Apologies to all...

I hate to say it, but I missed a week for the experiment. Andy and I had a wicked cold this last week, and we were in no mood to find something in the cookbook. Check back next week, though, because we will be sure to get back on it.

Take it easy, all.

Week Two...

This week's adventure: Codfish Balls!! (Insert joke here)

CODFISH BALLS.

Take a pint bowl of codfish picked very fine, two pint bowls of whole raw peeled potatoes, sliced thickly; put them together in plenty of cold water and boil until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked; remove from the fire and drain off all the water. Mash them with the potato masher, add a piece of butter the size of an egg, one well-beaten egg, and three spoonfuls of cream or rich milk. Flour your hands and make into balls or cakes. Put an ounce each of butter and lard into a frying pan; when hot, put in the balls and fry a nice brown. Do not freshen the fish before boiling with the potatoes. Many cooks fry them in a quantity of lard similar to boiled doughnuts.

So, last Saturday we had some friends over for dinner, and I decided to bust out my experiment on them, and see what would happen.

Again, with this recipe I used shortening instead of lard, but other than that, everything was done like the instructions said. (I went with the cake option, instead of the round ball option.)

Overall, the fish balls weren't bad. To be honest, they didn't really taste like fish, they just tasted like a potato pancake. But they were tasty enough.

Mmmmm, smashed stuff

Mmmmmmm, smashed and fried stuff.

All ready.

I guess things so far have gone pretty well, so I may start trying to find some more, well, interesting recipes. We'll see what next week brings.

Take it easy, all.

One Down...

Week One -- Fried Chicken

FRIED CHICKEN.

Wash and cut up a young chicken, wipe it dry, season with salt and pepper, dredge it with flour, or dip each piece in beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs. Have in a frying pan one ounce each of butter and sweet lard made boiling hot. Lay in the chicken and fry brown on both sides. Take up, drain it and set aside in a covered dish. Stir into the gravy left, if not too much, a large tablespoonful of flour, make it smooth, add a cup of cream or milk, season with salt and pepper, boil up and pour over the chicken. Some like chopped parsley added to the gravy. Serve hot.

Well, I decided for the first week to do something that isn't too complicated. My goal is to change as little as possible in the recipes, however I did make a few minor changes in this one. Instead of lard, I used shortening, because it is what I had. With the chicken, I used boneless breasts, again because that is what I had around.

Overall, I think it turned out really well. Or, as Amy says, "Meh." I take that as a compliment, though. I even followed through and made the gravy at the end.

Now, here are some pictures:

Getting ready.


That would be fat.


That pan on the left weighs about 487 lbs. Which is awesome when you have to hold it tilted and scrape the gravy out.


Fryin' it up.


The finished product.


Another view. The gravy didn't look like much, but it was delicious.


Chicken.


The potatoes. These weren't from the book, just kind of made them up.

Anyway, for being the first week, it really turned out OK. I have to get used to using cast iron again, but I will get there.

That's really about it for now, tune in next week for round two.
Take it easy, all.

For my next trick...

Well, folks, it's been a while. I have guilt for having neglected you for so long, but that's ok, because I am back now. I have returned to tell you about my next exciting cooking experiment:

(Click the image to go to the eBook version)

This is the 1887 White House Cook Book. For the next 8 weeks, maybe longer, I will be trying to make at least one recipe from this book per week. I want to make them as close to the original as possible, so the only substitutions will be for ingredients that I can't find anywhere, or that might kill me.

So, keep coming back, because I will be posting pictures and results each week.

That's about it for now, take it easy all.

(Oh yes, one last thing, I highly recommend reading the medicine section of the cook book. Opium was apparently the cure for everything.)