Vintage cookery books

I love reading cookery books; not necessarily using them for recipes, but jsut reading them. I like all eras, and found these two yesterday at the tip/recycling centre. Teh covers just evoke their era, the 70s, when I was growing up. I got the German one as OH's mother was German, so I might have a go at some things in there. Teh other one, the baking one, is American, with more bread recipes than youc an shake a stick at LOL
The one from here I want to try first is Beatrice Trum Hunter's* famous no-knead wholewheat bread - wonder if it's like Doris Grant's famous recipe (which I ahven't tried either)? Will report back, successful or otherwise.

* fabulous name!

Carrageen pudding

Carrageen is a red seaweed, chondrus crispus, and has been used for hundreds of years as a thickener and setting agent. It is usually associated with Ireland, and in the village of Carraghen on the south coast of the island, flans were made using the seaweed to thicken the milk filling. This gave rise to the name carrageen or Irish moss.

I've never cooked with it before, but have a bag of dried carrageen in the cupboard. I want to try the Irish moss pudding, similar to a blancmange and made with milk, the carageen being used as the setting agent; I'll be making the plain version, which I suspect is pretty close to the original.

This recipe from "A Taste of Ireland in Food & Pictures" by Theodora Fitzgibbon (1968); in the book it has the rather romantic name of Ocean Swell Jelly, but turns out this is just a brand name of a prepared carrageen - bit disappointing!

This is what Ms Fitzgibbon has to say:

"Chondrus crispus is a branching mucilaginous seaweed, which grows on many coasts in Europe and North America. It is dark pruple or green when growing, but when dried it is bleached and called Irish Moss, or Sea-Moss. Owing to its gelatinous qualities, it is used as a vegetable gelatine and makes excellent jellies, aspics, beverages and even breads and pastries. Teh rich vitamin content makes it an ideal food substance and the prepared form is obtainable in most health food shops"

1/2 cup (packed tightly) carrageen

1 egg white

1/4 pt cream

2 oz sugar

1 pint water

peel of 1 lemon, or vanilla flavouring if preferred

Steep the carrageen in water to cover for 10 minutes, and then drain. Simmer for 25 - 30 minutes in 1 pt water with the sugar and lemon peel. Strain and let it cool slightly. Meanwhile, whip the egg white stiffly and combine witht eh cream, also whipped. Mix with the carrageen liquid and gently heat up to just under boiling point. Pour into a wetted mould and chill. Turn out mould to serve, and decorate with fresh fruit slices.

For blancmange, use milk insteadof water and moit the egg white. The soakde carrageen liquid is used for mixing pastry or dough.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has a mothod for drying it in his "Cook on the Wild Side", and suggests adding it to thicken a vegetable soup. For puddings, he says that 1/2oz will set about 2 pints of milk, so a little goes a long way. It won't dissolve, so must be simmered in the liquid. The recipes I've seen in the past involve simmering the carrageen straight in the milk, so need to have another look at this.

This one from http://www.eat-online.net/swedish/cookbook/ireland/afters.htm

Carrageen Moss Pudding from Belleville

Ingredients:
7 g cleaned, well dried Carrageen925 ml Milk2 tablespoons Sugar1 Egg1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Essence or Vanilla Pod

Method of cooking:Soak the carrageen in tepid water for 10 minutes. Put in a saucepan with milk and a vanilla pod if used. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for 20 minutes. Pour through a strainer into a mixing bowl. The carrageen will now be swollen and exuding jelly. Rub all this jelly through the strainer and beat it into the milk with the sugar, egg yolk and vanilla essence if used. Test for a "set" as one would gelatine. Whisk the egg white stiffly and fold it in gently. It will rise to make a fluffy top. Serve chilled with a fruit compote, caramel or Irish coffee sauce.

I can't help thinking the very old recipes would hve been simpler, with less ingredients, but I may be wrong - just water and/or milk, thickened with the simmered seaweed. Will have a look for some older recipes and give them a go. Will report back later.

Another interesting link:

http://www.nosetotailathome.com/2008/05/carragheen-pudding/

This sounds more like what I'm after:

Recipes from The Inglenook Cookbook by The Sisters of the Brethren Church (1906)

RECIPES FOR THE SICK

IRISH MOSS Buy 10 cents worth of Irish sea moss in the drug store, then take a piece the size of a dollar and wash it in cold water, and put it in 1/2 pint of sweet milk and boil it till it thickens like cream. Stir all the time. Then strain, and season with a little sugar. Serve while warm. As soon as it cools it gets stiff, but it can also be eaten cold with cream and sugar.Sister Fannie E. Light, Manheim, Pa.

Also turned up the information that it is/was used to clear beer in brewing, so more research on that required too.

Carrot cake

Many moons ago, circa 1974/5, our mother took us to visit a "hippy commune" near to where we lived. She was never at all hippy-like in thought or deed, so I think she was just curious and looking for somewhere for a trip out not too distant, and off we tootled along to their Open Day in our Mini Traveller! The commune (now would be called an intentional community) wasn't far from us, and was Laurieston Hall; one of the most successful and long-lived of the rash of hippy living experiments around those times.

Here it is :

http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/index.php?fld=super_region&val=Scotland&one=dat&two=det&sel=lauriest

I loved it there; lots of vibrant colour, craft work, gardens, interesting and colourful, vibrant people, lots going on. I think my mother was a bit more :0, but I enjoyed it. Teas were served in the communal kitchen, on big tables with seats all around, rather than individual tables. We had tea in hand ghrown mugs, and *carrot cake*...........a first for all of us! A cake made from carrots? How could this be? LOL I don't remember much about the actual taste, to be honest, but the concept of a cake made from vegetables stayed with me, although I don;t remember being allowed to try making one at home at all. When I got my first house, I bought a copy of the Cranks Recipe Book - and, tada, therein the best carrot cake recipe in the world.......... and up above is a picture of it! I've made it countless times now, and am on my second cranks Recipe book, the first one falling to bits through use, but both bought secondhand. Here's the recipe, and I can assure you you won't find a better one.

Cranks Carrot Cake

6 oz carrots

2 eggs

400z sugar

3 fl oz vegetable oil

4 oz flour

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 teasp ground nutmeg

2 oz desiccated coconut

2oz raisins

Grease and line a loaf tin. Grate carrots finely. Whisk eggs and sugar together until thick and creamy, then gradually add the oil, still whisking. Then add remaining ingredients, mix throughly and pour into prepared tin. Bake in a hit oven for 30 - 35 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Ice with orange icing if you like.

The original recipe in the book usues raw brown sugar and wholemeal flour, but I use what I have on the cupboard.

Here's a good place to start - sweeties!

On February 1953, the rationing of sweets and chocolate was finally abolished, after more than ten years, and shops throughout the UK reported a brisk trade in everything from lollipops to liquorice. An earlier attempt to remove confectionery from the ration books, in 1949, had underestimated the nation's hunger for these itmes and ended in failure when demand outsripped supply. During teh latter half of WW2, teh weekly ration of sweets was a mere 2 oz per person, althought this was gradually increased to a more generous 6 oz in teh post-war years.

(Chambers Book of Days)When we were gorwing up, both (yes, we had 2!) village shops had seetie trays; the sweeties were arranged in little compartments in a big sectioned tray, according to price, starting with the two Blackjacks or Fruit Salads for 1/2d up to bigger more luxurious items for 3d LOL Highland toffee, Refresher chews, Blackjacks and Fruit Salad, spaceships, sweetie cigarettes., Swizzles, Parma Violets...............we tried them all! A whole Mars bar to yourself was pure puxury and happened very rarely.

I've just found this site - they might just be getting some custom from me soon, when the finances allow!

http://www.retrotuckshopsweetsdirect.co.uk/

Life was sweet. :)