Posted on 06/26/2005 11:58:29 AM PDT by SJackson
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Cooking: Colonial Cuisine
Recreating the cusine of the first Jews in America. Recipes include 1600s Barley Salad, Strawberry Spinach Salad, and Corn Pudding.
by Tina Wasserman
If you think it's hard to find good produce in the markets today, how do you think you would have fared had you been one of the twenty-three Jewish refugees who arrived in New Amsterdam from Brazil in 1654?
On the culinary front, as well, you demonstrate persistence and inventiveness, melding ingredients brought from Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa (such as apples, wheat, barley, oats, and rye) with indigenous foods (corn, squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins) introduced to you by Native Americans. You mill flour from wheat and rye to produce pies and pastries filled with wild strawberries, blackberries, and cranberries, sweetening these treats with native honey and maple sugar. You import cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves from Holland, as well as sugar, molasses, cocoa, vanilla, and rum from Brazil and the Caribbean. African slaves introduce you to beans, peppers, and coconut milk. Like most colonists, you produce all the foods you eat. As there is no refrigeration, fish and meats are preserved by smoking or salting. Your community introduces a third technique--pickling--a process which enables you to prepare foods in advance of the Sabbath and, in the new land, prevents starvation whenever fresh food is scarce. We can celebrate the 350th anniversary of the arrival of those first twenty-three Jewish immigrants to America's shores by enjoying recipes with ingredients familiar to our colonial forebears. And let us all eat in good health!
1600s Barley Salad The gardening technique practiced in Plymouth, Massachusetts inspired this salad. Small squares of land were cultivated next to the colonists' houses to provide food for their families. Native Americans taught the pilgrims how to commingle different crops in one square bed to enhance the growth of all. To fertilize corn, a fish head was buried in the center of a 3-foot-square bed of soil. Pole beans were then planted around the corn for added protection and nutrients; and cucumbers or squash were planted around the pole beans' perimeter, their rough leaves serving as a natural barrier to animals and playful children. Tomatoes were native to the Americas, but not often used in salads until much later; I have included them for the modern palate. 4 cloves of garlic, finely minced 1. Combine the first 11 ingredients in a large glass serving bowl. Let marinate for at least 1/2 hour at room temperature. 2. Defrost the corn and the green beans. Discard any accumulated liquid. Have all of your remaining ingredients ready while you cook the barley. 3. Bring 4 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and then the barley. Stir to combine, cover, and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 40 minutes, until the barley is tender but not mushy. 4. When the barley is done, quickly drain it (without rinsing) and pour it over the tomato mixture. Toss with the remaining ingredients. Add more salt and pepper as needed. Serves 8. Tina's Tidbits
Strawberry Spinach Salad Strawberries grew wild in North America. Native Americans brought baskets of these berries to the new settlers. Although in the 1600s berries were used mostly in pies, pastries, and jams, the berry in this salad is a wonderful addition. 1 10-ounce package of fresh baby spinach 1. Rinse the spinach leaves, pat dry, and remove any large stems. Place in a large serving bowl and refrigerate, covered. 2. Rinse the strawberries and remove the stems. Slice the berries in halves or quarters. Place in a small bowl and set aside in the refrigerator. 3. Combine the next 8 ingredients (through the salt and pepper) in a screw-top jar. Shake to combine. Refrigerate until you're ready to use. 4. When you're ready to serve, combine the strawberries with the spinach and toasted almonds. 5. Heat the salad dressing in the microwave for approximately 30 seconds, until it's hot. 6. Pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss. Serve immediately, with extra dressing and/or sprinkled with croutons or honeyed sesame sticks if desired. Serves 6-8. Tina's Tidbits
Corn Pudding In colonial times, pudding was the most common and beloved dessert. Puddings were cooked in a large kettle suspended over a fire or buried in its hot ashes. Later, brick openings were built into the side of the fireplace wall to create an oven effect for baking. While corn pudding isn't a dessert by modern standards, it's good enough to eat any time, and it doesn't get easier or better than this recipe! 12 ounces vacuum-packed canned corn 1. Combine all the ingredients in the order listed, making sure to stir the mixture while adding the hot melted butter. 2. Pour into a 1 1/2-quart casserole and bake at 425°F for 35 minutes or until golden. Serves 4 if you're lucky! (This recipe can be doubled or quadrupled, but figure on a little more baking time--up to one hour.) Tina's Tidbits:
Tina D. Wasserman, a member of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas, has been teaching at her own cooking school for more than thirty years and writes a kosher cooking newsletter on the Internet. ANY QUESTIONS?
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Yes, please do. I have a couple (or more) recipes I would love to share. They are easy; and more than that, they are yummy.
Hey, this is very interesting. I'm going to send it along to a friend of mine. Good post!
If a ping list is made, please add me, Thanks.
Actually, the question in my mind is that these two things came, in the end, to the U.S. from south of the border (Mexico) although they both originated in the Old World. For myself, I cant picture those folks coming from Brazil with cliantro and jalopeño seeds in their carryon flight bags to grow these things in their backyard once they got to the U.S. But wonders never cease. Also, I don't know when cilantro and peppers came to the New World.
Also, a little aside here, the favorite pepper here in Panama is the Habanero, the hottest pepper known in the world. I use plastic gloves to touch them if I have to cut them. I then throw the gloves away, well rapped in something else so no one can touch them by mistake.
I don't think the article was intended to be completely accurate from a historical perspective. I don't know about jalopeño. It would surprise be that Jewish immigrants to the New World had access to it. Cilantro, the seed-coriander, would clearly be known to them, if for no other reason than biblical references. Would they bother to bring seeds, I doubt it. FR has everything, maybe someone with knowledge of the commercial foodstuffs of the time will weigh in.
HABANERO PEPPERS
Habaneros are green in color and ripen one of numerous colors including red, orange, salmon, white, chocolate... depending on the variety. Their average size is 1 to 2 1/2 inches long, 1 to 2 inches in diameter and they are lantern-shaped, round or oblong. Technically, their species name is Capsicum Chinense Jacquin. Habaneros are the hottest chile peppers and rate around 200,000 - 300,000 Scoville Units.
Habanero means from Havana and is an extremely hot pepper believed to originally have been taken to the Yucatan Peninsula from Cuba. About 1,500 tons of habaneros are harvested each year in the Yucatan. They are also grown to a lesser extent in Belize, Costa Rica, Texas and California. (Also Panama for our local consumption.)
GNS Spices of Southern California has developed the Red Savina habanero which has been recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's hottest spice up to 580,000 scoville units! Red Savina Habaneros are the hottest peppers there are!
SCOTCH BONNET
The habanero is not the same pepper as the Scotch Bonnet They are of the same species but the Scotch Bonnet is not a Cultivar. The Scotch Bonnet has a different shape - one which closely resembles a Scot's bonnet - so it is very easy to differentiate the two. The Scotch Bonnet grows mainly in the Caribbean islands while the habanero grows mainly in Latin and North American. The flavor of the two, however, is very similar as is their heat level.
Thank you for the ping SR , I´m loving this :)
Yes, the cilantro has biblical references.
I have a copy of Jewish cookbook from 1846, believed to be the first kosher cookbook written in English.
saving recipes.
Yes, the cilantro has biblical references.
These are not authentic historical recipes. These are modern "early American style" recipes. Tomatoes were considered poisonous in colonial times, there were no freezers, no ovens where you could set the heat to 425, but then again, Reform "Judaism" doesn't care about nitpicky little details like that, or about keeping kosher.
ping
Add me to the cooking ping list please. THANKS!
I just liked the article, and didn't imply they were Kosher. I'd love to read the cookbook. Was there any non-recent tradition of using the leaf, cilantro, rather than corriander?
Don't ask me. Cilantro makes me gag. I once bought it by mistake instead of parsley and RUINED MY CHICKEN SOUP!!!
"Was there any non-recent tradition of using the leaf, cilantro, rather than corriander?"
I may have misunderstood what you said, but cilantro and coriander are the same thing. If I misunderstood you, I apologize.
It came from the reform Jews--why would anyone think it would be Kosher?
In common usage (maybe just in my mind), the leaf, cilantro, vs the seed, coriander.
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