The XVIII century was a fascinating period in the plan of cooking. At that time, most people had no own stoves, and they often had to improvise. Methods of cooking and used many different spices. And precisely from that time, modern dishes take their origins, which only professionals from cooking.
1. Cooking puddings in fabric bags
Today, one who has not specifically studied cooking can cook very little dishes. In fact, most people today are accustomed to the facilities of microwaves, and in the XVIII century, many have not even had an ordinary oven, and they had to improvise.
One of the strangest, but still quite popular methods was the method of cooking in bags. The fabric "right" thickness was selected, which was boiled in water to sterilize it. Then the bag sprinkled with flour or lubricated with oil, and then filled with ingredients, tied and cooked for many hours. Often in parallel boiled the second saucepan with water, so as not to interrupt the cooking process, as the big pudding could do 7 or more hours.
2. Food Preservation Methods
In the XVIII century, of course, there were no refrigerators or freezers, and it was difficult to keep food. Some of the richests did a glacier in the basement, but it was very expensive, and was considered extremely extravagant. For this reason, there were many different recipes in order to maintain food fresh as long as possible.YouTube Channel TownSends, which tries and demonstrates authentic recipes of the XVIII century, tested many different methods for saving the food of that time. Although many of them are effective to preserve most foods, from strawberries to eggs and canned meat, the storage period was mostly possible to extend up to several weeks. Even the premises of products in the coldest part of the cellar could reduce the temperature so much that they could be kept a maximum of a couple of months.
3. The nutmeg is one of the most popular spices.
A nutmeg is a spice that most people do not apply today, and do not even understand her taste. Few people know that this is one of many ingredients, which is extremely used earlier.
Some people see that nutmeg is very often used in the recipes of the XVIII century and are perplexed why it is. In fact, it was just a fraud of that time, and people just wanted to show their status, adding this spice literally in everything that could afford.
4. Food flavors
For those who do not know what it is, it is essentially ordinary water into which rose petals added. It would be possible to expect that such flavored water will be used in perfumery, but it is still applied in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine today. For example, it is a widespread fragrance in Turkish sweets. However, in Western cuisine, pink water is almost not used.
However, a couple of centuries ago, floral flavors (and especially pink water) were quite common in bakery products, and sometimes in other areas of cooking. And they disappeared only because the bakers began to replace pink water in that, in their opinion, it was the best ingredient to underline fragrances, - Vanilla. Vanilla has become the main ingredient in the XIX century, since it was easier to purchase, and cheaper artificial substitutes such as Vanillin appeared.
5. Renal fat - one of the main products of the XVIII century
Renal fat - white solid fat, which can be found around the loaf and kidney of various animals. It has a solid texture, which is perfectly suitable for impressing pudding consistency. Because of its crumbly texture and high melting point, the kidney fat retains its texture during even a long cooking process. The main meaning of the use of kidney sala was to help pudding be a little more air, and not just a dense ball of flour, water and other ingredients.
Today, people no longer prepare puddings in bags, so they use other fats or oils. Nevertheless, those who want to recreate the old recipes of the XVIII century, it is worth getting it. The renal fat is still used in some traditional UK recipes.
6. Slaves-chefs
In America, the XVIII century, the vast majority of black people were slaves, but many do not even suspect which major role they played in cooking.
The enslaved cooks became a valuable source of knowledge and skills for their owners. Also, their knowledge of cooking allowed the rest of the slaves to prepare food from any ingredients that they could find. Many people also do not know that the enslaved black cooks mostly created an American barbecue and improved him in colonial times.
7. How new dishes appeared: weather and regions
Today, everyone is accustomed that it is possible to quietly acquire, for example, strawberries in January in the near supermarket, but in the XVIII century it had to do with the products that were at hand, depending on the season or the area in which the man lived. Also, do not forget that it was impossible to store products for a long time at that time.Of course, it was not unique for the XVIII century, and this is true almost for each period of time before the industrial revolution and the emergence of mass transport (as well as refrigeration and freezer) changed everything. But in those days it was necessary to prepare from what was working at hand.
8. "Cheesecakes" without cheese
Today, the cheesecake is considered a mixture of cream cheese, eggs, sugar and flavors. Of course, the creamy cheese appeared relatively recently, but this does not mean that cheesecakes are a fully modern invention. There is evidence that cheesecakes using ricotta, cottage cheese, mascarpone and other cheeses exhibited long before cream cheese appeared.
In the culinary books of the XVIII century there are many recipes for cheesecakes in which there is no ... cheese. It can be assumed that they were called cheesecakes, because their consistency and texture resembled cheese, as well as their appearance, something like a circle of cheese.
9. Raisins and nuts
Today, raisins will meet except in the cupcake, and the nuts have become much less likely to be used. However, even the XVIII century, only very rich people could afford it, and even then from time to time. Moreover, drunkers and nuts were considered something delightful and decadent.
What is considered ordinary and now, 2-3 centuries ago, people added to desserts during holidays as the best filling. Tastes clearly changed.
10. Eggs as a cooking base
Eggs are one of the most common forms of everyday food, despite the fact that some researchers argue that they are not particularly useful. However, in the XVIII century, the eggs were one of the main foods, and included in the diet of almost all people. They were preparing in many ways that were preserved to this day, as well as eggs were an important ingredient in all types of dishes and baking.
The reason for this is the high level of protein and fat in the eggs, as well as what chickens are quite simple.