Apple Frazes

/
Apple Frazes

Apple Frazes are a tasty apple pancake from the 18th-century classic: The art of cookery made plain and easy by Hannah Glasse. Through making this recipe, I've learned that adding little bit of sherry to your pancake batter is a very good idea!

I had the pleasure of frying my Apple Frazes over an open hearth built in the 1780s at Nelles Manor Museum, where I'll be teaching Open Hearth Cooking Classes. The September Classes have sold out, but we've added a third class on November 4th at 1:00. At this class we'll be making the same Autumn recipes as the classes in September, only at the end of the Fall season rather than the beginning.

Read More

Apple Bread

/
Apple Bread

In my backyard is a giant apple tree, so for as long as I call this house my home, you'll find apple recipes on Cloud 9 Cookery this time of year. Apple Bread is surprisingly not sweet. This bread is very flavourful thanks to a longer prefermentation process and the apples add a little je ne sais quoi to the complex flavour of this moist bread. I took both the very large loaves this recipe yielded to a gathering along with some butter. I thought that there would be leftovers and there most definitely were not!

Read More

Shrewsbury Cake

/
Shrewsbury Cake

Shrewsbury Cake is one of first recipes that I tested out for the Open Hearth Cooking Classes that I'm teaching at Nelles Manor in Grimsby, Ontario in September. They are crisp & buttery, and the flavour of caraway seeds balances out the sweetness of these cookies. Shrewsbury Cake is from the first English-language cookbook that was both compiled & printed in Canada. The Frugal Housewife's Manual was published in Toronto in 1840, but the cookbook author is credited as “A. B. of Grimsby”. I love this connection to the Nelles family, since they likely would have known the mysterious A. B. who wrote the book.

Read More

Filled Dills

/
Filled Dills

Filled Dills are just as fun to say as they are to eat! They’re appetizers from The Stay Out of the Kitchen Cookbook, published in 1968. This cookbook contains make ahead recipes and dishes that can be left in the oven so that a hostess can spend time with her dinner guests instead of spending her dinner party in the kitchen. Filled Dills are large dill pickles hollowed out with an apple corer, filled with cream cheese & various flavourings, then finally sliced into thin pieces. They are very tasty and easy to make ahead for your next gathering.

Read More

French Beans as a Salad

/
French Beans as a Salad

This tasty green bean salad is found in John Smith's The Principles and Practices of Vegetarian Cookery, published in 1860 in London. The Salad Sauce that accompanies the green bean salad is made of hard boiled egg yolks, oil, vinegar, mustard and herbs, and would taste amazing on salads of all varieties. Steve said that he didn't hate green beans when eating this salad, which is a glowing review of the Salad Sauce!

Read More

Queen's Drops

/
Queen's Drops

Queen's Drops are a basic sugar & spice cookie with a hint of dried currants. The recipe is found in The Cook Not Mad from 1831, which has the distinction of being the first English-language cookbook to be published in Canada! They are delicious with both white or brown sugar, but I prefer the extra flavour that comes with using brown. The dried currants provide little intense sweet flavour pops, and our recipe suggests using "any agreeable spice", so feel free to customize and add your favourite baking spices.

Read More

Mint Cup

/
Mint Cup

Today's the first day of a scorching hot Canada Day long weekend in Ontario, and it's the perfect day to post about my experiences making Mint Cup, a mocktail recipe from a 1940s edition of The Joy of Cooking. To start off, you take about 5 minutes to make a mint syrup with fresh mint leaves, sugar and water. Once it's strained & cooled, you add lemon juice, ginger ale and a bit of green food colouring. It's a very refreshing beverage that tastes like a Whisky Sour. I'd recommend giving it a try!

Read More

Asparagus Soup

/
Asparagus Soup

This Asparagus Soup recipe comes to us from a 1920s copy of Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book that I picked up at an antiques market. Our soup recipe contains asparagus, of course, and also a lot of spinach. The spinach in this soup provides the vibrant green colour, but most of the flavour comes from the asparagus. The puréed creamy soup is offset nicely with the tender asparagus tips, that provide a nice variety in the texture and a flavour pop to boost.

Read More

To boil green Peas

/
To boil green Peas

I agree, the name of this recipe doesn't sound very exciting. To boil green Peas? Really, what you end up with is green peas, with a touch of fresh mint, butter and salt. It's a simple, yet flavourful recipe that you'll find in American Cookery from 1796. Our authoress is Amelia Simmons (who has the tagline "An American Orphan" added to her name on the title page) and American Cookery is the first cookbook that was both written and published in the United States.

Read More

Italian White Bean Salad

/
Italian White Bean Salad

I made Italian White Bean Salad along with Mushroom Rolls to take along to a potluck picnic. Both of these recipes are found in The White House Chef Cookbook, written by René Verdon in 1967 after spending 4 years as the White House Executive Chef. Verdon was appointed the first Executive Chef of the White House in 1961, a position created by the Kennedys. My version of this salad features green garlic instead of the red onion listed in the recipe (a shopping list oversight on my part), and I really like the green garlic's blend of onion and garlic flavours.

Read More

Mushroom Rolls

/
Mushroom Rolls

Mushroom Rolls would be perfect for your next afternoon tea, or as an appetizer at your next celebration. Or anytime. They would probably be perfect to eat at any point in time. I'm a huge fan of mushrooms and butter, and this recipe uses both ingredients liberally. Add lemon juice, curry powder, salt & pepper, a dash of cayenne pepper...and additional butter...to the mushrooms, then package it up in crispy bread. Yum.

Read More

Potato Carrot Salad

/
Potato Carrot Salad

With only three chopped ingredients in the salad, this is a fairly simple but delicious recipe to prepare. The dressing is also rather easy to put together, but is subtly flavourful. This recipe is found in The Modern Family Cook Book from 1953, which was written by Meta Given, who probably has the best cookbook author name in history! When I was growing up, my Mom had her own copy of this cookbook in our kitchen, and I remember loving its design even as a kid. I think it's the most gorgeously designed cookbook in my collection today. Each time I open it, I marvel at the care that went into designing the layout, the illustrations and the attention paid to the tiny details.

Read More