Karadimos

Pea Soup

Ingredients:

4 c. dried English peas

4 quarts water

6 peppercorns

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 or 3 potatoes, chopped into small pieces

salt as needed

1 T. sage (optional)

1 T. thyme (optional)

2 T. lovage (Optional)

Maple Syrup (optional)

1. Place the peas in the water and add the seasonings.

2. Put the pot on a brisk fire until it boils and skim off any foam which rises to the top.

3. Simmer until almost done, possibly several hours depending upon the age of the peas.

4. Add potatoes.

5.Cook until potatoes are soft.

6.Add more water if the peas start to stick to the pot.

7.Serve with Johnny Cakes or Slapjacks.

Note that this soup can be made with peas that have gotten woody at the end of the season and that it is also much improved by the addition of a quart of good ale in place of a quart of water.

Kale and Onions-

1 lb fresh Kale, stemmed and torn in large pieces

½ medium onion sliced thin

olive oil to cover bottom of pan

1.wash kale.

2.Saute onions in olive oil over medium heat until soft.

3.Add kale and cook until kale is soft and has turned darker than it was when you put it in the pan.

4.Add salt to taste.

Serves 3 or 4 people as a side dish.

Note: when you first put the kale in the pan it will look like a lot, but as it cooks it shrinks up.

Okra-

Fresh okra- 1 or 2 per person

Cornmeal

Hot Water

Butter

Onions (Optional)

1. Slice the okra.

2. 2.Mix some cornmeal with hot water to make a dough that can be made into balls easily.

3. Put a piece of okra in middle of cornmeal and form small ball around it.

4. fry in skillet with butter over medium heat.

5. It is done when the cornmeal is golden brown.

Note: Fry the okra with onions if you want to.

Forcemeat Balls

Take a little fat bacon, beat it in a marble mortar, take two anchovies, two or three pigeons� livers, chop them together; add a little lemon-peel shred, a little beaten mace, nutmeg, cayenne, stale bread crumbs, and beef-suet an equal quantity, mix all together with an egg.

Makes 16 balls about 1 inch/2.5 cm in diameter

4 oz/110 g/2 cups breadcrumbs

2oz/50g/scant ½ cup shredded suet

2 canned anchovy fillets, soaked, chopped and pounded

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or ½ tablespoon dried oregano

grated rind of ½ lemon

salt and pepper

pinch each of grated nutmeg and ground mace

a few grains of cayenne pepper

1 large egg, beaten

egg wash for glazing (optional)

The original mixture is stronger in flavour and fattier than we want for most purposes today, but you can add a finely chopped chicken liver and chopped bacon rasher (slice) to the milder �mix� here if you wish. Mix together all the ingredients and adjust the quantity of breadcrumbs if required to make a mixture which will cohere when squeezed. Roll into small balls, coat with egg wash and fry or bake until heated through.

(Black, The Jane Austen Cookbook, p. 79)

Fish in Corbullion

Serves 6

1 fish, about 3lb/1.4 kg, and 2 inches/5cm thick, gutted and scaled

spice bundle containing 5 black peppercorns; 2 whole cloves; 1 large blade mace; 1 slice fresh ginger root; 1 shallot, halved; 2 red radishes, halved; a sprig each of fresh thyme, marjoram and rosemary; 2 bay leaves

10 fl oz/275 ml/1 ¼ cups medium dry white wine

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

sea salt to taste

garnish of cooked prawns if serving hot or of sliced radishes and preserved lemon slices if serving cold

Any fairly large fish was generally �boiled�: that is, poached in a fish-kettle, having first been wrapped in a cloth. An oval pot-roaster or a stew-pan is suitable for most fish; one measuring 12 x 9inches/36 x 23cm is a convenient size, holding about 7pints/4 litres/17 ½ cups liquid when brimful. Ask the fishmonger to gut and scale the fish. Prepare the spices. A square of butter muslin makes a good �bundle�. Put in the centre the dried spices, ginger root, radishes and herbs, then tie the opposite points together. Wrap the cleaned fish in another piece of muslin folded over on top to make unwrapping easy. Put it on a trivet or serving dish in a stew-pan or pot-roaster. Add the spice bundle, then pour the liquids, including about 4 pints/2.3 litres/10 cups water, over the lot � the fish should be just covered. Add salt to taste and leave to soak for about an hour. Remove the wrapped fish and gently bring the cooking liquid to simmering point. Replace the fish and poach very gently for about 15 minutes. Unwrap to check whether it is done. When it is, lift it out, and drain it well. You can serve it hot, preferably skinned, with some prawns and the wine sauce on page 73, or cold with the radish and preserved lemon slices, new potatoes and a salad. Substitute scrapings of fresh horseradish for the radishes if you have any.

(Black, The Jane Austen Cookbook, pp. 50-51)

Oblietjies (Rolled Wafers)

2 eggs

450 g brown sugar

10 ml (two teaspoons) ground cinnamon

10 ml (two teaspoons) pounded naartjie peel

120 ml (half cup) wine

250 g butter

450 g cake flour

Beat the eggs and sugar and allow to stand. Add the spices, wine and melted butter and fold in the flour. Form into balls the size of walnuts and place in the middle of the heated wafer iron. Close securely but without forcing. Bake for half a minute on each side until lightly browned and lift out with a spatula. Roll up immediately into a trumpet shape or a roll open at both ends. Serve with honey and cream.

(A wafer iron is in appearance very much like a waffle iron)

Bean Soup

500 g dried white beans

1 kg beef or marrow bones

125 g pork speck (if meat is lean)

4 l water (16 cups)

1 onion

1 sprig of parsley

1 mace leaf

salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Drain, boil for half an hour in fresh water and drain again. To the beans add the 16 cups of water, the meat (or bones) and speck, braised onions and the finely shredded leaves and flavouring. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours stirring occasionally and adding water when necessary.

This filling soup was often the main dish at evening meals, particularly in cold and rainy weather.

Dumpling Soup

Make a soup from:

1 kg beef

2 mace leaves

2.5 to 3.5 l water (8 to 12 cups)

6 cloves

1 spray of sorrel

salt to taste

For the dumplings melt 1 tablespoon soft fat or butter in one cup boiling water and thicken with 2 cups of flour. Allow to cool, fold in two eggs and shape into dumplings the size of walnuts. Steam the dumplings in the soup.

Sweet Potato Fritters (as dessert)

500 ml (2 cups) sweet potato, cooked and mashed

60 g (half cup) cake flour

2 eggs, beaten

cinnamon sugar

Mix the sweet potato and flour and add egg and cinnamon sugar to make a soft batter, adding little milk if necessary. Form into patties and fry in hot fat. Serve with honey and lemon.

Souskluitjies (cinnamon dumplings)

120 g (1 cup) cake flour

10 ml (2 teaspoons baking powder)

1 ml (quarter teaspoon) salt

12.5 ml (1 tablespoon) butter

1 egg

125 ml (half cup) milk

cinnamon sugar

Sift dry ingredients and rub in butter. Beat the egg and milk and mix in the dry ingredients to make a thick batter. Boil 500 ml water with a little salt in a large, shallow saucepan with a tight fitting lid.

Spoon the batter into the boiling water with a teaspoon, each time dipping the teaspoon into the boiling water first. The dumplings must cook separately, not touching each other. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove dumplings from water with a perforated spoon, butter them lightly and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

To make a sauce, stir cinnamon sugar and butter into the water in which the dumplings were cooked.

Roast Sucking Pig

A sucking pig with an orange in its mouth was traditionally served at wedding receptions. The wedding feast was a splendid occasion held at the home of the bride.

Clean the sucking pig thoroughly and sprinkle the body cavity well with salt and fill with stuffing. Twist the front legs backward and the hind legs forward and fix with meat skewers. Rub the sucking pig with butter and wrap in greased brown or wax paper. Place in a roasting pan with water and roast in a hot oven (200ºC) for about 2 1/2 hours. Remove the paper and continue roasting until brown, constantly brushing the surface with melted butter. Place a potato, apple or orange in the mouth and serve on a platter.

Stuffing:

500 ml(2 cups) minced meat

25 ml (2 tablespoons) minced ham

7 ml (1.5 teaspoons) coriander

1 thick slice of bread soaked in milk

2 ml (half teaspoon) pounded cloves

salt and pepper

12.5 ml (1 tablespoon) vinegar

1 egg

Mix all the ingredients and use for stuffing the pig.

Cherry Soup

adapted from Das Brandenburgisches Kochbuch (1723)

In a large frying pan, gently warm a large can of pitted cherries (never fear, they would have used preserved cherries in the 18th-century as well) in butter, having discarded the canning syrup. Add a bottle of nice dry red wine (this wine needs to be tasty, cooking wine will not do). Add sugar and cinnamon to taste. When thoroughly warmed put the contents of the pan through a food mill and serve.

Turnip-Soup

TAKE a gallon of water, and a bunch of turnips, pare them, save three or four out, put the rest into the water with a half an ounce of whole pepper, an onion stuck with cloves, a blade of mace, half a nutmeg bruised, a little bundels of sweet herbs and a large crust of bread. Let these boil an hour pretty fast, then strain it through a sieve, squeezing the turnips through; wash and cut a bunch of celery very small, set it on in the liquor on the fire, cover it close and let it stew. In the mean time, cut the turnips you saved into dice, and two or three small carrots clean scraped, and cut in little pieces: put half these turnips nd carrots into the pot with the celery and other half fry brown in fresh butter. You must flour them first, and two or three onions peeled, cut in thin slices and fried brown then put them all into the soup with an ounce of vermicelli. Let your soup boil softly till the celery s quite tender and your soup good. Season it with salt to your palate. (18th century cookbook, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, by Hannah Glasse)

Salmagundi is an old recipe that came to be known as a pirate meal.

• "Cut cold roast chicken or other meats into slices. Mix with minced tarragon and an onion. Mix all together with capers, olives, samphire, broombuds, mushrooms, oysters, lemon, orange, raisins, almonds, blue figs, Virginia potatoes, peas and red and white currants. Garnish with sliced oranges and lemons. Cover with oil and vinegar, beaten together." (from The Good Huswives Treasure, Robert May, 1588-1660)
• "A mixture of minced veal, chicken or turkey, anchovies or pickled herring, and onions, all chopped together and served with lemon juice and oil."
• Salmagundi is also purportedly a meal served on pirate ships. It is a stew of anything the cook had on hand, usually consisting of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, and onions, often arranged in rows on lettuce and served with vinegar and oil, and spiced with anything available. The following is taken from a reprint of "Mrs. Hill's New Cook Book", originally published in 1867 and republished by Applewood Books of Bedford, Massachusetts.

"Boil two calf's feet; take the feet out when done; reduce the broth to a quart. The feet may be fried and used, first removing the bones. Let the broth become cold in an earthen vessel; scrape off all the grease; wipe the top of the jelly with a coarse towel; put the cake of jelly into a kettle lined with tin or porcelain; season it with two lemons cut up (removing the seed), fine blades of mace, a stick of cinnamon, pepper (white pepper is best), and salt to taste. Beat to a froth the whites of six eggs; stir these to the jelly just as it melts; it must then be left to clarify and not stirred again. When it simmers long enough to look clear at the sides, strain it through a flannel bag before the fire; do not squeeze the bag. Suspend it by running a stick through a loop made by tying the bag; rest each end of the stick upon a chair, and throw a table-cloth over all to keep out the dust. If the jelly does not run through clear the first time, pour it through the jelly-bag again. Set this aside. Prepare the meat and seasoning for the pie. Put into a stew-pan slices of pickled pork, using a piece of pork four inches square; if it is very salt[y] lay it an hour in tepid water. Cut up two young, tender chickens--a terrapin, if it is convenient--two or three young squirrels, half a dozen birds or squabs. Stew them gently, cutting up and adding a few sprigs of parsley. Roll into half a pound of butter two tablespoonfuls of flour; add this to the stew until the meat is nearly done. Line a fire-proof dish, or two fire-proof dishes (this quantity of stew will fill two common-sized or quart dishes;) with good pastry; mix the different kinds of meats; put in Irish potato dumplings; season to taste; pour in the gravy and bake. When done, remove the upper crust when the pie is cold and pack in the jelly, heaping the jelly in the middle. Return the crust and serve cold or hot. The jelly will prevent them become too dry. They are good Christmas pies and will keep several days. Very little gravy should be used, and that rich. Should there be too much, leave the stew-pan open until reduced sufficiently. This kind of pie keeps well if made in deep plates, and by some is preferred to those baked in deep moulds."

• http://www.bigoven.com/130402-Salmagundi-recipe.html
• http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/elizabethan/fetch-recipe.php?rid=eliz-salmagundi
• http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/salmagundi
• http://www.recipe-collection.co.uk/Salmagundi/14771.html
• http://www.cookadvice.com/recipes/salmagundi-14633-recipe.htm
• http://www.allbritishfood.com/salmagundi.php

A group of us are going to head to the Pumphouse on June 12th in full pirate garb and eat & drink out on the deck. 9PM

Anyone is welcome to join us and of course if you show up in something less then pirate garb, we'll toss you into the river!

Yesterday I just made myself a new pair of pirate pants (I had nothing since I've lost quite a bit of weight). I went to JoAnn's and found McCall's 5858 pattern. http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m5858-products-10070.php

I used brown linen and completely cut out the pattern, fabric, and sewed the entire thing while watching 'The Shining'. So it's an easy, very quick pattern. You can see the results below. It does have a high waist, if you are interested in making them. I think they'll fit better once they're worn and washed a few times.

Hello! I'm new to the forum. I'm a pirate enthusiast, history buff, a writer, an artist, and I do a lot of cooking. I can sew, thus I make my own costumes and I try to infuse a little pirate flair into my everyday wardrobe. I used to fence in high school and I practice every now and then. I'm trying to find a group of people who are interested (seriously interested) in founding a pirate-theme town...somewhere. Pirates all year round. It would be awesome.