Dinners for:
Sunday - 1 Vegetable soup. 2 Saddle of mutton, asparagus and potatoes. 3 Gooseberry tart custards.
Monday - 1 Fried whitings, anchovy sauce. 2 Cold mutton, mashed potatoes, stewed veal. 3 Fig pudding.
Tuesday - 1 Haricot mutton made from remains of cold mutton rump steak, pie. 2 Macaroni.
Wednesday - 1 Roast loin of veal and spinach, boiled bacon, mutton cutlets and tomato sauce. 2 Gooseberry pudding and cream.
Thursday - 1 Spring soup. 2 Roast leg of lamb, mint sauce, spinach curried veal and rice. 3 Lemon pudding.
Friday - 1 Boiled mackerel and parsley and butter. 2 Stewed rump steak, cold lamb and salad. 3 Baked gooseberry pudding.
Saturday - 1 Vermicelli. 2 Rump steak pudding, lamb cutlets, and cucumbers. 3 Macaroni

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Sunday - 1 Boiled salmon and lobster or caper sauce. 2 Roast lamb, mint sauce, asparagus, potatoes. 3 Plum pudding, gooseberry tart
Monday - 1 Salmon warned in remains of lobster sauce and garnished with croutons. 2 Stewed knuckle of veal and rice, cold lamb and dressed cucumber. 3 Slices of pudding warmed and served with sugar sprinkled over Baked rice pudding.
Tuesday - 1 Roast ribs of beef, horseradish sauce, Yorkshire pudding, spinach and potatoes. 2 Boiled lemon pudding.
Wednesday - 1 Fried soles, melted butter. 2 Cold beef and dressed cucumber or salad, veal cutlets and bacon. 3 Baked plum pudding.
Thursday - 1 Spring soup. 2 Calfs liver and bacon, broiled beef bones, spinach and potatoes. 3 Gooseberry tart.
Friday - 1 Roast shoulder of mutton, baked potatoes, onion sauce, spinach. 2 Currant dumplings.
Saturday - 1 Broiled mackerel, fennel sauce or plain melted butter. 2 Rump steak pie, hashed mutton, vegetables. 3 Baked arrowroot pudding.
  
Things in Season
Fish - Carp, chub, crabs, crayfish, dory, herrings, lobsters, mackerel, red and gray mullet, prawns, salmon, shad, smelts, soles, trout, turbot.
Meat - Beef, lamb, mutton, veal.
Poultry - Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, leverets, pullets, rabbits.
Vegetables - Asparagus, beans, early cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, cresses, cucumbers, lettuces, pease, early potatoes, salads, sea kale, various herbs.
Fruit Apples - green apricots, cherries, currants for tarts, gooseberries, melons, pears, rhubarb, strawberries."

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I am assuming that the 1, 2 and 3 are shortened and mean 1st course, 2nd course and 3rd course.

There are several things that I find very interesting about these lists. The first thing that struck me was the number of vegetables in the weekly meal plan. I am wondering if people in rural communities ate more greens than those in the city simply because they had more access to it or if this list is accurate of the diet of the average person.

My second realization is the large variety of meat cuts and fish that are listed. In modern life, we eat a select few types and cuts of meat. While we eat fish, most that are listed are new to me entirely.

At the end, I was completely surprised that rabbit is listed in with poultry. We have domestic rabbits and I know that people eat rabbit, but I would have listed it with game or lamb.

Kitchen Utensils

Here, I have found some very interesting items for the kitchen. Firstly a wire dish cover. How this will save the wonderful dishes that we prepare from the infestation of flies and flying bugs.

 

 

Secondly there is a wonderful water cooler that will keep ice water cold for a long while.

 

Thirdly, a very nice, new style refrigerator. The ice is kept in the top and the cool air moves down through wire shelves.

 

 

Lastly, there is the matter of this new patent ice-cream freezer.

 

 

Found in Arthur's Home Magazine 1857

Milk Griddle Cakes & Delicate Omelettes For Breakfast

Both of these recipes came from Peterson's 1862, February issue.

Milk Griddle Cake for Breakfast - Take a pound and a half of flour, and about three ounces  of butter, and a little salt; rub the butter into the flour well, and wet it with milk enough to make it a stiff paste. Knead and work it well, roll it out very thin, cut the cakes out with either a tin cutter or a tumbler, prick them all over with a fork, and bake them on a griddle. A little additional butter will make them richer, but that is according to taste; cream may be used in place of milk.

A Delicate Omelette - Break eight eggs in a stewpan, to which add a teaspoonful of very finely-chopped parsley, half ditto of salt, a pinch of pepper, and three good tablespoonfuls of cream; beat them well together; then put two ounces of butter in an omelette-pan, stand it over a sharp fire, and, as soon s the butter is hot, pour in the eggs, stir them round quickly with a spoon until delicately set; then shake the pan round, leave it a moment to color the omelette, hold the pan in a slanting position, just tap it upon the stove to bring the omelette to a proper shape, and roll the flap over the spoon; turn it upon your dish, and serve as soon as done. Take care not to do it too much.

Research: What is a ditto measure? It just means to repeat the last measure.

Conclusion: The griddle cakes reminded us of modern day English Muffins. I was surprised how well they turned out without any sweetener. The children loved them. Jam was also provided on the table but the young children ate the cakes without. The eggs were very similar to the egg puffs that I have grown up with. They were also very good. I used fresh parsley from a plant that I over-wintered in a sunny window.

Modern translation:
Griddle Cakes
4 1/2 cups flour plus some to flour your table
6 Tablespoons butter at room temperature
salt
1 - 1.5 cups of milk or cream

Mix all together, adding enough milk to make a stiff dough. Kneed it on a floured surface until smooth. Roll it out and cut with biscuit cutters or a large mouthed glass or jar. Prick the tops all over and "bake" them on a buttered griddle. They should turn out like short biscuits, not crackers.

A Delicate Omelet
8 eggs
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh parsley
half teaspoon salt
a pinch of pepper
3 Tablespoons of milk or cream
4 Tablespoons of butter

In a bowl combine the eggs, parsley, salt, pepper and milk or cream. Beat them until well mixed. Melt the butter in a pan, preferably an omelet pan. Once it is melted, add the egg mixture. Cover the pan for a moment until the egg has set. Shake the pan or loosen the egg from the sides with a spatula, being careful not to break it. Once it is done, fold the omelet onto your dish and serve hot.

Rice Custard

This was listed as a desert in Peterson's Magazine, January 1863

Rice Custard - Sweeten a pint of milk with loaf sugar, boil it with a stick of cinnamon, stir in sifted ground rice till quite thick. Take it off the fire; add the whites of 3 eggs well beaten; stir it again over the fire for 2 or 3 minutes, then put it into cups that have lain in cold water; do not wipe them. When cold, turn them out, and put them into the dish in which they are to be served; pour round them a custard made of the yolks of the eggs and a little more than a half-pint of milk. Put on the top a little red currant jelly or raspberry jam. A pretty supper dish.

Research/questions for this project:

1) What is "loaf-sugar"?
According to Lessons on Common Thing, published in 1857, the qualities of loaf-sugar are: "it is soluble, or dissolvable in water. fusible, or may be melted by heat. brittle. hard. sweet. white. solid. opaque." and is used "To sweeten our food".
Here is a wonderful resource on sugar Essay On Sugar and Treatise on Sugar Refining, 1864

2) Was there white rice or rice flour?
Searching on Google Books from 1860-1865 there are many references to white rice as well as red rice and rice flour.

3) Needed recipe for Raspberry Jam - From The Royal English and Foreign Confectioner, 1862
Raspberry Jam without seeds
Ingredients: 12lbs of raspberries, 12lbs of sugar, 2 lbs of red currants.
Time: twenty minutes
Bruise the currants in the preserving pan, with a pint of water, then add the picked raspberries; stir the whole on the fire for a few minutes, and then rub the pulp through a cane sieve into a large pan. Boil the sugar with just water enough to dissolve it, to the pear, add the pulp, boil sharply for twenty minutes, stirring the jam the whole time, and as soon as it drapes on the edge of the spoon, pour it into the pots.

Raspberry Jam with seeds.
Ingredients: 12lbs raspberries, 12lbs of sugar.
Time: twenty minutes
Boil the sugar to the ball degree, add the fruit, stir over a brisk fire for twenty minutes, when the jam will be ready to pour into the pots; finish in the usual manner.

4) Need recipe for "a custard made of the yolks of the (3) eggs and a little more than a half-pint of milk" -  Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-Day Cooking 1865
Custard Sauce, for Sweet Puddings or Tarts
Ingredients - 1/2 pint of milk, 2 eggs, 3 oz. of pounded sugar, I tablespoonful of brandy.
Mode - Put the milk in a very clean saucepan, and let it boil. Beat the eggs, stir to them the milk and pounded sugar, and put the mixture into a jug. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water; keep stirring well until it thickens, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle. Serve the sauce in a tureen, stir in the brandy, and grate a little nutmeg over the top. This sauce may be made very much nicer by using cream instead of milk; but the above recipe will be found quite good enough for ordinary purposes.

Conclusion: The custard is quite good and creamy. Most people will probably want to add more sugar but it was sweet enough for my household. It was relatively quick to make, with the exception of beating the eggs by hand. According to the last statement in the recipe, "A pretty supper dish", this would be served at the evening meal.

Modern translation: Chill custard cups in the refrigerator. Beat the whites of 3 eggs until stiff peaks form. In a double boiler, heat 2 cups of milk with 1/4 cup sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add a cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Remove the cinnamon and stir in sifted rice flour until it becomes thick. Take this off your heat and fold in the egg whites. Return to the stove and heat, stirring for 2 or 3 minutes. Spoon the custard into the chilled cups and set aside to cool. When completely cool, turn out onto serving dishes and top with currant jelly or raspberry jam.