Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #16 - Foods Named After People

Challenge 16.  Foods Named After People (July 29 - August 11)  Beef Wellington?  Charlotte Russe?  Choose a dish named after a person (either fictional or real) to create.  Bonus points if you tell us about the link between the person and the dish!

Fisher Velvet Cake

For all the Historical Food Fortnightly Challenges for 2016 I have been using the book Twenty Lessons in Domestic Science.  Copyrighted in 1916 this was a condensed home study course.  It was compiled and printed for the Calumet Baking Powder Company and presented with its compliments.  The author is Marian Cole Fisher formerly of the St. Paul Institute of Arts and Science, Chautauqua Lecturer.

Although the book itself is still available, no amount of internet research has led me to discover anything about the author.  I'm still looking.

Lesson Number Three is entitled Carbohydrates.  It includes a recipe for Fisher Velvet Cake.

Thinking that this a favorite recipe of Marian Cole Fisher, I am baking the cake today in the author's honor.

Love working with these simple ingredients!

 

Sifted flour and baking powder combined and sifted 3 times.

Butter and sugar...

...creamed until frothy.

Eggs separated.  Yokes beat until thick and lemon colored.

Beaten yolks added to creamed butter and sugar.

Yokes beaten into butter/sugar mixture.

2 egg whites...

....beaten until stiff.  Well, not exactly.  I don't know if it was the heat of the kitchen, the high humidity, or if my eggs were at the wrong temperature, but the stiffness was refusing to happen.  They are thick, but not stiff.

The "thick not stiff" egg whites whipped into the mixture.

Milk and water ready.

Milk and water added.  Flour sifted in, extracts added, and all beat until smooth.

Prepared loaf pan.

 All these pretty pictures of everything just so.  Thought you might enjoy this picture of what it really looks like in the kitchen right now.........it's a mess!!

The mess!

Ready for a 350 degree oven.

After 41 minutes the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Smells heavenly!  I want to dress this up with an icing recipe the author might have used and find this one just a page turn away in the book.

Orange icing.  Sounds wonderful!  And possibly even more wonderful as a lemon flavor on this lemon/vanilla flavored cake.

Simple.

Grated lemon rind and juice of half a lemon.

One separated egg.

Sugar added.

Grated lemon rind and juice added.

Beaten until ready to spread.  Well....not really.  Again the heat of the kitchen.  But it's wonderful to taste and a nice consistency to drip over the cake.

A simple decoration.

Ready to serve.  Look at that beautiful consistency!

Oh yum!

Patrick is home, so that's cake for two!

We both take our first forkful, look into each other's eyes, and say  "Wow!".  This cake is incredible!  We have put the recipe into our files to save.  This is a keeper!

Come for a visit!

We're serving Fisher Velvet Cake!

 

Jeanette

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #13 - Pies

13.  Pies (June 17 - June 30)  Make a pie!  Meat, fruit, sweet or savory; traditional pies, hand pies, standing pies, or galottes - get creative, but make sure it's documented!

Challenge #13 and we are half way through the year!  Amazing!  Time to make a pie...

Still using the Twenty Lessons in Domestic Science by Marian Cole Fisher Copyright 1916 to meet the Challenges for Historical Food Fortnightly 2016.

It's a constant surprise at the simplicity of recipes from this book and also a surprise that there was only a single pie recipe.

The recipe for Kase Kuchen (Cheese Pie) immediately followed the recipe I used for Cottage Cheese (Schmierkase) in the Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #3 - History Detective.  This is the link to the blog post:

http://aplacesettingintime.blogspot.com/2016_02_01_archive.html

 

Since this pie recipe had a similar name I decided to make a batch of Schmierkase and use it as the ingredient in my Kase Kuchen.  I  researched a bit and found a similar 100 year old recipe in "Recipes from a German Gramdma".  That recipe uses what is called "old-fashioned cottage cheese", but states that a Quark or ricotta will work too.  That recipe included some almonds with a little sugar and cinnamon on top.

 

Knowing from experience that my half-gallon of milk will yield 2 cups of cheese I make the cottage cheese on one day and allow it to completely drain in the refrigerator overnight.

 

Whole milk, vinegar, cheesecloth and strainer.

Milk heated over medium heat to 190 degrees F or just below boiling.  After taking the milk off the heat, 1/4 cup of vinegar is added.  When completely cool, pour into strainer lined with two layers of cheesecloth.

Allow the whey to drain away from the curds.  Put the whey in the refrigerator.  Stand the curds in the cheesecloth in the strainer over a bowl to allow the whey to continue draining.



Now I can begin my Cheese Pie.  Ingredients are simple.

The process is equally simple.

The drained curds.

Sugar and flour.

One egg and 2 yokes, and 2 egg whites in separate bowls.

The juice and grated rind of one lemon.

Three egg yokes and two egg whites beaten.

The cheese curds are smoothed with a spoon.

Sugar and flour mixture added to beaten eggs.

Cheese added.

A smooth cheese pie filling.

Ready to bake.

Baked at 375 degrees F. for 50 minutes and the center is finally set.  The remaining two egg whites are beaten and the meringue is ladled onto the hot pie and the pie popped back into the oven until the meringue is brown, about 10 minutes.

A beautiful Cheese Pie cooling on the counter!

Cooled completely, refrigerated overnight, this cool lemony Cheese Pie is perfect for a summer desert.  The texture is soft and smooth, the taste light and refreshing!

Two thumbs up!

 

Enjoy!

Jeanette