Book: Lost Art of Real Cooking

[Boogity]

For those of you who have this book, I have a question. On page 5, under the heading "To Pickle Cucumbers to Keep the Yeare" it says to pare a good quantity of the rinds of cucumbers. And it goes on to tell us to boil them and use the liquor for the pickling liquid.

Am I correct in thinking that I should peel some cucs and use the peelings to make the liquor? Then use a different bunch of cucs for the actual pickles?

I guess I'm struggling with the "olde English".

 

[framing fowl]

That's how I read it although it seems wasteful to use some cukes for the brine and then tossing them. I got the impression that maybe they were using the ones that had gotten too big to pickle for the rindes and then using the smaller ones to pickle.

Then I tried to google the term to see if I could find it in the Old English or some old recipes or something... Let's just say don't do that. None of the results had anything to do with cooking.

I found a couple of Old English dictionaries but neither of them had entries for rind, rinde, or rindes.

I guess the search wasn't a complete loss, I found a really cool website called "Uncle Phaedrus, Consulting Detective and Finder of Lost Recipes" that seemed like a really fun recipe site. I'm going to check it out more in a bit. They had some recipes for "Stickles" which are pickles made out of the big almost yellow but not rotten cukes.

 

[Boogity]

OK thanks. If it's OK with you, can we use this thread to discuss stuff that we find in the book? I sat out on our front porch this morning for two hours reading the book and I have had some puzzled looks on my face I'm sure.

Isn't it amazing what we can stumble across on the internet? Speaking of stumbling . . . there is a cool website at www.stumbleupon.com/ You can tell it your interests and it will find hundreds of sites in that genre. Very interesting.

 

[framing fowl]

Fine by me! What did you think of the intro? I was laughing so hard it took me a couple of times through.

I made the pie crust recipe last night. It turned out so good! Don't tell my MIL but I'm retiring her recipe. This one had better taste and texture and was faster to whip together. Plus, who doesn't want to feel "slatternly" as they're making the dough?

 

[Homemaker]

I think I'm going to get a copy to read on our campout coming soon. I'm excited. For, the campout and the book.

 

[Boogity]

That's how I read it although it seems wasteful to use some cukes for the brine and then tossing them.

I'm sure we could slice the peeled cukes for lunch or supper.

Oh! By the way, I want to let you folks know that I received my book order from amazon.com and this is the first time I have ordered USED books through them. I think I'll do this every time I'm able. The books were very inexpensive and all three were new. All three look like they had never been opened. $17.04 including shipping for three books - sweet.

 

[TanksHill]

I love Amazon.

I do usually look for sellers on the west coast. Even if it's a few cents more the delivery time is always much better for me.

g

 

[FarmerChick]

I don't need a book cause I 'glug' and 'dollop' and 'a splash of'--all the time
I never cook for real. I throw together meals fast as I can and hopefully as tasty as I can. but my staple is BBQ and I can't go wrong on that one

it isn't time for me why I hate cooking, I just don't like it at all. which is bad cause I love to EAT!!!!

 

[BeccaOH]

I can't seem to have too many cookbooks, so I headed over to Amazon to check this one out. I'm a bit turned off by the style of recipes being in more of a story/text format than an ingredients list, but I may get a used copy.

When searching for it, the book Forgotten Skills of Cooking came up, and I love this review they listed:
"Ms. Allen runs the great cookery school at Ballymaloe, Ireland, near Cork, and this whopper of a book includes foraging among its 'forgottens,' along with how to draw and pluck birds, make butter and cheese, and tend hens. It doesn't tell how to milk a cow, though." --Wall St. Journal (London), Best Food Books of 2009

Foraging and butchering poultry are right up my alley. LOL Too bad this one doesn't have great used prices yet.

 

[framing fowl]

Becca,

If you like your recipes to have an ingredient list and then the directions, don't get this book. You most likely won't like it!