Ashton's old-style recipes

Julie Ashton of Omaha shares some of the recipes she uses to create dinners from the 1820s at Fort Atkinson.

She reads history books and old cookbooks looking for the methods and the formulas that would have been used. Then she experiments with what she has learned. Cooking over an open hearth, with cast-iron pots, wooden spoons and other tools typical of the 1820s, she creates authentic meals with these formulas. She also added a few suggestions for creating the same taste in a modern kitchen.

Fort Atkinson Gingerbread

½ cup butter

2 tablespoons sugar

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup molasses

1 egg, separated

1 cup boiling water

Heat a small, cast-iron Dutch oven, with lid on, in glowing hot, ash-covered coals for at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Mix together flour, baking soda, ginger and salt; stir into the butter-sugar mixture. Add molasses and egg yolk. Lastly, fold in add boiling water and then the whipped egg white.

Open the hot Dutch oven and grease the interior of the pot with butter or another fat. Pour in the gingerbread mixture and cover with the lid. Hang over fire for 20 minutes. Remove the Dutch oven from hook and place on the hearth. Arrange a layer of glowing-hot coals on the lid and allow to bake another 20 minutes. Remove coals and let the cake sit in dutch oven until firm. Makes 16 servings.

Oven conversion: To use a modern oven, pour batter into a 2-inch deep, 9-inch square baking pan and bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes or until cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center.

Roast Pork and Seasonal Vegetables

4 pound (approximately) pork loin roast (sometimes called half-loin)

2 tablespoons of the Penzeys Bicentennial seasoning (Salt, black pepper, sugar, turmeric, orange peel and coriander)

1 teaspoon each dried sage, basil and thyme

Seasonal vegetables:

Onions

Potatoes

Carrots

Pattypan squash

Zucchini

Olive oil

1 teaspoon each dried sage, basil and thyme

Begin about three hours before serving time to create a large fire in your cooking hearth. You will need a large bank of glowing-hot, ash-covered coals.

Rub the pork loin with the season mixture. Combine the herbs, crush in the palm of your hand and rub over the meat. Run the rotisserie rod of a tin reflecting oven, lengthwise, through the center of the pork loin. If the rotisserie has pins or forks to secure the meat to the rotisserie rod, insert them to secure the pork loin in place. Attach the rotisserie rod to a tin reflecting oven.

Cut the vegetables into bite-size chunks. Rub them with olive oil and a mixture of sage, basil and thyme. Lightly oil the curved bottom surface of the reflecting tin where the vegetables will be placed. Arrange the vegetables there, where they will be seasoned by drippings from the cooking roast.

Position the tin reflecting oven before the fireplace, with the food facing the fire and the exterior of the oven facing the kitchen. Cook about 1 1/2 hours, turning the rotisserie rod occasionally for even cooking. Cook until the meat is well browned and the interior is white, with a touch of pink in the center (about 140 degrees to 145 degrees on a meat thermometer). Serves 10 to 12.

Oven method: Season roast as directed. Sear the meat on all sides in a hot greased skillet on the stove top. Transfer pork to a V-shaped roasting rack and arrange in lightly greased baking pan. Cut the vegetables into bite-size chunks, rub them with olive oil and a mixture of sage, basil and thyme. Arrange vegetables in the baking pan, under the roast. Place in oven at 325 degrees and roast, uncovered, until internal temperature of meat reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees to 145 degrees and the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and let stand 20 minutes to allow internal temperature to rise 5 or 10 degrees.

Scotch Eggs

8 eggs, hard cooked

Flour

Salt and pepper

1 pound bulk Italian sausage, hot or mild

1 egg, beaten lightly with a splash of milk

3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Peel eggs and roll in a bit of flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.

Divide sausage into eight parts. Pat sausage around eggs, dip into beaten egg and roll in bread crumbs.

Fry in hot oil that is about two inches deep, turning once or twice, until all the sausage is cooked and well browned.

Cut eggs into halves and serve hot or cold.

Spotted Dog

4 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 3/4 cups raisins or currants

1 cup butter or 1/2 pound suet (the fat found around the kidneys and loins of beef, sheep and other animals), diced

1 cup milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Mix flour, sugar and spices together.

In another bowl, toss raisins with a tablespoon of the flour mixture and set aside.

Add butter or suet and to the remaining flour and cut in with two knives or a biscuit cutter until well incorporated. Mix in the raisins. Add milk and eggs and mix with a wooden spoon or your hands.

Scrape into a greased six-cup pudding mold (a Bundt pan or gelatin mold would work nicely). Tie a well- floured cloth over the top of the mold. Place in a pot of boiling water, where the water comes to within one inch of the top of the mold.

Cover the pot and simmer for two hours, adding more water as necessary.

Remove the mold from the pot and let stand at room temperature until it is cool enough to remove the cloth. Invert pudding onto a serving platter. Serve warm, accompanied by a brandy butter or custard sauce.

Note: In the 1820s, this was considered a “pudding.”

Custard Sauce

4 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

Pinch salt

1 1/4 cups milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

4 drops rose water or substitute vanilla

1 1/2 tablespoons brandy

Beat eggs, sugar and salt and place over a double boiler. Add milk and cream and whisk together. Cook over gently boiling water, stirring frequently until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in rose water or vanilla and brandy. The sauce will thicken as it cools. Serve over Spotted Dog, gingerbread or other “puddings.”

Note: Rose water is a distillation of rose petals. The perfumy flavoring was a popular seasoning in the 1820s.

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