Fannie Farmer, Betty Crocker, Julia Child, Martha Stewart, Joan Nathan, Rachael Ray and the Food Network: These are icons of the kitchen that are easily recognizable to every generation and will probably live on through their cookbooks and recipes.
Here’s one you have probably never heard of: A. Lady, an English woman who wrote “The Jewish Manual,” in 1846. I recently received a copy of this cookbook, which claims to be the first Jewish cookbook in English.
Though the recipes are not written in the usual form (a list of ingredients followed by directions), they are easy to piece together. More meaningful than the recipes, it’s delightful to see what a Jewish housewife in Victorian London put on her table, what directions she gave her cook and how she discussed the plans.
Because this is a “manual” of Jewish cooking, it is no surprise to find Jewish dishes, especially for Passover. But don’t expect to find chopped liver, bagels and lox or gefilte fish. The dishes in this quirky book are very Anglo, as was the whole of English Jewish society.
Priced at 5 shillings, very expensive at the time, this book was given to many young girls as part of their dowry. Today, you can buy it for around $13, or put it on your Chanukah wish list.
Potato Soup
Grate a pound of fine potatoes in 2 quarts of water. Add to it the trimmings of any meat (amounting to about a pound in quantity), a cup of rice, a few sweet herbs and a head of celery. Stew well till the liquid is considerably reduced, then strain it through a sieve. If when strained, it is too thin and watery, add a little thickening; it should be flavored only with white pepper and salt.
Beef Brisket With Celery, White Beans and Peas
Soak for 12 hours one pint of dried white beans and 1⁄2 pint of the same kind of beans (they must be well soaked, and if very dry, may require longer than 12 hours). Put a nice piece of brisket of about 8 pounds weight in a stew pan with peas and beans, and three heads of celery, cut into small pieces. Put water enough to cover, and season with pepper and salt only. Let it all stew slowly till the meat is extremely tender, and peas and beans quite soft. Then add 4 large lumps of sugar and nearly a teacup of vinegar. This is a very fine stew.
A Nice Rice Pudding for Children
Boil till tender 1⁄2 pound of rice in 1 quart of fresh milk. Sweeten with white sugar and “flavour” with cinnamon, lemon peel and a bay leaf. When the rice is tender, place it in a deep dish; pour over a very little butter warmed in a little milk, and bake until brown. A slow oven is requisite unless the rice is extremely soft before it is put in the oven.
Beef Ragout
Take a small, well-cut piece of lean beef, lard it with the fat of smoked beef and stew it with good gravy, highly seasoned with allspice, cloves, pepper and salt. When the meat is well done remove it from the gravy, which should be skimmed carefully and free from fat, and add to it a glass of port wine, the juice of a lemon, half a teaspoon full of cayenne pepper, and a little mushroom ketchup; the beef should be glazed when required to have an elegant appearance.
A few very small forcemeat balls must be poached in the gravy, which must be poured over the meat, and the balls arranged round the dish; this is a very savory and pretty dish.
Louise Fiszer is a Palo Alto cooking teacher, author and the co-author of “Jewish Holiday Cooking.” Her columns alternate with those of Faith Kramer. Questions and recipe ideas can be sent to j. or to [email protected].