The recipes that we have here are not meant to be used at any Napoleanic war event since they are to be made at home but we thought you would enjoy the recipes and the history of cooking and dining during the Regency area and how it has changed from the Colonial era to now and how the dining practices have changed through our history.
Here is a brief history of dining and cooking during the Regency era. We hope you enjoy the recipes for a Christmas dinner during the Regency era.
During the Regency era, most middle and upper class families had their servants prepare and cook all meals. For example, Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice took great pride that her family was "too genteel for her daughters to be involved cooking." Modest households, such as those of the clergy, often were capable of cultivating most of their own produce. Accordingly, gardening became a valuable skill for women of the period. In Austen's England, fashionable cities such as Bath also offered a wide variety of foods but often lacked freshness in their produce and milk, due to the slow transportation and lack of refridgeration of the times.
In 1830, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson dispelled the common misconception at the time that tomatoes were poisonous. The Colonel ate tomatoes publicly on the courthouse steps in Salem, New Jersey, on September 26, 1830. Although the roots of this fruit go way back to pre-Inca times, when tomatoes grew wild, tomatoes were long believed to be poisonous like other fruits in the nightshade family. Spanish explorers took tomatoes to Europe, but northern countries grew them for decoration and disparaged them as food. After the Colonel's display, chefs began experimenting with tomatoes in sauces, pastes and more.
Scotcht Collops
Take the skin from a fillet of veal & cut it into thin collops hack & scotch them with ye back of a knife lard half of them with bacon fry them with a little brown butter then take them out & put them into a nother tossing pan then set the pan they were fryd in over ye fier again wash it out with a little strong broth rubbing it with your ladle then pour it to ye collops do this to every panfull till all are fryd then stew & toss them up with a pt of oysters 2 anchovys 2 shiverd pallats cockscombs lambstones & savory balls slicd sweetbreads onions a faggot of savory herbs thicken it with brown butter & garnish it with slicd orange & lemon
Ollives of Veal
Take 8 or 10 scotch collops wash them over with ye batter of eggs then season & lay over them a little forcd meat roul them up & roast them then make for them a ragooe as ye collops & garnish them with slicd orange
Pidgeon Peares
Bone your pidgeons all but one leg & put that thro ye side out at ye vent(?) cut off ye toes & fill them with forcd meat made of ye hart of liver & cover them with a tender forced meat being washed over with ye batter of eggs & shape them like peares then wash them over & roul them in scalded chopt slices of bacon & put them in bladders boyle them an hour & 1/2 then take them out of ye bladders lay them before ye fier 1/2 an hour then make for them a ragooe & garnish them with slicd lemon.
A Calves Head Hasht
Your calves head being slitt & cleansed half boyled & cold cut one side into thin slices & fry it in a pan of brown butter then having a toss pan on the stove with a pt of gravy as much strong broth a quarter of a pt of clarret as much white wine & a handfull of savoury balls 2 or 3 shiverd pallats a pt of oysters cocks combs lambstones & sweet breads boyled blanched & sliced with mushroom truffells & murrells 2 or 3 anchovys as many shallots & faggot of sweetherbs tossed up & stewd together season it with savory spice then scotch ye other side cross & cross flower bast & broyle it.
The Hash being thickened with brown butter put it in ye dish lay over & about it fryd balls of ye tongue slicd & larded with bacon lemon piele & beetroot then fry in ye batter of eggs slicd sweetbreads sippets & oysters lay in ye head & place these on & about ye dish & garnish it with sliced orange & lemon
Bombarded Veal
Take a fillet of veal & cut out of it 5 lean pieces as thick as your hand round them up a little then lard them very thick on ye round side lard 5 sheeps tongues being boyld & blanchd make a well seasond forcd meat with veal lean bacon beef suet & anchovy roul it up into a ball being well beat then make another tender forcd meat with veal fatt bacon beef suet mushrooms spinnage parsley thyme sweet - marjoram winter savory and green onions season & beat it then put your forcd meat ball into part of this forcd meat put it in a veal caul & bake it in a little pott then roul up that which is left in another veal wett with ye batter of eggs roul it up like a polonia sausage tye it at both ends & slightly round & boyle it.
Your forcd ball being bakd put it in ye midle of ye dish lay over & about it fryd balls & tongues fryd brown between each then pour on them a ragooe lay about it ye other forcd meat cut as thin as an half crown & fryd in ye batter of eggs & squeese on it an orange & garnish it with slicd orange & lemon
Vinegar Pie Receipt
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
1 Tbls. grated lemon zest
1/2 c. cider vinegar
2 c. water
3 eggs, well beaten (if the eggs are small use 4)
1 Tbls. butter
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Combine sugar, flour, and lemon zest in a saucepan and stir them together until thoroughly blended. Add cider vinegar while stirring or whisking constantly, then add the water. Place over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir a little of the hot mixture into the eggs, then stir the warmed egg mixture into the remaining hot mixture. Stir in butter. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell & bake for 10 minutes at 425 and then reduce heat to 350 and continue baking for 30 minutes more. Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool completely before serving. The filling will seem quite liquid, but will firm as the pie cools.
Do Not Pre Bake the Pie Crust!!!!!
Lears and Sauces
A Reagalia of Cowcumbers.
Take 12 cowcumbers & slice then as for eating put then in a cource cloth beat & squeeze then very dry flower & fry if then brown then put to your clarret gravy savoury spice & a bitt of butter roule up in flower toss then up thick they are sauce for mutton or lamb.
A Caudle for Sweet Pyes
Take sack & white wine alike in quantity a little verjuice (Ed's note - Verjuice is very sour fruit juice, usually that of unripe grapes. It has been suggested that a modern substitute might be vinegar; Verjuice is available in some gourmet catalogs including here in New Zealand where it is made at a vineyard near Napier.) & sugar boyle it & brew with 2 or 3 eggs as buttered ale when the pyes are bakd pour it in at the funnell and shake it together.
A Lear for Savoury Pyes
Take clarret gravy savoury spice oyster liquor 2 or 3 anchovys a faggot of sweet herbs & an onion boyle it up & thicken it with brown butter then pour it into your savoury pyes when called for.
Resources:
From Margaretta Ackworth's _Georgian Cookery Book_ edited by Alice and Frank Prochaska - Pavilion Books, London, 1987
