Cookbook Project, Book #184
Aug. 2nd, 2010 08:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladysprite"The Victorian Kitchen Book of Milk & Honey," Amelia Swann
This is a book that I actually bought for myself. I got it many, many years ago, at Buck A Book. It was shiny, and pretty, and full of glossy, beautiful pictures of both food and pretty china and lace and flowers, and quotes and frills and all sorts of things that cookbooks don't need but I find adorable - and it was $1. Occasional indulgences like that are perhaps unnecessary, but I am only human.
I've read through it several times since then, and the recipes are all fascinating and interesting; I've just never had occasion to actually make a Charlotte Russe or Quince Blancmange. The only complaint I have is that, while it claims to be a collection of milk and honey recipes, in actuality there are precisely three honey recipes. That's all.
Anyway, since I was getting to the end of this project and still hadn't found an opportunity to use this book, I just decided to force an opportunity. I'm playing in a tabletop game set in a vaguely Victorian alternate history, and the presence of half a dozen extra folks meant that I'd have enough people to actually eat whatever I made, so our gaming group was roped without consent into participating in the Cookbook Project.
I made Almond Cream, served with shortbread cookies. I was a little concerned about serving what amounted to an almond-whipped cream jelly mold, but that's part of the fun of this project. And I needn't have been too concerned; it turned out pretty good. The lack of a jello mold meant that it was less attractive than the pictures in the book, and I was less than pleased with the texture, but I suppose that a lack of practice integrating whipped cream and gelatin without deflating one or liquefying the other is to blame for that. It tasted good, at least.
I'd use this book again - I still want to find enough blackcurrants to make the blackcurrant ice cream, if nothing else. And now that I've survived almond cream, they've got another version flavored with Darjeeling tea that must be tried. Heck, the book is part of a series, and I wouldn't mind hunting down the rest, if only for the sake of prettiness and completeness.
This was originally supposed to be a two-book post, but I realized upon starting to write up the second that, while it had been marked as done, I never had actually used it - my first misfile. That means four books left before the project is done. I'm hoping to use at least two or three this week. The end is in sight....
This is a book that I actually bought for myself. I got it many, many years ago, at Buck A Book. It was shiny, and pretty, and full of glossy, beautiful pictures of both food and pretty china and lace and flowers, and quotes and frills and all sorts of things that cookbooks don't need but I find adorable - and it was $1. Occasional indulgences like that are perhaps unnecessary, but I am only human.
I've read through it several times since then, and the recipes are all fascinating and interesting; I've just never had occasion to actually make a Charlotte Russe or Quince Blancmange. The only complaint I have is that, while it claims to be a collection of milk and honey recipes, in actuality there are precisely three honey recipes. That's all.
Anyway, since I was getting to the end of this project and still hadn't found an opportunity to use this book, I just decided to force an opportunity. I'm playing in a tabletop game set in a vaguely Victorian alternate history, and the presence of half a dozen extra folks meant that I'd have enough people to actually eat whatever I made, so our gaming group was roped without consent into participating in the Cookbook Project.
I made Almond Cream, served with shortbread cookies. I was a little concerned about serving what amounted to an almond-whipped cream jelly mold, but that's part of the fun of this project. And I needn't have been too concerned; it turned out pretty good. The lack of a jello mold meant that it was less attractive than the pictures in the book, and I was less than pleased with the texture, but I suppose that a lack of practice integrating whipped cream and gelatin without deflating one or liquefying the other is to blame for that. It tasted good, at least.
I'd use this book again - I still want to find enough blackcurrants to make the blackcurrant ice cream, if nothing else. And now that I've survived almond cream, they've got another version flavored with Darjeeling tea that must be tried. Heck, the book is part of a series, and I wouldn't mind hunting down the rest, if only for the sake of prettiness and completeness.
This was originally supposed to be a two-book post, but I realized upon starting to write up the second that, while it had been marked as done, I never had actually used it - my first misfile. That means four books left before the project is done. I'm hoping to use at least two or three this week. The end is in sight....
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-02 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-02 03:02 pm (UTC)perhaps unnecessary, but I am only humannecessary -- they are food for the soul.There, FTFY. :-)
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Date: 2010-08-02 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-03 06:10 am (UTC)http://www.mcphee.com/shop/products/Zombie-Brain-Gelatin-Mold.html