Hoopskirts

Today, March 14th,  is the whimsical "holiday" known as Pi Day.  Such a fun excuse to make a pie, as if one truly needed an excuse to so so! I was torn between two historic pies - cranberry and coca-nut.  Both are still seasonal, cranberries starting to show up less frequently in my grocery stores of choice, and coconut being something I remember only appearing in the winter when I was a child.    Because of the path of my errands, I went to a grocery that I frequent less often and that store's stock made the decision for me.  No cranberries, either fresh or frozen.  Coconut it is! I had already selected my recipe: Cream Cocoa-nut Pudding from Miss Eliza Leslie's 1854 edition of New Receipts for Cooking  (Philadelphia).   Since I planned on making this recipe as a pie, I decided to cut the quantity in half so I would wind up with only one pie.  Preparing the Coconut In this part I was ably assisted by my hus...

Rhubarb is full and lush in my garden, and the reenacting season is starting here in the North, so it's time to harvest some and bake a rhubarb pie! And my need for a pie ties in nicely with Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #11: Picnic Foods I have fallen behind on the challenges, but with every intent to catch back up, I thought I would get a head start on this challenge. The Challenge Picnic Foods  (May 20 - June 2)  Some foods are just meant to be eaten in the outdoors! Concoct a dish that is documented for al fresco dining, or foods that might particularly lend themselves to eating at a picnic. Bonus points for putting it to the test! A pie might not seem like the logical thing to bring to a picnic, used as we are to paper plates, sandwiches, and disposable ease.  But picnics in the antebellum period were often far more elaborate.   "The Pic-Nic" by Thomas Cole, 1846, in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  My photograph of work in the museum ...

Vinegar pie sound like a contradiction in terms.  A pie based around vinegar?  For the Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #5 (Pies), I decided to explore vinegar pie in the 1860's. I had had some vinegar pie at the Eagle Tavern in Greenfield Village this May.  The pie was delightful - light and lemony.  The technique seems similar to that of Key Lime pie, in which the acid "cooks" the raw eggs.  There was only one problem:  as I combed through mid-nineteenth century cookbooks, I could not find a recipe for vinegar pie.  Except for one.  And it didn't sound like it would turn out the way I was hoping, since there were no eggs included.  But there was one recipe!  That meant the challenge was on! The recipe I found came from The Practical Housekeeper and Young Woman's Friend by Mrs. M. L. Scott (Toledo. 1855)    Like most period recipes, the instructions were minimal, assuming a familiarity with the necessary...