Apple Curry Soup
- from Mary Donovan's Thirteen Colonies Cookbook,
Montclair Historical Society, 1975.
2 small cans (36 oz.) of chicken broth
1 medium onion
2 tablespoons butter
2 tart apples
2 tablespoons flour
1 large teaspoon curry powder, or more to taste
pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 apple, thinly sliced and dusted in additional curry powder
- Cut onions in coarse dice. Place in large heavy pot with butter, and saute.
- Peel and core apples, and cut them in quarters.
- When onions have wilted, place apples in with them, and continue sauteing.
- When apples are mostly done, stir in flour, curry powder, and salt.
- Continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes, or until apples are soft, but still hold their shape.
- Stir in cream, and bring up to temperature, stopping just before it boils. Taste and correct curry measure, if necessary.
- Mix sliced apples with additional curry powder, place on top of the hot soup, and serve.
- Serves 6.
Note: this recipe came from Catherine Margaret Whipple, the 18th-century wife of the governor of colonial New Hampshire. Despite the modern thought that curry is a recent addition to new world cooking, it was available in Mrs. Whipple's time, though at a price. England had colonies all over the world, including India, from which it sent curry powders to London, and from there to other colonies, including New Hampshire. Needless to say, the purchaser needed to be near an ocean port, and have the necessary where-with-all to obtain it.
Mrs. Isaac Cocks'
Corn Bread
ca. 1830, Long Island
(Long Island Studies Institute Archives)
2 bowls Indian meal
1 bowl sweet milk
1 bowl sour milk
4 Eggs
2 tea cups wheat flour
2 table spoons sugar
1 table spoon molasses
Saleratus
butter the size of an egg
- Place butter into a small covered Dutch oven and preheat by placing 1 large shovelful of coals underneath and 2 shovelfuls on lid.
- Preheating takes about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile mix dry ingredients in large bowl.
- Drop wet ingredients over dry and mix briefly, leaving it lumpy.
- Immediately, pour half of the melted butter into batter and stir briefly, mixing partially. Pour quickly into heated Dutch oven, replace the lid, and resume baking on the hearth as before.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until sides pull away and center is firm. Serve hot.
- Serves 10.
MODERNIZED VERSION:
4-5 tablespoons butter or lard
3 cups stone ground corn meal
11/2 cups flour
1 tablespoons sugar
21/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon molasses
4 eggs
3 cups buttermilk
- Place butter or lard in a large cast-iron skillet or covered iron casserole and preheat in a 375 degree oven for about 5 minutes.
- Mix corn meal, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.
- Drop molasses, eggs, butter milk, and melted butter or lard onto dry ingredients and stir briefly to mix partially. Batter should be thick and ploppy, and still lumpy.
- Immediately transfer batter to heated Dutch oven and cover with preheated lid, if you have one.
- Return quickly to oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes.
- Uncover, and continue baking for another 15 minutes, or until cornbread is crusty at the edges and firm inside.
- Serve immediately.
Note: For a smaller bread, this recipe may be cut in half.
-Alice Ross
POMPION (pumpkin)
or YAM PUDDING
adapted from Amelia Simmons, American Cookery, 1796 by Alice Ross
1 quart stewed pumpkin or cooked yams
3 pints of milk (6 cups)
6 beaten eggs
1/2 cup sugar
nutmeg and ginger, to taste
pinch salt
butter to grease pot
- Preheat oven at low to moderate oven.
- Grease 3-quart casserole.
- Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs. sugar, spices and salt in a large bowl.
- Pour the pumpkin mixture into casserole.
- Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until inserted straw comes out clean.
- Serve hot or cold.
Note: if you are using a 10" Dutch oven over a fire, cook for 30 - 45 minutes, or until it tests as above.
Samp Porridge
1 lb. dry cranberry beans or navy beans
1 pound dry samp (cracked hominy corn) or 2 cans cooked hominy
1/3 to 1/2 lb. cooked corned beef or brisket
1/2 to 1 lb. carrots
1 lb. turnip or rutabaga
1 lb. potatoes
2-3 large onions
1/2 to 1 lb. parsnips
salt and pepper to taste
- Soak the beans in water overnight.
- In the morning place them in a large soup pot, along with water enough to cover dry samp and corned beef or brisket.
- Bring to a boil, reduce the flame, and continue to simmer, covered, for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until beans and corn are soft.
- Peel and cut carrots, turnip, potatoes, onions, and parsnips into coarse chunks, and continue to simmer until vegetables are tender.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve.
Note: samp porridge keeps well refrigerated.