Savoury omelet for Two Persons

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 214

'An omelet is a friendly dish - the friends must be seated and have wine or coffee served to them, so that they await cheerfully. Never cook the omelet till you have seen the recipient seated, with his napkin tucked down, ready to begin.' p. 213

Suggested fillings: chopped mushroom, shreds of chicken and ham, fresh chopped herbs for plain fillings; crisp bacon and fine onions for winter, green peas and asparagus for summer. 'Fillings should be slight, but very well flavoured and juicy.'
Sweet omelet: flavoured with rum or sherry (instead of water? Or just a sprinkle?) with a fruit or jam filling. Honey and cinnamon with a sprinkle of hot cider on the folded top

2 large mushrooms, chopped
1 slice bacon, diced
1 Tbsp butter
3 eggs
1/4 tsp fresh herb(s)
Dash of salt and pepper

1. In a large oven-ready non-stick or well-seasoned cast iron pan, slowly fry the mushrooms and bacon in the butter.
2. Meanwhile, separate the egg whites and whisk just until soft peaks barely form.
3. Using the egg shells, measure out three egg-shell halves of water and add to the yolk, one for each egg. Add a dash of salt and pepper.
4. Without wiping the whisk used to whip the whites, beat the yolks - 'they should raise a fine froth'.
5. Once the filling is well cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon and keep it piping hot.
6. Turn on the broiler of your oven.
7. When the butter is once again smoking hot (add more if necessary, depending on filling), lightly mix together the yolk and whites and immediately pour the egg into the hot pan. 'It should make a delicious frou-frou soundas it greets the hot butter, and the top of the foam should quiver delicately.'
8. Immediately put it under the broiler. The golden froth should start to expand upwards. If you like the centre a little runny, remove it in __ minutes or when __??__. If you prefer it cooked through cook __ minutes. In either case, the edges should come away from the pan.
9. Slide it onto a hot dish, put the filling on one half 'folding it over in one swift movement. Serve instantly.'

Buckinghamshire Rabbit

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 213

(mentioned in the entry for Poached Eggs p. 212-3)

?? cups meat or vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
6 fresh eggs, like, only days old
1 loaf Wonder Bread or other country-style crusty bread
Butter (optional)

1. Put the stock in a small pot and bring to just before a boil. Reduce the temperature to maintain it at a slow simmer.
2. Put some thick slices of bread to toast to get them dry. 
3. Into a small bowl crack an egg, create a vortex in the slowly simmering stock and, whites first, slowly slide the egg into the centre. Cook for about 3 minutes for soft yolks (and how else would a sensible person want their poached egg, anyway?). Scoop out with a slotted spoon and place on top of the dry toast, spooning some broth over it.
4. NOTE: is this better with the broth served separately OR spooned over the bread, a little like Soupe à l'oignon?

Buck Rabbit

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 212-213

(Mentioned as part of the Poached Egg entry)

I hope I have the sequencing right!! There are lots of parts to making this, which was unexpected when I started trying to work it out in writing.

1 recipe of Welsh Rabbit
1 loaf Wonder Bread
Butter
6 eggs
Vinegar
3 medium-to-small tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Oil

1. Put on a pot of water to boil then reduce heat to a steady simmer.
2. Toast the bread, butter it and set it aside.
3. Meanwhile prepare the Welsh Rabbit up to the point where the sauce is finished.
4. Heat up a pan or a grill. Cut the tomato in half; drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fry the tomato on each side until it browns, 2-3 minutes.
5. Into the simmering water add a dash of vinegar.
6. Into a small bowl crack an egg, create a vortex in the simmering water and, whites first, slowly slide the egg into the centre. Cook for about 3 minutes for soft yolks (and how else would a sensible person want their poached egg, anyway?). Scoop out with a slotted spoon and drain on a cloth before assembling the dish.
7. Turn on the oven broiler. Pour out the cheese sauce over the bread and grill in the oven as per the recipe.
8. Layer the hot grilled tomato on top and the poached egg on top of that. Salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Boiled Egg - Coddled Egg

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 212

Fresh and older eggs should be cooked differently (What is considered a non-fresh egg? How old must it be?)

Boiling an older egg - place in boiling water for 3.5 minutes.

Fresh egg - place in boiling water for 3.5 minutes. Remove the boiling bot of water from the heat source and let sit for an additional 5-6 minutes with the egg in it. 'Eggs cooked in this way can be kept in hot water for some time without becoming hard, and it preserves the natural moisture in the new-laid egg.'

Crypspey

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 221

'Take whyte of eyroun and mylke and floure and a lytel berme and bete to gederys so that it be renning and not too styf. Caste sugre thereto and salt, than take a chafer full of fresshe grece boyling and put thy hand in the lature and lat hym renne down thy fyngerys, into the chafere. Whan it is runne togedere on the chafere and is y now nym a skymer and tike it up and let all the grece renne out and put it on a fayre dyssche and cast theron sugre and serve forth (with).'

1 egg white
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp dry active yeast (here 'berme' refers to 'barm', the yeast that forms on malt liquors while fermenting, but I don't know how to get this... yet)
1 Tbsp sugar + 1 Tbsp sugar
A pinch of salt
__ ? coconut or animal fat oil

1. Unless you have barm on hand, you'll have to activate the dry active yeast. Warm the milk to body temperature, sprinkle the yeast on the surface, cover and let sit in a warm place for about 10 minutes. 
2. Whisk the egg whites until fluffy, the add the flour and the milk, stirring until you get a batter that is like thick cream. If it's too thick, add more milk.
3. Add the first Tbsp of sugar and the salt and let sit while the oil is heating up.
4. (What size pot or frying pan for the oil? How much oil?)
5. Once the oil is at 350F for frying, take up about a half cup of batter and let it run down your fingers into the hot oil; they become crisp little nests of sweet fried batter.
6. Leave in the oil until it browns then flip to finish browning. Scoop it up with a slotted spoon and lay on paper towel to soak up any extra oil and while it's still hot sprinkle with the second Tbsp of sugar.

Mayonnaise

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 220

2 egg yolks
__ salt
__ pepper
__ dry mustard
1 Tbsp (or more) tarragon vinegar
1 pint salad (ie. bland) oil

1. Whisk the eggs, salt, pepper and mustard until the yolk turns a pale yellow ('start the cream').
2. Continually whisking, very slowly, in small quantities and alternately add the vinegar and the oil. Whisk constantly until the characteristic thick cream is formed.
3. In hot weather work in a cold room or in a chilled bowl

Wrexham Pudding

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 220

- What kind of breadcrumbs? Fresh or dry, fine or coarse and would the crusts of the Wonder Bread qualify for brown or does it have to be a brown bread?
- What is sago and can it be substituted? It provides an interesting texture.
- What is a substitute to suet (until I can make some)?
- What are the cup measurements of the ingredients to include in the recipe along with the weight (so I have more flexibility).
- How does one steam a pudding (and add to instructions). And at what temperature?
- Locate and link Snowdon Pudding

'This is taken directly from a cookery book of 1890 and is one of the few hot winter puddings that uses many eggs.
'It was probably one of the Wynstey Hotel puddings, when that post-house was famous for its catering. This is more likely, because a pudding of the same style is still served on the old Pen y Pass route to Holyhead (see Snowdon Pudding) that connected with the Wynstey.'

1/2 lb brown breadcrumbs
1 lb suet (finely pounded)
2 oz sago (also pounded)
5 oz moist sugar
7oz orange marmalade
6 eggs (or more, should be enough to soak into the breadcrumbs and sago)
1 wineglass of brandy
__ butter
__ raisins

1. Generously butter a deep casserole dish. Arrange raisins in the butter to make a 'device' or image.
2. Mix together the breadcrumbs, the suet, the sago, sugar and marmalade.
3. Wish the eggs thoroughly and add to the mix.
4. When ready to bake, add the brandy at the last minute, pour into the dish and steam the pudding, covered, for an hour or more (make note of time).
5. Serve with marmalade or egg-custard-brandy sauce.

Marigold Eggs

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 221

Hartley likely refers to Pot Marigold also known as Calendula for this recipe.

1 recipe savoury pie crust
__ apples, sliced thin
__ eggs
__ milk
__ pepper
__ salt
__ fresh thyme, chopped
1 - 2 leaves (very little) fresh sage, chopped fine__
fresh calendula petals, whole

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
2. Roll out the pie crust to line a shallow pie dish with.
3. Arrange the sliced apple to evenly cover the bottom.
4. Bake in the oven for __ or until the apple is just cooked and still firm.
5. When the apple crust is done, remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350 for the custard.
6. Whisk together the eggs and milk quite thoroughly.
7. Add the salt, pepper, thyme, sage and petals.
8. Pour the custard into the apple crust and bake for __ minutes or until set.
9. Traditionally served alongside roast pork, in the same way Yorkshire pudding is served alongside roast beef.

Crabapple Verjuice

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 422

Ms. Hartley claims crab apples make the best quality apple verjuice.

? lbs crab apples, when their kernels have turned black

Tools required - wooden trough, wooden mallets, coarse weave bag or cheesecloth, a carboy or wooden cask the size of a hogshead (typically between 200 and 300L).

1. When the kernels have turned black, harvest the crab apples and keep them in their baskets to 'sweat' for 7-10 days ('sweating' in this context is to let the apples sit in a shaded warm odour free place where they can finish developing their sugars and flavour profiles. They're done 'sweating' when a squeeze leave finger impressions in the fruit).
2. In non-reactive troughs (wooden is choice), beat and crush with wooden mallets called beetles to release the juices.
3. (This bit I'm uncertain. Dorothy transcribes 'Make a bagge or coarse hair-cloth and fill it with crabbes, and presse and run the liquor into Hogsheads.' If I were to extrapolate, it sounds like something like the 'cheese' made from straw in the Edwardian Farm (I think it was). It may be that the community apply press will do the job just fine without any fuss).
4. (Can I complete the fermentation as I would for wine-making, in a carboy etc?) 

Pickling with verjuice

Food in England, dorothy Hartley, p. 422

'Take three quarts of the sharpest verjuice and put in a cold still and distil it off very softly; the sooner it is distilled in the spring the better for use.'

Verjuice of Apples

Food of England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 421-2

Ms. Hartley provides a definition and explanation of verjuice. This is not a recipe, but someday I would like to figure out how to make this as a replacement for lemon juice. We are planning on getting lemon trees, but with climate change, our mild north-west climate may change for colder winters, which would kill any trees. Since I depend quite a lot on lemons and lemon juice in many of my recipes, a workable alternative would be fantastic.

'Verjuice was in constant use till the last century, when its place was taken by the squeeze of lemon juice. It is really a very sharp cider - not a vinegar. The distilling was of interest, for it would account for the apparent mildness of some of the pickles made. In copying old recipes, very often a sharp cider is much nearer the original than modern vinegar.'

In this separate entry, Dorothy recommends distilling in the spring: http://lamouffetterustique.blogspot.com/2017/03/pickling-with-verjuice.html

ALSO https://www.worldturndupsidedown.com/2015/10/18th-century-crab-apple-verjuice-recipe.html

"Having got crab apples, as soon as the kernels turn black, lay them in a heap to sweat, then pick them from stalks and rottenness, then in a long trough, with stamping beetles, stamp them to a mash, and make a bag of coarse haircloth, as square as the press, fill it with the stamped crab-apples, and being well pressed, put the liquor up in a clean vessel." (from The New British Jewel. London: Printed for Osborne and Griffin, and H. Mozley, Gainsborough, 1788

This is better explained in the other entry on Dorothy's book: http://lamouffetterustique.blogspot.com/2017/03/crabapple-verjuice.html

ALSO

https://www.woodland-ways.co.uk/blog/wild-food/green-juice/

"Today verjuice is making a comeback, and is used by many of the top chefs. It can be incorporated into salad dressings, used for deglazing pans, making sauces, fruit compotes, fish stock and in fact anywhere that vinegar or lemon juice may be used.

"There are several different recipes around, some partially ferment the apples first or sometimes a lacto-fermentation is encouraged but in this recipe it is just the unadulterated juice. It’s very simple to make and the 750g of crab apples that I collected yeided about 400ml of the finished verjuice.

1. Wash the apples
2. Blanch the apples in boiling water for a few minutes (this will soften the apples and make pressing them easier)
3. Remove the stalks
4. Put into a food processor and blitz into a fine pulp
5. Put into a jelly bag or wrap in a muslin cloth
6. Either press in an apple press, squeeze in a potato ricer or place in a sieve and weigh down with something heavy (cans of food etc.)
7. Pass the juice through fine muslin cloth
8. Bottle
9. It’s worth making sure everything is spotlessly clean and sterilising the bottle, you can even add a splash of vodka to inhibit bacterial growth.

Toffee Apples

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 421

'Before the general importation of plantation sugar - they would be quite expensive. Probably small windfall apples dipped in a toffee of honey and beeswax bedabbled fairs of St. Bartholomew even before sugar, as we know it, came into general use.'

(how many) small apples
quarter lb butter
half lb treacle (molasses? what kind?)
1 lb brown sugar
1 Tbsp vinegar (apple cider?white?)

1. Wash the apples and dry thoroughly. Poke in the stick.
2. Melt the butter in a deep pot and then add the rest of the ingredients.
3. Bring to a boil and keep on a roiling boil for 20 minutes (what candy thermometre temp?).
4. Quickly dip the apples, (probably doing a rotation of apples to dip, allow to cool and dip again to develop a good crust).

Apple Custard Tansy

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 421

3 large apples (1 1/2 lbs), cored, peeled and sliced thin
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp sugar
3 eggs
2 thirds cup whole milk or light cream
1 cup of fine bread crumbs (the same volume as the apples)
Dash nutmeg
half cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300F.
2. In an oven-proof fry pan, fry the apple in the butter until soft and then mash. Save about a quarter cup to serve on top when ready.
3. Mix in the Tbsp of sugar and smooth over the bottom of the pan.
4. Whisk together the eggs and milk along with the nutmeg and sugar, and blend in the bread crumbs.
5. Pour the custard over the apple and bake very slowly for (until set).
6. Serve hot with a dollop of the reserve apple mash.

Apple Tansy - Testing

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 421

1 - Very interesting! The instructions I worked out are pretty good. It ends up making a kind of thin apple soufflé, but not quite. I had no rose water but I'm curious to taste what it (or other flavoring agents) might do.

2 - The bottom seems to tend to scorch, the meringue being so delicate. I'm baking it like a souffle instead.

3 - Baking it seems to work fine! 30 minutes is good. I'm tempted to try reducing the sugar to 1/3 cup.

4 - Tried it with 1/3 cup and Ben thought it wasn't sweet enough. It could be that it needs more apple (I didn't have the full 500g) but I think I agree. Since a 1/2 cup is too much for me, I will offer a range, and next time I make this I will use 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp (or a rounded 1/3 cup) of sugar. Everything else is spot on. NOTE: Upon re-reading the original, it seems I'm supposed to fold the cooked tansy kind of like an omelette but with the apple inside! What?!?

(1760?)

3 medium apples (500g), peeled, cored and cut in eighths
1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter
4 eggs, separated 
4 tsps. water
1 Tbsp rose water (or 1 tsp vanilla)
Dash nutmeg
½ 1/3 cup sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In an oven-proof 8" fry pan fry the apples in a single layer in the butter over medium-high heat just until soft. Remove from the heat. Watch carefully, they can scorch quickly.
3. Whip together the egg yolks, water, rose water, nutmeg and sugar until the yolks triple in volume.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff-but-not-dry peaks form.
5. Gently stir in a big spoonful of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it, then pour this into the remaining white, gently folding to incorporate and also to preserve as much loft as possible in the whites. If there are white bits left in the mix, no worries.
6. Spread the meringue over the apples in the hot pan and immediately put in the oven. Bake 30 minutes or until the meringue browns nicely on top.  
7. ORIGINAL INSTRUCTIONS: Pour this over the apples in the pan and fry for about 5-6 minutes or until the underside starts to brown. Set the oven to broil and brown the top before serving.

1760's instructions:

"Three or four apples pare and slice and fry in a little of butter till soft, take the yolks of 4 eggs and 4 spoonfuls of water, and rose-water, and nutmeg and sugar and beat well together, and whip the whites of the eggs to sno' and stir it in, and pour over the soft apples in the pan, and let it cook till set, brown the top side before the fire [under the grill in a modern stove] and fold with the apple pulp inside and dredge sugar and serve."

Apple Pasties

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 420

'(1600) Cook the quartered apples with sugar and stick of cinnamon, add a piece of fresh butter, some lemon juice and orange-flower water. Put the mixture into thin pastry cases, seal well, and fry them. Dredge sugar and serve hot.'

1 recipe Cookie Pie Crust (is this enough for 4 pasties?)
1 egg, beaten
1 quarter cup sugar
3 medium apples
cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp orange water
1 Tbsp butter

1. Core, peel and quarter the apples. Cook with the sugar, cinnamon stick and lemon juice until the apple softens but does not lose its shape. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and orange water. Allow to cool completely so as not to melt the dough.
2. Prepare the dough and separate into 4 balls. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Roll out to about 9 inches across. Plop a quarter of the cool apple mixture in the middle of each circle of dough. 
3. Brush all around the edges of the dough circles with egg. Seal the edges by drawing opposite sides together, brush a bit more egg along the side of the sealed edges and fold over. 
4. Either fry in butter, (I think?) or bake in a 425F oven for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350F and cook another 45 minutes or until golden (if baked, I likely don't need to cook the apple, and should use cinnamon powder instead of the stick).