Reclaiming Old Cooking Methods, Preserving the past

[Avonlea22]

I subscribe to a Canadian magazine that had an extensive article on outdoor bake ovens, and how to build one. Here is a pic of the one they have instructions for:



One of these days, when I own my own home, I'll be building one of these. I love the idea of cooking with fire, wether it be in a bake oven or a wood stove.


Here are some links I found:

TraditionalOven.com

The Bake Oven Page

[Herrerano]

Ok, here is an oven in a little town south of where I live called Lajamina. This one is fairly new.

Leo (by the way, the photo was taken by a friend of mine born in Lajamina and can be seen on his website, Dino's Panama Photos http://www.chagres.com/)

Attached Image. (Click thumbnail to expand)

[Herrerano]

And one last picture from the Lajamina bakery.

(From Dino's Panama Photos http://www.chagres.com/)




Attached Image. (Click thumbnail to expand)

[Shadows]

Now we are talkin!

Mother Earth News back in the late sixties early seventies had plans for ovens much like these!

[maggiemahone1]

My mother-in-law gave hubby and me a wood cook stove and we set it up and used it for several years. I live in the country so firewood was no problem. Hubby and I moved and gave the house to my daughter and her husband. We left the cook stove behind. A bit messy but it was worth the extra work. Talk about good cooking, fried chicken, pinto beans, biscuits, yummy! It warmed the kitchen and dining room up nicely. I always kept a kettle of water on the stove to keep moisture in the air. I always think how hard women had to work during the days when people had no electriciy. Cooking on a cook stove would be ok when the weather was cold, but in the summer it had to be a different story. Maybe they thought nothing of it, just a way of life.

Hubby and I moved to a 50 acre farm in 1992. The house was heated with coal and wood. We survived the first winter, but the following spring we had propane heat installed. We did still use the stove, but only burnt wood. Our electricity went off several times I used the wood stove to cook and heat water. When I made homemade rolls, I always put the dough behind the wood stove to warm and let the dough rise. Cooking on a wood stove is nothing new to me and I don't mind doing it, I still prefer my electric stove.

maggiemahone1

[Herrerano]

Here it is hot year round. Most day to day dishes cooked here are actually prepared fairly quickly. Things that take longer like big pots of soup or the infamous arroz con pollo are usually fixed outside. Most folks have some sort of covered, but open area behind the house where they can cook. I agree that the convenience of gas or electricity is wonderful and it is so nice to be able to warm up a couple of hot dogs or something without spending time starting a fire and getting all hot and sweaty stoking in the wood etc. But hey, this is a third world country after all, we are supposed to do things more primitively.

What is funny, but frustrating is the refrigerator. Folks here have no conception of fixing a big pot of something and saving it several days as leftovers. I finally have my wife trained to ask before pitching something, but for most folks, if they fix too much the extra is either given away or fed to the dogs. The refrigerator holds fresher food that has to be kept cold, and jars and jars and jars and more irritating jars of water which occupy space and eat into the room to store beer.

Leo

[Shadows]

The term Summer Kitchen has meaning. It was an area set aside away from the main house to keep the heat of cooking out of the home... some places had separte buildings ( like I can afford that , LOL ) and others just cooked out of doors.

Cold ( Root) cellars were used to store food to be kept as were spring houses. Put your beer in a near by stream... that keeps it cold if you can keep your neighbors out of your supply .

[Shadows]

These 2 ways of cooking steaks are different then we are used to:

To fry Beef-Steaks.
Take rump steaks, beat them very well with a roller, fry them in half a pint of ale that is not bitter, and whilst they are frying, for your sauce, cut a large onion small, a very little thyme, some parsley shred small, some grated nutmeg, and a little pepper and salt; roll all together in a piece of butter,
and then in a little flour, put this into the stew-pan, and shake all together. When the steaks are tender, and the sauce of a fine thickness, dish them up.




Another way to fry Beef-Steaks.

Cut the lean by itself, and beat it well with the back of a knife, fry the steaks in just as much butter as will moisten the pan, pour out the gravy as it runs out of the meat, turn them often, and do them over a gentle fire; then fry the fat by itself, and lay upon the lean:---For Sauce, put to the gravy a glass of red wine, half an anchovy, a little nutmeg, a little beaten pepper, and a shallot cut small; give it two or three little boils, season it with salt to your palate, pour it over the steak, and send them to table.


These recipes and more can be found here:

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/

[Shadows]

Here is another recipe from the collection....


Plain Buns.



Four pounds of flour, one of sugar, a gill of good yeast, a pint of milk with enough of the flour to make it the thickness of cream, let it stand two hours to rise, then melt one pound of butter, stir it into the other ingredients to make it a soft paste, let it lie an hour, mould it into buns about as large as an egg, lay them in rows three inches apart on tins, set them to rise until their size is doubled, then bake them a good colour.
By adding seed they are called seed buns,
or plums, plum buns.

[Shadows]

Here is another... we can just go to the store to buy these now.... but it is good to know how to make them if needed.

To make Crackers.



Take a piece of bread dough as large as a pint bowl; after it has risen, take one tea cup of butter and work in with flour as hard as you can make it, roll and cut it out and bake it in an oven not very hot; then take them out, cool, then put them in a pan and set back into the oven to dry over night.

[Shadows]

Coffee - from raw beans to good brew!

Preparing Coffee.



In order to roast coffee properly, the uses of roasting must not be lost sight of, namely, to destroy the hornlike tenacity of the green bean, and to develope its fine scent. Too much heat would destroy the chemical elements which ought to be preserved, and would substitute in their place others which are entirely different in quality. That fine scent which pleases so greatly the admirer of good coffee, is succeeded, when the coffee is over- roasted, by a bitter taste and burnt smell, which is far from pleasant, and even disagreeable.--If on the other hand, the roasting process is under-done, and the heat to which the beans have been exposed, has not been sufficient, then the raw smell of the coffee remains, and of course diminishes the aroma, which requires a certain heat to devlope it. There is of course a just medium to be observed. Well roasted coffee ought to have a pale chocolate colour equally spread over it, which is well known to those who are in the use of performing this operation; but it is never necessary to look at the roasted beans, the scent is sufficient; for when the true aroma is developed, and fills the surrounding atmosphere with its delicious scent, then is the time to stop the roasting. After this period, the oil acquires a burnt flavour, a scent somewhat resembling that exhaled by smokers of tobacco is perceived, and instead of good roasted coffee, there is obtained a bad kind of charcoal.


Good raw coffee loses from sixteen to twenty per cent of its weight by roasting; if it loses more it is certainly over-roasted. Many different modes are used, and each has its admirers; but there is in fact only a single rule to be observed, namely, to use the proper degree of heat, and keep it up at the same point until the roasting is finished. Whether the roasting is performed in close or open vessels; whether the coffee is left to cool in the roaster, or is turned out, or even laid between cloths, appears indifferent. If, indeed, the roasting is carried by accident too far, the coffee should be immediately spread out thin on the floor, to
cool as soon as possible. In all cases, when cold, the roasted coffee should be put up into tin-plate boxes, and kept from any moisture.


It being well known that the chemical action of solvents is hastened, in general by reducing the solvent to powder; it is necessary to grind the roasted coffee more or less fine, as it is intended to use the water less or more heated. To reduce coffee to too fine a powder, although it it would require only slightly warm water to extract its soluble parts, yet it would be inconvenient in other respects, for the powder would pass through the strainers of the coffee pot, and by also remaining suspended in the water, would render the clearing of the drink difficult. At all events, roasted coffee should never be ground but the moment before it is used, as otherwise it loses much of its fine scent.


It now remains only to say a few words respecting the making of the ground roasted coffee into drink--and here the grand points are, not to lose the fine aroma, and not to extract the bitter, acrid, resinous element of the coffee.--To avoid both these inconveniencies, it is necessary that the coffee drink should not be made with too much heat; as this would dissipate the aroma in vapours, and cause the water to dissolve the resin. The coffee, therefore, must not be boiled in the water, and still less is it proper to boil the grounds over again with fresh water, as is done by some persons. Coffee drink made from the grounds, when it is added to that made from fresh ground coffee, gives it indeed a fine deep colour, but the taste of the drink is very bad.


It is not even necessary to pour boiling or even warm water on the ground coffee; cold water, if sufficient time is allowed, makes equally good coffee drink, for the elements to be extracted from the roasted coffee are extremely soluble in water. But if the coffee drink is required to be prepared in haste, hot water must be used.


It is uiversally agreed on by the French amateurs of coffee, that coffee drink is never so good as when, after being made with cold water, or with hot water and cooled, it is heated over again, carefully avoiding a boiling heat. This heating over again is supposed to cause the various elements which produce the fine flavour of this drink, to unite more intimately; and this may be the real fact. The excellence of the coffee sold at Paris is well known; and this is always made one day and heated over again the next day, when wanted. A further advantage attends this knowledge, of consequence to single persons who, in summer time, do not keep a fire in their chambers, that by merely pouring cold water on the ground coffee over night, and straining it in the morning, the strained liquor may while they are dressing, be heated sufficiently for drinking, over a lamp; and this gives coffee a superiority over tea for the breakfast of such persons; as tea requires the water to be boiling hot, in order to extract its virtues; and of course reqnires a fire to be lighted.

[Shadows]

This one is a different type brew... the one no man should be without!

Cottage Beer.



Take a peck of good sweet wheat bran, and put it into ten gallons of water with three handfuls of good hops. Boil the whole together in an iron, brass, or copper kettle, until the bran and hops sink to the bottom. Then strain it through a hair sieve or a thin sheet, into a cooler, and when it is about lukewarm, add two quarts of molasses. As soon as the molasses is melted, pour the whole into a nine or ten gallon cask, with two table spoonfuls of yeast. When the fermentation has subsided, bung up the cask, and in four days it will be fit for use.

[Shadows]

This recipe is of Viking origin:

Meat soups (4-6 servings)
Measurements are given in cups. One cup=1 ½ dl or about 90 g flour.

8-12 cups of water
½ kg meat (pork, beef, lamb, chicken, hen etc)
Salt
3-5 cups of herb such as the top shoots of stinging nettles, young dandelion leaves, wild chervil, cress, wild marjorum, dill, plantain, angelica, wild onions, caraway greenery, thyme, or whatever the season has to offer.

Remember: You must always be sure that the plants are edible!

Put the meat in the kettle. Pour water over the meat so it is covered and put the kettle on the fire. In order that the heat is spread evenly the kettle must be turned about every 5-10 minutes.
When the water boils it should cook for about one hour. It may be necessary to add more water so the meat is always covered with water.
While the meat is cooking wash and chop the herbs. They will go in the soup when it is ready.
When the meat is tender take it out and slice it to a size fit for a spoon and return it to the soup.
Add salt as desired, then it is ready to be served.
It can be served with flatbread.
If you want a more filling soup you can add soaked wheat kernels, thick flour...or the soup can be smoothed out with pea flour (yellow peas grinded on a stone).

[Shadows]

Has anyone ever tried this method of early rotiserie?
I have with great success....

Build a hot fire.

Truss up a fowel well with string leaving enough string hanging to tie off of your mantel or fire irons.

Season the outside well with salt and pepper.

Tie off from your mantle or fire irons close enough to the fire to cook ( place your hand near the fire at the height you will cook, if you cannot keep your hand in place for more then the count of 3, you have found the right spot to hang your food. This is in front of your fire not over it.)

Twist the bird round and round on the hanging string and let go...

It will spin fast at first and then slow and rewind it's self. When the motion stops again twist and let go until cooked through. This will take some time and is one of the original slow roasting methods out there.

This is not a quick method, but tastey... you have to check for doneness by cutting into the meat or use a modern meat thermometer...anything less then 2 hours is not good.

In the 18th century chain was used to suspend the bird with the string tied to the chain.


A roast, if well tied and secure, can also be done in this manor... last time I used this method I cooked an eye round of beef for 4 hours in front of my campfire...umm umm good!

[Dogshirt]

My friend and I used to roast turkeys in a ground oven.

Dig a hole about 30" square and deep. Lay a fire in it, a well stacked "log cabin" works well, FILL the hole. Lay a layer of rocks on top, enough to pretty well cover the bottom of the hole. Set off and let burn till you just have coals left and your rocks are RED HOT. Now toss a flat rock down in to set the bird on, followed by said bird. Cover the hole with GREEN willow sticks about as big around as your finger, laying criss-cross, followed by the leafy twigs from the sticks. Cover this with a wet canvas and then pile the dirt from the hole over the top, being sure to come out past the edge of the hole. Keep an eye out for any smoke or steam and cover with more dirt as you are losing heat. Now all you have to do is wait 4-6 hours depending on the size of the bird.
Uncover carefully to not get dirt on it and you will have a turkey as good as any Grandma fixed for Thanksgiving. My friend did one for his family one Thanksgiving and his Mom declared it exceptional!
I suppose this would work for anything that need roasting, just play with the time, and also the size of the hole.