Cooking Marathon! - 18th Century Cooking Season 24

0:11 Almost 6 years ago, we did one of the most

0:13 incredibly accidental episodes ever here on the channel.

0:18 We did this episode that was a throwaway episode

0:20 at the time and it turned out to be so incredibly popular.

0:24 The episode was roasted onions or baked onion and really made me think about

0:31 what people understand about food and the 18th century and how important it is.

0:36 And it is an incredibly simple episode

0:39 and at the time I hadn't really dug into the depths

0:43 of the idea of onions in the 18th century

0:46 and the concept of the baked onion in general.

0:50 And that's what we're going to do today.

0:52 Onions are an important part of the diet in the 18th century,

0:55 especially for people that are poor.

0:58 But of course, they show up on everyone's table.

1:00 They're an inexpensive kind of vegetable,

1:02 and we usually think about things like potatoes as food for the poor.

1:07 But onions have this extra flavor component to them.

1:11 They're famous for being in Spanish cookery and French cookery also.

1:16 And of course, we use them as a small side component in so many dishes.

1:21 We'll do a a ragu from the 18th century

1:23 and it'll have a a onion sauce or something like that.

1:27 But rarely do we think today about basically onion recipes.

1:32 You're just eating onions.

1:34 But they're doing that in the 18th century.

1:36 And of course, we do have some recipes like onion pie and an onion ragu.

1:42 And we have onion soup, of course, French onion soup, very, very famous.

1:46 But what about just eating an onion?

1:50 a baked onion or roast onion.

1:52 Now, in the original episode, I talked about how this was kind of maybe

1:57 coming into vogue in the early 19th century.

1:59 The recipe that we're going to be looking at specifically is from 1808.

2:04 And it's interesting.

2:06 You don't necessarily see exactly that same recipe going back

2:10 further into the older recipe books unless you look someplace special.

2:15 And where do we find these roast onions?

2:18 We find them in medicine books.

2:21 If we go back into the 16th century and the 17th century,

2:25 hundreds of years before this recipe,

2:28 we find exactly the same thing being done as a medicinal recipe.

2:33 Do you have a cold?

2:34 Do you have congestion?

2:36 Something like that.

2:37 Well, you need to make these special roast onions

2:39 and eat them for three days in a row.

2:41 That's the only thing you're going to eat and it'll cure you.

2:44 That's what we find in these medicine

2:46 books or herbals from this earlier time period.

2:49 It seems like many many foods are doing exactly this same thing.

2:54 They start off as a medicinal component or recipe

2:57 and then they're adopted as a standard food item.

3:01 So something like white sugar starts off as a medicinal

3:06 component part of other kinds of medicine and then it's adopted

3:10 as hey I like sweet stuff and now we have

3:13 sugar in everything and these onions are exactly the same way.

3:18 We have other examples like garlic that starts off as very

3:22 medicinal and turns into a main food flavoring or some

3:26 of the hot drinks from the 18th century were definitely

3:29 medicinal early on and turned into just hey an enjoyable drink.

3:34 In fact, the term comfort foods that make us feel comfortable.

3:39 Sometimes they make us feel comfortable because of anxiety and other

3:42 times they make us feel comfortable because maybe they're good for us.

3:46 One of the great things about onions is they are fairly easy

3:48 to grow and very prolific in the time period people were able to get

3:53 any kinds of onion sets so that they could grow their own onions

3:56 even in a very small plot along with potatoes and other small vegetables.

4:01 There's an interesting cookbook from the middle of the 18th

4:04 century which is called primitive cookery and it's full of recipes.

4:08 It's almost like vegetarian recipes,

4:10 but the reason why they're vegetarian is because meat was

4:13 expensive in the time period and it's full of nonmeat recipes.

4:18 And there are two or three pages where he basically sets it aside for onions.

4:24 And here are the classic onion recipes that he's got in here.

4:27 Make a ragu of onions, make an onion soup, make an onion pie,

4:32 and then there is make an onion soup in the Spanish way.

4:36 So, he does the same kind of thing for potatoes or or whatnot.

4:39 But notice how he's basically holding this whole

4:43 section aside just for onions because he knows they

4:46 are such a wonderful flavor component and you

4:50 can basically survive on them if you want to.

4:53 Here's what the English physician of 1765 says about onions.

4:58 Onions are flatulent or windy.

5:01 Yet, they do somewhat provoke appetite,

5:04 increase thirst, and ease the belly and bowels.

5:08 Here we go.

5:09 Being roasted under the embers and eaten with honey or sugar and oil,

5:14 they much conduce to help the inveterate cough andectorate tough flem.

5:22 Sounds good, doesn't it?

5:23 Other books go on to describe the idea of eating them.

5:28 Basically, them and them only for two or three

5:31 or four days to get rid of that bad cold.

5:34 Now, here's Randelle's recipe from the 1808, a new system of domestic cookery.

5:41 And this is the entire recipe.

5:43 She says, "Roasted onions should be done with all the skins on.

5:48 They eat well alone with salt only

5:51 and cold butter or with roast potatoes or beetroots.

5:56 That's it.

5:56 It's basically she doesn't even tell you how to roast them or anything.

6:00 So, they are very, very simple to cook.

6:04 We're going to take our large onions.

6:06 And I like a large onion to start with.

6:08 You could do this with smaller onions, but what's the point?

6:11 We want a nice big onion.

6:12 You can try yellow onions, white onions, red onions, or sweet onions.

6:18 They all come in the nice large variety.

6:22 And she calls them roast onions, but the recipes that we have,

6:26 the medicinal recipes talking about baking them under the embers.

6:30 We're going to bake them in an oven at the typical baking temperature of 350°.

6:37 Make sure to put these on a sheet

6:39 that can contain their liquid that comes out of them.

6:43 So, usually on an onion like this, maybe, you know, a tablespoon,

6:47 2 tablespoons worth of liquid is going to kind

6:50 of ooze out of this onion as it bakes.

6:53 These will bake depending on their size between 45 minutes for something

6:57 maybe medium sized to an hour and 15 if it's something really big.

7:02 And if you wanted to get it really soft,

7:04 the different varieties tend to take a little bit more or less time.

7:08 So you got to adjust that a little bit.

7:10 Part of the baking process and any kind of baking process,

7:15 you know it starts to get done when you can really smell it.

7:19 That's how you know sometimes it's like if you start smelling something,

7:22 then you should go and check it.

7:24 We have three onions to try out.

7:25 I've got a yellow, I've got a red onion,

7:28 and I've got one of those sweet Vidalia onions here.

7:30 And just a little bit of butter.

7:32 There's no reason to go crazy.

7:33 The amazing thing is it smells wonderful when you bake these.

7:38 You You know you're getting there because it just

7:40 fills the house or the kitchen with this amazing smell.

7:44 And so, I mean, you can't go wrong.

7:46 You know, it smells good.

7:47 It's going to taste good.

7:49 And we just I just put a little butter on here.

7:51 I didn't even bother to put salt.

7:52 None of this weird sugar stuff.

7:57 Man, that is so good.

8:02 It still has enough of the texture to it.

8:05 You don't want to I mean bake it so far that there's no texture left,

8:10 but there's just a touch of texture left.

8:12 And I don't even think you need to butter on these.

8:15 It's so good.

8:17 Let's try out the the red onion here.

8:20 Because it's red, it's probably even better for you.

8:22 Who knows?

8:28 definitely a little sharper taste to it.

8:33 And last of all, the sweet onion here.

8:41 Melt in your mouth.

8:43 So good.

8:44 A little bit more sweetness built into it.

8:46 Not a lot.

8:46 All the textures all very, very similar.

8:49 Just a little crunch to it.

8:50 So, so very good.

9:02 Candy is a huge topic.

9:05 It is so popular today.

9:07 But the question is, what was candy like 250 years ago?

9:11 What was candy like in colonial America?

9:14 Candy today is popular during the holidays.

9:16 We have different kinds of candy that we use for different holidays.

9:20 It's a very seasonal thing.

9:22 Candy was seasonal in the 18th century as well,

9:26 but not for the same kinds of reasons.

9:28 Possibly because of particular holidays,

9:31 but more likely because of the seasonality of the ingredients

9:35 that the confectioner had access to at a particular time of year.

9:40 There were very seasonal times for fruits and other ingredients

9:45 that would come in so that the confectioner could make his products.

9:48 The roots of candy are much deeper than the 18th century.

9:52 It goes back hundreds of years before

9:55 that and it really lies in two main categories.

9:59 Candy comes from medicine and it comes from food preservation.

10:04 They had several different ways

10:05 to deliver medicines with this sugary preparation.

10:10 They might make little sugar pills or lozenes or they might put

10:14 the medicine in a sweet syrup

10:16 or they had a medicine category called electuaries.

10:21 Anduaries it's based on the Greek word to lick.

10:24 So it's sort of like a a medicinal lollipop except it

10:28 wasn't a hard candy and it probably wasn't on a stick.

10:31 Maybe like a medicinal slowpoke.

10:34 So what starts out as a medicine slowly turns into recreational food.

10:39 Even some of the very medicinal flavors becomes a flavor that people desire.

10:46 So what starts out as medicine turns into just straight up candy.

10:50 One of the great examples of that is gingerbread.

10:54 So gingerbread starts off as well not

10:57 something like we would think of as gingerbread.

10:59 It's almost like a let's say a sweet sugary very

11:04 spicy little piece of asphalt kind of very chewy and thick

11:08 and gooey that is very medicinal say 3 or 4

11:12 hund years ago and then becomes a treat we don't use

11:16 it as medicine today certainly now this explains candy this is

11:20 actually in the history of drugs written in the French

11:23 translated to English in the 18th century and it's called

11:27 of sugar plumps now Remember this is in a book about medicines.

11:31 It says there are an infinite variety of flowers, seeds, berries, kernels,

11:36 plums and the like which are by the confectioners

11:39 covered with sugar and bear the name sugar plums.

11:43 And let me go down further here.

11:45 It says in the shops there are

11:47 careway convex coriander non-parels which is nothing

11:51 but uh oran powder covered with sugar

11:54 and what is much invogue in Paris green anis.

11:58 Besides these we have almond convex,

12:02 chocolate, coffee, barberries, pistachio nuts, etc.

12:07 Orange chips and flowers, orange peel, cinnamon cloves, and many other roots,

12:13 barks, fruits, flowers that are too numerous to speak of.

12:19 That's what you're going to see in the confectioner shop of the 18th century.

12:23 And why is it talked about here in a book about the history of drugs?

12:26 because that's where the origins of so many of these come from.

12:30 Another place where the origins of candy

12:32 lie is in the realm of food preservation.

12:35 How do we bring fruits, nuts,

12:38 and vegetables out of season and into the future when we want to eat them,

12:43 say, in the winter or at a time when they wouldn't be normally available.

12:48 There are many different ways to preserve food,

12:50 but drying is one of the main ones.

12:53 We're trying to pull all the moisture out of a food item.

12:58 And fruit is the perfect example of that.

13:00 If we can dry the fruit, we pull the moisture out and the sugars

13:05 are left and the other parts of the fruit,

13:07 the flavors and probably a lot of the nutrients are left over.

13:11 That high sugar concentration keeps them from rotting.

13:15 If we just leave them on the ground,

13:17 we don't really get access to pulling the moisture out.

13:20 They will go bad very rapidly.

13:22 And if we want to say increase its ability to be preserved, we add sugar to it.

13:29 We increase that.

13:30 So high concentrations of sugar keep these things from going bad.

13:35 Something like just pure honey will stay good for a very,

13:39 very long time because it's got a low moisture content and a high sugar content.

13:44 So a lot of what the confectioner is doing in our time period is drying things,

13:49 adding sugar to things.

13:51 They're doing a lot of boiling sugar,

13:53 pulling the moisture out of all these items so

13:56 that they can last a great deal of time.

13:58 And what we end up with is lots and lots of sweets.

14:02 The preservation of citrus fruit usually happens for the confectioner

14:06 in the 18th century during January and February,

14:09 the season when that fruit comes in fresh

14:12 to the people in Europe or say North America.

14:16 So, how are we going to preserve these fruits into the entire year?

14:21 What happens if we want that wonderful lemony flavor in July?

14:26 So, there are many different ways to preserve our citrus fruit.

14:30 They preserve them whole and in slices.

14:33 But one of the ways you find most often, especially used in recipes,

14:37 but you could also just eat it as candy, and that is candied peel.

14:41 So, they would make candied lime peel,

14:43 candied lemon peel, and of course, candied orange peel.

14:47 We're going to be doing a few candy recipes today.

14:50 We'll start off with candied citrus peel,

14:54 which is recipe that we've done on the channel before,

14:56 and it is so very easy and very tasty.

15:00 So, here is a period recipe for candied orange peel.

15:05 Soak civil orange peel in several waters till it loses its bitterness.

15:10 Then boil it in a solution of double refined

15:13 sugar in water until it becomes tender and transparent.

15:18 That's all the real recipe is.

15:20 It is very easy.

15:21 We're just going to slice these guys up.

15:23 Take out any of that internal part of the citrus.

15:28 I mean really that that's what we think of when

15:30 we're going to eat an orange or a lime or whatever.

15:33 And that part we do not want for our recipe.

15:36 We just want the peel, even that bitter white inner part of the peel.

15:40 Once those are separated, we're going to soak this in water.

15:44 Now, some recipes from the time period say to soak it up to 5 days,

15:48 sometimes even in a little bit of salt water.

15:51 You don't really have to go that far with it.

15:53 I would say soak it one or two days if you have the time.

15:57 If you don't, you will end up with a little bitterness in your peel.

16:01 Not the worst thing in the world.

16:03 Once the peels are soaked,

16:05 then we just put them in a solution of probably about 50% water, 50% sugar.

16:11 We're going to boil those or simmer them until they become transparent.

16:16 And that will take a maybe an hour or so.

16:20 Really depends on how long you've soaked your peels before.

16:23 And once they are transparent, we'll take them out and lay them on a bed

16:27 of sugar and sprinkle sugar over the top of them.

16:30 then they can be stored or used right away.

16:33 These candied peels look great.

16:35 The colors kind of pop out.

16:38 They're a colorful kind of candy and they would

16:41 be used in a lot of recipes in the time

16:43 period if you're doing one of those great cakes

16:46 or maybe if you're making a pudding for Christmas time, this might be in it.

16:52 But you can eat them just the way they are.

16:55 So, let's try one of this.

16:56 Here's the Here's the uh a lemon.

17:02 Just great lemon flavor.

17:04 Even though these have been soaking long enough to get the bitterness out,

17:08 you would think that you would lose all the the lemon flavor,

17:14 it is all right there.

17:16 Something you can enjoy 6 months after the lemons are no longer in the market.

17:21 How about orange?

17:23 Again, perfect orange flavor.

17:26 The limes, they can be a little more bitter sometimes.

17:32 These even turned out perfect.

17:34 These are great.

17:35 Today, when we think about candy,

17:37 probably more than 50% of the items that we would kind

17:41 of put out on the table as candy would be chocolate.

17:44 Well, chocolate exists in the 18th century,

17:48 but it's generally not as much of a candy and certainly not the kind of candies,

17:53 chocolate candies that we would think about today.

17:56 Chocolate comes into Europe in the late 17th century,

17:59 let's say 1670 or so, and it's mostly a hot drink.

18:03 It's competing with tea and coffee.

18:06 And of course, you put a little sugar in there to make it,

18:09 you know, nice because it's kind of bitter all by itself.

18:12 It turns into a little bit of a candy in the 18th century.

18:17 And we're going to try our hand at a chocolate candy called chocolate puffs.

18:22 While chocolate recipes are not as popular as certainly they are today,

18:26 there were some chocolate recipes in Mrs.

18:29 Eel's recipe book for confectionary, she has a recipe for chocolate puffs.

18:34 In fact, several different puffs recipes.

18:36 And we're going to take a couple of these recipes,

18:39 kind of wear them up together, and we are going to make chocolate puffs.

18:43 These chocolate puffs are very interesting.

18:45 They're very easy, but they do have an ingredient that is

18:49 not in most people's common kitchens if you go looking for it.

18:52 So, we will be using a an ingredient called Tragasanth or in the time

18:58 period it was called gumdragon or sometimes in the recipes just dragon.

19:04 That's all it was called.

19:05 And it's a natural gum that you get from plants.

19:09 Definitely is imported and it's very edible.

19:13 We're going to take this gum dragon.

19:15 I've ground it up and then added water to it.

19:19 So now it's this sort of gelike material, a gum.

19:24 This recipe is very simple.

19:25 We're just going to take sugar and I'm

19:27 going to take some of our period chocolate here.

19:30 We're going to grind that up until it's a fine powder.

19:33 Add in enough of that gum to make a stiff paste.

19:37 Once that's in a stiff paste, we'll make little balls.

19:40 Put that on a cookie sheet and then put it in a cool oven, Ashley says,

19:45 probably about 275° and let them set there about 20

19:49 or 30 minutes and then our chocolate puffs will be done.

19:52 When I was testing out this puff recipe, I did the lemon puffs.

19:56 This is just lemon zest and sugar and the gum dragon.

20:00 And I would have thought that would have made a very hard little pill.

20:04 And if you would just leave it dry, that's exactly what you would get.

20:07 But putting it into the oven,

20:08 and this got put in the oven about 275 for 20 or 30 minutes,

20:12 they actually start to grow,

20:14 which I don't know why they do that, but they certainly do that.

20:17 And the texture is completely different.

20:19 It isn't a hard pill to eat.

20:21 So, let's try one of these chocolate ones.

20:28 And you got chocolate flavor.

20:30 They've puffed up and you get a little bit of crunch on the outside,

20:34 a little kind of sugary flavor and then a little bit of chew on the inside.

20:38 Maybe if we baked them a little bit longer,

20:40 they would be crisp all the way through, but certainly not a hard,

20:45 you know, dense thing that you have to suck

20:47 on, but a something that crunches up in your mouth.

20:50 It's really kind of a fun thing to make and they're very, very tasty.

20:55 The lemon ones are great, and these chocolate ones are great, too.

20:58 This next recipe is so very simple.

21:01 It's got very few ingredients.

21:02 The recipe is just a couple of lines.

21:04 It's called barley sugar.

21:07 And what it is is it's hard candy.

21:10 So hard candy was very popular in the time period.

21:13 It is one of those medicinal candies.

21:15 You can put medicine in here if you want to.

21:17 But barley sugar in the 18th century has no real flavoring.

21:21 It's just a hard sugar candy.

21:23 Here is the recipe for barley sugar from the court and country cook.

21:28 This is 1702.

21:29 This is a very early recipe.

21:31 It's in the confectionary section.

21:34 Having caused barley to be well boiled in water,

21:37 strain it through a hair sie and let this decoction be put

21:41 into clarified sugar and brought to the caramel or last degree of boiling.

21:47 Then remove it from the fire till the boiling settles.

21:51 Pour your barley sugar upon a marble stone rubbed with the oil of olives,

21:57 taking care to hinder it from running down.

22:00 If the marble be wanting, a silver dish or one of some other sort

22:05 of material may be used for the same purpose.

22:09 So that the sugar cools and it begins to grow hard.

22:12 It must be cut into pieces and rolled out what

22:16 length you please in order to be kept for use.

22:20 Hard candies today are made with a very small number of ingredients.

22:24 Also uses regular granulated sugar.

22:26 It would use corn syrup in the place

22:29 of the barley and then you would add whatever

22:32 coloring or flavoring you want into your heart

22:35 candy along with a little bit of water obviously.

22:37 Now corn syrup isn't something that was available in the 18th century.

22:42 That's really a 19th century thing.

22:44 So barley is used in its place.

22:47 And the reason why we're using corn syrup is because it's got an inverted sugar.

22:52 So it's got glucose and fructose in it instead of sucrose.

22:56 The sucrose alone will crystallize improperly.

22:59 So we want to make a nice solid hard candy.

23:01 We add these inverted sugars and that holds off the crystallization.

23:05 This barley when we boil it will have

23:08 the water left over and we'll strain that out.

23:11 And that water has fiber in it and some other nutrients,

23:15 but it also has a 50/50 mix of glucose and fructose.

23:20 So, I don't know how they figured it out in the 18th century

23:22 and before that, but they had exactly the right ingredients in the barley sugar.

23:29 All we need is barley, water, and sugar for this recipe.

23:32 I've got two quarts of water in the pan here and I'm just going to add in 10 oz,

23:38 maybe 12 oz of pearled barley.

23:42 And we're going to bring that up to a boil

23:44 and let it simmer for about a half hour.

23:47 And that barley is going to swell up and basically absorb a lot of that water.

23:53 Once that's all cooked up,

23:54 we're going to strain out the barley from the barley water that's left over.

24:00 Now, this barley that's been cooked here is

24:03 great for something like a beef and barley soup.

24:06 So, save that barley and use it in another recipe.

24:09 But in this particular recipe, we don't need it.

24:11 So, basically, we're going to throw it out.

24:13 I want to go ahead and put our barley water through a cloth and strain

24:18 as much of the solids out as possible because if we have those in there,

24:23 it's likely to burn in the pan.

24:25 That's another one of the tricky parts of this particular recipe.

24:29 Once that barley water is strained out,

24:31 we're going to put it back in our pan and add

24:34 in as much sugar as we can get to dissolve into it.

24:38 We're going to put this on a low heat and start to dissolve that sugar into it.

24:43 And when we feel like we have enough,

24:45 and it's doesn't have to be very very precise here,

24:48 we are just going to put that onto a low heat and start to get it boiling.

24:54 And basically, we're just going to keep heating

24:57 this until we get it up to the proper heat.

25:00 All of the confectionary books in the 18th century start off with boiling sugar,

25:05 and they talk about the stages of boiling sugar.

25:08 And this is really important in this particular recipe.

25:11 They didn't have candy thermometers to tell

25:13 them exactly what temperature to stop at.

25:15 They would look at the candy.

25:17 They put a little stick in it or a spoon in it and they

25:20 would dip it out at various stages to see what would happen with the sugar.

25:25 So it starts off and we get at about say

25:28 230° we get the thread stage where it's gets very

25:33 very stringy and then we keep cooking it and we

25:37 keep boiling it and then we'll get to the softball stage

25:40 and a hard ball stage and we get to a soft

25:43 crack and a hard crack and the last stage we

25:46 get to is called caramel in the 18th century

25:49 and that is way up there close to 300° at least today.

25:54 Um, this recipe, even though they say to the last boiling,

25:58 we're not going to go quite that far because if you do,

26:01 you get a very kind of burnt flavor.

26:03 So, we're going to keep boiling this until we get to just the right stage.

26:08 Our barley sugar has solidified.

26:10 It's cooled off on our marble slab.

26:14 And, um, one of the things that they

26:16 did with this is before it completely hardened,

26:19 they would sort of pull it out into straws.

26:23 Uh, this is kind of difficult to do because

26:25 what happens is it hardens around the outside edge.

26:27 It's still soft in the middle and it's hard to draw out into these straws.

26:32 I don't know how they did it in the time period.

26:34 And it's much easier to just score it like

26:37 this and then wait for it to get cool.

26:39 Then you can peel it off of here

26:41 and it will break naturally at these little scored lines.

26:46 And then we have these little hard candies.

26:48 Here's our barley sugar of the 18th century.

26:50 What does it taste like?

26:52 That's the real question.

26:53 And um it's got the right color.

26:56 They they talk about it having this sort of amber color.

26:59 While it's cooking, you can just start to smell the sugar burning a little bit,

27:04 that caramelized kind of smell in the air,

27:06 which is good until it gets too far and then it smells burnt.

27:10 But this this is just right.

27:13 Um it's got the right kind of hard candy texture to it.

27:20 It just carries along a wonderful caramel flavor and that's it.

27:23 There is no sort of flavoring to it.

27:27 Today we might add all kinds of crazy strawberry flavor or whatever,

27:31 but in this one it just carries along a caramel flavor and they are really good.

27:36 This recipe is something a little different.

27:38 You won't find it in the standard candy shop today.

27:42 It's in Mrs.

27:43 Eel's cookbook and in multiple other ones.

27:46 It's called clear cakes and they come in lots of different flavors.

27:50 We're going to be doing a raspberry clear cake.

27:53 And clear cakes are basically a super thick jelly.

27:57 You can think of it as like um a version

28:00 of fruit leather but in a sort of a big chunk, something like that.

28:05 So, what we're going to do is boil our berries in some

28:09 water for about 15 or 20 minutes until it's released all the juices.

28:14 And then we can start to really turn it

28:17 into the thick version of what we're looking for.

28:19 After boiling our berries, we're going to squeeze out all the juice.

28:23 We don't want any of the solids in this.

28:27 They're called clear cakes, so we should be able to see right through them.

28:30 Once we have our juice, we will add sugar to that.

28:33 And get that all dissolved.

28:35 Then we're going to add in pectin.

28:37 Now, the original recipe in Mrs.

28:40 Eelss uses currants for the pectin.

28:43 She basically boils the berries and the currants at the same time.

28:47 And these aren't zante currants.

28:50 These are the currants that grow on bushes.

28:52 They have a very high pectin amount to them.

28:55 And the pectin is what really gels in jelly.

28:59 Now currants are really hard to get these days.

29:02 I don't have access to any white currants right now.

29:05 So we are going to be using the pectin that you get from apples.

29:10 So, you can take apples, especially green apples or crab apples.

29:15 You cube them up into little pieces.

29:17 You boil them in water for about 40 minutes or so,

29:20 and then you strain out the apples and you keep the juice that's left over.

29:25 That's got a high concentration of pectin.

29:28 We'll take that pectin, and today you can just buy liquid pectin in a package

29:34 and add that to what basically is raspberry jelly.

29:40 And that is going to create a very very thick jelly.

29:44 In the recipe, she talks about pouring this into little molds.

29:48 And then once it gels up, you turn it out of the mold and you sort

29:53 of set them on glass or set them on the serving container.

29:57 You can even sprinkle a little sugar on them to keep them from sticking.

30:01 And those are basically a kind of a real soft candy.

30:05 Our raspberry clear cakes are now out of the form.

30:08 So, you have to let them cool off for quite a while and gel up.

30:11 That's the whole point.

30:12 They're supposed to be a super thick jelly.

30:15 And certainly, these are that they remind me of, you know,

30:21 a a gumdrop or something that that we would have today, at least in their shape.

30:26 And these have a nice clear color to them.

30:29 You can see light through them.

30:31 They're beautiful red raspberry color.

30:34 And you do need to cover them with sugar so you can pick them

30:37 up and handle them without them sticking

30:38 to your finger because they are very sticky.

30:41 They call for sort of letting them air out.

30:44 And I think she just means cool off.

30:46 Maybe she means to actually dry them so they they become even more thick.

30:52 I don't know.

30:53 But let's try them out just like this.

30:58 and a wonderful thick jelly flavor and uh texture.

31:04 They're super good.

31:05 Very, very sugary obviously, but a lot of fruit flavor in there.

31:10 So, this is just basically two fruits mixed together.

31:12 We have the apple pectin we have which really doesn't bring any flavor with it

31:16 but just the the gel and then the wonderful raspberry flavor along with lots

31:22 of sugar and a very very simple thing to make and very tasty candy has

31:28 a fascinating history hundreds of years old

31:31 and we can engage and experiment with it ourselves.

31:34 We can make these wonderful candies.

31:36 Some of them are so simple, so tasty,

31:39 and we can also try out and really eat almost exactly

31:43 the same things they thought were candy in the time period.

31:46 We have lots of dried fruits and candied fruits available to us today.

31:51 And it's so good and so historical.

32:03 Food preservation is vitally important to people 250 years ago.

32:08 And we've talked about multiple ways to preserve food.

32:11 Things like ships biscuits, pemkin, dried beef, even candy.

32:16 But one thing we haven't covered in depth is portable soup.

32:21 Portable soup was very common in the 18th century.

32:25 It shows up in a lot of cookbooks.

32:28 Probably more than half of the English cookbooks in the 18th century have

32:31 a recipe for portable soup and multiple

32:34 different kinds of recipes for portable soup.

32:37 It ends up being used by soldiers and sailors, explorers, and regular travelers.

32:44 So, what is portable soup?

32:46 It is meat broth condensed down to a solid form.

32:51 This isn't necessarily easy to do,

32:53 but they did it a lot in the 18th century because

32:56 there were times when you would have excess sources of meat.

32:59 You wanted to carry that into the future

33:02 and to preserve that flavor and that nutrition as it were.

33:07 You would condense this broth down into a way

33:10 that you could store just about anywhere.

33:12 It's fairly light.

33:13 It takes up little space and it will store for a great period of time.

33:19 This is fairly easy to reconstitute.

33:21 You would just put this into very warm water, possibly, you know,

33:25 lightly boiling water, and it will slowly dissolve and turn into a nice broth.

33:32 This turned out to be a vitally

33:34 important provision for the surgeons on board ship,

33:37 but also used by all sorts of travelers.

33:40 And there were just times when you didn't have access to food.

33:44 And even though there isn't a ton of nutrition here, after all,

33:47 it's a very small package, it is enough to keep you going.

33:51 This wasn't used as just a standalone broth,

33:54 but a base for other kinds of more complex soups,

33:58 or you could use it in combination with pounded up ships,

34:01 biscuits, or other kind of powdered food to really bulk it up.

34:06 Researching the origins of portable soup can be a little tricky.

34:10 The first reference we have to portable soup and it

34:12 goes by many different names that I could find is 1727.

34:17 And we have a very very complex and long recipe for this.

34:22 I think that's probably the origins of it.

34:24 It might be a little earlier than that, but it is very early 18th century.

34:30 But by the time we get into the 1750s,

34:32 the recipes are popping up all over the place.

34:35 And in about 1755 1756 it is adopted

34:40 by the British Navy as a standard provision for ship's surgeons

34:45 and a ship would be issued so many pounds

34:48 of portable soup for the number of men on board.

34:52 The ship's surgeon would use this for particular kinds of illnesses

34:56 where the men needed a low diet to recover properly.

35:00 They needed something that was extremely easy to digest.

35:04 Portable soup seems to go by about a dozen names.

35:07 In the 18th century, you'll find portable soup or pocket soup, ve glue,

35:13 solid soup, solid broth, port manto pottage, just all kinds of names.

35:20 One of the most famous references we have to portable soup is the portable

35:24 soup that's taken along by Louiswis and Clark on their expedition out west.

35:29 They contracted for 200 lb of portable soup.

35:34 They were supplied with 193 pounds and it cost them about $300.

35:40 And they packaged it up in little tin boxes and took it

35:43 along and they used that in the sort of last resort situations.

35:48 If they couldn't get any other food, they could make some portable soup.

35:52 It would be a very very meager meal

35:55 if you were surviving on nothing but portable soup.

35:59 But again, for medical situations and for survival situations,

36:03 if this is what you've got, you will live.

36:06 It becomes very popular in the late 18th century,

36:09 and you'll find recipes for it all the way

36:11 up until the turn of the 20th century.

36:14 It's still being used then,

36:16 even though there are probably industrial sort of substitutes for it,

36:20 so that people no longer need to make it themselves.

36:23 Portable soup is being made in mass

36:25 quantities by portable soup makers in the middle

36:28 of the 18th century for the Navy and for other kinds of travelers.

36:32 They would make this in big slabs and if it was for the Navy,

36:35 it'd be marked with a big broad arrow so that you knew it was Navy property.

36:40 Most people were probably buying it in smaller

36:43 puck sizes so that you could use that.

36:45 You would have basically one serving per little chunk here

36:49 and you wouldn't have to deal with a giant slab.

36:52 is being made by not only these mass producers but also in individual kitchens.

36:59 That's why we have so many recipes for portable soup in just regular cookbooks.

37:05 And I think that points to something else about the use of portable soup.

37:09 We think about it being used by sailors and possibly soldiers,

37:13 explorers, and people traveling.

37:15 But if that was the only use for portable soup,

37:18 we wouldn't see recipes for it in cookbooks.

37:20 It shows up in cookbook after cookbook of the 18th century.

37:24 And not every recipe is the same.

37:27 So many other recipes,

37:29 they'll make one and basically copy it in every other cookbook.

37:33 You it never changes because it's easy to do.

37:36 But they're trying to figure out the best way to make portable soup.

37:40 And so each one of these recipes is a little bit different.

37:43 So, the real challenge is how do we get from a giant

37:47 pile of meat to a little tiny puck of portable soup?

37:52 And I could read to you one of the recipes in the 18th century,

37:57 but it would take like a half hour

37:59 because every single recipe is long and complicated.

38:03 Even though this recipe really only has two ingredients and it's all technique,

38:10 the complexity comes from the idea that we can't

38:12 just boil this until we get to this stage.

38:16 We have to remove particular components of the broth

38:20 and then we can reduce it down.

38:22 And once it's reduced it down, we can't just keep boiling it or it will burn.

38:27 And the other problem in the 18th century was the idea

38:30 that they didn't have the same kind of cooking equipment we have today.

38:35 Today, if you're going to do this, you will do it with a slow cooker.

38:39 I promise you, you won't want to do it like the way we are going to do it,

38:43 which is over an open fire.

38:45 Now, those industrial manufacturers in the 18th century,

38:49 they had tricks of the trade.

38:51 They had large brick ovens basically or a stove which would have

38:57 a fire in the bottom and then a large cook pot in the top

39:00 so that they could slowly heat that from the bottom and continue

39:04 to stir it and they would be watching that all the time.

39:08 And in the 18th century,

39:09 this is one where it will take hours and hours to make portable soup

39:14 and you do have to watch it in the 18th century context or it'll burn.

39:19 today in our slow cooker.

39:21 We can walk away and come back a couple hours later and and keep watching it.

39:25 It's a much much easier.

39:26 We need a large cooking vessel.

39:28 Again, you will use a slow cooker.

39:31 I'm going to be cooking in our standard cook pot of the 18th century here,

39:36 a cook kettle made of tin.

39:38 And we're going to use a particular cut of meat.

39:42 I would suggest looking for shank cuts.

39:45 And these are leg cuts of beef cows.

39:49 These are generally very inexpensive.

39:51 It's a difficult cut of meat to cook with.

39:55 It is hard to get it tender enough.

39:57 You have to cook it very low and slow, which is exactly what this recipe does.

40:02 They usually have a large bone segment,

40:04 which in, you know, normal cases would be a bad thing.

40:08 But for this recipe, it's perfect.

40:10 We want lots of bone, lots of connective tissue, cartilage, ligaments, tendons.

40:16 That's what we want in our recipe,

40:18 which normally we would not want in a cut of beef.

40:22 So that's why that it's a good thing about this particular recipe.

40:26 They would use it because it used the cheapest cuts of meat.

40:30 You can also use neck which something like you would see

40:35 a lot of the recipes talking about using sheep neck for portable soup.

40:39 And we also end up using in some of the recipes they talking about using feet.

40:45 The actual all the way down to the bottom.

40:48 They would put that in the pot too.

40:50 It has a lot of gelatin or collagen in it.

40:54 And that's what we want for our portable soup.

40:57 We're going to take our meat pieces, put them in our cooking vessel,

41:00 and then pour water over them till it's just over the top.

41:05 We don't want any of the meat sticking out above that.

41:07 You might be thinking, maybe we should add some spice at this stage.

41:12 Put some spice in there and it kind of, you know,

41:14 boil in with it and bring some flavor in with it.

41:16 Well, some of the recipes do that, but there are other specific recipes that say

41:23 not to do that because the spicing is something you can't get rid of.

41:28 So, if your final product has spices that you don't want in your soup,

41:32 there's nothing you can do about it.

41:34 Whereas, if you make it a simple just meat broth,

41:37 then you can add spices to it when you're preparing the dish.

41:41 So, we've had our meat cooking here in our pot,

41:44 and you do want to make sure it's covered in this first stage.

41:47 Cooking for at least 6 hours, 8, 10,

41:51 even up to 20 hours on low will work for this.

41:55 We're basically cooking this down,

41:57 breaking down as much of the meat as possible and extracting

42:02 some of that collagen from the bones and and other connective tissue.

42:06 And what we've got now, it truly smells just heavenly.

42:11 It's a wonderful beef soup that we've got.

42:14 I mean, we could put vegetables in here and it would be great.

42:17 What we're going to do now is to separate the solids from the liquids.

42:22 And in some circumstances in the 18th century,

42:24 they would have say if you were a portable soup maker,

42:28 you would just basically start a new batch and you

42:30 would put the bones and the meat into a brand

42:33 new batch with some new meat and new water and just

42:36 start another batch and then you'd keep going with this.

42:39 So, let's talk about this meat for just a second.

42:41 We don't throw this out.

42:43 This is perfect meat for making potted beef.

42:46 And the recipes from the 18th century talk about this.

42:49 You take this beef, take out any of the little fatty bits that are still there.

42:54 Most of it's already broken down and turned into an oil,

42:57 but there's some of that.

42:58 We want to take the meat portions, and then we pack it into a jar.

43:03 This already will break up, just kind of shred it up.

43:06 And then we pour clarified butter over the top.

43:09 You can set this in the oven for 20 minutes at say 250°.

43:15 That will sterilize everything.

43:17 And then you've got this potted beef that's good for 30 days, 60 days.

43:21 It's exactly what they would use in the 18th century.

43:24 They would take that potted beef out whenever

43:26 they wanted to and spread it on toast.

43:29 And it's just so so very good.

43:32 And so don't waste this.

43:34 This is some of the best part.

43:36 Here's our meat broth portion of it.

43:38 We're going to let this cool and the fat will rise to the top.

43:42 And we want to remove all the fat.

43:45 Now, in the 18th century, they would probably just scoop this off.

43:48 Of course, in a modern context,

43:50 we have other tools that will more easily drain the broth from the bottom.

43:54 Doesn't matter how you get it done,

43:55 but you want to extract all the oils off the top.

43:59 If you let it get cold enough, it might even solidify.

44:02 You can just peel it off.

44:03 But we do want no fat in our finished broth.

44:07 Once you've got the oils taken off, we need this to be a totally clear broth.

44:11 So, we're going to go ahead and strain this through a cloth.

44:16 It's already been through the colander and we've got the solids out,

44:19 but we want those little bits out, too, so it's completely clear.

44:23 Now that we've got our clear broth, it's time to reduce it again.

44:26 We've let this cool off.

44:28 Now, we're going to heat it back up,

44:29 but we have to be very careful about the temperature that we heat it up here.

44:33 We are going to put it on as low a heat as we possibly can.

44:36 We want to have a vessel here without a lid on it so that the vapor can go away.

44:40 And it's going to reduce for I mean you're going to need to bring

44:44 it down to 1/3 of what you've got now or even more than that.

44:50 And this might take a while.

44:52 Really depends on how big our batch is.

44:54 This will probably take 2 or 3 hours easily

44:57 to get down to a a lower level than this.

45:00 So I've reduced this down.

45:02 I spent something like 8 hours on this batch.

45:05 It's very very difficult to do over an open fire.

45:08 This is so much easier to do in a slow cooker.

45:10 So definitely go ahead and do that.

45:12 You really don't have to quite go this far.

45:15 If there's enough collagen in that meat,

45:17 then if you let it cool, you will be able to tell.

45:20 It'll form a skin and almost like a it'll be a brown jello- basically.

45:25 You can reduce it a little bit further than

45:27 that, but it gets harder and harder to keep it from burning.

45:30 So you can basically stop at that point.

45:32 Let it get cool.

45:34 If you set your vessel aside and it's still very very liquidy,

45:39 go ahead, put it back on low heat and reduce it some more.

45:43 But once you get it to this point, then you need to do the rest of it

45:47 basically at room temperature or extremely low temperatures.

45:51 And what we're trying to do is just drive out the final bit of moisture.

45:56 In the time period, they talk about taking this out and maybe putting it

45:59 in little cups and it'll start to form a skin and you can let it dry.

46:03 that way.

46:04 Or you can put it out onto flannel.

46:07 And the flannel they're talking about is woolen flannel cloth.

46:12 And obviously it needs to have at this point to form some kind of a skin.

46:17 You wouldn't obviously from the directions it you wouldn't

46:20 want it to flow into the cloth at all.

46:22 So it has to have enough skin that it'll stay on top of that.

46:26 We want to have air going all the way around it if possible.

46:30 So they would set this out in the sun, not in a hot sun,

46:33 but in a dry kind of probably a winter sun situation.

46:37 And it will go from this to this final form that we've got.

46:41 And it might take a couple weeks to get there.

46:44 Now, we can speed this up in a modern sense by using

46:47 a dehydrator that you can set to a very low temperature.

46:51 If you can't set your dehydrator to say less than 120°, it probably won't work.

46:57 But if you can set it down to say 110 degrees,

47:00 it will start to dry it out pretty rapidly and it'll be done in a day or two.

47:05 So in its final state after say a week of drying, it should be pretty hard.

47:10 If you squeeze these, it's kind of cool in here.

47:13 It's probably 65°.

47:14 If you squeeze these, you can just feel the gooey center.

47:18 So they're not completely dry.

47:20 Here's our portable soup from 13 years ago, our original episode.

47:25 And it's undoubtedly still good.

47:27 All except this one piece.

47:29 It has a little bit of white sort of a dusting on it.

47:34 And some of the recipes in the 18th century talk about it

47:38 getting a little maybe mold or something like that on the outside.

47:42 I'm not sure if it's mold or whether it's salt

47:45 that is sort of come out to the exterior surface,

47:48 but in the 18th century they talked about just wiping that off and using

47:53 it and they said it didn't the flavor didn't penetrate to the inside.

47:56 I think today if your if your portable soup

47:59 gets moldy probably go ahead and throw it out.

48:02 And that's why we don't store it in a totally airtight container.

48:06 This is probably going to still try to get rid of some moisture.

48:09 So, we usually wrap it in a little bit of paper

48:11 and put it in a tin that still can breathe a little bit.

48:15 I think if you sealed it up in a jar,

48:17 you might have that moisture getting in there

48:19 and maybe some mold or something forming on the outside.

48:23 So, here's our broth reconstituted.

48:25 And I'm going to try this without any seasoning, without anything added to it,

48:29 so we can get a full understanding about what this tastes like all by itself.

48:34 So, here we go.

48:39 Well, I would definitely spice it up.

48:41 This doesn't It's not salty at all.

48:43 I was kind of worried that, you know,

48:45 condensing it way down like that, it would be very, very salty.

48:49 But it's just a simple clear broth.

48:52 It's got a nice meaty flavor to it and it would

48:55 definitely be a great base for some other kind of soup.

49:00 And you know, maybe I added a little more water than

49:03 I should have for that particular puck because it's it's fairly diluted,

49:08 but you can definitely see, you know,

49:10 that it's got a lot of body to it and probably a decent amount of nutrition.

49:14 That said, if this is all you've got,

49:17 you've definitely are going to survive on this some amount of time.

49:21 It won't last you for forever.

49:23 After all, it's just a tiny little piece of food,

49:26 but it would certainly keep you going.

49:39 When it's cold outside, I want a warm drink.

49:42 We can imagine this echoing throughout history in the 18th century.

49:47 That was so true.

49:48 You can imagine today, we don't desire hot drinks the same way we might have two

49:54 or 30 hund years ago because we

49:56 live in these very climate controlled conditions.

49:59 Our houses are heated centrally.

50:01 We go into our car and it's heated.

50:04 We go to work, it's heated there.

50:06 We don't need to stay warm like people did in the 18th century.

50:11 They needed a warm drink to survive.

50:14 So warm drinks were very, very common.

50:16 It's been fascinating to study these warm drinks of that time period

50:20 because they are the same but very different than what we have today.

50:25 What are the classic warm drinks that we want to warm up with today?

50:29 Well, so many people rely on their hot coffee in the morning

50:33 or maybe hot tea and in this kind of holiday season, hot chocolate.

50:38 Those were all very popular in the 18th century,

50:42 but they have other items that we only have just the tail end of today.

50:48 Sometimes people might refer to a hot totty

50:51 or some other kind of warmed up drink.

50:55 That's a celebratory holiday drink.

50:57 In the 18th century, those were so very, very common.

51:01 And we can get an idea about why those are

51:04 so common in that time period by thinking about coffee,

51:08 tea, and chocolate today.

51:09 That's popular all around the world.

51:11 Whether it's hot weather or cold weather, these drinks are ubiquitous.

51:16 Everyone enjoys coffee, tea, and chocolate.

51:20 But the reality of coffee, tea,

51:21 and chocolate in, say, England, Great Britain, France,

51:25 and in the New World in the 18th century is that they're fairly new inventions.

51:30 Those products start to become very, very popular from about 1650.

51:36 All three of those, chocolate, coffee, and tea,

51:39 and they grow in intense popularity even in the 18th century.

51:44 Now, if they start at 1650 and they're really not

51:48 around before that, what are people drinking in the morning?

51:52 There's no such thing as coffee or tea or chocolate.

51:56 It would be hard for us to imagine that today, wouldn't it?

51:59 Well, what warm drink do they drink?

52:01 We do the research and we find out

52:03 that they're drinking things like warm beer or heated wine.

52:09 maybe something like heated milk or whey which is a milk product.

52:14 Most things don't die out in popularity right away.

52:17 And that's why we see most of these interesting heated

52:21 drink things kind of living on into the 18th century.

52:25 things with heated beer and brandy or heated

52:28 up wine mixed with other kinds of products,

52:31 whether it's milk or water, sugar, lemons,

52:35 all these items are put together and they make

52:38 all this interesting family of drinks in the 18th century

52:42 and they start to die out in the 19th century

52:46 and by the time you get to prohibition in North America,

52:51 they die out completely.

52:52 We have hardly any vestigages of what was the classic,

52:58 the only drink for breakfast,

53:00 say in 1600 to completely dying out by the time we get to 1950.

53:06 Many of these liquids are being drank as an singular item,

53:10 just warm beer, just warm wine, say, or warm milk.

53:15 But what's really interesting is when they start getting combined.

53:19 Now, many of these things are getting

53:21 combined into these complex mixtures for different reasons.

53:26 You might mix, say, brandy and beer or wine and milk

53:31 or these different things to start to make them a little bit more medicinal.

53:36 Or you might do that because the component parts are,

53:41 let's say, not the best quality.

53:43 We have different reasons,

53:45 but they they make all these very interesting drinks in our time period and they

53:51 have fascinating names that sort of evolve through

53:54 time that are so fun to track down.

53:58 And we've got a bunch of very,

54:00 very fun sounding drinks that have all but disappeared.

54:05 We've got names like Bumbo and Rumbo, or Hot Pot and Hot Punch.

54:12 We've got Pearl or Bishop.

54:16 We've got Klliwobble, Flip, and Doctor.

54:19 There are all these great names.

54:22 Some of them are, let's say, from the lower strata,

54:26 um, where they're kind of nicknames for drinks.

54:29 And I think that so many of these names are also very local.

54:34 And the drink itself might be different from place to place.

54:37 So the ingredients might change or even the way it was created,

54:41 but the name kind of is so fun that it moves from place to place.

54:46 Some have a great name and the drink still stays with us.

54:50 Its name has changed.

54:51 So we have something like six and tips which is actually just a boiler maker.

54:56 Punch is a beverage that is referenced throughout

54:59 the 18th century and you see it a lot.

55:01 People have punch for parties.

55:03 They have enormous punch bowls.

55:05 They have tiny little punch bowls.

55:07 uh you see flip being referenced as punch

55:09 for a sliver of time there in the 18th century.

55:12 So this could be considered either one.

55:15 The big difference is that punch was kind of a higher

55:18 class drink and flip was a lowass sailor drink.

55:20 Although they're using the same ingredients.

55:22 So the recipe is saying to make either

55:25 one do this and it doesn't give you quantities.

55:28 So we're just taking the ingredients and we're going to make it

55:31 to taste just like they would have been under the time period.

55:33 We're going to start by cutting up some citrus fruit.

55:36 We're going to use some lemons and some limes.

55:38 And they don't give us any quantities.

55:39 I like a little bit more lemon than I like lime.

55:41 So, that's the direction we're going to go.

55:43 Before we even do that, we're going to get some water to boil over on the fire.

55:47 And we're just going to use the juice of these.

55:49 We're going to add rum, sugar,

55:50 and we're going to pull it all together so it tastes the way we want it to.

55:53 And it's that simple.

55:54 If you want to experience one of the most popular drinks of the time period,

55:59 especially over this holiday season, you don't want to miss this one.

56:02 Some of this is going to be a little different

56:03 or a little unusual because I'm not making this grand bowl of punch.

56:07 I'm just making enough for me to try.

56:09 I'm kind of going to do it in little bits while it's over the fire.

56:13 I'll squeeze the lemons in.

56:14 I'll squeeze the limes in.

56:15 And I want to put the sugar in when

56:16 the water's hot so it gets nice and distributed throughout.

56:19 It's done.

56:20 And you might be sitting at home thinking

56:22 that's just hot lemonade with some run poured in.

56:24 And that's exactly what it is.

56:26 Let's see what it tastes like.

56:32 Oo, that's really good.

56:33 It's like a It's like a sweet tea.

56:35 The citrus really comes through.

56:37 And it's not like super sweet.

56:38 It's just enough to tame the tankiness of those lemons and limes.

56:42 The rum comes through, but it's not too strong.

56:44 It's perfect.

56:44 I would sit by a campfire and drink this and really enjoy it.

56:48 Sometimes they would call this a combination of opposites.

56:50 So, water to make it cool, liquor to make it hot,

56:53 lemons or citrus to make it sour, and sugar to make it sweet.

56:57 And it all rounds out just perfectly.

57:00 Many of these beverages start out as medicinal.

57:03 They are very concerned with staying healthy and most

57:07 of their medicine was really foodbased kind of medicines.

57:12 Sometimes they were, you know, typical medicines that we might have today.

57:15 We kind of classify them as poisons.

57:17 So they would try to fix that with certain kinds of drinks in the time period.

57:22 And they would mix a lot of beer and eggs and milk and kind of brandy.

57:28 And brandy was very much considered medicinal, especially early on.

57:33 A lot of things start out as medicine and become sort of recreational later on.

57:38 And that's so true with many of these drinks.

57:41 They start out as medicine.

57:43 You're ill, maybe you should be drinking this.

57:45 And oh, I start to like this.

57:47 And then pretty soon,

57:48 you're drinking it for pleasure instead of just for medicine.

57:52 There's an interesting anecdote or story in the 18th century about

57:56 a man who stops at an inn and he is ill.

58:00 He probably has just a cold or something.

58:02 He decides that he is medically going to drink a hot punch.

58:06 He has the inkeeper prepare a hot punch and bring it up

58:10 to his bedside and he falls asleep instantly before he drinks it.

58:15 And the person who's sharing the room with him,

58:18 or in fact sharing the bed with him,

58:19 which happens in the 18th century, he drinks the entire hot punch down.

58:23 And then he goes to bed too,

58:25 the other man who ordered it wakes up and he feels much better in the morning.

58:29 He looks over at the table.

58:30 He sees the glass empty for his hot punch and he says, "Boy,

58:34 I knew that was that medicine was just what I needed." Many

58:37 of these drinks also have a very specific connection to a class of people.

58:42 So middle and higher class people, they're going to drink a punch,

58:46 a warm punch usually in the winter time.

58:49 And that's going to have brandy and water

58:51 and sugar and lemons and maybe a few other components.

58:55 Maybe a little spicing in there, too.

58:57 Or a mold wine or a spiced wine.

59:00 But lowerass people, especially sailors,

59:04 they're going to be drinking a flip or possibly something like eggnog.

59:09 You see a lot of sailors drinking eggnog,

59:12 which is seemingly very similar to an alcoholic eggnog of today.

59:17 You can see this a lot in say court records of the time period.

59:21 People that get drunk and get in trouble with the law.

59:23 They talk about what they were drinking and they were usually

59:26 these kind of lower class drinks like flip or a simple hot pot.

59:32 And sometimes we'll see recipes in the time period and they'll say, "Well,

59:37 you can make a hot punch." And they'll

59:39 give you the ingredients and usually it's,

59:41 you know, something probably um like a very expensive brandy in that.

59:45 And if you're making flip,

59:47 it's a very inexpensive like rum or gin that would be mixed with it.

59:52 Something that would be less expensive in the time period.

59:55 Eggnog is one of the mysteries of our time period.

1:00:00 During this research, I've researched eggnog in the past, years ago.

1:00:04 You can find the references.

1:00:06 I have never found a recipe.

1:00:08 I did find one reference where there were some folks that were traveling

1:00:12 in the woods and they'd been robbed

1:00:13 of their supplies for eggnog and they listed them.

1:00:16 So, I have something to go off of here.

1:00:20 And it's funny because you really want to nail

1:00:22 this one because this is a drink that we drink now.

1:00:25 This is a festive drink.

1:00:27 There probably cartons of eggnogs in refrigerators

1:00:30 all across this country right now.

1:00:31 We're in December, but we we just kind of have

1:00:34 to take what we know and make it happen.

1:00:37 And I know this, it's not like what we think of today.

1:00:41 It's not a thick almost melted ice cream custard.

1:00:45 That's not what we're going to make today.

1:00:46 But we are going to make one of the best eggnogs that I've ever had.

1:00:50 Now, most of this video has been based off of hot drinks from the time period.

1:00:53 And with eggnog, you can make that decision.

1:00:56 People do drink this hot.

1:00:58 You can make this hot.

1:00:59 You can also make an uncooked version, which is going to be a lot better

1:01:02 for folks that are at reenacting events or camping.

1:01:05 If you want to take eggnog with you, it's going to work.

1:01:07 And we're going to do a raw eggnog recipe today.

1:01:11 You can cook this into a custard if you would

1:01:13 like to, but all we're going to need is eggs,

1:01:16 sugar, some what they call new milk,

1:01:18 which is essentially half and half, and your alcohol of choice.

1:01:22 We see rum and we see brandy used most in the time period.

1:01:26 I'm going to use brandy because that's what I like best.

1:01:29 We're just going to start by putting three whole eggs into our large bowl here.

1:01:33 Now, if you wanted this to be even thicker,

1:01:36 creamier, you could separate the yolks from the whites,

1:01:40 but from what I can tell from historical references,

1:01:42 it seems like they're just using whole eggs.

1:01:45 After we get those eggs into our bowl,

1:01:47 we're just going to take a whisk and get those whisked up a little bit.

1:01:50 And then I got about two cups of our half and half.

1:01:53 And I didn't buy half and half.

1:01:55 I got milk and I got cream because I wanted

1:01:57 it to be a little bit thicker than half and half.

1:01:59 So that's what I'm using.

1:02:00 After you pour that in, just go ahead and stir that up.

1:02:03 And then what we're going to do is get some sugar in there to start with.

1:02:07 But keep stirring until you get a little bit

1:02:09 of yellow from those yolks all the way through your cream.

1:02:12 You want to make sure it's mixed up really well.

1:02:14 And now I've just got a tablespoon here and I'm going to put

1:02:17 a couple of scoops of sugar in there and get that stirred up.

1:02:21 And we're just going to start there.

1:02:22 I don't know if that's where we're going to end.

1:02:24 While I'm mixing that up, I'm going to add some brandy.

1:02:26 I probably just add in three, maybe 4 oz.

1:02:30 We don't want that sugar to just settle at the bottom.

1:02:32 So, we're really going to get it stirred up in here.

1:02:34 Now, if you were going to make this a hot version of this drink,

1:02:38 you would just get your cream and your milk

1:02:40 into your saucepan and you would start to simmer

1:02:42 that, stirring it the whole time so it doesn't

1:02:44 burn until it starts to reduce a little bit.

1:02:47 And a lot of people will use the trick that if you pull

1:02:49 your wooden spoon out and you run your finger across it and the line stays,

1:02:54 then it's ready to go.

1:02:55 After that, you're going to have to do the same sort of tricks

1:02:58 that we did with the buttered beer as far as tempering it to your eggs,

1:03:01 but you'll get it all mixed together.

1:03:03 And then everything else is the same as what we're doing now.

1:03:05 Our eggnog is finished.

1:03:06 It was the simplest recipe of the day.

1:03:09 And I ended up adding a few more tablespoons of sugar.

1:03:12 It just depends on how much brandy you put in.

1:03:14 And I like mine fairly brandy heavy.

1:03:16 All right, let's see what it Wait just a second here.

1:03:20 All right.

1:03:22 Almost forgot.

1:03:27 Now we're ready to try this.

1:03:32 That's a whole lot of nutmeg.

1:03:39 Wow.

1:03:40 Okay, that's my that's my favorite eggnog.

1:03:46 It's delicious.

1:03:47 You should try it at home.

1:03:49 The research on this can be very difficult in that we have

1:03:53 very few specific recipes except for the occasional flip or punch recipe.

1:03:59 So, because punch was a little bit higher class kind of a drink,

1:04:03 we'll find multiple punch recipes, sometimes with milk and other items.

1:04:07 But the punch recipes all kind of run in the same line.

1:04:11 You'll find that in cookbooks, but most of these other lowerass drinks,

1:04:15 we only have simple descriptions of them

1:04:18 and they just kind of name the ingredients,

1:04:20 maybe in their importance or possibly in order of their quantities,

1:04:24 but more likely sort of the importance of them.

1:04:28 And very interesting to see that they are very creative.

1:04:32 There are times when there are components that they

1:04:35 don't have available to them like specifically maybe you

1:04:38 don't have a good brandy and you'll have

1:04:40 these layers of alcohol that you will choose as substitutes.

1:04:44 So you might go from a brandy that would be great to a lower class brandy

1:04:49 then you might go to say a rum and then whiskey would be the bottom one.

1:04:55 And it really depends on where you're at as to what

1:04:57 kind of item that you will substitute into your drink.

1:05:02 So, where are people drinking these warm drinks in the winter time?

1:05:06 It's normal that people would drink these things for breakfast

1:05:10 and they might do this in their very own home.

1:05:12 These are prepared in a standard kitchen.

1:05:14 There's no incredibly hard to find ingredients and they're usually very,

1:05:19 very simple preparations.

1:05:21 But this is also the time when we have

1:05:24 a lot of say festivity and celebration going on.

1:05:28 In the winter time is the time when

1:05:31 people have the time because it's cold outside.

1:05:34 They're not doing as much work outside.

1:05:36 They have time to get together in groups.

1:05:38 And we do see that kind of reflected in diaries of the time

1:05:42 period when wintertime is the time for people to get together to find

1:05:46 a warm sitting room or some other place in a home right

1:05:50 by the big fireplace and they sit around and they drink those warm drinks.

1:05:55 And we see that reflected in so many of these writings that we look at.

1:06:00 And they also get together in these classic taverns

1:06:04 and coffee houses of the time period where everybody gets together.

1:06:08 It's a time for community and and connecting with other people in your area

1:06:13 and getting together to drink these warm

1:06:16 drinks because you need them to feel better.

1:06:20 This is equally true or more so for soldiers and sailors of the time period.

1:06:25 Now, their ingredients are probably much lower

1:06:28 quality and maybe they don't have as much, but they are out in the weather.

1:06:33 It's dark outside and they're going to huddle

1:06:36 around that fire and they're going to stay warm.

1:06:38 There's multiple references to a particular sailing trip

1:06:42 when it was very cold outside and they

1:06:46 were under duress with the lack of supplies

1:06:50 and few people to get themselves through a storm.

1:06:53 and they created a hot punch for the sailors to drink.

1:06:58 And there's even kind of references that these warm alcoholic drinks

1:07:03 were more important to people than warm clothing or other items.

1:07:09 I thought that was kind of odd.

1:07:11 Today, you know, we would definitely go for the, oh,

1:07:13 give me the Arctic coat before the hot totty drink,

1:07:18 but in the time period, maybe not so much.

1:07:21 Here's a writing from the time period that gives us a little bit of idea

1:07:24 about what the author thought about how important

1:07:27 these hot alcoholic drinks specifically were to people, especially poor people.

1:07:32 He says, "Now this is the sure deplorable case

1:07:35 of all poor men and their families, if they have any,

1:07:38 and all for the want of a little liquor to cheer them

1:07:42 up and to put life in their chilly veins on a cold,

1:07:46 frosty morning or a hazy, windy day,

1:07:49 when a noggin of hot punch would be 10 times more comfortable to their hearts

1:07:53 and bellies than another coat or pea jacket would be to their backs.

1:07:59 When the stinking breezes and sprays from the sea will make a man sick to death,

1:08:05 and without he has liquor to comfort him, he must die.

1:08:09 Another one of these early warmed up drinks is one that at least sounds good,

1:08:14 and that is hot buttered ale or hot buttered beer.

1:08:18 And these are both early and kind of classic drinks

1:08:23 of this probably 17th century time period where we do include some oil,

1:08:29 some hot butter, some eggs in there.

1:08:32 We have ale or beer.

1:08:34 And there's a big difference for ale and beer

1:08:36 in our 17th and 18th century time period.

1:08:40 Ale tends to be not hopped at all or very lightly hopped.

1:08:45 And then beer classically has a good amount of hops in it.

1:08:49 And hops comes in a lot more in the 17th and especially in the 18th century.

1:08:55 Hops helps that beer stay good for a long period of time.

1:08:58 And also go bad because the hops

1:09:01 aren't there to preserve that alcoholic beverage.

1:09:04 But we can see them being used in this kind of warming up

1:09:08 and especially maybe a breakfast kind of drink where we have the butter,

1:09:14 we have the eggs, we have the ale here and it creates this mixture.

1:09:20 In the 20th century, we've heard about hot buttered rum,

1:09:24 but I have not really found a good connection with hot buttered rum,

1:09:28 at least specifically talked about in the 18th century.

1:09:32 This is one of the earliest recipes

1:09:33 that we're talking about in this particular video.

1:09:36 Our references come from the 1680s.

1:09:38 This was likely being drank way before then.

1:09:42 So, we're talking about before coffee

1:09:45 and chocolate and tea were normalized in households.

1:09:48 People were likely drinking this quite often.

1:09:50 And it's called hot buttered ale.

1:09:52 So, the first thing we're going to do is take our ale and we're going

1:09:54 to get it on the fire with a little bit of butter and some sugar.

1:09:58 And we're just going to get it to boil.

1:09:59 We don't need to go crazy with this.

1:10:01 As soon as you see it start to bubble,

1:10:03 simmer a little bit, we're going to take it off.

1:10:05 Then we're going to separate egg whites from yolks.

1:10:07 For this one, with the amount of beer that I have,

1:10:09 which is a pint, I'm just going to use three egg yolks.

1:10:12 We're going to separate those.

1:10:13 We're going to go ahead and get the yolks broken up and stirred together.

1:10:17 And then slowly, we will add our hot mixture

1:10:20 to our eggs so that we're not cooking the eggs.

1:10:23 And after we even bring it off the fire,

1:10:24 we're going to let it cool before we even do that.

1:10:26 Look at this drink.

1:10:28 That's just beautiful.

1:10:29 It looks like something that you'd see coming out of a coffee cafe.

1:10:32 It's It's really pretty.

1:10:33 As far as tempering the eggs,

1:10:34 what I did was I got my egg yolks into a container and I put just

1:10:38 a little bit of the hot beer into another bowl so it would start to cool down.

1:10:42 And once it was about uh just a little

1:10:44 warmer than my body temperature, I put the eggs in.

1:10:48 I stirred that up.

1:10:49 And then you want to take something like a big

1:10:52 mug if you have one or a saucepan or something else.

1:10:55 But you just kind of want to take the hot liquid and the new

1:10:58 mixture and go back and forth and that's going to temper it.

1:11:01 It's also going to give you the added benefit

1:11:02 of getting a nice kind of froth going on.

1:11:05 This looks fantastic.

1:11:06 It smells surprisingly good.

1:11:09 Kind of sweet, buttery with a deeper note that you're getting from that ale.

1:11:13 Um, I don't drink a whole lot of drinks with egg yolks in them,

1:11:17 but I do from time to time, so I don't think it's going to be surprising.

1:11:19 Let's give it a shot.

1:11:26 Whoa.

1:11:26 Okay.

1:11:28 There's almost like a butterscotch thing going on there.

1:11:30 This is really, really good.

1:11:33 This is something that people would be glad to come over as guests,

1:11:37 sit around your fire, get nice and warm, huddle together for some conversation.

1:11:41 And you could just drink this all night long.

1:11:43 It would be wonderful.

1:11:44 Now, lest we leave coffee and tea all by themselves over on the side here,

1:11:49 kind of separating them from these warm drinks,

1:11:52 there is a little kind of uh overlap and we

1:11:56 see more than one reference to the idea of ladies

1:12:00 probably drinking in a tea house or in a coffee

1:12:04 house and the reference to adding to their drink French cream,

1:12:09 which was of course a euphemism in the time period for brandy.

1:12:13 So even these coffee and tea products were

1:12:16 mixed in an alcoholic way in our time period.

1:12:19 The research can be fun but very very challenging on these drinks and especially

1:12:24 the names because there's a constant evolution

1:12:28 of the drinks themselves and the names for them.

1:12:32 So as we look in the records, we can kind of see the names come into popularity

1:12:37 and then be popular and then disappear 50 or 60 years later.

1:12:42 Uh we can see in court cases that Flip is

1:12:45 mentioned in these particular time frames and then after Flip kind

1:12:49 of disappears and the drink itself might actually continue to stay

1:12:54 popular or even evolve a little bit and completely change its name.

1:12:58 You can't do a word search on the drink

1:13:01 for doctor because you will find a million references

1:13:04 for regular doctors and you don't know when they're

1:13:08 talking about the drink or you're talking about the person.

1:13:12 There's a term we still use today, a hot totty, meaning a warm alcoholic drink.

1:13:17 And that term itself is one that evolved entirely in the 18th century.

1:13:23 At the beginning part,

1:13:24 it was a very specific kind of alcoholic beverage from Southeast Asia,

1:13:29 from particular kinds of tree sap

1:13:31 that they would turn into an alcoholic beverage.

1:13:33 And then by the time we get to the late 18th century, early 19th century,

1:13:37 it's a term basically for a generic hot alcoholic

1:13:43 drink like the term we would use it today.

1:13:45 So some of these terms change a great

1:13:48 deal through this 18th century time period.

1:13:50 In many of the recipes, we have a poset in our time period and posets

1:13:56 were a medicinal drink with wine and milk that would

1:13:59 curdle and you would kind of eat it with a spoon

1:14:01 and you would drink it at the same time.

1:14:04 One of these early drinks also is the mold wine or burnt wine which

1:14:09 is wine that's heated and it's got lots of spices in the time period.

1:14:14 So, this was probably one of the more expensive drinks.

1:14:17 And again, it's one of those that's going out of favor in the 18th century.

1:14:21 It's probably much more common in the 17th century,

1:14:24 but you can see these holdovers for these drinks as we move through time.

1:14:29 We have to take a lot of these directions or recipes

1:14:33 with a grain of salt and adjust them for their location.

1:14:37 If you're in North America, bry's not as popular and you'll find rum substituted

1:14:44 and whiskey substituted depending on exactly where you're at.

1:14:48 We have the drink called Calabogus,

1:14:51 which is specifically North American and it uses whiskey and spruce beer.

1:14:57 Again, something very North American along with maple

1:15:00 sugar or maple syrup to make that drink up.

1:15:03 and it's almost a specific North American drink.

1:15:07 You can see how this is an adjustment for a much more British recipe

1:15:11 that would use regular beer and brandy

1:15:14 and regular sugar instead of those ingredients.

1:15:18 Isn't it interesting our choices today in cold weather for our hot drinks?

1:15:23 Well, we've got tea, we've got coffee mostly,

1:15:26 and maybe the occasional hot chocolate.

1:15:28 And in the 18th century, you have dozens and dozens of combinations and classic

1:15:35 hot drinks that are all but disappeared today.

1:15:39 They're using ingredients like whiskey and rum and brandy and ale

1:15:44 and beer and eggs and milk and sugar and lemons.

1:15:49 All of these kinds of things and all

1:15:51 these wonderful complex and probably very tasty combinations.

1:15:57 And they are all but gone today.

1:16:09 Boston was one of the most important cities in colonial America.

1:16:14 It had this very very unique culture and it was a center of commerce.

1:16:19 It had critically important political and religious effects

1:16:23 on the entire colonial system in North America.

1:16:27 Today, every major city has its own unique culture.

1:16:31 New York City, Chicago, LA, they have their own feel to them.

1:16:36 But that concept is even more true in the 18th century colonial America system.

1:16:43 Each one of the cities like New York and Boston and Philadelphia and St.

1:16:48 Charleston, they all have very, very different cultures.

1:16:51 You'll find the same kind of hotels and restaurants nationwide

1:16:56 that make some of our cities feel very similar to each other.

1:16:59 But in the 18th century, that wasn't true.

1:17:02 In those cities, you'll have different kinds of language,

1:17:05 very different dialects, different clothing, different food,

1:17:10 even different money in these different cities.

1:17:12 So you can imagine in colonial America you would really

1:17:16 know you were in Boston if you were in Boston.

1:17:19 Now Boston has a very long history.

1:17:22 It isn't where the colonists first came over.

1:17:24 Say the Puritans coming to Massachusetts in 1620.

1:17:28 But by 1630 that's when Boston starts out.

1:17:32 And they like it because it's got a great port,

1:17:36 a harbor that you can bring ships into and it's got a wonderful water supply.

1:17:41 So people started to populate Boston fairly rapidly.

1:17:44 The culture of Boston in the 18th century comes out

1:17:48 of the Puritans that arrive in Massachusetts in the 17th century.

1:17:52 And these Puritans are coming over

1:17:55 from the area of Great Britain called East Anglia.

1:17:58 They have a very very specific cultural identity.

1:18:03 The clothing, the speech patterns and the food

1:18:06 ways that are coming in through these Puritans.

1:18:09 Now, this affects 17th century Boston, but that continues to be very,

1:18:15 very true for 18th century Boston and is still true to a small extent today.

1:18:20 We all know Boston because of some of the major political events that happen

1:18:25 in the late 18th century that become part of the founding of the United States.

1:18:31 We have these important things like the Boston Massacre

1:18:35 and the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Bunker Hill.

1:18:39 Boston is at the center of these events.

1:18:43 This is the political sort of heartbeat

1:18:46 of the late 18th century in early America.

1:18:50 One of the most distinguishing features of this area are the food ways.

1:18:55 What kind of food are people in Boston eating?

1:18:58 Or specifically, if you were from someplace else and you were eating in Boston,

1:19:02 what pops out as completely different than any place else?

1:19:06 The most obvious answer here are baked beans.

1:19:10 Boston baked beans.

1:19:11 Those are so famous in the 19th century and they're still famous today.

1:19:17 Now, baked beans have this very, very hard to decipher history.

1:19:24 We know them to be incredibly important

1:19:27 and very identified with Boston in the 19th century.

1:19:32 Now this term baked beans is very very common for the 1830s

1:19:36 and after that it seems to be highly identified with that.

1:19:40 But as we push back further and we try to understand the roots of baked beans,

1:19:44 we have to get a little bit more

1:19:47 creative to understand where this term is coming from.

1:19:50 We find a few references to it in say 1812

1:19:53 or 1817 and one single reference that goes back to 1803.

1:19:58 But as we look back further and specifically into the 18th century,

1:20:02 we can't look through the murky lens

1:20:05 of research and find exactly what we're looking for.

1:20:09 We can't find the roots of baked beans unless we dig a little deeper

1:20:13 and understand the culture of these East Anglians

1:20:18 and these Puritans as they're coming to Massachusetts.

1:20:22 So this set of people with their specific

1:20:25 religious views and their cultural ways,

1:20:29 they are very plain in their ideas about clothing and about food.

1:20:35 They are not people that are expecting rich dishes,

1:20:40 heavy meat dishes, and lots of sweets or anything like that.

1:20:43 They think that that's actually bad for your moral

1:20:47 health as well as your physical health.

1:20:49 So, they're interested in plain dishes that aren't very spicy.

1:20:54 And one of the most popular dishes in this East

1:20:57 Anglian area in the 16th and 17th century is peas pudding.

1:21:02 And we've done peas pudding on the channel before.

1:21:05 And you take these peas, like split peas, yellow peas, green peas,

1:21:09 and you'll boil them in a bag and you'll boil them for several hours.

1:21:13 You'll open it up, you'll add some butter, you'll close it back up,

1:21:16 you'll boil it again,

1:21:18 and then you turn these peas out and they're mushy and gooey.

1:21:22 A very plain dish.

1:21:23 And some people in this time period, that's all they were eating.

1:21:26 That was the main dish they were living upon.

1:21:29 Now, if we think about what's going on here with these peas,

1:21:33 it turns out that peas and beans are very similar.

1:21:37 They're pulses.

1:21:38 The peas that they're probably talking about

1:21:41 and a lot of these peas puddings are field peas, basically a kind of bean.

1:21:46 Think pinto bean.

1:21:47 Now, what about the cooking method?

1:21:49 There's a lot of change between peas pudding which is boiled

1:21:52 in a bag and a baked bean dish which we basically

1:21:56 cover up these beans with water and we bake them

1:21:58 for a long period of time and they turn out completely differently.

1:22:02 Well, in the 18th century we have a wonderful

1:22:06 transition going on in puddings themselves between boiled puddings

1:22:11 and then a baked pudding where we take the similar

1:22:14 kind of ingredient and we bake it in a pan.

1:22:17 And we see this is almost exactly the same transition.

1:22:20 If we take this very very popular dish of peas

1:22:23 pudding in the 17th century and we try to bake it,

1:22:27 it turns into a baked bean kind of dish and the peas turned

1:22:33 into a little bit more like a standard bean that we would use today.

1:22:37 And the cooking method changes as well.

1:22:40 So we see exactly where these Boston baked beans came from.

1:22:44 just a shift in a cooking style and a slight shift of ingredients.

1:22:50 You cannot talk about Boston food without talking about Boston baked beans.

1:22:55 Now, this is kind of a difficult subject to research.

1:22:58 There are a lot of myths out there.

1:23:00 There are a lot of maybe half-truths and there's a ton of speculation.

1:23:03 So, what we've done for this episode is just try to get to the bare bones.

1:23:07 We've got a really simple recipe here that we're going to show you.

1:23:10 We're not going to add anything that might have been.

1:23:12 We're just going really straightforward.

1:23:14 This recipe comes from Lydia Child's The Frugal Housewife in 1830.

1:23:18 It's a really great cookbook.

1:23:19 It's just good barebones cooking.

1:23:21 And what's interesting about this particular

1:23:23 cookbook is after Ameilia Simmons American cookery,

1:23:27 this is the first truly American cookbook.

1:23:29 And it's from Boston.

1:23:30 She's from Boston.

1:23:32 And she starts off this recipe by saying this is a simple dish.

1:23:35 Not many people make it.

1:23:37 Well, this is exactly the right way to do it.

1:23:39 Beans and peas.

1:23:40 Baked beans are a very simple dish, yet few cook them well.

1:23:44 They should be put in cold water and hung

1:23:46 over the fire the night before they are baked.

1:23:49 In the morning, they should be put in a colander and rinsed two or three times,

1:23:54 then again placed in a kettle with the pork you intend to bake,

1:23:58 covered with water and kept scalding hot an hour or more.

1:24:01 A pound of pork is quite enough for a quart

1:24:04 of beans and is a large dinner for a common family.

1:24:07 The rind of the pork should be slashed.

1:24:09 Pieces of pork, alternately fat and lean, are the most suitable.

1:24:13 The cheeks are the best.

1:24:14 A little pepper sprinkled among the beans when they are

1:24:17 placed in the bean pot will render them less unhealthy.

1:24:20 They should be just covered with water when put into the oven.

1:24:24 And the pork should be sunk a little below the surface of the beans.

1:24:28 Bake 3 or 4 hours.

1:24:29 For this recipe, we've got to in a modern sense,

1:24:32 we've got to tweak the recipe just a little bit because not many people

1:24:35 have a fireplace in their home that they're going to hang these beans up in.

1:24:39 And we also don't need to put them in scalding hot water with the pork

1:24:43 for an hour because our beans are going

1:24:46 to be processed in a different way from the beginning.

1:24:49 So, we're going to soak our beans or we're going to use a pressure

1:24:51 cooker or something like that in a modern sense to get those beans ready.

1:24:54 After the beans are ready to go, the recipe is pretty much verbatim.

1:24:58 You're just going to take your beans.

1:24:59 You're going to put them into your pot.

1:25:01 You're going to put it in there with pork.

1:25:02 Now, most of the pork that we're going to be using doesn't

1:25:05 have as much fat or rind like what she's talking about here.

1:25:09 I just am planning to take my pork,

1:25:11 use as much of the fat as I can because fat's flavor and you want that in there,

1:25:15 but I'm going to cube it up and mix it in with the beans.

1:25:18 At that point, we're just going to salt, pepper,

1:25:21 and we're going to fill this up with water.

1:25:23 Now, the idea is to have the beans over the pork.

1:25:28 We don't want pork sticking up out of the water.

1:25:29 So, the pork's going to be below the last layer of beans,

1:25:32 and the beans are going to be just covered with water.

1:25:34 For any of you out there who have not worked with beans before,

1:25:37 there's a process of getting your beans ready to go.

1:25:39 And you can look this up in several places and get different tricks,

1:25:43 but essentially you want to soak your beans overnight.

1:25:45 Change the water once or twice.

1:25:47 And what's happening there is we're changing the texture of the beans

1:25:50 and kind of getting them to open up, swell a little bit.

1:25:53 And also, there's a toxicity in those beans that you

1:25:55 want to change the water and get rid of that toxicity.

1:25:58 Let's talk about beans really quickly.

1:26:01 So, in the time period, there's an adjustment that's happening.

1:26:04 We've got English people that are used to eating peas

1:26:07 and they're in this new area where they're still eating peas.

1:26:11 But there's also a transition that happens

1:26:13 somewhere between the early 18th century

1:26:18 and the early 19th century where we're seeing a crossover to folks saying,

1:26:22 "I'm going to use beans because beans we're we're learning about beans

1:26:25 here in this new world." It gets more complex than that, too,

1:26:28 because folks in this time period are interchanging peas and beans

1:26:32 because we're not necessarily talking about green garden split peas.

1:26:37 We're talking about all sorts of varieties of beans.

1:26:40 So, something even like a blackeyed pee is a bean

1:26:43 in the time period when people are talking about it.

1:26:46 And they don't necessarily designate when they're talking about them in recipes.

1:26:49 Right now, we have an example right here

1:26:52 of this is what we would call field peas.

1:26:54 There's also what we're using today,

1:26:56 which are great northern or navy beans or white beans,

1:26:59 whatever you call them from wherever you grew up.

1:27:02 These were available in the time period.

1:27:03 Now, in a modern sense, you can go wild.

1:27:06 You can use any bean that you want to.

1:27:08 A really great bean to use in baked beans is a black bean.

1:27:12 They they're perfect for this recipe.

1:27:14 So, in a modern sense, go wild, have some fun.

1:27:17 in a period sense.

1:27:19 It's very convoluted, but it's either a field pee or a bean.

1:27:24 Our beans are ready to bake.

1:27:26 The water is in there.

1:27:27 The water is just above the top layer of beans.

1:27:29 The pork is submerged underneath the beans.

1:27:31 Now, if you're using a ceramic bean pot like this, you're going

1:27:34 to want to take a little bit of butter and go around the rim.

1:27:36 Then, put your lid on so it doesn't stick.

1:27:39 When I've baked beans before, I've tried it at several different temperatures

1:27:42 and I've tried it for different time lengths.

1:27:44 You will look this up on the internet or in other books

1:27:47 and they're going to tell you 3 or 4 hours and that's nonsense.

1:27:51 You want to bake beans for a long time.

1:27:54 This is not a quick game.

1:27:55 This is 300°, 6 hours easy, even longer.

1:27:59 Our beans are finished.

1:28:00 These look a little bit different than I thought they would.

1:28:03 Uh, a lot of modern baked beans recipes will tell you to add liquid as you go.

1:28:07 This recipe didn't say anything about that.

1:28:09 I did cook it longer than the recipe called for.

1:28:12 So, I don't know if when you're playing with it at home,

1:28:14 if you decide that it seems a little bit dry, go ahead and add some liquid.

1:28:17 If you want to make it exactly what like she says in the cookbook,

1:28:21 it's a 3 to 4 hour bake.

1:28:22 But I certainly don't think that's enough time for baked beans.

1:28:25 Let's give it a try.

1:28:33 Yeah, that's really good.

1:28:34 It doesn't taste the texture is not dry at all.

1:28:37 It's really good.

1:28:38 This is in no way a modern baked beans recipe.

1:28:40 It's a lot different in taste, but I think you're going to love it.

1:28:43 I know John's going to love it.

1:28:45 Boston was one of the biggest commercial

1:28:47 centers in North America in the 18th century.

1:28:50 It had this great harbor that you could bring ships into and there are

1:28:54 different speakers that are talking in the time

1:28:57 period about going into Boston Harbor.

1:28:59 And there was a hundred ships waiting to be unloaded.

1:29:03 And we even think about, you know,

1:29:04 the Boston Tea Party and the reason why the Boston

1:29:07 Tea Party is happening there is because tea is coming in.

1:29:10 Large quantities of tea,

1:29:12 multiple ships coming in, and they're just filled with tea.

1:29:16 This area is got a lot of shipping coming

1:29:18 into it and a lot of shipping coming out of it.

1:29:21 It is a very important commercial center.

1:29:24 The idea of commerce here is part

1:29:27 of the culture of the Puritans as they came over.

1:29:31 Most of the Puritans weren't really big farmers.

1:29:34 They really had this idea of having a lot of middle class,

1:29:38 a lot of merchants and people that would buy and sell things.

1:29:42 And that's really kind of one of the specialties for Boston.

1:29:45 It was such a huge shipping center.

1:29:48 All these items were coming into Boston and lots

1:29:50 of items were being shipped out of Boston, especially back to Great Britain.

1:29:56 Another characteristic that this region is known for is frugality.

1:30:00 They like to save money.

1:30:02 They like to make money.

1:30:04 And if there's ever a time when there's a product that might sell for a better

1:30:08 price and they could use a cheaper version for themselves, they would do that.

1:30:12 And the perfect example here is wheat and corn.

1:30:16 Wheat isn't easy to grow in Massachusetts in the 18th century.

1:30:21 Corn is much easier to grow and wheat is very, very expensive.

1:30:26 So rather than make their bread or other recipes out of wheat,

1:30:29 which they would much rather, if they did grow it,

1:30:31 they would much rather export it and make money from it,

1:30:35 they would use corn in these recipes.

1:30:37 An example of this wheat to corn substitution is bread.

1:30:42 Bread is not easy to make with something that's just corn.

1:30:46 Corn by itself without the gluten does not form up.

1:30:49 It just crumbles and it has a different texture

1:30:52 and it doesn't have a great flavor all by itself.

1:30:55 So there's a modifications that people are

1:30:57 doing in the 18th century specifically adding

1:31:01 wheat or even better in this case rye which grows more easily in this region.

1:31:07 And so a classic regional bread would be what they

1:31:11 would call Ryan bread which means rye and Indian cornmeal bread.

1:31:16 And this bread is so simple.

1:31:18 It doesn't have the same kind of fluffy texture

1:31:21 that our white or even a brown bread would have.

1:31:24 This bread can have a tough texture.

1:31:27 It's very flavorful.

1:31:28 It's very rich.

1:31:29 And it is really kind of well the perfect bread

1:31:32 to put on this Puritan plate for a Boston feast.

1:31:36 Corn can also be used for this amazing dessert

1:31:39 that's so famous for New England and the Boston area.

1:31:44 A very popular New England and Boston

1:31:47 dish in the time period was Indian pudding.

1:31:49 It's still popular today,

1:31:50 but you see it a lot in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

1:31:53 And that is really simple way to take

1:31:55 cornmeal and turn it into something special.

1:31:57 Now cornmeal, this is an ingredient that people used for all sorts of purposes.

1:32:02 One of them, it's just a kind of a very essential survival food,

1:32:06 especially during the Revolutionary War.

1:32:08 We see a lot of soldiers that are eating hasty pudding.

1:32:11 And in that sense, it's nothing special.

1:32:14 There's nothing special about it.

1:32:15 In fact, you kind of lament when you need to eat hasty pudding.

1:32:18 But this is a way to take that idea

1:32:20 of a dish and elevate it and make it something special.

1:32:24 It shows up a few times in Ameilia Simmons American cookery.

1:32:27 Why else would a simple dish like this show up in a million

1:32:31 Simmons cookbook three different times if it

1:32:34 wasn't super popular and super sought after?

1:32:37 Indian puddings.

1:32:38 Number two, three pints scalded milk to one pint cornmeal.

1:32:42 Salted, cool.

1:32:44 Add two eggs, 4 ouncesz of butter, sugar or molasses, and spice.

1:32:48 It will require 2 and 1/2 hours baking.

1:32:51 This is a super simple recipe and it is very tasty.

1:32:55 What we're going to do is we're going to get

1:32:56 our milk and our pan and get it rolling.

1:32:58 When it starts to roll and we're going to stir

1:33:00 it the whole time cuz we don't want anything to burn,

1:33:02 we're going to add our cornmeal.

1:33:04 And at that point, it won't take long for it to become the right consistency.

1:33:07 That cornmeal is kind of going to swallow up all that milk and absorb it.

1:33:11 Then we're going to take it out and let it cool.

1:33:13 At that point, we're going to add our butter right before it gets all

1:33:17 the way cool because we want that butter to melt and blend in there.

1:33:20 We're going to stir that around.

1:33:21 Add some sugar and add a couple of eggs.

1:33:24 At that point, just get it all mixed up.

1:33:26 Once we get that all mixed together, we're going to put it in our dish and we're

1:33:29 going to bake it at 400 for about 40 minutes.

1:33:31 And you'll have to judge if you need to go a little longer, a little shorter,

1:33:35 but the top is going to brown up nicely and it's still going to have

1:33:38 a little bit of a jiggle to it

1:33:40 underneath that because it is a pudding after all.

1:33:42 We've got our pudding in our bowl here.

1:33:44 Now, if you want to turn this out afterwards,

1:33:46 you're going to have to grease the bottom

1:33:48 and the sides of the bowl that you bake it in.

1:33:51 I'm just going to dish it out.

1:33:52 So, I wasn't very concerned about that, just to let you know at home.

1:33:55 We've got this finished, and we're going to put it in the oven.

1:33:57 We've made this dish before on the channel.

1:33:59 It's really fantastic.

1:34:00 I'm excited to eat it.

1:34:01 It's just a couple of simple ingredients, and man, does it taste good.

1:34:11 I love the texture in this.

1:34:12 It's just creamy.

1:34:14 You get the corn taste.

1:34:15 There's some sugar in there that kind of compliments it.

1:34:18 It's not too sweet, but it's a dessert or a side dish.

1:34:21 Either way you go, it's just fantastic.

1:34:24 Boston is at the heart of political unrest

1:34:28 in the 1770s because of the money that Great Britain is

1:34:33 trying to extract from the colonies to pay for the French

1:34:36 and Indian War that happened in the 1750s and60s.

1:34:40 And they start to do things like the Stamp Act and other kind of taxing.

1:34:44 And this immediately causes problems in the colonies

1:34:49 and specifically in Boston because that's the commercial center.

1:34:53 That's where all this commerce is coming in and out

1:34:56 of and that's where the taxation is happening.

1:34:58 So this causes great political unrest.

1:35:01 You have people like John Hancock who has

1:35:04 ships and merchandise and the restriction of trade

1:35:08 is causing him to lose money because

1:35:10 of the political unrest driven by this taxation.

1:35:15 The British go ahead and they put troops into Boston.

1:35:19 This creates even more conflict and we have

1:35:23 the Boston Massacre that happens at this point.

1:35:26 And who defends the British during the Boston Massacre?

1:35:30 John Adams.

1:35:31 We have these famous names in Boston that are

1:35:35 part of the political culture that creates the Revolutionary War.

1:35:41 After the Boston Massacre, political unrest is at an all-time high in the area,

1:35:46 and we have Sam Adams stepping into the fray,

1:35:50 whipping it up even more, and causing the Boston Tea Party.

1:35:54 Today, we see Boston as just another great city in the United States.

1:35:59 But in the 18th century,

1:36:01 Boston in North America was a amazingly important center for commerce,

1:36:07 for political thought, for religious thought, and for cultural ideas.

1:36:12 What's happening on the dinner plates of Boston has

1:36:15 a major cultural impact to the entire colonial era.

1:36:30 The sandwich is one of the biggest food innovations in the last 300 years.

1:36:35 It seems so incredibly simple.

1:36:37 A little bit of bread on the top and the bottom and something

1:36:40 in the middle like a wonderful slice of meat and everything is different.

1:36:45 This invention changed everything.

1:36:48 There are over 300 million people in America today.

1:36:52 How many sandwiches do you think were eaten last year?

1:36:55 The number has to be incredible.

1:36:58 And what even is a sandwich?

1:37:00 The legal definition of a sandwich is different, varying from state to state.

1:37:05 Is a taco a sandwich?

1:37:07 Is a hot dog a sandwich?

1:37:08 If we go back to 250 years ago, it's much simpler.

1:37:12 But let's push back even farther.

1:37:14 Back into the late Middle Ages when people were eating on trenches.

1:37:19 They were loaves of bread specifically made to be

1:37:23 a plate that you would eat your food upon.

1:37:26 And you might not even eat the plate itself,

1:37:29 but you could or you might give it away to a poor person.

1:37:32 It's getting close to the idea of a sandwich, but we don't have a top yet.

1:37:36 And it's huge.

1:37:37 Another example is sippets and soops.

1:37:40 Pieces of bread that they would use within their meals.

1:37:43 They would put their food upon these little slices of bread or maybe

1:37:47 put them in their soups again to help them eat their food.

1:37:51 But it just didn't make it so that you could pick it up in your hand.

1:37:55 It's hard to believe that the idea of the sandwich

1:37:58 doesn't pop up until 1760 with John Montigue, the Earl of Sandwich.

1:38:04 And apparently he's a heavy gambler or someone who plays lots of games.

1:38:10 He wants to be able to snack.

1:38:12 He wants to be able to eat food and not

1:38:15 get his fingers dirty and not have to use a fork.

1:38:19 So, he asks his valet to bring him a slice

1:38:23 of salted beef with two slices of bread on either side.

1:38:28 And voila, we have this sandwich.

1:38:31 Now, this idea seems to take off pretty quickly in one sense,

1:38:36 but very slowly in another sense.

1:38:38 We see Gibbon, an author in the late 18th century,

1:38:42 and he writes in his journal in 1762 about eating in a gentleman's club.

1:38:49 And multiple people are eating a sandwich, as he calls it.

1:38:54 Now, these sandwiches at the time were very small little sandwiches

1:38:58 and very simple with just bread and a slice of meat,

1:39:02 maybe something like butter, possibly a piece of cheese, and that's it.

1:39:07 They show up in a cookbook in 1777 in a lady's assistant

1:39:12 with Charlotte Mason and she gives us a very simple small recipe for sandwiches.

1:39:18 Also in the late 18th century,

1:39:20 we start to see the concept of sandwich show up in literature.

1:39:24 We have novels and the occasional novel where they talk about eating sandwiches.

1:39:28 But again, the way it's kind of inferred

1:39:31 or talked about sandwiches are a very light little thing.

1:39:36 They're just small little snacks.

1:39:38 That's really all they are.

1:39:40 But the sandwich does start to really come into its own in the 19th century.

1:39:45 We've got a cookbook in the early 19th century about

1:39:48 1827 and there are five or six recipes for sandwiches,

1:39:52 cheese sandwiches and a shrimp sandwich and egg sandwiches.

1:39:56 And then by the middle or late 19th century, we have a restaurant in 1866.

1:40:04 And that restaurant has as many as a hundred different sandwich recipes.

1:40:09 Here is Gibbon giving a description of a gentleman's club.

1:40:13 And it's November 24th, 1762.

1:40:17 A site truly English.

1:40:19 20 or 30 perhaps of the first men in the kingdom

1:40:23 in a point of fashion and fortune spping at little tables covered

1:40:27 with a napkin and in the middle of a coffee room upon

1:40:30 a bit of cold meat or a sandwich or drinking a glass of punch.

1:40:35 It's interesting that these early sandwiches seem

1:40:39 to be something that we might call a snack.

1:40:42 And that term itself is very interesting.

1:40:45 In the 18th century, a snack by a general definition meant something

1:40:50 that was shared or your part in something else.

1:40:53 And sometimes later on, it became the meaning of a small bite of something.

1:40:59 And you could see how those two things go together.

1:41:01 Like you would have a large bowl of snacks

1:41:03 and everyone would have one part in that.

1:41:06 But let's make that very first sandwich.

1:41:11 Charlotte Mason's the lady's assistant has the first recipe for sandwiches.

1:41:17 It goes like this.

1:41:18 Sandwiches.

1:41:20 Put some very thin slices of beef between thin slices of bread and butter.

1:41:27 Cut the ends off neatly.

1:41:29 Lay them in a dish.

1:41:31 Ve and ham cut thin may be served in the same manner.

1:41:36 So very very simple.

1:41:38 It's just the bread, a little butter, little meat.

1:41:41 It's interesting that most of these early

1:41:43 sandwich recipes do not get very complex.

1:41:46 They don't have lettuce.

1:41:47 They don't have tomato or sauces necessarily.

1:41:51 Sometimes they talk about a little bit of mustard,

1:41:54 but butter seems to be a common implement here.

1:41:58 This could not be simpler.

1:42:00 Now, we're going to take a nice loaf

1:42:02 of white bread here and slice it into thin slices.

1:42:07 Now remember, we're going to cut off all the crust and that later

1:42:11 on, but first we're going to cut this into nice thin slices.

1:42:14 And I'm going to butter this bread lightly.

1:42:17 Now, some of these recipes we might have toasted this bread,

1:42:21 but again, it's meant to be picked up with your fingers.

1:42:24 You don't want to get them greasy.

1:42:26 So, we're going to have just butter on one side.

1:42:28 We're also going to cut our beef in very thin slices.

1:42:33 Now, these first recipes where the Earl of sandwich,

1:42:37 he was making sandwich with salt beef, which may or may not have been cooked,

1:42:43 but we just have a nicely cooked piece of beef here.

1:42:47 It's cold.

1:42:48 It's already a little dry,

1:42:49 which is perfect for our sandwich in this circumstance.

1:42:53 Let's make one of the sandwiches out of the 1827 cookbook.

1:42:57 This one's the ham and cheese.

1:42:59 Prepare a gallamoffrey of cheese with equal

1:43:03 parts butter and season agreeable to taste.

1:43:07 Spread it upon bread.

1:43:08 Cover it with thin slices of ham, tongue, breaded beef, or bacon.

1:43:13 Cover it with another slice of bread.

1:43:15 Press it together.

1:43:16 Cut it into small pieces.

1:43:18 Serve all sandwiches upon a napkin.

1:43:21 Now, this one's going to be equally easy.

1:43:23 We have to prepare our galamoffrey.

1:43:26 So, we'll take equal parts of cheese and butter.

1:43:29 I'm going to heat this in our frying pan and turn it

1:43:33 into a nice sauce that we can spread upon our slices of bread.

1:43:38 Then goes on the ham.

1:43:40 We'll press it together.

1:43:42 That will be our sandwich.

1:43:44 I like this idea of the ham and cheese sandwich.

1:43:47 And the cheese is soft.

1:43:49 They want to make this easy to eat.

1:43:51 So, it's a gallamoffree.

1:43:52 That's just a hodgepodge, a mixture of our cheese and butter.

1:43:57 I love digging into the food because we get something

1:44:00 like this, a food that was a very rich man's food,

1:44:04 the Earl of sandwich, and he invents this and then it's in gentleman's clubs.

1:44:09 And a hundred years later,

1:44:11 it becomes a workman's food, a common food for everyone.

1:44:15 And then today, it's a fast food.

1:44:18 Everyone's eating it, and it's the cheapest thing you can buy.

1:44:21 I really love the look of these.

1:44:22 You can see how they're so fancy.

1:44:25 You know, I'm not an expert on sandwiches today,

1:44:27 but I would love to hear in the comment

1:44:29 section about your craziest sandwich that you've ever eaten.

1:44:34 Earlier, I asked the question about were tacos

1:44:37 a sandwich or were hot dogs a sandwich?

1:44:40 And that leads me back to hot dogs for just a second.

1:44:43 Hot dogs are a really interesting story.

1:44:46 They're just a little sausage and they're in a bread bun.

1:44:50 The same reason why we have bread on these sandwiches to keep our fingers clean.

1:44:55 In 1870 or so, someone wanted to sell little sausages,

1:45:00 but they were walking in Tony Island and they didn't want to get

1:45:04 their fingers dirty and so he had to invent the hot dog bun.

1:45:08 And that's 110 years after the sandwich.

1:45:11 Let's try a couple of these 19th and 18th century sandwiches.

1:45:16 Let's start at the beginning with the famous Earl of Sandwich sandwich.

1:45:21 Here it is.

1:45:22 Our beef.

1:45:23 A little bit of butter, a little bit of bread.

1:45:29 I could be playing cards right now.

1:45:31 Our fingers are still clean.

1:45:33 Maybe working at my desk just like John Montigue.

1:45:37 The butter brings in just enough moisture even though the meat is kind of dry,

1:45:41 which is exactly what they would have had on those early sandwiches.

1:45:45 Now, here's the the ham and cheese with the galamafree of cheese.

1:45:50 I want to try that one out.

1:45:52 But this one looks really good.

1:45:53 I really like the the uh look on this one.

1:45:59 Ham and cheese.

1:46:02 One of my favorites.

1:46:03 I love it.

1:46:04 That cheesy mixture with butter and cheese makes

1:46:06 a wonderful soft cheese sauce that goes on there.

1:46:10 And it tastes fantastic.

1:46:22 Bread was a vitally important part of the diet of everyday people 250 years ago.

1:46:28 Most people got their bread at the baker,

1:46:30 whether they lived in the city, the town, or the village.

1:46:34 But there is one bread recipe that shows up

1:46:37 over and over in the cookbooks in the 18th century,

1:46:40 that isn't your typical bread.

1:46:43 your everyday bread, the bread that the baker bakes,

1:46:46 it had just four ingredients: flour, yeast, water, and a little bit of salt.

1:46:53 That was what was legally called bread in the 18th century in many areas.

1:46:59 Baking bread isn't necessarily easy, and most people let the baker do it

1:47:03 because he had the specialized equipment for it.

1:47:05 large kneading troughs and the special oven,

1:47:10 a huge oven that could bake bread all day long.

1:47:14 Most people in their homes did not have an oven like that.

1:47:17 And some homes didn't have any oven at all.

1:47:19 And so if they needed things baked,

1:47:21 they would take it to the baker to have him do it.

1:47:24 One of the reasons we know that most

1:47:26 people didn't bake their own bread is because

1:47:28 there are not very many just regular bread

1:47:31 recipes in the cookbooks of the 18th century.

1:47:34 either they weren't baking it or it was so easy they didn't need a recipe.

1:47:39 And there are some very easy recipes.

1:47:41 So, I don't think that's the the point here.

1:47:43 I think most people aren't bothering to bake regular bread,

1:47:46 but there are some breads that they are interested in baking at home.

1:47:51 Now, the bread we're doing today is called French bread.

1:47:55 And it's not necessarily called French bread because it's exactly like

1:48:00 the bread from France because well

1:48:02 basically every region has its specialty breads.

1:48:06 But in this circumstance in England and probably

1:48:09 North America in this 18th century time period, they wanted a fancy bread.

1:48:14 So they called it French bread.

1:48:16 Now what's so fancy?

1:48:17 What's so special about this particular bread?

1:48:20 Well, it's an enriched bread.

1:48:22 Instead of having just those plain four ingredients,

1:48:25 it has those, but it also has milk, it has eggs, it might have butter.

1:48:30 Sometimes the recipes even included sew it and sugar.

1:48:35 So, this bread has a lot of different ingredients.

1:48:38 And as opposed to the regular bread that you're going to get from the baker,

1:48:42 it's got a very, very fine texture to it.

1:48:45 It's very soft, very spongy.

1:48:48 Now, you would think maybe a bread like that would be hard to make,

1:48:52 but in fact, it's even easier to make than a regular bread.

1:48:56 I think it's one of the reasons why it shows up in the cookbooks.

1:49:00 Not only is it very, very desirable because of its texture and its flavor,

1:49:05 but it's super easy to do.

1:49:08 This French bread recipe seems to show up

1:49:10 in most of the cookbooks in the 18th century,

1:49:13 and you can push it back farther than that.

1:49:15 I found almost exactly the same bread recipe in May's cookbook from like 1665.

1:49:22 So, it's a very old recipe and it does continue to kind of change a little bit,

1:49:29 but it's essentially the same in the art

1:49:31 of bread cookbook that's all the way into 1805.

1:49:35 So, it lasts for a long, long time.

1:49:38 And most of the recipes are very,

1:49:40 very similar with little changes here and there.

1:49:44 Sometimes they'll talk about not bothering to put

1:49:47 in butter or it'll have fewer eggs or more eggs.

1:49:51 And most of them don't bother to put in something like sugar,

1:49:54 but they all are very, very similar.

1:49:56 And one of the classic parts about this recipe is

1:50:00 the fact that it is not needed to any great amount.

1:50:04 Basically, you combine those ingredients,

1:50:06 you swirl them around in your bowl, and then whoop, stop.

1:50:09 You don't do anything else to it.

1:50:11 the more you knead it, the harder it will be.

1:50:14 And that's not what we're looking for in this bread.

1:50:17 This bread undoubtedly was baked by the baker.

1:50:20 Also, he did all kinds of specialty breads.

1:50:23 In fact, at times he might make specialty breads

1:50:27 on purpose because the price of his regular bread was regulated.

1:50:31 That regular bread, you make more of these specialty breads.

1:50:34 These didn't have the price controlled, so he could kind of fix his margins.

1:50:38 It's interesting that as you go digging into the cookbooks,

1:50:40 there are some that have no bread recipes at all.

1:50:43 And some cookbooks that this is the only bread recipe that you'll find.

1:50:48 So, let's make French bread.

1:50:50 I've got a recipe here from the family dictionary by William Salmon in 1716.

1:50:56 So, this is a pretty old recipe.

1:50:59 He had four different recipes for French bread in that little cookbook.

1:51:04 And here is this one.

1:51:06 It says French bread another way.

1:51:08 Take a quart of fine flour.

1:51:11 Four spoonfuls of ale yeast.

1:51:13 A little salt.

1:51:14 Four eggs.

1:51:15 Make it very soft with milk and water lukewarm.

1:51:20 Keep it in a/4 of an hour by the fire to rise.

1:51:24 Toss it into wooden dishes and let it bake an hour and a half.

1:51:29 Now, these recipes are all over the place.

1:51:32 This one is actually a very small recipe, only a quart of flour.

1:51:37 So many of them are huge, like they'll talk about a bushel of flour,

1:51:41 say 40 lbs or a peck of flour, 14 lbs.

1:51:45 So this one's very small.

1:51:47 A quart would be like just uh maybe a pound of flour,

1:51:51 maybe a little over a pound.

1:51:52 I'm actually going to bring this up, which usually I shrink my recipes.

1:51:56 I'm gonna make this a little bit bigger.

1:51:59 And we're going to start off with about 2 and 12 lbs of flour.

1:52:02 And then we're going to add our ingredients.

1:52:04 We do have our wet ingredients, which are milk and our water.

1:52:08 We're going to put a little butter in this one.

1:52:10 Like a lot of them have just, you know, a touch of butter.

1:52:13 We're going to put a little bit of butter in it also.

1:52:15 And this is going to go together really quickly.

1:52:18 Let's put 2 lbs of flour into a large mixing bowl.

1:52:23 We do want to have enough room to work in our bowl.

1:52:25 We're not going to roll this out and knead it.

1:52:27 So, we're going to do everything right here in the bowl.

1:52:30 Before we forget, let's sprinkle salt in right here.

1:52:33 And now, I'm going to just sprinkle in like a little handful of salt here.

1:52:38 Without it, boy, it just doesn't have the flavor.

1:52:41 Let me set this dry bowl aside really quick.

1:52:44 And let's start to work on our wet ingredients.

1:52:47 Because it's cold in here and it's winter,

1:52:49 I'm going to put our milk and our water together and I'm

1:52:52 going to get them up to a little bit warmer than lukewarm.

1:52:56 If you read many of these recipes,

1:52:58 they're very careful about the temperature and they'll say,

1:53:01 you know, in the summertime, do this.

1:53:03 In the winter time, do that.

1:53:04 Uh, it is cold in here.

1:53:06 It is winter time.

1:53:06 And if you're baking bread,

1:53:08 it really that yeast needs a very particular temperature.

1:53:11 So, we're trying to hit that mid like 95 to 100° kind of temperature

1:53:18 so that we can mix our milk and our water and our yeast together.

1:53:21 Now, the yeast I'm using here is a premix that's emulating barm.

1:53:27 In the time period, they had a liquid yeast that they would get from the brewer.

1:53:31 Not very many of us have access to the brewer and yeast.

1:53:34 If you do do that, make sure to get something that was an ale yeast,

1:53:40 not a bitter yeast leftover from beer, which has hops in it.

1:53:44 We don't want that bitter beer flavor in here.

1:53:47 We want a nice ale.

1:53:48 This also has eggs in it.

1:53:50 And we're going to use three eggs.

1:53:52 We're going to use the whole egg.

1:53:54 Many recipes separate out.

1:53:56 Talk about using the whites and the yolks and we don't need to worry about that.

1:53:59 We're going to use three whole eggs and we're going to whip them up in a bowl.

1:54:03 I'm going to go ahead on the fire and melt about 2 oz of butter.

1:54:09 Now all these can come together.

1:54:11 I'm just going to take our flour and create

1:54:14 a little depression in the center of the flour.

1:54:17 And I'm going to pour in all my wet ingredients.

1:54:19 We want to hold back on the water and the milk because

1:54:24 we want to try to get to a very particular texture here.

1:54:28 Everybody's flour is a little different.

1:54:30 And it certainly was true in the 18th century.

1:54:32 And that's why you don't see exact ratios of flour to liquids.

1:54:38 And we're just trying to hit this very, very soft dough,

1:54:42 almost a batter, just a little beyond a batter into the dough state.

1:54:47 And that's what we're trying to hit.

1:54:49 So, we're going to slowly add our liquid

1:54:51 ingredients until we get to just that right texture.

1:54:54 Now that we've gotten the right texture,

1:54:55 I'm just going to kind of pull this together.

1:54:57 And I can just pull the dough away from the edge of the bowl.

1:55:01 I'm going to tuck a little bit of flour around here so that it pops

1:55:05 out of this bowl when it's done

1:55:07 rising because there aren't very many steps here.

1:55:09 It isn't like regular bread where you we let it rise

1:55:12 and then we punch it down and we let it rise again.

1:55:14 This doesn't have any of that.

1:55:16 So, we're going to roll this right out of the bowl into our cooking vessel.

1:55:20 We want that to happen easily.

1:55:22 Once this is risen, half hour, 45 minutes, it depends on the size of the recipe

1:55:28 we're doing here and the temperature of our room.

1:55:30 Then we can roll it into our cooking vessel.

1:55:33 Now in the period recipes, they used this a lot of different ways.

1:55:38 They might make a bigger loaf or as this particular recipe described it,

1:55:42 baking it in little bowls or many of them talked about creating rolls with this.

1:55:49 So you might make a very very small loaf.

1:55:51 For this particular recipe, we could use it in all sorts of different ways.

1:55:55 We're going to bake today in this Dutch oven because it's so cold

1:56:00 outside and our outdoor oven is very difficult to bring up to temperature.

1:56:04 It's going to be a lot easier just right here

1:56:06 on the hearth to bake it in our Dutch oven.

1:56:08 And Dutch ovens are a great way to bake bread.

1:56:11 Even in a modern kitchen, the Dutch oven holds the moisture in as it's baking

1:56:17 and it gives us a great texture for the outside.

1:56:20 If we're using a bake oven, it needs to be preheated.

1:56:23 And in some of the recipes,

1:56:25 they even mention the idea that as our dough is rising over here,

1:56:29 we want to make sure our oven is preheating.

1:56:32 And some of these ovens in the 18th century took a lot of time to preheat.

1:56:36 So, in this case, doesn't take a whole

1:56:38 lot of time to get your bake oven preheated.

1:56:40 I'm going to go ahead and put in some paper on the inside

1:56:44 of this just so it's really easy to get the loaf out.

1:56:48 So, I've got some sheets of parchment paper here.

1:56:50 I'm going to line the inside.

1:56:51 Another common feature to this particular recipe is the idea

1:56:54 of what they would do when the loaf was done.

1:56:57 They would chip the loaf or sometimes rasp

1:57:00 the loaf and they were trying to take all

1:57:03 of the crust off the outside and off the bottom

1:57:06 to leave it like this sort of yellow spongy cake.

1:57:10 And that was what they wanted for the finished product.

1:57:13 They wouldn't necessarily throw away this crust.

1:57:17 It ends up being part of many recipes in the 18th century.

1:57:21 I know it seems a little strange to us the idea

1:57:23 of cutting all the crust off except for maybe kids sandwiches,

1:57:26 but it's what they wanted in the 18th century.

1:57:29 Today, this crust tastes wonderful.

1:57:31 I would never cut the crust off.

1:57:33 In a modern oven, a large loaf like this will

1:57:35 take approximately 45 minutes to an hour at about 400°.

1:57:41 This bread, it comes out of the oven and it just smells heavenly.

1:57:45 It's got a nice very firm crumb to it usually.

1:57:49 You can see very kind of very fine texture.

1:57:52 It's not got all that gluten built up from kneading it.

1:57:56 So, it's a very soft bread.

1:57:58 And you can see from the the loaf that I went ahead

1:58:01 and chipped out that that it's got a very spongy look to it.

1:58:05 And I used a regular unbleached flour for this.

1:58:09 Just an allpurpose flour.

1:58:10 This doesn't need any kind of incredible flour to make it nice.

1:58:14 Even our lowest grades of flour are like

1:58:18 the nicest grades of flour in the 18th century.

1:58:20 So, this would have been a a very kind of fine flour in the time period.

1:58:25 Here's our bread.

1:58:25 I'm going to try this without any butter just

1:58:28 to see what the true flavor of the bread is.

1:58:33 And the texture is just perfect.

1:58:36 It isn't tough.

1:58:37 You don't have to, you know, grind on it.

1:58:38 And it's got a great bread flavor.

1:58:40 A lot of, you know, bread smells on it.

1:58:43 So, it's really, really a really nice bread.

1:58:46 Now, if we add a little butter to it,

1:58:48 it's just going to bring all that out, right?

1:58:51 It's just going to add a little bit more salt.

1:58:52 It's going to add more fat to it, and it's going to make this just right.

1:58:59 Truly, a great loaf of bread.

1:59:03 I can see how this toasted would be just to the top.

1:59:07 And so many other recipes, especially for soups, included this bread.

1:59:12 Pointed out.

1:59:13 You might put the crust into the soup.

1:59:14 You might have toasted sippets in it.

1:59:17 This is the bread that is the classic 18th century bread of the cookbooks.

1:59:31 400 years ago, seeds were planted in New

1:59:34 York that make a big difference to America today.

1:59:37 In the early 1600s, the English were

1:59:40 establishing their colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts.

1:59:45 But they weren't the only ones who were interested in the New World.

1:59:48 This early 17th century time period is also the golden age for the Dutch.

1:59:54 And the Dutch are very interested in trading with the East, places like China.

1:59:59 And they're looking for a trade route, an easy and quick trade route.

2:00:04 They want the Northwest Passage that passes

2:00:07 through North America and heads to China.

2:00:09 They send off Henry Hudson to discover this.

2:00:12 Henry Hudson does not find the Northwest Passage,

2:00:15 but he does discover this New York region,

2:00:19 and he discovers that it's a very rich and fertile ground.

2:00:23 He goes back to the Netherlands and talks about this, and they

2:00:27 decide that they want to plant a trading colony right there.

2:00:31 They claimed this area for the Dutch

2:00:33 and in the 1620s they establish a trading colony.

2:00:38 Around Albany, New York, they have Fort Orange.

2:00:41 And in the area of New York City, they create New Amsterdam.

2:00:45 This stays for the first 20 or 30 years

2:00:48 as a simple trading colony and grows rather slowly.

2:00:52 In the 1650s though,

2:00:54 the Dutch lose their main colony down in the Brazil area and they

2:00:59 really push to establish a greater colony there in that New York region.

2:01:05 Trouble happens in 1664 when the English send

2:01:09 some ships into New York Harbor and they demand

2:01:12 the surrender of the Dutch colony because at the time

2:01:17 the Dutch and the English were at war.

2:01:19 The Dutch do not have any military presence to speak of, and so they surrender,

2:01:24 but not without some good terms.

2:01:27 The Dutch continue to keep property,

2:01:29 and they also keep some of their religious freedoms,

2:01:33 which the other English colonies are not well known for.

2:01:36 For the next 9 years, the English are in control of the colony.

2:01:40 The Dutch come back with a huge armada and this is during the second Dutch

2:01:45 Anglo war and they take back control of this region and make it their own again.

2:01:51 Now this only lasts for a little less than a year.

2:01:55 At the end of that war there are negotiations and the Dutch give back

2:02:00 control to England and it stays

2:02:02 with England until of course the Revolutionary War.

2:02:06 Now the question is is does this Dutch influence that happens in the first

2:02:11 50 years or so does that continue to stay with the colony?

2:02:16 We find out as we look at the writings

2:02:20 of people that visit this area in the 18th century.

2:02:24 70 years later Peter Colm comes

2:02:28 into the North American continent on a scientific expedition.

2:02:33 He's from Sweden.

2:02:34 He's going up and down North America looking at the flora,

2:02:38 the fauna, the geology, and the geography.

2:02:42 He also comments about the culture of the area.

2:02:45 And he spends a good deal of time in New

2:02:48 York and the Albany area as he's traveling up to Canada.

2:02:51 And he talks about how much different the culture is

2:02:56 in that area and how highly influenced it is by the Dutch.

2:03:01 There's Dutch language, Dutch architecture,

2:03:04 and Dutch culture, especially Dutch food ways.

2:03:07 Peter Colm's travels happen 70 years after the Dutch

2:03:11 are no longer in control of New York.

2:03:14 And yet, their influence is still felt in basically every part of life.

2:03:20 70 years after Peter calm,

2:03:22 we have Washington Irving and he's writing about this New

2:03:26 York region and he's stressing the Dutch influence and he spends

2:03:31 a long time talking about the Dutch foods and the Dutch

2:03:35 culture that we see all over this New York region.

2:03:39 Yes, he's specifically talking sort of about the back country of New York City,

2:03:44 not New York City itself.

2:03:46 But it's very very interesting that that's what he stresses about this region.

2:03:51 And even today, we see the cultural

2:03:55 differences maybe not in the architecture anymore

2:03:57 and certainly not in the clothing or even

2:04:00 the speech patterns of people in New York,

2:04:02 but we can find those very seeds of that culture in the food ways.

2:04:08 specifically things like kleslaw and cookies and certain kinds of waffles.

2:04:14 Those are very very Dutch and they have

2:04:17 pervaded all the way through the United States

2:04:20 even though they're coming from this tiny little

2:04:22 colony that ended way back in the 17th century.

2:04:27 Klelaw is not something that before this little adventure

2:04:30 of researching for this video I would have thought,

2:04:33 "Oh, that's Dutch influenced." Usually I think about klelaw.

2:04:36 I think about barbecued food or something like that.

2:04:39 It's going to go on top of a burger and next to some pulled pork or something.

2:04:42 But obviously this is Dutch influence.

2:04:45 It's actually right out of Peter Colm's journals

2:04:47 when he's traveling through the New York area.

2:04:50 And I can't wait to try this really early version of kleslaw.

2:04:54 This recipe is actually coming just from what

2:04:58 Peter Colm is describing in his journal.

2:05:00 So we don't have a recipe laid out for us.

2:05:02 we just know what the ingredients were and so we're going to go off of that.

2:05:06 I'm using the sensible cook and that's by Peter G.

2:05:10 Rose and what she has done is she's gone through lots of books

2:05:14 about Dutch influence and she's done a really good job with researching

2:05:18 and some of this book has translations of period recipes verbatim

2:05:23 and some of them she has kind of taken out of journal entries.

2:05:27 She knows what the ingredients are and she has played with them

2:05:30 until they are the best version of what a period recipe could be.

2:05:34 And that's what this kleslaw one is.

2:05:36 It's just taking those ingredients out of a journal

2:05:38 entry and making good food with it.

2:05:41 Two cups green cabbage cut into thin strips.

2:05:44 2 cups red cabbage cut into thin strips.

2:05:47 1/3 cup wine vinegar.

2:05:49 14 cup vegetable oil or butter.

2:05:51 Salt and freshly ground pepper.

2:05:53 Mix these ingredients together.

2:05:55 So, basically what we're going to do

2:05:57 for this recipe is we're going to take these cabbages,

2:06:00 one green, one red, and we're going to chop them up.

2:06:02 We're going to keep them in long strips as best we can.

2:06:06 And then we're going to mix in some salt and some pepper

2:06:08 and some red wine vinegar with a little bit of butter or oil.

2:06:14 I'm going to use butter today that's been melted.

2:06:16 Now, we want to make sure that our ratio is is correct.

2:06:20 We want more vinegar than we want fat.

2:06:23 and and we have several references to salads that the Dutch people were eating.

2:06:28 Very little fat, lots of vinegar.

2:06:30 So, that's what we're going to go with today.

2:06:32 One of the things that I've always thought about klelaw

2:06:35 is when it comes to the table, it looks fantastic.

2:06:37 You've got these really bright colors in it,

2:06:40 whether it's on top of your burger kind of falling off, it looks pretty,

2:06:43 or it just comes to the table in a big bowl and you're scooping it out,

2:06:46 it makes the plate look lively.

2:06:48 I think the thing that's going to be different about this is I'm

2:06:50 not sure that I've ever had butter like an animal fat in a colelaw.

2:06:54 So, I expect that to really jump out at me.

2:06:55 We're going to give it a try real quick.

2:07:00 Okay, so the animal fat does jump out and it

2:07:03 is kind of like the backbone for for this dish,

2:07:06 but the vinegar is stronger and it kind of marries really well together.

2:07:10 So, the vinegar isn't like making you pucker up,

2:07:13 but the animal fat is not overpowering anything.

2:07:16 A little bit of salt and pepper.

2:07:17 This is really perfect kleslaw.

2:07:19 I would serve this at a modern table for a barbecue or something just as it is.

2:07:23 It's really good.

2:07:24 In the 1650s, the Dutch are being squeezed from both directions.

2:07:28 From the north, that Massachusetts colony is trying to come

2:07:32 down and create more and more territory for themselves.

2:07:36 And the Dutch are worried about that.

2:07:37 They create a fortification, a wall,

2:07:40 and that's where we get the name Wall Street.

2:07:43 And also, they're being squeezed from the south.

2:07:46 Now, not who you probably would think of, but there's a Swedish colony

2:07:51 in the New Jersey area that's trying to grow and grow there and squeezing them.

2:07:57 How often do we hear about the Swedes in North America in the 17th century?

2:08:02 In the 18th century,

2:08:04 New York grows into an amazing commercial hub, a very important port,

2:08:09 specifically because of that New York Harbor

2:08:12 region and the rivers that flow into it.

2:08:15 Here is Peter Colm talking about New York.

2:08:18 He says, "New York probably carries on more extensive

2:08:21 commerce than any town in English North American provinces.

2:08:26 At least it may be said to equal them.

2:08:28 Boston and Philadelphia, however, come very near up to it.

2:08:32 The trade of New York extends to many places.

2:08:37 When we think about colonial history, of course,

2:08:39 there's the standout places like Boston and Philadelphia,

2:08:43 but we don't really think about New York as a major

2:08:48 center right here in the middle of the 18th century.

2:08:51 It only took a few years for New York to catch up

2:08:54 with these other major centers to become a powerful part of North America.

2:08:58 Here's Peter Colm speaking directly

2:09:01 to the different culture that the Dutch have, especially in their food.

2:09:06 Their meat and manner of dressing it is very different from that of the English.

2:09:11 Their breakfast is tea, commonly without milk.

2:09:14 About 30 or 40 years ago, tea was unknown to them,

2:09:18 and they breakfasted either upon bread and butter or bread and milk.

2:09:23 To each dinner, they have a great salad prepared

2:09:26 with an abundance of vinegar and little or no oil.

2:09:30 They frequently eat buttermilk and bread and salad, one mouthful after another.

2:09:36 Other travelers through this area,

2:09:38 like Madam Knight in the early part of the 18th century and Dr.

2:09:41 Alexander Hamilton in the middle part of the 18th century,

2:09:44 spend a great deal of time in their diaries

2:09:47 and journals talking about the strange Dutch customs.

2:09:51 And there's some very fun and interesting stories about that.

2:09:54 Here's Washington Irving in the early 19th century and he's

2:09:58 kind of looking back on this area with rosecolored glasses.

2:10:02 But yet I mentioned this peaceful spot with all possible law.

2:10:07 For it is in such little retired Dutch valleys here and there

2:10:12 embosomed in the great state of New York that population, manners,

2:10:17 and customs remain fixed while the great

2:10:20 torrent of migration and improvement which is

2:10:22 making such incessant changes in other parts

2:10:25 of this restless country sweeps by them unobserved.

2:10:29 They're holding on to those Dutch customs, those Dutch foods.

2:10:35 One of the things that's just kind of popped off the page and grabbed me

2:10:37 while doing research for this particular episode is

2:10:40 how much acidity there is in Dutch food.

2:10:44 When I've thought about Dutch food or what of what I know of Dutch food now,

2:10:48 it's not something that's got like vinegar

2:10:50 and wine and citrus all over everything.

2:10:53 I'm talking like every meat dish.

2:10:55 This is a simple meatball recipe, but they're also making sure that you

2:10:59 include the peel from oranges and from lemons.

2:11:02 I mean, there's acid in absolutely everything, which really blew my mind.

2:11:07 Um, we've done some recipes on the channel where we see

2:11:10 that is popular and a lot of people will say something like,

2:11:13 "Well, with meat, especially,

2:11:15 acid's going to help break down some tough cuts of meat." I hear you.

2:11:18 This is a taste that they were going for.

2:11:20 This is something they were pining for.

2:11:22 When they have something savory, they want this acidic, citrusy thing with it,

2:11:27 which is not something that I would have connected to Dutch food.

2:11:30 To make meatballs, take ve with ve fat chopped.

2:11:34 Add to it mace, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and knead it together.

2:11:38 Then you can make meatballs from as large or as small as you please.

2:11:41 Also, all of it is fried on in the pan as one large meatball.

2:11:45 Many take a few of the outside peels

2:11:47 thinly paired with oranges or lemons cut very fine.

2:11:50 It gives a very good smell and flavor.

2:11:53 I wanted to grab meatballs because it's a basic thing that anybody can make.

2:11:57 This is going to be easy.

2:11:59 Uh, I'm going to chop up a bunch of meat and we're going to mince that in two.

2:12:02 But you could actually use ground beef if you wanted

2:12:04 to at home and it's ready to go for you.

2:12:07 Anybody can make this dish.

2:12:09 But it's also interesting that something that is popular now.

2:12:12 I mean, probably anybody watching this has had a meatball.

2:12:16 This was popular in our time period.

2:12:18 And it's always fun to to see, okay, I eat this, but how did they eat it?

2:12:22 And it's the same thing, but what's going on?

2:12:24 What's a little bit different?

2:12:25 So, that's what we're going to find out today.

2:12:27 The recipe calls for there to be some fat in here.

2:12:29 So, I'm not going to be super picky while I am cutting this up.

2:12:32 I'm just going to cut it against the grain.

2:12:34 I'm going to get it smaller and smaller

2:12:36 and smaller and smaller until it's almost like ground beef.

2:12:40 Once we have it all minced up, we're going to go ahead and add our spices,

2:12:44 which are salt, pepper, mace, and nutmeg.

2:12:46 And then the last little surprise is going to be peeling the citrus fruit,

2:12:50 cutting that really small, and getting it into that mixture as well.

2:12:54 After that, we're just going to get it in the pan

2:12:56 and we're going to start browning it all the way around.

2:12:58 Our meatballs are finished.

2:13:00 They look really interesting because you can see these little flexcks

2:13:03 of yellow and orange from the lemon and the orange peel in them.

2:13:07 I'm not sure what they're going to taste like.

2:13:09 I've never had anything quite like this before.

2:13:11 So, let's dive in.

2:13:13 I'm going to cut off a piece here and then

2:13:15 uh we'll we'll see what this is all about.

2:13:17 They didn't take long to cook.

2:13:19 I made sure to brown them up really well on the outside

2:13:21 and just let them slow cook so they finish on the inside.

2:13:28 Oh man.

2:13:29 Yeah, that's wonderful.

2:13:30 There's a good char on the meat which is you know you want that.

2:13:33 And I'm not used to uh you know citrus flavor right right there with that char.

2:13:38 But it's really good.

2:13:40 It's bright.

2:13:41 It's really bright cuz you know you can have a meatloaf or meatballs

2:13:45 or something like that and it just feels heavy the whole time.

2:13:47 Well, this this brings something bright into it, so it doesn't feel like that.

2:13:51 It's really really actually good.

2:13:53 Um, I might I might start doing that more at home.

2:13:57 We also see Dutch influence in the first

2:14:00 cookbook that is written by an American for America.

2:14:04 And that is Amelia Simmons's cookbook in 1796.

2:14:08 Again, this is 120 years after the Dutch are no longer in charge of New York.

2:14:14 And yet the recipes in this cookbook have hints to those very,

2:14:20 very deep Dutch roots.

2:14:22 Things like the first recipe we have for cookies.

2:14:26 This cookbook also has the first real references to chemical leavenning,

2:14:32 which is very very Dutch in its origin.

2:14:35 In this instance, chemical leavenvening is the use of potassium carbonate,

2:14:40 which is related to our baking soda and baking powder,

2:14:44 which we use in all kinds of dishes today.

2:14:47 Without this chemical leavenning, we wouldn't have the light and fluffiness

2:14:51 of the cakes and cookies that we enjoy today.

2:14:55 And speaking of Amelia Simmons, her cookbook mentions Christmas cookies.

2:15:00 And Christmas is not a holiday that is

2:15:05 well known in America in the 18th century.

2:15:08 It's not a big celebration like it is today.

2:15:11 But one of the reasons why it's a big celebration today is because the Dutch

2:15:16 bring in their idea of celebrating Christmas

2:15:19 and that grows and grows through the 19th century.

2:15:22 Nobody really knows exactly the whole story around Amelia Simmons,

2:15:26 but she's obviously from this New York area and we think around Albany.

2:15:31 Another popular food we have today is the biscuit.

2:15:34 And the first real essence we have of the biscuit

2:15:39 in America is Margaretta Curley's writing in 1799.

2:15:44 She's from that New York, Long Island region.

2:15:47 And she's speaking of these chemical leavened little cakes that you

2:15:52 bake when you don't have time to make bread with yeast.

2:15:56 And she goes into an elaborate discussion of this kind of special

2:16:00 bread they make in this New York area just for their guests.

2:16:04 So much of the Dutch influence in food

2:16:07 in New York in our time period is baked goods.

2:16:10 There's there's just all kinds of treats and breads, pretzels,

2:16:14 and we see that carry through because New York is one

2:16:17 of these cities that you think of and you think of bakeries.

2:16:20 It's always been there.

2:16:22 It always will be.

2:16:23 It's popular in culture.

2:16:25 Everybody knows about, you know,

2:16:28 the rye bread in particular sitcom or just different situations,

2:16:32 the black and white cookies.

2:16:33 There are so many baked treats there.

2:16:35 Now, this one is going to be a little bit interesting.

2:16:38 It's going to be different.

2:16:40 You guys can do it at home and you can do

2:16:41 it in a very modern way or in a period way.

2:16:44 We're going to stick to the classics here, but we're not going to make a batter.

2:16:48 We're using bread that's already been baked.

2:16:50 Something that's been sitting around for a little while.

2:16:52 We're going to give new life to it.

2:16:54 Now, this will probably be called something like a German pancake.

2:16:57 In the time period in this cookbook, they call it an apple egg fritter.

2:17:01 And it's going to be really fun.

2:17:03 To bake an apple egg fritter, take 12 apples,

2:17:06 cut them in pieces as you would for a tart.

2:17:09 Place them with a good piece of butter in a flat pot and some sugar.

2:17:13 Shake often, but do not stir.

2:17:15 When they start to get done, mix in four to six beaten eggs.

2:17:18 Then take a pan with butter.

2:17:20 And when the butter starts to fry, sprinkle a thick layer of finely crushed rusk

2:17:25 on it to cover the bottom of the pan.

2:17:27 Mixed with sugar and cinnamon.

2:17:29 Place the apples on top.

2:17:31 Then sprinkle again with the affforementioned rusk until the apples are covered.

2:17:37 Place a little fire on the lid and let it bake this way.

2:17:41 So basically what we're doing here is we're going

2:17:43 to we're going to be working in two different cooking vessels.

2:17:46 And one of them we're going to have these apples.

2:17:48 They're going to be chopped up, paired, and cooking down with some sugar.

2:17:52 And the other one we're going to make a crust.

2:17:55 And we're going to make that by cutting up this loaf of bread really fine,

2:17:59 adding some butter, some sugar, some cinnamon, some nutmeg, salt if you'd like,

2:18:04 and we're going to cook that so that it's

2:18:06 the essentially the bottom crust of our dish.

2:18:10 Once that's done and it's kind of crisped up,

2:18:12 we're going to add all of these cooked apples on top of it.

2:18:16 And then we're going to make that baked crust again out of the same materials,

2:18:20 but this time we're going to put a lid on top of our pan

2:18:23 and pile that up with coals so that the top of it bakes.

2:18:27 And we've done this, I guess, a couple of different times in videos in various

2:18:31 ways where we've cooked inside of a pot or we

2:18:34 found a different way to bake something because we didn't

2:18:37 have a Dutch oven or an earn oven with us.

2:18:39 This isn't uncommon in the time period.

2:18:41 It's a really fun way to bake in just a frying pan.

2:18:46 This smells really good.

2:18:48 It smells like an apple pancake.

2:18:49 Now, I will tell you on that top crust when you put that in, don't skimp

2:18:54 on the butter there because that's going to help

2:18:56 all that top layer of crust stick together as well.

2:18:59 I did skimp on that and I had a little bit

2:19:01 of trouble when it was time to get it out of the pan.

2:19:04 So, next time I make it, I won't make that same mistake.

2:19:07 But, this smells and looks fantastic.

2:19:10 It's nice and toasty on the top.

2:19:12 It's got that apple custard in there.

2:19:14 I can't wait to try it.

2:19:15 I think that it's just going to be I don't know, just super delightful.

2:19:18 I don't know what the egg's going to do.

2:19:20 So, let's find out.

2:19:26 So, this is kind of like a super crispy French toast with a custard mixed in.

2:19:34 I know it's kind of weird to describe.

2:19:36 The apples aren't so cooked down that there's

2:19:38 not just a little bit of crunch there, which is really nice.

2:19:40 And the sugar helps that apple flavor really come through,

2:19:43 but the egg in there just kind of brings

2:19:46 everything and milds down some of the sweet.

2:19:48 So, it's not screamingly sweet.

2:19:50 And that toasted bread is just kind of like French toast.

2:19:54 It's really, really nice.

2:19:56 I would not have guessed that this would be so good.

2:19:58 It's not like a pancake in that fluffy way.

2:20:02 It kind of has a a bite, a crunch to it, which is really nice.

2:20:06 We could spend a long time studying and discussing

2:20:09 the influences that the Dutch have on America today.

2:20:14 Things like religious freedom or their incredible prowess at their commerce.

2:20:20 But we also have the touches that we see when we eat every day here in America.

2:20:27 The kinds of foods that we enjoy are some

2:20:31 of those very things that the Dutch brought to America.

2:20:35 400 years later, what started off as a tiny little trading

2:20:39 colony becomes one of the most important commercial centers in the world.

2:20:45 And its culture still affects us today.

2:20:58 Some people have said that Amelia Simmons's American cookery

2:21:02 cookbook from 1796 is the second declaration of independence.

2:21:07 Now, that might be an exaggeration and some

2:21:10 people have completely poo pooed the idea and said

2:21:12 that this book is just a simple small

2:21:15 extension of English cookery of the 18th century.

2:21:19 But I disagree.

2:21:20 I do think this is somewhat like the Declaration of Independence

2:21:23 in that the Declaration of Independence was describing the new

2:21:28 ideas of governance and how government deals with people that was

2:21:33 being developed in the Americas for almost 200 years before it.

2:21:38 This cookbook is doing the same thing with cookery, with food ways.

2:21:43 It's explaining that the American experience with foods

2:21:47 has been changing or had been changing for 150,

2:21:52 180 years before this book was published.

2:21:55 The people that came into the new world

2:21:58 had to come up with completely new ideas.

2:22:01 The foods were different.

2:22:02 The kinds of things they had available to cook was different.

2:22:05 And the people who needed them and what they needed them for was different also.

2:22:10 So, new foods had to come into being.

2:22:14 Amelia Simmons doesn't invent any of the recipes in here.

2:22:18 She's describing these great new dishes that people

2:22:22 had been eating for probably over 150 years,

2:22:25 but nobody had written down the recipes.

2:22:28 So, who is Amelia Simmons?

2:22:30 Well, I'm not sure that any of us really know exactly who she is.

2:22:34 We've got some hints here.

2:22:36 This was published in Connecticut, in Hartford.

2:22:39 It was published in 1796.

2:22:41 And she talks about being an orphan,

2:22:43 but I'm not sure that that's necessarily true.

2:22:46 There's also controversy about if she wrote the entire cookbook,

2:22:51 and obviously some pieces are copied out of earlier cookbooks,

2:22:56 which so many cookbooks do, but for the vast quantity of what's in here,

2:23:01 it does seem new and particularly applicable to the American condition.

2:23:06 This is definitely a different cookbook.

2:23:08 It is very, very small,

2:23:09 much smaller than any of the English cookery books that came before it.

2:23:14 And it has special things going on with it.

2:23:17 It's got the first mentions of cornmeal, of chemical leavenning, of cranberries,

2:23:23 and other items that show up that are

2:23:25 specifically American in invention or in development.

2:23:29 And it's got specific mentions of holidays,

2:23:32 and it seems like specific holiday cooking.

2:23:35 We've picked several standout recipes to show you

2:23:39 what's going on with this cookbook and the very,

2:23:42 very unique recipes that you'll find in it for the time period.

2:23:46 Amelia Simmons's cookbook has holiday style recipes in it.

2:23:50 In fact, she mentions things like Christmas in her cookbook,

2:23:54 which is kind of rare for English cookery books of the 18th century.

2:23:59 So, Ameilia Simmons's cookbook is very different in that.

2:24:02 And it also has recipes that we would classify as holiday.

2:24:07 In fact, basically the whole Thanksgiving feast is within her little cookbook.

2:24:14 And one of these classic features of an American

2:24:18 Thanksgiving is a turkey, a roast turkey.

2:24:21 She mentions roast turkey twice in her cookbook.

2:24:25 We're going to do one of her roast turkey recipes kind of right down the wire.

2:24:29 just do it exactly like she would do it.

2:24:32 Very different than how we might do a roast turkey today,

2:24:36 but we're going to experiment with that.

2:24:38 We've made these in the past and they really turn out great.

2:24:41 Some people think the best part of the roast turkey is the stuffing that goes

2:24:45 in the turkey and she has a great stuffing recipe that goes in there.

2:24:50 We are going to start off with a pound of bread.

2:24:54 So, we take a pound loaf of bread.

2:24:55 We pull it apart.

2:24:56 You want to use I mean this is the main part of stuffing.

2:24:59 So, use the very best your best favorite bread recipe for your stuffing.

2:25:04 But I went ahead and and left the crust on it,

2:25:06 too, because we have a nice softer kind of crust.

2:25:10 It makes a good bite to the stuffing.

2:25:13 This stuffing also has an ingredient which we

2:25:16 probably wouldn't think of putting into our stuffing today,

2:25:19 but that is beef sew it.

2:25:21 She uses 3 oz of beef sew it,

2:25:24 and that can be a little hard to find, but it is available today.

2:25:27 has been getting a lot more popular in the last 5 or 6 years.

2:25:31 And this beef sew it has been shredded up, so it's nice and small.

2:25:35 She's got spices in here.

2:25:37 We have, of course, salt and pepper.

2:25:39 We've got margarm, and we've got thyme.

2:25:42 It's got some egg in it, too.

2:25:43 We're going to put two eggs into this.

2:25:46 And then mix our stuffing up so that it is completely mixed.

2:25:50 And then that gets stuffed into the cavity of the turkey.

2:25:53 Yes, stuffing it into the turkey isn't maybe a modern thing.

2:25:58 We a lot of times we take the stuffing and we cook that separately,

2:26:02 but in the 18th century, it definitely goes into the turkey.

2:26:06 Now that our stuffing is in, we need to sew up the bird.

2:26:10 We're just going to sew across it to hold the stuffing in.

2:26:13 We're going to sew up the neck area.

2:26:14 Also, we're going to hang this instead of putting it on a spit.

2:26:17 So, we don't want to lose the juices out

2:26:20 of the inside of the bird as much as possible.

2:26:22 We have to trust this bird up.

2:26:24 And you can find lots of directions for trusting a turkey,

2:26:27 but they don't go to the level that you're going to need

2:26:30 to trust the bird to hang it up like we're going to.

2:26:33 So, this bird needs to be able to hang up in front

2:26:36 of the fire so they can rotate from the top and from the bottom.

2:26:40 So, you kind of got to get creative.

2:26:42 But the standard trussing on a bird hooks around the neck,

2:26:46 comes around the breast here,

2:26:47 hooks the legs together, and then you come up and it holds the wings together.

2:26:53 And in our case, we also add a cord from the neck

2:26:57 that will go through the legs and extend beyond that.

2:27:01 And halfway through, or even a third of the way through the bird,

2:27:04 we're going to have to flip it over.

2:27:06 So, we'll have to have a string added at that time

2:27:10 that will go from the legs around to the neck area.

2:27:14 And then on the other half of the bird,

2:27:17 we're going to get a nice brisk fire going

2:27:19 on the hearth here and hang the bird up.

2:27:21 I'm going to experiment with uh having a fairly tall fire,

2:27:26 not one that's just around the bottom,

2:27:28 or else it's only going to get cooked on a very, very small portion of the bird.

2:27:33 We will also put up a couple of reflector pieces around the fire

2:27:37 to help bring that heat in all the way around the bird.

2:27:40 And we'll be able to see as it's cooking

2:27:43 exactly what's heating up on this bird and what's not.

2:27:47 So, we can adjust our fire and adjust our reflecting surfaces.

2:27:51 We're going to roast this by the fire for a couple of hours at least,

2:27:55 probably 3 or 4 hours.

2:27:57 We're going to base this while it's roasting.

2:28:00 And the base is about 50/50 butter and a gravy or a heavy broth.

2:28:06 I would basee this every 5 or 10 or 15

2:28:09 minutes depending on how dry it's starting to look.

2:28:12 Of course, while we're basting the bird,

2:28:13 we want to be able to bring that base back up to the top of it.

2:28:17 So, we're going to have a pan directly underneath the bird.

2:28:20 That means the fire has to be off to the side and high.

2:28:24 So, you can see how that's working with this fire.

2:28:26 The interesting thing about it being on a string

2:28:29 like this and hung over the fire is

2:28:31 the fact that it's fairly easy to spin this bird

2:28:34 and it will naturally sort of slowly spin around,

2:28:38 stop, spin the other direction.

2:28:40 We don't have to twist it very tightly

2:28:43 for it to keep going for quite a long time.

2:28:46 It's time to try out this turkey.

2:28:48 And one of the great parts about Amelia Simmons's

2:28:51 cookbook is that to go with turkey, cranberry sauce.

2:28:55 And cranberry sauce is in Amelia Simmons's cookbook.

2:28:58 It's again one of those firsts.

2:29:00 You don't see cranberries showing up in recipes until Ameilia Simmons.

2:29:04 Let's give a piece of this turkey a try.

2:29:08 A little bit.

2:29:09 Just a little bit of cranberry sauce on there.

2:29:15 The perfect Thanksgiving turkey.

2:29:18 I really like this cookbook because it does have main dish type cooking.

2:29:22 That's right up front in the recipes.

2:29:25 things like how to roast beef and it

2:29:28 also has a wonderful selection of meat pies.

2:29:31 Some of them are a little different from others.

2:29:33 We have the typical chicken pie, but this particular one is called a stew pie.

2:29:39 Now, I think it's special because we don't see another recipe

2:29:44 titled stew pie in any of the other 18th century cookery books.