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Let's do more Kitchen Essays! How about "Luncheon for a Motor Excursion in Winter" and "A Winter Shooting-Party Luncheon."
The first essay is about taking your own lunch and not relying on what may be very bad provisions from inns along the road. Instead, you can pack your own provisions in a lunch basket, a big hay box, a thermos (full of Mulled Claret, and another one with coffee) and a few "camp stools and a waterproof rug, as well as our furs" means that a cheerful party can have a nice meal anywhere off the road that looks nice.
Agnes Jekyll recommends some Potage a la Ecossaise, which is a soup with pearl barley, veggies, and some mutton or lamb, eaten off of "round white metal tins and nice horn or wooden spoons" bought from the 6 1/2d. Bazaar." Then, an assortment of Stuffed Salmon Rolls, which is salmon mixed with mayonnaise or whipped cream flavored with Worcester sauce and tarragon vinegar, pickled gherkin, and salt and pepper. You fill the interior of buttered rolls with this mixture, or perhaps some egg and sardine, minced chicken or game with cream and chopped walnut or beetroot, or perhaps prawns or lobster with chopped aspic. Was aspic eaten with everything at this time? Perhaps it was a good way to ensure moistness, or something. At any rate, this is a picnic staple, and while I'm not a seafood fan, chicken salad is always welcome at a picnic.
She also says a Winter Cake might be nice - it's made with black treacle, ginger, brown sugar, chopped citron, and some whole almonds for garnishing the top. For dessert, cream cheese wrapped in lettuce, served with biscuits and red currant jelly (I love things flavored with red currant, but it's not something that appears too much in the US), glace ginger (mmmmmm), peppermint creams, and coffee ("tasting as good out of the thermos as tea tastes nasty.")
Interestingly, she also suggests doing a little more collecting of wildflowers than one might think of. Besides the ivy you can bring home and float in a bowl, or evergreen to decorate the mantelpiece with, she suggests that "the nursery might be made happy by a sod of growing daisies from the hedgerow" which can be brought home in the empty baskets and boxes you packed the lunch in.
For your shooting-party luncheon, you should apparently expect about ten to twelve guests, plus provisions for the beaters, keepers, and loaders who may need big, hearty meat and cheese sandwiches if they have not arranged to bring their own luncheon and only wish for a mug of beer. "A little consideration for those whose daily fare is often rough and meagre will be generally appreciated, but the details of this branch of the comissariat are often best settled by the head keeper and cook in conclave, though the knowledge that it is of kindly concern to master and mistress will ensure suitable provision for all. George Sala was wont to tell of one who threw largesse in the face of the poor so rudely that it hurt them, and in their wrath they forbore to return thanks." Hmm. (Wikipedia tells me that George Augustus Henry Sala was an English journalist who died in 1895. He wrote mostly for the Daily Telegraph.)
This is apparently a meal to be eaten out in the field, or if the weather is too cold, in a summer-house, a keeper's cottage, a forester's lodge, or a farm-house parlour. The meal should be simple and not experimental, but hearty and filling. A hotpot of game or poultry with celery and chestnuts, served wtih gravy or mushrooms (I say go for both!) plus potatoes and baked beans, and a cold game pie are suggested.
Cold Game Pie
Take the flesh of a hare and cut into pieces the length of a finger; take the same weight of veal, or of chicken or pheasant mixed with veal, without fat or skin. Take 1 1/2 lb. of sausage meat, and mix with the liver, etc., of the hare previously chopped small. Put pepper, salt, and a little thyme, and a bay leaf with a thin layer of stuffing at the bottom of a large earthenware game pie-dish. Put pieces of hare, veal, game, a slice of ham, a layer of stuffing, pressing the whole well down, no empty spaces left. Repeat till all meat is used, covering with a slice of ham or bacon, adding pepper, salt, thyme, and a bay leaf. Pour on the whole half a tumbler of water, 1 large tablespoonfuls of cognac. Close the terrine hermetically, pasting paper round the lid, and place in the oven for some 4 hours. Use cold.
I think it might taste nicer hot, but I'm picky about cold meats.
Finally, Burnt House Cake for dessert - made of ground rice, flour, raisins, sultanas, sugar, butter, and a packet of "mixed spice." Probably something nutmeg-cinnamon-esque, I would bet. [ETA:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dakiwiboid points out a wikipedia link that confirms my guess - it's very similar to what I would think of as pumpkin pie spices.] You then dissolve 1 teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in 1/4 pint of boiling hot milk, add this to the other ingredients, and bake it all up. I'm trying to picture how this would look when done, and I can't imagine the texture - would the bicarbonate of soda make it very fluffy? The desserts I've seen using rice flour (if that's the same thing as ground rice) tend to be more glutenous, or at the very least, a little heavier or denser and moist.
The first essay is about taking your own lunch and not relying on what may be very bad provisions from inns along the road. Instead, you can pack your own provisions in a lunch basket, a big hay box, a thermos (full of Mulled Claret, and another one with coffee) and a few "camp stools and a waterproof rug, as well as our furs" means that a cheerful party can have a nice meal anywhere off the road that looks nice.
Agnes Jekyll recommends some Potage a la Ecossaise, which is a soup with pearl barley, veggies, and some mutton or lamb, eaten off of "round white metal tins and nice horn or wooden spoons" bought from the 6 1/2d. Bazaar." Then, an assortment of Stuffed Salmon Rolls, which is salmon mixed with mayonnaise or whipped cream flavored with Worcester sauce and tarragon vinegar, pickled gherkin, and salt and pepper. You fill the interior of buttered rolls with this mixture, or perhaps some egg and sardine, minced chicken or game with cream and chopped walnut or beetroot, or perhaps prawns or lobster with chopped aspic. Was aspic eaten with everything at this time? Perhaps it was a good way to ensure moistness, or something. At any rate, this is a picnic staple, and while I'm not a seafood fan, chicken salad is always welcome at a picnic.
She also says a Winter Cake might be nice - it's made with black treacle, ginger, brown sugar, chopped citron, and some whole almonds for garnishing the top. For dessert, cream cheese wrapped in lettuce, served with biscuits and red currant jelly (I love things flavored with red currant, but it's not something that appears too much in the US), glace ginger (mmmmmm), peppermint creams, and coffee ("tasting as good out of the thermos as tea tastes nasty.")
Interestingly, she also suggests doing a little more collecting of wildflowers than one might think of. Besides the ivy you can bring home and float in a bowl, or evergreen to decorate the mantelpiece with, she suggests that "the nursery might be made happy by a sod of growing daisies from the hedgerow" which can be brought home in the empty baskets and boxes you packed the lunch in.
For your shooting-party luncheon, you should apparently expect about ten to twelve guests, plus provisions for the beaters, keepers, and loaders who may need big, hearty meat and cheese sandwiches if they have not arranged to bring their own luncheon and only wish for a mug of beer. "A little consideration for those whose daily fare is often rough and meagre will be generally appreciated, but the details of this branch of the comissariat are often best settled by the head keeper and cook in conclave, though the knowledge that it is of kindly concern to master and mistress will ensure suitable provision for all. George Sala was wont to tell of one who threw largesse in the face of the poor so rudely that it hurt them, and in their wrath they forbore to return thanks." Hmm. (Wikipedia tells me that George Augustus Henry Sala was an English journalist who died in 1895. He wrote mostly for the Daily Telegraph.)
This is apparently a meal to be eaten out in the field, or if the weather is too cold, in a summer-house, a keeper's cottage, a forester's lodge, or a farm-house parlour. The meal should be simple and not experimental, but hearty and filling. A hotpot of game or poultry with celery and chestnuts, served wtih gravy or mushrooms (I say go for both!) plus potatoes and baked beans, and a cold game pie are suggested.
Cold Game Pie
Take the flesh of a hare and cut into pieces the length of a finger; take the same weight of veal, or of chicken or pheasant mixed with veal, without fat or skin. Take 1 1/2 lb. of sausage meat, and mix with the liver, etc., of the hare previously chopped small. Put pepper, salt, and a little thyme, and a bay leaf with a thin layer of stuffing at the bottom of a large earthenware game pie-dish. Put pieces of hare, veal, game, a slice of ham, a layer of stuffing, pressing the whole well down, no empty spaces left. Repeat till all meat is used, covering with a slice of ham or bacon, adding pepper, salt, thyme, and a bay leaf. Pour on the whole half a tumbler of water, 1 large tablespoonfuls of cognac. Close the terrine hermetically, pasting paper round the lid, and place in the oven for some 4 hours. Use cold.
I think it might taste nicer hot, but I'm picky about cold meats.
Finally, Burnt House Cake for dessert - made of ground rice, flour, raisins, sultanas, sugar, butter, and a packet of "mixed spice." Probably something nutmeg-cinnamon-esque, I would bet. [ETA:
dakiwiboid points out a wikipedia link that confirms my guess - it's very similar to what I would think of as pumpkin pie spices.] You then dissolve 1 teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in 1/4 pint of boiling hot milk, add this to the other ingredients, and bake it all up. I'm trying to picture how this would look when done, and I can't imagine the texture - would the bicarbonate of soda make it very fluffy? The desserts I've seen using rice flour (if that's the same thing as ground rice) tend to be more glutenous, or at the very least, a little heavier or denser and moist.