Dining at Downton Abbey
Beginning after the horrible news of the sinking of the Titanic and just before WWI, the drama takes place in a rather tradtional setting being thrust into a rapidly changing, modern world.
These recipes are in part based on dishes both mentioned, and cooked, in the television movie with spaces filled in by examining menus from the era.
The menu:
Dried Bean Soup and Boiled Salmon with Tartare Sauce
Mutton Kidneys With Mushrooms -and- Stewed Brisket of Beef
Broiled cod with Anchovy and Caper Sauce
Mulligatawny Soup
Apple Charlotte -and- Raspberry Meringue
Dinner
Dried Bean Soup
- 1 pint dried beans.
- 4 quarts water.
- 1 large onion, minced fine.
- 4 tablespoonfuls sweet drippings or butter which gives a better flavor.
- 3 tablespoonfuls flour.
- 1 tablespoonful minced celery or a
- few dried celery leaves. 1/2 teaspoonful pepper.
- 2 teaspoonfuls salt.
"Wash the beans and soak them over night in cold water. In the morning pour off the water and put them in the soup pot with 3 quarts of cold water. Place on the fire and when the water comes to the boiling point pour it off (throw this water away). Add 4 quarts of boiling water to the beans and place the soup pot where the contents will simmer for four hours. Add the celery the last hour of cooking. Cook the onion and drippings slowly in a stewpan for half an hour. Drain the water from the beans (save this water) and put them in the stewpan with the onions and drippings. Then add the flour and cook half an hour, stirring often. At the end of this time mash fine and gradually add the water in which the beans were boiled until the soup is like thick cream. Then rub through a puree sieve and return to the fire; add the salt and pepper and cook twenty minutes or more. Any kind of beans may be used for this soup; the Lima beans give the most delicate soup, but the large or small white beans are very satisfactory and are less expensive than the Limas."
"In cold weather the quantities of beans and flavorings may be doubled, but only 6 quarts of water are used. The resulting thick soup can be kept in a cold place and a portion boiled up as required and thinned with meat stock or milk."
"Preparation of Vegetables for the Table", Maria Parloa, 1906
Boiled Salmon
Boil according to the directions given for boiling fish. Truss a small salmon in the form of the letter S. Dish on a folded napkin; and garnish with parsley and coral. Serve with lobster, shrimp, anchovy, or tartare sauce.
"The Skilful Cook...", Mary Harrison, 1905
Tartare Sauce
- 2 yolks.
- ¼ pint of salad oil.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of taragon vinegar.
- 1 teaspoonful of finely-chopped parsley.
- A56 few capers, or a chopped gherkin.
- Pepper and salt.
- If liked, a teaspoonful of ready-made mustard.
"Proceed as in making Mayonnaise Sauce; adding when the sauce is ready the parsley, capers, mustard, and seasoning."
Directions for Mayonnaise Sauce: "Put the yolks, which must be perfectly free from the whites, into a basin, which in summer time should be placed on ice. Work them well with a whisk or wooden spoon, adding the oil drop by drop. When the sauce is so thick that the whisk, or spoon, is moved with difficulty, the oil may be added more quickly, but still very gradually. Lastly, add the taragon vinegar and seasoning."
"Success in making this sauce depends on first dividing the yolks completely from the whites. Secondly, in keeping them and the oil quite cold. Thirdly, on adding the oil, drop by drop, until the sauce is perfectly thick. If the sauce is made in a warm place, or the oil mixed in too quickly, it is apt to curdle. Should this occur, put a yolk in another basin and very slowly add the sauce to it, stirring briskly; this will generally make it smooth again. Two yolks will be sufficient for any quantity of sauce, taragon vinegar being added in proportion to the oil used."
"The Skilful Cook...", Mary Harrison, 1905
The Entrée served: Mutton Kidneys with Mushrooms, A stewed Brisket of Beef, Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes, Broiled Cod with Anchovy sauce and Mulligatawny Soup
Mrs Patmore to Daisy: "Take those kidneys down to the server before I knock you down and serve your brains as Fritters"
Mutton Kidneys With Mushrooms
Sliced kidneys fried in a pari with butter till slightly brown; sliced mushrooms added, and brown sauce, lemon juice, butter, salt, pepper, parsley.
"The Steward's Handbook and Guide to Party Catering", 1889
Stewed Brisket of Beef
- 5 lb. of beef.
- 2 carrots.
- 2 onions.
- 2 turnips.
- 1 head of celery.
- 1 sprig of parsley.
- Marjoram and thyme.
- 2 bay leaves.
- 6 cloves.
- 1 dozen peppercorns.
- 3 quarts of water.
"Put the meat into a saucepan with the vegetables and other ingredients, and simmer gently for three hours. Serve on a hot dish, with some of the liquor for gravy. The remainder can be made into soup. If to be eaten cold, remove the bones, and press the beef. Strain the meat liquor, remove the fat, and boil it down to a glaze. Brush the meat over with it, giving it as many coats of glaze as necessary."
"The Skilful Cook...", Mary Harrison, 1905
Anchovy and Caper Sauce (for the Broiled Cod)
- One anchovy
- one tablespoonful of capers
- half a pint of melted butter
- white pepper
- grated nutmeg.
"Bone an anchovy, chop it very small. and chop up also a tablespoonful of capers. Melt some butter, dredge flour into it, season it with white pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, and flavour it with vinegar from the capers. Stir in the anchovy and capers, and pour the sauce boiling hot round broiled trout or other fish, or over boiled fish."
"Warne's Model Cookery", Mary Jewry, 1879
Mulligatawny Soup
- 1 rabbit or chicken.
- 2 quarts of second stock.
- 1 onion.
- 1 apple.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of curry powder.
- ½ pint of cream.
- 2 oz. of butter or dripping.
- A few drops of lemon juice.
"Cut the rabbit, or chicken, into joints, and fry them in the butter or dripping. Remove them when nicely browned, and fry the apple and onion. Then put the apple, onion, and meat into a stewpan, with the stock, which should be mixed with the curry powder. Simmer very gently for an hour and a half, until the meat is tender. Then remove the meat from the stock, and cut it into neat pieces, convenient for serving in the soup, removing all the bone. Thicken the soup with flour, using about one ounce to every pint of stock. Boil the flour well in the stock, and then rub the soup through a wire sieve. Put it into a stewpan, add the cream, and let it boil in the soup. Put in the pieces of meat; and, just before serving, add a squeeze of lemon juice."
"The Skilful Cook...", Mary Harrison, 1905
Dessert: Apple Charlotte and Raspberry Meringue
Mrs Patmore (cook) "I already planned the dinner, with her, and I can't change it now"
Mrs Elsie Hughes (housekeeper) "why not?"
Mrs Patmore "Because everything has been ordered and prepared"
Mrs Elsie Hughes "There is nothing here that looks very complicated, apples, lemons, butter..."
Mrs Patmore "I can not work from a reciept from a moments notice"
Apple Charlotte
- 2 lb. of apples.
- ½ lb. of moist sugar.
- Grated rind of a lemon.
- Slices of broad.
- Some clarified butter.
"Peel and core the apples, and stew them with the sugar, lemon rind, and a quarter pint of water, until reduced to half the quantity. Take a plain round tin, holding about a pint and a half. Cut a round of stale bread, about one-eighth of an inch thick; dip it in clarified butter, and lay it in the bottom of the mould. Line the sides with slices of bread, cut about an inch wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick, and also dipped in butter. Pour the apple mixture into the mould. Cover with another round of bread dipped in butter; and bake in a moderately quick oven for three quarters of an hour.
For serving, turn it on to a hot dish, and sprinkle castor sugar over it.""The Skilful Cook...", Mary Harrison, 1905
Cora Crawley (Countess of Grantham) "We will stay with the raspberry Meringue"
Mrs Patmore (cook) "And very nice it will be too"
Raspberry Meringue
"Sheet of cake in a pan, berries an inch deep spread over it, sugar, soft meringue an inch deep on top, lightly baked, cut in squares.""The Steward's Handbook and Guide to Party Catering", 1889
