My brother was sweet enough to get me this signed copy of David Wondrich’s new book Punch.  I also received Twain’s Feast and Food of a Younger Land.  So I have a nice stack of culinary history nerd reading.

Merry Christmas to all my Christian and secular homies!

Update: I aslo recieved this amazing t-shirt.  Thanks, Bryan!

Proto snickerdoodle?

I know I’ve been doing a lot of baking recently.  But it is Christmas and all I want to do is jam my maw with sweets.  So welcome to Cookie Week!

On Sunday, I appeared on the Heritage Radio Network’s show We Dig Plants, talking with hosts Carmen Devito & Alice Marcus Krieg about the salacious history of cloves and cinnamon.  Listen to the full 30 minute show for free here.

I got curious about the history of the Snickerdoodle cookie: when we’re talking cinnamon in baking, the Snickerdoodle is king.  For those of you that don’t know, the Snickerdoodle is a crispy combination of cinnamon and sugar.  No other baked good features the flavor of cinnamon so prominently.

I began poking around for a little information on the origin of the Snickerdoodle.  There’s some vague sense on the internet that it was invented in the 19th century, but there’s a lot of back and forth about where the name came from: what German word it descended from, what cookies were called Snickerdoodles before.  To me, that’s unimportant.  What’s interesting about the Snickerdoodle is that it’s just a cinnamon cookie.    No bells and whistles. No currents. No rosewater.  No 50 spice blend.  It’s a cookie entirely different than all other 19th century cookies.

So I went to Feeding America, an online archive of the most important cookbooks of the 19th and early 20th century cookbooks, and I punched “Snickerdoodles” into the search.  No hits.  This usually a bad sign, as it often indicates a recipe did not evolve in the 19th century.  Then I shortened my search to just “doodle,” and got this:

Not only does this appear to be a proto-Snickerdoodle recipe, but it also seems to indicate that the cookie came before the contemporary name.

So I put the Snippodoodle to the test.

What makes this recipe unique is that its baked in a sheet, then cut, as opposed to a modern Snickerdoodle which is rolled into a ball and dipped into cinnamon sugar.  My cookies did not come out thin and crispy, as the recipe suggests, but cakey and a little chewy.  I should note that I made one major substition: I starting mixing up my batter only to discover that I was out of milk.  I had already been to the deli once to get eggs and I just couldn’t convince myself to go back out into the cold.  I opened the fridge: I didn’t have milk, but I did have homemade, boozey, creamy eggnog.  Done and done.

***
Snippodoodles
From Good Things to Eat by Rufus Estes, 1911.

1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup milk (or eggnog)
1 medium egg
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Sift together flour, cinnamon, and baking powder (or just throw it in a bowl and whisk it if you’re lazy like me).

3. Whisk together milk and egg.

4. With mixer on medium speed, cream together butter and sugar for 30 seconds.  Scrape bowl.

5. Add milk and eggs; mix until combined.

6. With mixer on low, slowly add flour mixture.  Mix until fully combined.

7. Using a spatula, or buttered fingers, spread/press the mixture into a 9 x 13 baking pan.  It will seem thin, but don’t worry.  It’s supposed to.

8. Bake thirteen minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes.  Slice into squares and remove to a rack to cool.

***

Delicious? Yes.  Does the Snippodoodle surpass the modern Snickerdoodle in texture in flavor?  No.  It’s a good cookie, but not an improvement.  However, is substituting eggnog for milk in a cookie recipe a good idea?  Yes, it’s an awesome idea.  And I think that’s a lesson we all can learn.

Homemade hard cider: quick and dirty.

I’m always interested in simple, quick, boozey experiments that I can do in my limited-space apartment.  If you are too, then grab a gallon of apple cider and a little yeast, and you too can make booze at home.

I had conceptualized with some friends the idea of making hard cider from store bought pressed cider.  If you can find unpasteurized cider, then turning it into alcohol is as simple as leaving it out of the fridge.  But your average, grocery store cider will work, too.  Mike suggested buying some champagne yeast and following Alton Brown’s directions for Ginger Beer.

The Whole Foods in Manahattan carries brewing supplies in their beer section; so all it took to acquire the correct yeast was a quick conversation with a knowledgeable clerk (my trips to Whole Foods are becoming less and less painful; I wonder if I’m gentrifying?).  He sent me away with “White Labs Pitchable Liquid Yeast,” a champagne yeast in a test tube.  The entire tube is enough for five gallons of booze.

All the equipment needed.

After swinging by the grocery store to pick up a gallon of cider, I returned home and helped myself to a glass.  I needed to make room in the jug for the yeast to expel gas.  Then, I tipped about a tablespoon of yeast into the jug. Following Brown’s instruction, I capped the jug, shook it up, and left it out on my counter for 48 hours.  Then, I put it in the fridge for two days, popping the lid off to release the carbonation once a day.

It was as simple as that.  After four days, I poured myself a glass and it tasted just like store bought hard cider.  It had a bit of a thicker mouth feel, and the nose was reminiscent of apple cider vinegar (now more so, after sitting in the fridge a couple more days).  It wasn’t very carbonated, but did have a few bubbles and felt zingy on the tongue.  I think if I had brewed it in a glass jug, it would have carbonated better (Home brewers? Is that true?)

I have no way of testing the alcohol content, so I don’t know if I could actually get sloshed off of my homemade cider; but it was fun to do and it tastes good.   Give it a whirl yourself, and let me know how it turns out!

More later this week…

Don’t forget, tomorrow night is Out of the Bathtub, the Repeal Day event hosted by the Waldorf-Astoria and Four Pounds Flour!  The event is from 6-8, and is in the W-A’s elegant bar, Peacock Alley.  For the ticket price of $45 you’ll get plenty of eats, plus four historic and historically inspired cocktails:  The Bagpiper (a Scotch drink), The First Class (with Old Tom Gin), The Middleton (Rum and Genever), and The Waldorf, the hotel’s classic bourbon cocktail.  You’ll get four drink tickets, so you can mix and match your cocktails any way you like.

Cocktail attire is required, so feel free to get fancy (and optionally old-timey).

Tickets are for sale at the bar, but gaurantee a spot by sending me an RSVP at [email protected].

See you tomorrow at 6!

Pears cooked in sugar, spice and whiskey.

The second recipe we picked on-air at We Dig Plants was Carmen’s selection: Brandied Pears.  This recipe come from one of the earliest American kosher cookbooks, Aunt Babette’s Cookbook, published in 1889.  The recipe is rather long, so if you’d like to see the original go here.

Aunt Babette is a charming writer.  She asks you to poach the pears in sugar water until the pears are “so tender they can be pierced by a straw.”  The end of her recipe really caught my attention: “Allow a pint of brandy to every four pounds of fruit.  Use none but the best.  If you can not afford brandied fruit it is no disgrace, but don’t try and put up fruit in whisky or some other cheap stuff.”

Whiskey pears?  Now there’s an idea.

Cute little Seckel Pears.

***
Whiskey Pears
Inspired by “Brandied Pears” from Aunt Babbette’s Cook Book by “Aunt Babbette,” 1889.

1 pound pears (I choose six seckel pairs for their dainty size and shape)
Enough water to cover the pears: about one cup
1 pound white sugar
3 whole cloves
2 whole allspice
3 flakes of mace or one whole nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup Bourbon (I used Evan Williams)

1. Pare the fruit: remove the skin but leave whole with the stem on.  Add to a medium saucepan and cover with water.  Add sugar.

2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and continue to boil until pairs are tender: 5 minutes for small pears, longer for large pears.  Test with a fork for tenderness.   Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

3.  Turn heat to high.  Add spices to sugar syrup.  Boil 8 more minutes.

4. Put pears in a canning jar and add whiskey; pour in hot sugar syrup.  Depending on the size of your jar, you may have to add a little more hot water so that the liquid reaches the top.  Cover, seal, and let cool.  Store in refrigerator for up to one week.

***

I let the concoction sit in the fridge for four days; when I finally opened the lid, I was apprehensive.  It smelled astringent.  I speared a delicate little pear and took a nibble.  The result: extraordinarily.   The whiskey flavor blended perfectly with the spices, and the soft sweetness of the pears offset any alcoholic bite.  They are just delicious.

I dub this recipe a winner, but I don’t know what to use them for — decorations?  desserts?  Does anyone have any suggestions?

I am blowing up all over the place this week.  Well–at least here in NYC.

I’m making two appearances this week on the Heritage Radio Network, a wonderful, food-focused, internet radio station based out of New York.  Tomorrow from Noon-12:30, I’ll be chatting with Linda Pelaccio on “A Taste of the Past.”  Listen live at http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/

And I’ll be back on Heritage Radio on Sunday, from 3:30-4:00 on “We Dig Plants” for a special show on pear cultivation, featuring a few recipes from my library.

If you miss the live broadcasts of either of these show, they are archived online.

And I’ll also be on local NYC  TV on “Food Curated” by Liza Deguia : NYC life (Channel 25) Thursday at 9pm; replaying Saturday at 12:30 and next Thursday at 12:30.  This is the televised version of the video I shot with Liza last year.

I’m going to be on Martha Stewart Living Radio Sirius 112/XM 157 tomorrow (Wednesday, 11/10/2010) at 7:30 am. If you don’t have Sirius, you can sign up for a free trial online at www.sirius.com/freetrial/register

Ill be talking about historic Thanksgiving menus from Sarah Josepha Hale to John Harvey Kellogg.   Stop by here afterwards for recipes and more!

And finally, recipes from Lower East Side Pickle Day. LESPD is a BFD–tons of people and vendors turn out to nosh and pretty much the entire Lower East Side smells like brine.  I represented the Tenement Museum and passed out some free samples of Apple and Pickle Salad from a 1905 recipe.  It tastes as bizarre as it sounds; at least I think so.  But the people loved it and wanted to buy it by the pint; they were devastated when I told them it was not for sale (ladies, if you’re out there, I’ll still make it for you! email me!)

So, here’s the recipe instead.  Make it for your next potluck and shock your friends.  I’ve also included a few cool pickling recipes from the first Kosher cookbook to be published in America, Jewish Cookery Book (1871).  If anyone gives those a try, I’d love to hear about it.  The pickled peaches sound delish.

As you know, I’ve just finished two months full of public events. At these events, I promised all kinds of people I’d give them all kinds of recipes. Well, in the next few days I plan to make good on these promises.   If you were at an event, and want to request a recipe; or if you’re in another part of the country, and are curious about something I cooked, then speak up! Leave me a request in the comments.  Over the next few days, do it yourself recipes for everything from pork bellies to beef beer.