Hoopskirts

Many apologies for the amount of elapsed time since my last post!  It has been a busy, exciting summer.  Let's start current and work our way backward, shall we? Today's endeavor is Candied Ginger, from The Housekeeper's Instructor by William Henderson (sixth edition, 1793, London, W. and J. Stratford, Printers). Candied ginger, or more accurately, ginger candy.   I struggled quite a bit with this recipe, but I think I finally have it worked out. A SIDE NOTE ON GINGER Ginger, from Medical  Botany,   R. Griffith, MD; 1847 Philadelphia Then, as now, people were aware of the medicinal qualities of ginger.  If you ever drank ginger ale to calm an upset stomach, you are drawing on ginger's long-proven ability to calm digestive issues.  People also enjoyed candied ginger as a sweetmeat. THE RECIPE The ingredients are simple enough: Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828 edition) defines "ra...

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...