Buckwheat Honey for Honey Gingerbread

Dijon, France produced 60,000 pounds of buckwheat honey - very dark and too strong for "table use" but perfect for gingerbread, according to The British Bee Journal of 1906.  Other types of honey would sink after the gingerbread had risen.  However, a British author in 1848 wrote that the "French, whose gingerbread is vile stuff, use honey instead of treacle."  Recipes for honey gingerbread - medieval to early 20th - near end of post.

Lebkuchen - German honey cake for Christmas

19th century dough for these highly spiced honey cakes (cookies) was "rested" for months to improve the flavor and texture.1553 recipe; 1698 & c1520 images

Bees and Insects - virtual and taped talks

Bee behavior, wax, honey, an entire day of bee talks and two talks on eating insects.
Image of bee tanging, link below.

Pickled Pumpkin using honey

Pumpkin chips using vinegar, sugar or honey, cinnamon, mace and cloves are pictured, left.   The darker chips on the left were made with honey, those on the right with sugar. The honey ones are more mellow, covering the vinegar tang found in the sugared ones.

Mustard Balls and Cannon Balls

Mustard Balls were made from pounded mustard seeds, spices, and a binder such as wine, vinegar, honey or raisins. The balls were then dried in the sun or warm oven, and thus would "...keep better than mustard-seed or flour [ground mustard] at sea, and are easily dissolved." [Domestic, 1827] To use, thin pieces were sliced and soaked in vinegar, wine or verjuice. Tewkesbury was so famous for its mustard balls that Shakespeare mentioned it in a play. And cannon balls in the kitchen...

New Year's Eve/Day in Germany 1840s-1860s

Gifts were exchanged on New Year's, and foods included German gingerbread made with honey, aniseeds, almonds in the shape of hearts that could be as large as half a yard and a foot wide. Herrings, lentils, wassail-bowls, and Glee wine.

Fig lemonade

This is a lemonade for hot weather - like Switchel or Shrub - very tart (only 1T or a teaspoon of honey).  Alexis Soyer called it a "Cooling Lemonade" in 1849, and a later cookbook author named it "Picnic Lemonade."  The vivid pink color happens instantly when lemon juice is added to the liquid from boiling the figs and yellow of the lemon peels.

Bees from hive to branch to wooden hive

The bees are out enjoying all the dandelions from all the rain. This 1869 image depicts the "three classes of bees" and how the swarm leaves the beehive to "settle upon a limb" then placed in the wooden box. The author clearly was not allergic, boasting "no protection to face or hands."  Don't try this at home!

Medieval Gyngerbrede

Honey - a lot of honey - is boiled, foam removed, spices and dried bread crumbs incorporated, then pressed or rolled flat. Cut into hard (firm) slices. It's not cake-like.

Calling bees - Tanging or ringing

"Why does the old lady knock with her key on a frying-pan?"  Bees swarm when the hives "be too much crowded by the young brood" and the weather warms in late April or May.  To settle/calm the bees into an empty hive people would beat a kettle, pan or ring a little bell.  Perhaps to sound like thunder or it was done to claim ownership of the swarm.

Pumpkin candies made from pumpkin pickles or chips

Several past posts have dealt with pumpkin chip recipes from 1770 and 1840 and how to cut pumpkins into chips HERE.  Chips or sweet pickles can be made into candies by rolling them in sugar.

Glass bee hives 1772, 1828 ... and 1650s

There is an intriguing talk this Thursday on late 17th century glass hives. GLASS! In this 1772 example, bees entered the bottom section then moved up through a hole into the middle section to build a hive. Then a hole was opened into the top glass section where the bees continued making honey combs on the two cross bars.

Kinklings, Fastnachts, Donuts

Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras was when all the excess fat was to be consumed before Lent started on Wednesday. Thus cooks in German and Pa. German areas made doughnuts called faschnauts, fast nachts and numerous other spellings.

Barley Lemonade

Generally found in the foods for the sick section, barley water was often flavored with lemons and sugar, but this recipe was actually named lemonade by famed chef Alexis Soyer.  The pearl barley is boiled in water, strained and added to the sugar water and lemon. Then the lemonade is strained.

1730 Christmas poem

This poem about Christmas coming contains flowing bowls, minced pies, capon, goose, brawn, sturgeon, a Christmas box of sweet plumb cakes and then, to the Christmas Ball.  The book has a delightfully long descriptive title with "fiddle faddle stuff" and pranks...

Christmas talks 2021 and taped talks

Christmas – dinner by Annie Gray(De3) food & drink(1) feast in art(22) at sea(7) London railways(16) among enslaved(15) family recipes(2) Roman origins(2) Pagan festivals(20) Medieval(7,10) Georgian/ Regency(19,22) Victorian(8,15) WWII (16) Mid 1900s(6) Britain (8,9,10,17) Wales(9,16) Canada(5,12) US(9,11,15,16,20) New Eng(9,14) Germany(12,14,17) Italy(12,15,18) France(18) Mexico(8)

4 French mustard recipes, 1725

Dijon mustard or Anjou mustard, mustard seeds soaked overnight in water, dried mustard cakes and a mustard lasting eight days were four recipes from a French book revised by Richard Bradley in 1725.  And the source of the name 'moutarde' or 'moult tarde'? An article related a story of the Duke of Burgundy in 1382 and mustard, by an author who jested that the Dijonese didn't know Latin... 

Edible England - national festival and UK talks

The theme for this year's Heritage Open Days is food and related topics, with online and in person activities throughout the country from Sept. 10 to 19.
Edible England search HERE and general information HERE

Drink up! Talks: Taverns, Prohibition, Temperance, Beer, Wine, Cocktails, Whiskey...

There is no denying it... there are more and more virtual talks about drinks as our Covid lockdown continues. Grog (yes, grog by a Naval museum), beer, whiskey/whisky, gin, cocktails, teas and chocolate. Many talks include recommended  samples - either mailed or picked up locally. And even beer games done museum style (Penn Museum of UPenn). Tapes, then the October talks.

Cafe Procope - limonadier opened in 1686 Paris

The first successful cafe in Paris sold lemonade, liquor, coffee, ices... and was across from the state theater Comedie Francaise. Its many famous patrons included Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Marat, Robespierre, George Sand and Benjamin Franklin.