The CWI Cookbook

Posts Tagged ‘brandy’

 1 lb. sugar
2 lb. flour
1 tbs. ground coriander
3/4 lb. butter
6 eggs
1/2 c. brandy

Mix a pound of sugar, with two pounds of flour, and a large spoonful of pounded coriander seeds; sift them, add three quarters of a pound of melted butter, six eggs, and a gill of brandy; knead it well, roll it thin, cut it in shapes, and bake without discoloring [browning] it.

From The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph, 1824

Comment: We once had a call from a reader looking for a recipe she remembered her grandmother making long ago. She described the resulting item and said as best she remembered it had been called “Strawberry Cake” despite containing no strawberries at all. Much puzzlement ensued, until we turned up this one. Gratification was intense among all parties.

While Mrs. Randolph would have you bake this item but not brown it, it may be a bit difficult to tell when exactly it is done. Some experimentation may be called for, but try to keep them as pale as possible without leaving the insides raw.

This is a very old recipe of English origin, as can be told by the title. Many towns in England have a “signature” food product, such as Bath Buns, Chantilly Basket and the like. No municipality has yet staked a claim on Toad in the Hole, nor Bangers and Mash, but again, further research may be called for. We shall prepare a grant application forthwith to fund the project.

 5 cups flour
3 cups sugar
two cups butter
5 eggs
one tsp. soda
2 tsp. cream of tartar,
one glass of wine
one glass of brandy
one nutmeg
one pound of raisins

Composition Cake; 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar, two cups of butter, 5 eggs, one tsp. soda, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, one glass of wine, one glass of brandy, one nutmeg, one pound of raisins.

From the diary of Sgt. Samuel Andrew Jackson Creekmore, Jeff Davis Legion, Mississippi Cavalry. Submitted by CWi reader “Dameron”.

  “Cooking instructions: Beat butter and sugar together. Beat eggs, mix in soda and cream of tartar and nutmeg, then mix in liquors. Mix into flour, then add butter-sugar blend. Mix all thoroughly. Divide into bread or cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes or until it looks done enough. If it’s brown on top and a knife or skewer inserted into the center comes out dry, it’s probably about right.”

Comment: One of the very few recipes we have ever heard of mentioned in an actual soldier’s diary from the Civil War period. The diary entry itself consists only of a list of ingredients, but that was the normal form for the time. Cooking instructions were added by Dameron.

This would appear to be a good deal more manageable than the Election Cakes, although it would be a fortunate soldier indeed who had access to all these ingredients during the War years.

“Cooking instructions: Beat butter and sugar together. Beat eggs, mix in soda and cream of tartar and nutmeg, then mix in liquors. Mix into flour, then add butter-sugar blend. Mix all thoroughly. Divide into bread or cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes or until it looks done enough. If it’s brown on top and a knife or skewer inserted into the center comes out dry, it’s probably about right.”

Comment: One of the very few recipes we have ever heard of mentioned in an actual soldier’s diary from the Civil War period. The diary entry itself consists only of a list of ingredients, but that was the normal form for the time. Cooking instructions were added by Dameron.

This would appear to be a good deal more manageable than the Election Cakes, although it would be a fortunate soldier indeed who had access to all these ingredients during the War years.

 1 lb. butter (unsalted preferred)
1 lb. granulated sugar
3/4 c white wine
3/4 c rose brandy
1 -2 tbs. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
Grated rind and juice of half a lemon
1 lb. flour
20 eggs, separated, use whites only

Prepare a pound of fresh butter and a pound of powdered loaf sugar, as before directed, mix them together, and beat them to a cream. Add to it a wine glass of white wine, one of rose brandy, a grated nutmeg, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, or a few drops of the essence, and the juice and grated rind of half a lemon. Sift a pound of the finest flour, and beat to a very stiff froth the whites only of twenty fresh eggs; then stir into the other ingredients alternately and gradually the flour and eggs, giving it a hard stirring at the last. Put it in a deep buttered pan, of circular form, having a straight, upright rim, and not filling it more than half full; let it stand to rise, and bake it in a moderate oven, very little warm at first, and gradually heating it, and putting rather more fire underneath than on the top. When it is thoroughly done, withdraw the fire, let it remain in the oven till it gets cool, and ice it smoothly with white cake icing, and when it gets about half dry, ornament it in the most elegant manner with devices and borders in white sugar, which you may obtain at the confectioners. It should be considerably elevated upon the table, and stick firmly in the center of it, a handsome assemblage of real or artificial leaves and white flowers.

The Kentucky Housewife, by Mrs. Lettice Bryan, 1839.

Comment: The “rose brandy” called for here is a variant on rose water and is made the same way: “Fill a glass jar with fresh rose leaves, pour over them as much white brandy as the jar will hold; cover them and set them by to steep till the flavor of the roses is extracted; then drain them out, fill up the jar with fresh rose leaves, cover them, and let them stand again for at least twenty-four hours; drain them out again, and in like manner fill up the jar the third and fourth time. Then strain and bottle it.”

The “it” in question is of course the brandy, not the rose leaves. The size of the container will be determined by how much rose brandy you wish to make, not to mention the ready availability of fresh, non-pesticide or -pollutant laden rose petals and your patience in petal plucking. Cheap wild roses will be better for this (not to mention more historically accurate) than modern day hybrid tea varieties, which have been bred for appearance and long shelf life rather than their fragrance-producing properties.

Given the number of pounds of ingredients, and the specified number of baking pans to be used (one), this is going to be a very tricky cake to fit into a modern oven. How it was accomplished with 19th century baking technology would require the resources of a well-restored living-history farm or house of the period to explain, but here at least is the recipe with which you can start the process.

 4 lb. fruit
4 lb. sugar
1 pint best white brandy

Make a syrup of the sugar and enough water to dissolve it. Let this come to a boil; put the fruit in and boil five minutes. Having removed the fruit carefully, let the syrup boil fifteen minutes longer, or until it thickens well; add the brandy, and take the kettle at once from the fire; pour the hot syrup over the fruit, and seal.
If, after the fruit is taken from the fire, a reddish liquor oozes from it, drain this off before adding the clear syrup. Put up in glass jars.
Peaches and pears should be peeled for brandying. Plums should be pricked and watched carefully for fear of bursting.

Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comment: Mrs. Harland clearly intends these brandied fruits to be not simply preserved but preserved in pristine condition for future use in some fancy dessert. If one is interested more in the flavor than the appearance (or if one actively enjoys a red tint to one’s brandied fruit) then the directions concerning reddish oozes should be ignored. While the recipe does not call for it, it would simplify later cooking to remove the pits from peaches and cores from pears before commencing. Plums are intended to remain whole and so their pits will have to be dealt with later, or simply left for the diner to discreetly spit out and put on a pit plate.

 1 lb. sugar
1/4 c. water
2 lb. fruit
1/2 pint brandy

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a half gill of water for every two lbs. of fruit. Heat to boiling, stirring to prevent burning, and pour over the berries while warm–not hot. Let them stand together an hour; put all into a preserving-kettle, and heat slowly; boil five minutes, take out the fruit with a perforated skimmer, and boil the syrup twenty minutes. Add a pint of brandy for every five pounds of fruit; pour over the berries hot, and seal.

Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comment: While this is closely related to “Brandied Peaches or Pears,” it is not identical or else neither we nor Mrs. Harland would have gone to the bother of making a separate recipe for it. The main difference between the two–cooling the syrup before pouring it over the fruit, where “Peaches and Pears” calls for it to be boiling at this point–is important if you want to prevent the cherries from popping open in their little canning jars. The larger fruits are made of sturdier stuff and can take the heat. The flimsy skins of the smaller berries cannot.