Insects or E Numbers?

My granddaughter desperately wanted to make pink, as in 'VERY PINK' cakes today.   We made some last weekend but they were not quite pink enough.    I tried really hard to get some food colouring which is stable in baking but does not contain any of the dreaded 'E' numbers.    I would have settled for good old fashioned cochineal,  but I couldn't find any.

Which is a shame because I just happen to have stumbled across a recipe for home-made food colouring based upon

those little cochineal beetles.

To make Colouring
One ounce of cochineal, boil it in half a pint of water, five or ten minutes the add half an ounce of Cream of Tartar and half an ounce of Alum* add two ounces of loaf sugar, give it a boil, let it settle then pour it off and bottle it for use.

*Alum is also used in Baking Powder, so I suppose we have all ingested it at some point and it is considered to be safe.

Cochineal is a scarlet dye made from the crushed dried bodies of a female scale insect.   Sounds yummy, but on balance I think I'd rather use cochineal than some of the awful artificial colourants and E numbers which are put into modern food dyes, but that is my personal preference.

We made pink cakes, following a handwritten recipe in another one of my old books.

Rose Almond Cakes

4oz butter
4oz sugar
4oz flour
4oz ground almonds
2 eggs
Cochineal
Essence of Almonds

No method or baking instructions were given.  I simply followed the usual method of creaming the butter and sugar, gradually beating in the eggs, then add the flour, almonds, 'cochineal' and Almond Essence.

We baked them in a mix of cupcake wrappers and silicone heart-shaped moulds, at about 160 degrees.   However,  you know your own oven.

She was very happy with the results, the cakes are definitely pink on the inside.   The big heart-shaped ones are for daddy and Grandpa, of course.

Indulging my Husband

The forecast today was for wintry showers and grey skies so I decided to stay indoors and do a little baking.     I opened the pantry door and almost fainted at the mess within.   Some naughty little elves have been at work in there flinging things around for I'm sure I put things back in their correct place after my last baking session.

Spring is somewhere just beyond the horizon and I can feel that almost irresistible urge to spring-clean which jars with the equally strong desire to do some baking.

In the end I compromised by cleaning up my baking ingredients, sorting spices, consolidating half-used packets of caster sugar into one clean jar, and so on.   I ignored the rest of the pantry.

I set to making a cottage loaf because I haven't made one for ages - it turned out looking like an enormous chariot wheel -  so I must try harder and could do a lot better.   I'll enjoy playing around with the recipe until I get it right.

The other thing I decided to bake was something which only my husband will enjoy - Coconut Cones.   He has a very sweet tooth and coconut is a favourite with him.   When I first met him he was addicted to Bounty Bars.   We gradually got him weaned off those, but he still adores coconut.

I used a recipe which I found in an old recipe book without covers, so I can't credit it to anyone in particular.   I get the feeling that it may have been produced by the WI, a long time ago, but I could be wrong.   It has the feel of a 1950's book.

Four simple ingredients:

1 egg
4oz sugar
4oz coconut
1 tablespoon ground rice

Simply beat the egg, stir in the sugar, coconut and ground rice and mix well.

Here comes the fun bit - fill an egg cup with the mixture and shake out on to a greased baking sheet.  Bake in a moderately hot oven until golden brown on top.

Don't press your mixture too firmly or you may struggle to get it out of the egg cup.   I also decided to push the boat out and decorate them with half a glace cherry, simply because he also likes them.  

Spoilt, or what?

He loved them; ate two almost as soon as they were cool.  They look a bit dry in the photograph, but I checked and the inside is moist and very delicious - if you like sweet coconut cakes!
x

Dinner at Uffington House, November 1883

This morning was taken up with boring, but essential, shopping.  A quick snack for lunch and then we spent a couple of hours working on the hen prison,

We decided that as they still have at least three more weeks of  enforced confinement we would add some extra roofing to their compound to try to improve things for them.    Poor hens, they are used to roaming around the Owl Wood with occasional forays into our gardens. 

Their compound is large enough but because the soil around here is heavy clay, with poor drainage, it soon becomes something akin to how I imagine the terrible conditions of the Somme.

We have done our best, I hope they will be a little happier and a lot less muddy.


Chores done, I managed to sneak in a tea break, time to indulge in reading one of my old recipe books, the large black one.  

The page I opened it up at today, contained a gold edged card.

It is headed "Uffington House"
"Diner du 8 Novembre 1883"

Potage aux profiteroles
Merlans Guilles  tartare"
Riz de veau en cassis
Quenelles de Volaille fareau
Gigot de Sept heures
Celeris a la Creme
Perdreaux rotis
Gateaux Gunois a la Creme
Oeufs en Sardines
Glace aux Ratafias

They certainly didn't stint themselves.   The kitchens must have been busy that night.


Uffington House, which was in Lincolnshire,  was designed in 1675.   Building work started in 1681 and was completed in 1688.

Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire in 1904, with only the Ballroom, Orangery and outbuildings surviving.   These were eventually demolished in 1978 so that the materials could be used to repair the estate walls.

So once again my lovely old book has thrown up an interesting little thing for me to ponder.   

I must dig and delve a little more.  Perhaps one day I'll find out a little more about the woman who gathered the recipes, perhaps not.  Somehow it doesn't really matter.  I have her book and I get great pleasure from reading it and preserving it, sharing it with blogging friends.

Gingerbread Nuts for Ginger Lovers

These are some of my old recipe books, the oldest and most treasured ones.     Today I am sharing a recipe that I found in the large black volume, the one with the date 1840 on the spine.    It's a massive book and is filled with handwritten recipes.  There is no indication of who collected and wrote them, which is a shame.

Ginger was definitely a favourite flavour in that household.     Ginger biscuits, gingerbread and ginger cakes and wine feature frequently.     The recipe which tempted me today is one for Gingerbread Nuts.      You may be surprised at just how much ground ginger is put into the mix!

Here is the recipe exactly as it is written.

Gingerbread Nuts


Take half a lb of treacle, half a lb of pounded white sugar, qt lb of fresh butter, one oz of ground ginger, some bruised cloves or some other spice which may be preferable, some pieces of candied lemon peel and a glass of brandy.  Work a small quantity of flower into the above but not too thick.  bake them in a hot oven.
Mrs Jackson.

Perhaps I should translate it a little.

8oz treacle
8oz caster sugar
4oz butter
1oz ground ginger
1 heaped tsp ground cloves (or spice of your choice)
2oz candied peel
Glass of brandy (I used a small wineglass)
Flour - I just mixed it in until the dough felt right, approx 10oz but use your judgement.

I simply creamed the butter and sugar, added the treacle, ginger, cloves, candied peel and brandy and gave it a good stir.  Then I added the flour until the mixture was suitable for rolling and cutting.

Roll out and cut with a biscuit cutter.

Bake at 180 degrees for approximately 15 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.

The taste test:   Fabulous!   The ginger flavour comes through in the most wonderful way although I can't really detect the cloves so perhaps I should up that ingredient a little next time.

The one ingredient which I was doubtful about was the candied peel, I'm really not a fan.   How wrong I would have been to leave it out though.   It really works, the heat of the ginger is occasionally punctuated by a shot of lemon.

I will definitely be making these again and again.    Max reluctantly sampled one and ended up eating four.   He loves them!

Celery Cheese

Among my collection of old recipe books I have lots of tatty and tattered printed booklets and pamphlets.        Most lack their covers which  makes it very difficult to identify or date them.    

This recipe came from one such book.  I have pages 15 to 82.   I suppose it is possible that someone else has the other pages, but much more likely that they were destroyed long ago.     It is printed on cheap and nasty paper, no illustrations, and yet I really like this old book which dates from somewhere around the the end of the 19th century.

The recipes are many and varied and I'll write some more up here in time.

I still haven't recovered my appetite a month after having 'flu, but this particular recipe caught my fancy, so I cooked a portion.      It doesn't look very pretty but it was really tasty.  


Celery Cheese
Take odd bits of celery and boil them in milk till tender.   Add some grated cheese, a pinch of salt (I omitted this) and thicken with a little flour.   Bring all to the boil and and serve on buttered toast.   A very tasty dish for supper.

There you have it!     I should have diced the celery instead of slicing it but I wanted to have a little texture to the dish.

I served it on a slice of home made bread, for I find that makes the best toast.   I didn't butter the bread, I simply let the juices and the melted cheese soak into it.   I would definitely make this for myself again although I would refine it a little next time.

My mother used to occasionally make something similar although her vegetable of choice was tinned tomatoes, that worked very well but looked even less attractive than this dish.


*     *      *

I called in at Cowslip Cottage today to drop off a loaf of bread and to say 'Hello' to your boy, he's missing you,  Ming Ming,  but managed to rouse himself sufficiently to polish off a couple of treats, have a little grooming and a tickle as well as playing chase the feather duster.xxx

Another Old Book

On the bookshelves, right next to my old recipe books, there is an old hardback notebook.     It is quite unremarkable on the outside, with ugly maroon coloured boards.   I can see from a note on the flyleaf that it cost the princely sum of one shilling and ten pence in old money, when it was purchased by my parents, in 1947.

The book doesn't contain recipes but it does list the many things which my parents purchased for their "bottom drawer"  when they became engaged to be married, way back in 1947.     One of the items listed is the knife which is perched on top of the book.    It is an old bread knife and was in use throughout my childhood and up until the day my parents died.

It is not a particularly special knife, the saw part is stainless steel and the handle is plastic, but it works as efficiently today as it did all those years ago.

It cost my parents five shillings and six pence which is less than 30 pence in today's money.

Thanks to my father's notes I can tell you exactly how much their first sofa and chairs cost them, their dining room suite, rugs, butter dish and linoleum.     I can also tell you that they spent the princely sum of £30 on their wedding in November 1947.

For me, it is a fascinating collection.

A bit further into the book and I can see that when they found they were expecting their first child, my older brother,  they itemised all their purchases and costs.  

The beautiful,  Silver Cross Pram cost them just over £16, while his high chair was £8-8-0d  and his first teddy bear was purchased for £3-0-0.    I still have that teddy bear.   He is a very old and much loved, worn and tatty old bear.

I dare say that the knife will outlive the bear but they are both treasured by me, just as this book is something which I occasionally flick through with great interest and enjoyment.

This little volume is definitely worthy of a place among my most cherished books.

The Gift of Peace

This Christmas Max has been given a wonderful gift  - peace - for when I woke up this morning I found that some nasty robbers (according to my granddaughter) had stolen my voice.

Instead I have been left with two others; one is merely a whisper and the other is so deep that it could give Paul Robeson a run for his money.    Both take a lot of effort. 

Silence is the best option.

Otherwise it has been a lovely day.   The telephones and skype have been busy, busy, busy as we catch up with family and friends.   Other friends have stopped by for a visit and in between times I have supervised my granddaughter (4 years old) as she made and decorated Christmas biscuits.

The house is warm and welcoming, lots of twinkling lights and big Christmas candles.  Freshly cut holly, ivy, and rosemary scent the rooms and the old place looks very cosy.

Tomorrow morning will start fairly early as two of our grandchildren just live on the other side of the garden, they will be across before 8am to open presents.     They, their parents and Miles and Poppy will gather at Parsonage Cottage for my special Christmas Day breakfast - scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, croissants, bacon butties, according to taste.     

We'll attend the morning service at our tiny, local church, walking home across the fields.

My son-in-law is chef for the day and he'll be doing Christmas Dinner for ten.    I'll simply provide a few of the side dishes and an alternative to Christmas pudding.       I love having all these talented cooks in the family, I am so happy to hand over the cooking crown!


Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a Very Happy New Year. xxx