Tuesday, July 17, 2007

How My Sea Adventure Began

THERE was no return of the mutineers—not so much as another shot out of the woods. They had "got their rations for that day," as the captain put it, and we had the place to ourselves and a quiet time to overhaul the wounded and get dinner. -Treasure Island

Today I purchased a copy of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog, a collection of slightly updated, but mostly authentic recipes from the 18th Century. I'm going to attempt to learn seven recipes from the book well enough to prepare and serve them at the 10th anniversary of the founding of ARRR!!!, Brown University's only a-capirate singing group.

The first job was to whittle down the number of recipes. L&SD is a truly remarkable achievement, with an amazing number of recipes contained in a relatively thin cookbook. Some dishes, however, were out right off the bat. For example:

Strasburg Pie

Ingredients:


Foie gras
Bacon
Egg
Puff Paste

To paraphrase the Venture Brothers, this isn't a recipe, it's a suicide note. Most of the other recipes are similarly heavy. We'll try and avoid the weightier end--but most of these recipes contain large amounts of fat. And, often, the fat's just going to be unavoidable.

Other recipes are wild, but feature ingredients that are too expensive for multiple experiments on my limited budget (Gratin of Lobster--6 1.5 lb lobsters), too outre (Millers in Onion Sauce--6 prime rats) or both (Soused Hog's Face--1 hog's face).

At the end of the day, here are the seven that I think are most achievable and most evocative of the sea:

Ship's Biscuit

Carlin, of long habit, began to rap his biscuit on the table, stopped when he realized what he was doing, and then started rapping again, guiltily. ... "Mr. Carlin is knocking out the weevils, sir," explained Bush, almost overcome with self-consciousness. "If you tap gently they come out of their own accord, this way, you see, sir." -Commodore Hornblower

This is one of the shortest recipes in the book, and a fairly easy if not entirely painless beginning. It'll be dry and tasteless, but traditional as holystoning, brass monkeys, and flogging 'round the fleet. Hopefully with fewer bargemen, though.

Ingredients:

Flour
Salt
Water

Lobscouse

When Jack's ashore, they'll let him in / To some old boarding house
They'll welcome him with rum and gin / And feed him on pork scouse.
-Trad. shanty

Clearly, this had to come in. It's in a shanty we sing--and something pirates might actually have eaten The ingredients are obtainable, and there's nary a demand for suet in sight.

Ingredients:

Corned beef
Corned pork or smoked ham
Bay leaf
Onions
Potatoes
Leeks
Ship's biscuit
Juniper berries
Allspice
Nutmeg
Mace
Cloves
Cardamom
Cayenne
Salt
Pepper

Kedgeree (Kichri)

In its Indian incarnation, this is one of two vegetarian dishes in the book--a nod to the Indian Ocean and a reminder of the global nature of piracy. All hail!

Ingredients:

Lentils
Oil or ghee
Onion
Garlic
Ginger
Cumin seed
Ground coriander
Cinnamon
Turmeric
Bay leaf
Rice
Salt and pepper

Neeps Hackit Wi' Balmagowry

'Sure, you will like your dinner once you are well set to it,' said Stephen, looking at the bill of fare. 'What are bashed neeps?'

'Neeps hackit with balmagowry.'

This is the other vegetarian dish. I figured half and half for the entrees was only fair. And thon gies me tha chancst tae discoorse in the braid Scots, aye?

Turnips (neeps)
Butter
Ginger
Balmagowry (slightly sour cream)
Salt and pepper

Sea-Pie

'Pies at sea,' he said, 'are made on nautical lines, of course. They are quite unlike pies by land.' -The Far Side of the World

Who are we kidding? This has to come in. It has sea in the name!

Ingredients

Hot Water Paste
Forcemeat
Mushrooms
Onion
Butter
Meat (ham, pork, veal, chicken, goose)
Flour
Peas or carrots
Grated lemon zest
Sage leaves
Parsley
Salt and pepper
Egg
Stock

Syllabub

You may make this Syllabub at Home, only have new Milk; make it as hot as Milk from the Cow, and out of a Tea-pot or any such Thing, pour it in, holding your Hand very high. -Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Easy, creamy, involves port, and an amusing part where you simulate squirting milk from the teats of a live cow. 'Nuff said.

Port
Sherry
Sugar
1 Milch cow, or unhomogenized milk, or homogenized milk plus heavy cream
Nutmeg

Spotted Dog

The pudding was Jack's favorite, a spotted dog, and a spotted dog fit for a line of battle ship, carried in by two strong men. -The Ionian Mission

This one, I felt, had to be squeezed in at the end. Not least because it's also known as Spotted Dick, not only because it's Lucky Jack Aubrey's favorite pudding, but because it encapsulates so neatly so much of the foreign nature of this cookery; a glistening, fat-riddled mass so far outside modern comprehensions of Atkins diets and calorie-counting that it demands to be eaten while wearing a cocked hat if only to make your dress equal to the culinary anachronism.

Ingredients:

Flour
Sugar
Salt
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Currants
Suet
Milk
Eggs

So that's it! Almost made it without requiring any suet, except for the Spotted Dog and in the pastry, if I'm not mistaken. Come along, me jolly brave boys--as we set sail on a sea of syllabub and scouse.

4 comments:

Sheehy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sheehy said...

Mt 14:33

Josh said...

The timestamp on this blog is Port o' Spain, actually.

Tom said...

I hope you enjoyed your meal. I purchased my copy of L&SD back in 1998 and had a glorious feast.

I am not planning my second feast of epic proportions and ran into your blog.