July 31, 1888; Cookery Classes – Boiled Fowl & Short Crust
Andover Hampshire UK 1800’s
Cookery Classes July 31st 1888
Boiled or Broiled Fowl: 1 fowl, 1 12/ oz of butter, 1 carrot & 1 turnup, 1 small onion, bunch of sweet herbs- roll the fowl in a buttered paper like a parcel & boil (?) (?).
Sauce, 1 oz butter, 1 oz flour, ½ pint milk, 2 eggs, – (1 gill of cream) The butter put in sauce pan first, stir in flour – then milk & a litter milk or water, when sauce is cooked boil the eggs hard & chop the whites not very fine & add to sauce; pour over fowl & then put the yolks thru a sieve over the fowl.
Short Crust
6oz. of best, flour, 4 oz. butter, a tablespoonful of castor sugar, yolk of one egg, a few drops of lemon juice, a little cold water; pass flour thru sieve, salt.
If I cannot figure out a word, I put this in place for it. (?)
Castor Sugar – Also known as Baker’s Sugar: It is not very commonly used in the U.S. and may be very hard to find. Castor sugar is a superfine grain about halfway between your regular table sugar and powdered or confectioners’ sugar. It is used in England for cakes and cookies; you may be able to find it online, but the price may be prohibitive. You can make your own with a little work, by adding it to a blender and processing it to a finer granule, but be careful, if you go too far it will become powdered sugar which is too fine a grain. A suggestion on Bob’s Red Mill Website is to keep a towel over the top of the blender so the dust made in the process will not escape into the air and go everywhere.
It is the perfect sugar for meringues, as it is a finer grain so it blends better and make the meringue lighter and fluffier.
INGREDIENT REFERENCES and MEASUREMENTS
I have found several references that explains the equivalents to our modern measurements. Just a few examples are;
Gill – Pronounced Jill; equal to a quarter of a pint; or four fluid ounces which equals ½ cup.
Lump of (something) the size of a Turkey’s egg – equals 4 ounces
Lump of (something) the size of a chicken’s egg – equals 2 ounces.
Lump of Butter the size of a walnut – equals 1 ounce. (can also be 1 rounded tablespoon)
A Victorian measurement of a wine glassful, will not be the wine glass we think of today. They were much smaller, about ¼ cup to ½ cup. So, when using a recipe that askes for a wine glass full be sure to use a lot less than you would think about using from today’s size of glass.
Quite a few of these recipes call for; a coffee cupful. A teacup full, and a wineglass full.
A coffee cupful = 1 cup.
A tea cupful = 1/3 cup, I have also found it to be ¾ cup.
A wine glassful = ¼ cup, ½ gill or 4 T.
A Tumbler = ½ pint or 1 cup
Oven temperatures are seldom given in the old books and recipes; most times the only say something like a slow oven or quick oven. These are the equlivent to today’s oven temperatures;
A very slow oven equals 250 to 275 degrees.
A slow oven equals 300 to 325 degrees.
A moderate oven equals 350 to 375 degrees.
A hot or quick oven equals 375 to 400 degrees.
A very hot oven equals 400 to 450 degrees.
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