Brooklyn's Eighteenth-Century Lott House: Recipes


Recipes	"Brooklyn's Eighteenth-Century Lott House" 1999-2001

Grandma Voorhees' Mincemeat

Join Grandma on the porch for mincemeat and a cupper.
(Courtesy Brooklyn College)

(find a cow and get) 2 lbs. beef top round ground fine
4 lbs. apples tart
2 lbs. beef suet minced
2 lbs. brown sugar
4 lbs. raisins
2 lbs. currants
1 lb. citron
1/2 lb. candied lemon peel

mix together:
2 nutmegs ground
1/4 oz. cloves
1/2 oz. cinnamon
1/4 oz. mace
1 tsp. salt
juice and grated rind of 2 oranges and 2 lemons

Then mix everything together; then add 1 qt. good brandy.
Put in earthenware jug, press down w/ bricks.
If liquid doesn't cover, add apple cider.
Let sit on porch in shade for 2 weeks or more.

Note: I can remember the mince pies from this mixture which were made by Anna Suydam Kluth for Thanksgiving. They bore a resemblance to the mince pies we see today, which are made from a similar mixture that is boiled and canned. These were mince pies to convert mince pie scorners...the filling was piled high and the pie crusts were sturdy.--Catherine Lott

The following recipes are from The Sensible Cook, translated from the original De Verstandige Kock (1683) by Peter G. Rose (1989). The Sensible Cook focuses on colonial Dutch foodways and transcribes this seventeenth-century collection of early Dutch recipes and methods of food preparation.

The cover of the original De Verstandige Kock (1683) reprinted from The Sensible Cook (1989)

Apple Tart*

Take Apples, peel them and cut them in quarters and remove the cores, and then cut them into even smaller thin slivers, three quarter pond* Currants washed clean and three quarter pond Sugar, a loot* crushed Cinnamon, then place the Dough in the pan and first sprinkle Apples into it, then Currants, Sugar, Cinnamon and pieces of Butter. Repeat the layers until the pan is full; add some crushed Anise seed. Then a lid of Dough on top, cut a hole in the lid here and there and let it bake with fire underneath and on top.

*Loot - about 14 grams
Pond - the English pound, approximately 454 grams
Taert(en) - a collective noun, indicating a baked good made from a short-crust dough containing a variety of mostly sweet, but sometimes savory fillings, resembling a tart, flan, patty, pie or pastry.

Small Seed Cakes

This recipe was adapted to use modern measures.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon caraway seed, bruised in the mortar with a pestle

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add eggs one by one and incorporate thoroughly. Add seeds and flour a little at a time, stir well. Use 2 teaspoons to shape the cookies about the size of a nutmeg and place them on a buttered baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the rims are browned. Makes 4 dozen.