Cooking up a composer or two - Althea has been looking through her recipe book.  These recipes have been used at Christmas and other times by musicians. We hope that people who don’t observe Christmas will enjoy them too!

Flummery

Flummery has been made in Europe for about 600 years. The recipe here is suitable as a rich pudding at any time. Some prefer the recipe with a little whiskey added. The dish was especially popular in the 18th century. Musicians who liked it include Jan Sweelinck (1562- 1621) organist and composer: Elizabeth Tudor (1533-1621) virginal player and Queen: Thomas Arne (1710-1778) harpsichordist and song-writer.
  • Make up 1/2pint jelly with 1/4 pint water
  • Whisk ½ pint cream with 1oz ground almonds.
  • Stir together, adding colour if desired, until setting.
  • Pour into wetted moulds, which should be as fancy as possible.
  • After turning out, decorate with cream and glacé fruit. 
  • NB: this is a fragile dish – try masking the mould with jelly.

Real mincemeat

“Mincemeat “ as we know it now, isn’t meat at all: the New Zealand name “fruit mince” describes it more accurately. Mincemeat proper descends from Frumenty, which was eaten in the Middle Ages. The recipe below was used by Mrs Beeton in her mince pies. It makes solid fare and hence has been popular with energetic composers. These have included J.S.Bach (1685-1750), long-distance walker, organist and composer; John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) bandmaster and composer; Edward Elgar (1857-1934), cyclist, hill-walker and composer; Marjory Kennedy-Frazer (1857-1930) and Percy Grainger (1882-1961) both long-distance walkers in the cause of folk song collecting.
  • 2lbs Raisins
  • 3lbs Currants
  • 1 1/2 lbs lean minced beef
  • 3lbs beef suet minced
  • 2lbs Moist Sugar (soft brown)
  • 2oz Citron
  • 2oz Candied Lemon Peel
  • 2oz Candied Orange Peel
  • 1 Small Nutmeg
  • 1 pottle Apples (2-3 lbs?)
  • The rind of 2 Lemons, the juice of 1 Lemon
  • ½ pint Brandy*
*Brandy is a preservative – important before refrigeration became general. 
Clean the dried fruit, cut raisins but do not chop. Peel, core and pare the apples, then mince them and the lemon peels. Cut candied peel in fine slices. Mix well, then add the brandy. Press into jars, excluding all air, tie down and it will be ready for use in a fortnight.

Sauce for Ostrich

This was a favourite dish with Romans one of whom, Apicius, included it in his cookery book and his descendants have included it on the menu at the family ristorante ever since. Anyone without an ostrich in the freezer, will find that the sauce is excellent with turkey in slices or chunks.  
Musicians who dined at Ristorante Apicius include Claudius Caesar Nero (AD 37-68) fiddler and Emperor; Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina (1525-1594) composer and choirmaster; Fernando Germani (1906-98) composer and organist of St Peter’s.

For four people:
Soak 100 gm (4oz) dates in wine. Stew gently until very soft, add pepper, dried mint, cumin, celery seed, honey and vinegar to taste ( about ¼ teaspoon of the spices, 1 teaspoon mint) Add 300ml (1/2 pint) stock and thicken with cornflour. Heat the ostrich in the sauce until thoroughly hot.​

Swan stuffed

This was a dish for feasts and holidays in high places! To-day, many of the birds are protected species and few people would have time to prepare the dish. Musicians who enjoyed it include Henry Tudor (1491-1547) composer ("Greensleeves"); Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) organist and composer; Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-958) musicologist and composer and Frederick Delius (1862-1934) orange-grower and composer. Delius would substitute a cuckoo for the blackbird. Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) had his own recipe using a hen, a dove, a cuckoo and a nightingale.
Instructions:
Bone the swan, insert a boned goose,

Then: -
  • a boned fowl;
  • a boned duck;
  • a boned pheasant;
  • a boned partridge;
  • a boned pigeon;
  • a boned blackbird;
  • and lastly - a boned lark.
  • Add sauces and stuffings to taste.
Picture
A large kitchen range is needed for this – a suitable type is shown above
Althea Bridgeman-Sutton,  December, 2010
*webmaster note: Althea's cooking is legendary and only a hare's whisker behind that of Mrs Beeton's fame. I'm proud to be one the many thousands - possibly millions - of eager mouths Althea has fed, using ingredients conjured out of nowhere, from recipes in her head or from the cosmos, at speeds that make Food Chains look somnolent. At the same time she has taught - and continues to teach - me the art of never letting anything go to waste. Our fridge is full of stuff that awaits the "Althea Muse". My only regret is that I may never see what she would do with a hippopotamus steak.