Category Archives: recipes

Structure and Motivation: Reading Historic Cookbooks

by Barbara Rotger

Barbara Wheaton,
culinary collection honorary curator,
Harvard Schlesinger Library

When Barbara Wheaton, honorary curator of the culinary collection at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library, refers to taking a structured approach, she means it. As a participant in her recent seminar on Reading Historic Cookbooks, each day’s work was to have a theme, such as “ingredients” or “cook’s equipment” and each participant was assigned a text to which to apply that theme. It is tempting to dive in to a cookbook and try to take it all in; focusing on a single element at a time ensures a kind of thoroughness that is necessary for an appreciation of the work as a whole.

That meant no conjectures about the publisher’s motives when we were supposed to be focused on ingredients and no thoughtful analysis of cooking equipment when the focus was to be on the structure of the meal. Wheaton further cautioned us as to the limitations of using cookbooks as sources (do not even begin to think that they will tell you what people ate!), and emphasized the need to complement their study with sources such as maps, letters and diaries, art and architecture, and economic data.

The seminar participants, an eclectic group of scholars and practitioners, were eager to delve into the books that Wheaton had selected for the week. We began by drawing lots to learn which cookbooks we would work with each day, texts that ranged from fifteenth century British manuscripts to twentieth century American community cookbooks. With my interest in twentieth century recipe boxes, I hoped for the latter, only to find that I would be starting by examining ingredients in the 1587 edition of Thomas Dawson’s The Good Housewife’s Jewel. Quick to read my mind, Wheaton reminded the group of her “no trading” policy: we were to push our own boundaries, and move out of our own comfort zones.

Recipe:
“To make a tart that is a courage to a man or woman”

And so I proceeded, well outside my comfort zone, with a browser open to the OED, trying to draw conclusions from the ingredients listed in the Jewel. My eyes strained to decipher the blackletter script, with its long s’s that look like “f”s and my brain struggled with non-standard spelling. For my presentation to the group the next day, I settled on a recipe “To make a tart that is a courage to a man or woman.” In this kind of work you can look for patterns, or look for outliers; the ingredients for the tart provide examples of both. Typical flavorings, including rose water, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and mace, appear in this and many other recipes in the book, while a few ingredients stand out. The recipe calls for a “potato” which struck me as a very early occurrence of a new-world food, until my excitement was tempered those better versed in this time period, who explained that a sweet potato was what the author had in mind.

I was similarly stumped by the call for “the brains for three or four cock sparrows” in the recipe. (I have examined my share recipe boxes and not one sparrow brain—male or female—has been used as an ingredient.) As I struggled to explain this in my presentation, Barbara Wheaton, with a twinkle in her eye, silently but clearly mouthed the word “aphrodisiac” to the rest of the group. Perhaps the structured approach has its limits: to understand some ingredients one must also consider the structure of the meal—and the motivations of the cook!

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Recipe “translation”: To Make a tart that is a courage to man or woman

Take two quinces and two or three burre roots and a potato and pare your potato and scrape your roots and put them into a quart of wine and let them boil until they be tender, and put in an ounce of dates and when they be boiled tender drain them through a strainer, wine and all, and then put in the yolks of eight eggs and the brains of three or four cock sparrows and strain them into the other a little rose water, and seeth them all with sugar, cinnamon and ginger and cloves and mace, and put in a little sweet butter and set I upon a chaffing dish of coals between two platters, and so let it boil until it be something big.

Barbara is a Gastronomy program alumna, mother of two, and the Gastronomy Program coordinator since October 2011. Read more about her life and work.

Channeling the Chickpea: Experiencing the MIT Hummus Taste-Off

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by Natalie Shmulik

There comes a day in every reporter’s life when he or she feels the need to comment on issues within the Middle East. Today is not that day.

Photo: Amy Young

So how does the Middle East factor in on a crisp, 25-degree morning in Cambridge? Why, in culinary form of course. Spread on nearly every pita, wrap, and crisp within the architecturally unique confines of the MIT campus, hummus, a Middle-Eastern staple, took center stage at The Fifth Annual Hummus Taste-Off, organized by MIT Hillel and MISTI Israel. The tasting event concluded the MIT Hummus Experience series, consisting of seminars, classes, and workshops, and drew a sizeable crowd of students, teachers, and chickpea enthusiasts.

Within a short, but effective, one-hour time period, attendees sampled each of the five competing hummus recipes (all were both vegan and kosher) and voted for their favorite batch. Contending groups endeavored to shake up the traditional hummus recipe (typically consisting of chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon, and garlic) by incorporating a variety of unique and unexpected ingredients, experimenting with pungent herbs, a variety of nuts and spices, and even citrus fruits. Each team was determined to outshine last year’s winning invention of Samurai Miso Hummus and for a chance to have their flavor combination recreated and packaged by Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods.

Photo: Amy Young

The tasting order put some entries at a slight disadvantage in the battle of the chickpea. As Gastronomy student, Sarah Morrow, pointed out, it perhaps was not the best idea to offer up an overwhelming palate hog like the Jalapeño Hummus prior to milder and subtler flavor contenders. Nevertheless, one group shone above the rest with their winning recipe of Grapefruit Black Tea Infusion hummus. It will surely be soon added to this collection of the most memorable hummus recipes of the series.

Following the tasting, attendees were ushered into a cozy room full of tables lined with coupons, recipe cards, and pocket-perfect hummus packets fit for the following day’s lunch. And if this was not enough, Rami’s, a restaurant situated in Coolidge Corner, supplied full-sized pitas stuffed with tangy pickles, crispy falafel fritters, lingering hot sauce, and of course a large slather of rich and creamy hummus. And the icing, or rather ice cream, on the cake: hummus flavored ice cream, courtesy of J.P. Licks. This cooling dessert ensured that hummus lingered on the mind and palate long after the event was complete.

Natalie Shmulik is a Gastronomy student. After successfully running her own restaurant for two years and working in one of the largest grocery chains in Toronto, Canada, Natalie ventured into the culinary world of New England. She is currently a member of the Gastronomy Students’ Association and is working on several food related projects.