madPete

Actually, that was Ft Gaines in September. April was Potato Soup and Lobscouse, which will be posted sometime soon.

Ragoo French Green Beans From Colonial Williamsburg Recipes 18th century Take a few beans, boil them tender; then take your stew pan, put in a piece of butter, when it is melted shake in some flour, and peel a large onion, slice it and fry it brown in that butter; then put in the beans, shake in a little pepper and a little salt, grate a little nutmeg in, have ready the yolk of an egg and some cream; stir altogether for a minute or two, and dish them up. Glasse, Hannah, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Simple” 1796. Boil two pounds of potatoes soft, then peel them, put them into a sauce pan, put to them half a pint of milk, stir them about, and a little salt; then stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, keep stirring all the time till it is so thick that you cannot stir the spoon in it hardly for stiffness, then put it into a halfpenny Welsh dish, first buttering the dish; heap them as high as they will lie, flour them, pour in a little melted butter over it, and then a few crumbs of bread; set it into a tin oven before the fire; and when brown, lay it in the middle of the dish (take great care you do not mash it), pour your ragoo round it, and send it to table hot. 21st century Note: This is a two-part recipe as you see it here. The beans are done in the first recipe then the potatoes in the second. Combined together they make a neat and attractive dish. Beans Ingredients ¼ lb. green beans (I used frozen french style green beans) ½ stick butter 1 tablespoon flour 1 medium onion Salt and Pepper to taste ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg 1 egg yolk 2 tablespoons (plus) cream Instructions Cut your beans into 2 or 3 inch pieces and boil in water until medium tender in a stew pan. In a medium saucepan, melt the ½ stick of butter, shake in half of your flour and stir with a whisk. Peel the onion, cut it in half and cut those halves into thin slices. Put them into the butter and flour mixture. Fry your onion in this until golden. Drain the beans from the water and add to the onions and add the rest of the flour, salt and pepper. Stir well. Add the cream, or more if needed and stir well. Whip the egg yolk in a separate bowl and add this slowly to the beans as you stir over a medium heat. After a couple of minutes’ stirring, take it off the fire. Potatoes Ingredients 1 lb. potatoes ½ cup milk 4 tablespoons butter ½ tsp. salt (or a little more if you like) 2 tablespoons bread crumbs Instructions Peel and boil the potatoes in water until soft. Drain and put them into a mixing bowl and mash them. As you mash the potatoes add the milk, half the butter and your salt. Continue to mash them till they are stiff. Mound the potatoes up in a pie plate and dust the flour over them, then drizzle over the rest of the butter melted and then top the whole with the bread crumbs. Brown the top of this mixture in the oven with the broiler on until the crumbs are brown and crisp. Gently place the potatoes in the center of your serving plate with a nice flat spatula. Then take your ragooed beans and spoon then nicely around the potatoes. You are ready to serve.

I'm going to start this thread with a more general recipe for period ships biscuit, and then maybe follow up with some recipes we served at Ft Gaines, Ft King George, and Tooele. [Edit: I have to add that using that period ground flour was night and day over using modern flour. The biscuits were crunchy but soaked up moisture fairly quickly and fell apart. The ones made with modern flour (even Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour) were hard as a rock, almost like a glue ball, even after soaking] See the PDF for more details on the period recipe... Biscuit Recipe This is how to replicate the basic biscuit of the eighteenth century using readily available ingredients. The amount of dough made using this recipe will equal a ration of one pound of biscuits after they are baked and dried. 3 cups white whole wheat flour 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of water Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour and water. Let the stiff dough rest for 10 minutes to allow the flour to soak up the water. If the dough is too stiff for you to mix it by hand, add an additional tablespoon of water. The dough will be denser than bread dough and you should be cautious using modern mixers as they might not do well under the stress of this stiff dough. The initial water added to the flour will seem insufficient to experienced bread makers, but give it time to incorporate and dough will form. Knead dough until it is smooth. This will take a few minutes. The amount of kneading necessary is less than when developing gluten in yeasted dough, but the time and effort needed for this stiff dough is often the same. After a short while once the water has had time to soak into the flour the dough will become easier to knead. Divide the dough into three to five pieces. Hand roll each piece round like a dinner roll until it is a smooth mass. Press the dough down with the palm of your hand until it is about ½ inch thick. If the dough cracks on the edges or splits, then more kneading is required. Make evaporation holes using a pizza docker or an ice pick. The holes should be about ¾ inch apart from each other and cover the entire surface of the biscuit. They do not need to go all the way through the biscuit dough. Place biscuits on a cookie tray and bake for one hour at 375 degrees. Once or twice during the baking, open the oven door to allow the evaporating water to escape. When the hour is up, remove biscuits from the oven and place them on a cookie rack to cool. Continue to dehydrate them by leaving them exposed. You can also store them in the oven to dry once it has cooled. Once they have dried for several days, the biscuits will be ready to use. They will keep indefinitely if maintained in a dry, cool place, and stored so that insects cannot access them. Enjoy them on a trek, in a camp, or as part of your demonstration kit Reproduction Biscuit article JOTEA 2011-1.pdf

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