Walnut Ketchup & Friends
I quite enjoyed reading Cooking with Jane Austen (by Kirstin Olsen, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2005). Talking about food that had been mentioned by Ms. Austen in her writing, the book is about Regency period eating habits, food, and cooking. There were some recipes I wanted to make a note of, and I didn't really have a better place than right here. My main interest is the recipe for Walnut Ketchup — I've been interested in the history of ketchup for awhile now, and thought about doing research for a book on it — but the others caught my fancy, too.
These are the "modern versions" of the recipes, for which the author also gives one or sometimes two contemporary versions of the recipes; she's reinterpreted into modern language and techniques with as much fidelity as she could.
Walnut Ketchup
- 12 ounces of beer
- 4 cups of walnuts
- 1 cup of cider vinegar
- 1 head of garlic
- 3 ounces of anchovy filets
- 12 ounces of red wine
- 3/8 oz. ground mace
- 3/8 oz. ground cloves
- 3/8 oz. pink or green peppercorns
- 3/8 oz. black pepper
- 3/8 oz. allspice
- 3/8 oz. ground ginger
In a food processor, grind the walnuts finely. Add them to the beer and the cider, cover tightly, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Peel and chop or press the garlic. Place all the ingredients, including the marinating walnuts and their liquid, into a large suacepan over medium heat. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight. The next day, strain the liquid, discarding the solids, and bottle it. It will keep well in the refrigerator and can be canned according to the directions on your canning jars and canner.
Egg Sauce
- 2 eggs
- 0.25 lb. butter
Hard-boil the eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and add the yolks, stirring until the yolks are thoroughly blended. Finely chop the whites, add them to the butter, and stir until warm, about 1 minute.
Mince Pie
- 1.25 lbs. skirt teak, finely chopped, browned, and the fat drained off
- 1 lb. lard or suet: cut into 0.25" dice
- 1.5 lbs. currants
- 1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped into 0.25" dice
- zest and jice of two lemons
- 0.5 cup wine
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 T brown sugar
- 1 good pie crust (top & bottom)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Roll out the crust about 3/16" to 1/4" thick and cover the bottom and sides of 2 pie pans, trimming away the excess. Prick the crust in a few places around the bottom and sides. Fill the crusts with mincemeat. Roll out the leftover crust and cut two circles a little larger than the upper diamter of the pie pans. Place these top crusts over the pans, trim away any excess, and pinch the upper and lower crusts together all the way around the rim. Cut 3 vents in the top crust, each about 1.5" long, with a sharp knife. Bake until top crust is nicely browned and liquid begins to bubble and ooze at the sies and/or vents, about 60 to 90 minutes.
Ragout of Onions
- 1 lb. small boiling onions, peeled
- 4 large yellow onions, peeled and chopped in 0.25" dice
- 1/4 lb. (one stick) butter
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-hight heat. As it begins to sizzle, add all the onions and stir occasionally until they brown and the brown coloring is uniformly distributed through the onions. (You can reduce the heat and let them continue to brown slowly if the rest of dinner is taking longer than yo'd like.)
Add the flour and stir until the mixture thickens (about 1 minute). Add the salt, pepper, broth, and mustard and stir until thoroughly incorporated (1 to 2 minutes). Turn off the heat. (The onions can be prepared up to this point and reheated whenever it is convenient.)
In a skillet, heat a small amount of oil or butter and toss some plain bread crumbs in it. Toast the bread crumbs over medium-low heat until they are nicely browned. Remove them from the heat.
When you are ready to serve the dish, reheat the onions on the stove and warm a serving dish. Spoon the onion ragout into the dish and sprinkle the bread crumbs on top.