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Welcome to Spike's & Jamie's "Spike’s Good Eatin’ Recipe Collection Archives"!!  Here we store all the back issues of the original "Spike’s Good Eatin’ Recipe Collection" and of the "Spike’s Jewish Good Eatin’ Recipe Collection". These newsletters were written by Spike (Jann McCormick) and published by Jamie from 2000 until Spike's death in 2008.  Spike loved to cook and share her cooking with those she loved.  Sharing her recipes was the next best thing.

[Spike’s Good Eatin’ Recipe Collection]   [Spike’s Jewish Good Eatin’ Recipes] 

May 24, 2006
from: Spike's and Jamie's Recipe Collection
http://www.spike-jamie.com

Many of these recipes have not yet been added to the recipe web site, so you are getting a "sneak peek" of future additions. We hope you enjoy these recipes. Spike's comments are in []Brackets[].

Shalom, from
Spike the Grate & Jamie the Webmistress

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[] Good Morning! (or whatever time you get this) I recently was able to acquire a very old cookbook, with some interesting recipes. I will share a few of them with you at this time. I chose not to correct the spelling; however, I may suggest that “ochras” is probably “okra.” Directions For Cookery was written in 1837 by Eliza Leslie. []

FAMILY SOUP

Take a shin or leg of beef that has been newly killed; the fore leg is best, as there is the most meat on it. Have it cut into three pieces, and wash it well. To each pound allow somewhat less than a quart of water; for instance, to ten pounds of leg of beef, nine quarts of water is a good proportion. Put it into a large pot, and add half a table-spoonful of salt. Hang it over a good fire, as early as six o'clock in the morning, if you dine at two. When it has come to a hard boil, and the scum has risen, (which it will do as soon as it has boiled,) skim it well. Do not remove the lid more frequently than is absolutely necessary, as uncovering the pot causes the flavour to evaporate. Then set it on hot coals in the corner, and keep it simmering steadily, adding fresh coals so as to continue a regular heat.

About nine o'clock, put in four carrots, one parsnip, and a large onion cut into slices, and four small turnips, and eight tomatas, also cut up; add a head of celery cut small. Put in a very small head of cabbage, cut into little pieces. If you have any objection to cabbage, substitute a larger proportion of the other vegetables. Put in also a bunch of sweet marjoram, tied up in a thin muslin rag to prevent its floating on the top.

Let the soup simmer unceasingly till two o'clock, skimming it well: then take it up, and put it into a tureen. If your dinner hour is later, you may of course begin the soup later; but it will require at least eight hours' cooking; remembering to put in the vegetables three hours after the meat.

If you wish to send the meat to table, take the best part of it out of the soup, about two hours before dinner. Have ready another pot with a dozen tomatas and a few cloves. Moisten them with a little of the soup, just sufficient to keep them from burning. When the tomatas have stewed down soft, put the meat upon them, and let it brown till dinner time over a few coals, keeping the pot closely covered; then send it to table on a dish by itself. Let the remainder of the meat be left in the large pot till you send up the soup, as by that time it will be boiled to rags and have transferred all its flavour to the liquid.

This soup will be greatly improved by the addition of a few dozen ochras cut into very thin slices, and put in with the other vegetables. You may put Lima beans into it, green peas, or indeed any vegetables you like: or you may thicken it with ochras and tomatas only.

Next day, take what is left of the soup, put it into a pot, and simmer it over hot coals for half an hour: a longer time will weaken the taste. If it has been well made and kept in a cool place, it will be found better the second day than the first.

If your family is very small, and the leg of beef large, and the season winter, it may furnish soup for four successive days. Cut the beef in half; make soup of the first half, in the manner above directed, and have the remainder warmed next day; then on the third day make fresh soup of the second half.

We have been minute in these directions; for if strictly followed, the soup, though plain, will be found excellent.

If you do not intend to serve up the meat separately, break to pieces all the bones with a mallet or kitchen cleaver. This, by causing them to give out their marrow, &c., will greatly enrich the liquid. Do this, of course, when you first begin the soup.

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[] The following information will help any of our readers who may be embarking upon a lengthy sea voyage, presumably by sail. []

TO PRESERVE CREAM.

Take four quarts of new cream; it must he of the richest quality, and have no milk mixed with it. Put it into a preserving kettle, and simmer it gently over the fire; carefully taking off whatever scum may rise to the top, till nothing more appears. Then stir, gradually, into it four pounds of double-refined loaf-sugar that has been finely powdered and sifted. Let the cream and sugar boil briskly together half an hour; skimming it, if necessary, and afterwards stirring it as long as it continues on the fire. Put it into small bottles; and when it is cold, cork it, and secure the corks with melted rosin. This cream, if properly prepared, will keep perfectly good during a long sea voyage.

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[] There is also a recipe for calves-feet jelly, but probably would be a waste of space on your computers. I’ll look for a dessert, and then find another source. []

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QUEEN CAKE.

Sift fourteen ounces of the finest flour, being two ounces less than a pound. Cakes baked in little tins, should have a smaller proportion of flour than those that are done in large loaves. Prepare a table-spoonful of beaten cinnamon, a tea-spoonful of mace, and two beaten nutmegs; and mix them all together when powdered. Mix in a tumbler, half a glass of white wine, half a glass of brandy, and half a glass of rose water. Powder a pound of loaf-sugar, and sift it into a deep pan; cut up in it a pound of fresh butter; warm them by the fire, and stir them to a cream. Add gradually the spice and the liquor. Beat ten eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture in turn with the flour. Stir in twelve drops of essence of lemon, and beat the whole very hard. Butter some little tins; half fill them with the mixture; set them into a brisk oven, and cake them about a quarter of an hour. When done, they will shrink from the sides of the tins. After you turn them out, spread them on an inverted sieve to cool. If you have occasion to fill your tins a second time, scrape and wipe them well before they are used again.

Make an icing flavoured with oil of lemon, or with extract of roses; and spread two coats of it on the queen cakes. Set them to dry in a warm place, but not near enough the fire to discolour the icing and cause it to crack. Queen cakes are best the day they are baked.

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[] This is from “Domestic Cookery” by Elizabeth Lea, written in 1845. []

CUCUMBERS, TO FRY OR SLICE.

To fry cucumbers, take off the rinds in long pieces, a quarter of an inch thick; season them with pepper and salt; dip them in flour, and fry them in butter.

Many persons think cucumbers unwholesome, and they certainly are if kept for several days before they are eaten; but if sliced thin, with onions, pepper, salt and good vinegar, they may generally be eaten without danger.

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[] I’m glad to see that cucumbers are not dangerous. Here is a remedy for whooping cough (pertussis) which seems to be returning to plague us. []

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FOR WHOOPING COUGH.

Dissolve a scruple of salts of tartar in a gill of water, put in half a scruple of pulverized cochineal, sweeten it with loaf sugar, give an infant a teaspoonful of this mixture four times a day, and a child four years old or upwards, a tablespoonful. In some cases the relief is instantaneous.

[] One scruple is 1.295 grains, or 1/24 of an ounce. That’s not much. There is another kind of scruple, and that is what Jamie and I have in abundance; at least enough to remark that many of these old remedies are downright dangerous and not to be used. []

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[]Here is a wonderful NEW recipe: []

HAM 'N' CHEESE SALAD

Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Salad:
1 can (15.5 ounces) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15.5 ounces) white beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15.5 ounces) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 pound smoked ham, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 pound Swiss cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 large head red leaf lettuce, rinsed and dried

Dressing: Whisk together mayonnaise, buttermilk, sour cream, garlic powder, salt and pepper in small bowl until smooth. Mix in parsley. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Salad: Gently fold together pinto beans, white beans, kidney beans, ham, cheese and cucumber in large bowl. Fold in dressing until salad ingredients are evenly coated.

To serve, arrange lettuce over bottom and up sides of large bowl. Mound bean mixture in center.

Makes 8 servings.

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[] It is wonderful to see, by reading an old cookbook, what blessings our current eating technology bring to us! We don’t have to kill anything – it comes in a package. We don’t have to dig our veggies –they come already washed, in plastic bags – or frozen or canned. We don’t have to carry wood to heat our stoves. We don’t have to hire professional weight lifters to get our pot out of the fireplace. We don’t have to pump or carry the water to wash our dishes. It is all just a marvel! []

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