HAPPY HOLIDAYS LET’S HAVE SOME DAIRY SOAKED BOOZE. I will show you two of my most prized possessions: my 100 year old (give or take) Mrs Beeton that I got in Edinburgh, and Raynelle. Raynelle is my new (to me) harp. I started taking lessons in April, and I love it. A lot. Raynelle was given to me by a lady on Twitter who couldn’t play anymore, and wanted her to go to someone who … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Eggnog
GUESS WHAT’S COMING BACK TOMORROW? OUTLANDER. OUTLANDER RETURNS. THE DROUGHTLANDER IS OVER. I might be a bit excited. So, I thought we’d make some Scottish bannocks! It’s a flat bread with no leavening, made with oats, or barley, or beremeal. Beremeal is a variety of barley that grows in Orkney and Shetland. It has a lower yield than regular barley, but apparently more flavor. I chose to go with oats because I already had Scottish … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Bannocks
I got inspired by The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassell and went looking for a Dutch recipe that was very seasonal and tasty and also used the oven because IT GOT CHILLY HERE, and that was from the general era and might have been something that Katrina would have eaten. This was made much easier by a friend of mine who is a living history nerd (much like myself) and also a Dutch American who … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Apple Taert in the Walloon Manner
I don’t know what it’s been like in your corner of the world, but in mine, it’s been wretchedly hot all summer. Far too hot to cook. So this month, I thought let’s try an AMA. Do you have questions about historical cooking? Food? Historical re-enactment? Ask them down in the comments, and I’ll answer things on Sunday. Ask away!
This is a recipe that drifted across my Facebook feed a couple weeks ago, and it looks so delicious I had to make it. It’s from a 10th Century Arabic cookbook, Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ, in Arabic: كتاب الطبيخ, or “The Book of Dishes.” Barida refers to a cold starter dish. The theory at the time was the stomach needed to be “warmed up” before starting a full meal. It’s like stretching but for your digestive system. … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Black Barida
It’s been too damn hot to cook, so I thought I would give you my thoughts on something you can do, sitting in the air conditioning, drinking a cool beverage of your choice. A few weeks ago, I discovered a new show on Netflix, and it was clearly perfectly aligned to my interests that I have to assume that Raidió Teilifís Éireann and Mind the Gap Films created a show just for me. Lords and … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Lords and Ladles
One of the things about food history that fascinates me is the origin of some of the things that we now take for granted. We accept that cheese comes in a near-infinite variety, but we don’t often think about WHY we figured out how to make cheese to begin with. It’s because milk spoils, and it spoils really fast when you don’t have refrigeration. Cheese and butter is a way to preserve milk and reduce … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Butter and Cheese
Last month a BUNCH of people talked about how their favorite use of golden syrup was ANZAC biscuits. And ANZAC Day was on April 25th, and in the comments of a post on Go Fug Yourself about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attending ANZAC Remembrance services, more people talked about how much they loooooved these cookies biscuits. ANZAC biscuits are associated with WWI, with the image of care packages going out and the kids at Gallipoli … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: ANZAC Bisciuts
When I was in London last fall, I had dinner at Rules Restaurant, in Covent Garden. Rules claims to the be the “Oldest Restaurant in London” (established in 1798) and that might be true, depending on how you’re defining terms like “oldest” and “restaurant” and probably “London.” The decor is very Edwardian, and several scenes from the later seasons of Downton Abbey were shot there. The food is focused on “classic game cookery.” I had pheasant, … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Golden Syrup Steamed Sponge
My friend Abigail is going to be disappointed, because this was her suggestion…only she suggested a more recent variation, and I like to start at the beginning. She told me she had a vague memory of a steamed pudding that has a whole lemon in it, so when you cut into it, there’s a falling apart almost marmalade inside. “It’s like…Frog Pond pudding? That’s not right.” (We live in Boston. The Frog Pond is our … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Sussex Pond Pudding (Original Flavor)
One of the fun things about travelling in the UK is the amount of tea I drank. But this isn’t about tea, the drink, it’s about the dizzying number of things that word can mean. (And yeah, showing off some food I ate.) “Tea” can mean this: Or this: Or this: Seriously, what kind of language is English that when you say “Tea,” it could mean “a hot drink made from leaves” or it could … Continue reading RedHeadedGirl’s Historical Kitchen: Tea
