Newspapers / West Craven Highlights (Vanceboro, … / Nov. 24, 1988, edition 1 / Page 6
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PAGE 6 - WEST CRAVEN HIGHLIGHTS - NOVEMBER 24,1988 While (rosling a 12lh-Nlghl cake, Shirley Willis, the head chef at Tryon Palace, New Bern, said the question she is most often asked is “How can you gel such beautiful results cooking in a dutch oven?" A dutch oven Is a cast Iron pot with a tight fitting lid that Is placed in the open fireplace. Hot coals are piled around and on top if it. “Cooking timss vary depending on how cold or humid the kit chen is.” she said. started cooking for the Tryon Palace Christmas Celebration in June, ” Shirley Willis has been cooking in the 18th- century kitchen fireplace and brahive ovens for three years. She will prepare all of the authentic period dishes in display during the Christmas celebration at Tryon Palace, North Carolina’s colonial capital, December 8 through 21. "1 had to interpret the recipes (sp. receipts), find the ingredients, and cook each dish that will be displayed at Christmas to see how it tastes, looks and if it will stand up to 14 days of display. I started in June,” she said. Food played the major role in an 18th- century party or celebration. A colonial cook would have begun preparations early for the formal opening of the Palace on December 5, 1770. Guests would come by horse and car riage through wilderness trails from all parts of the province. They would be hungry. The guest list and dinner plans had to be prepared far in advance. Apples, bananas. A Very Rich Twelfth Cake Put into seven pounds o/ fine fiouT. two pounds and a half of fresh butter, and seven pounds of nicely picked and cleansed currants: with two large nutmegs. ha(f an ounce of mace, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and o pound of loaf sugar, all finely beaten and grated; sixteen eggs, leaving out four whites; and a pint and a half of the best yeast. Warm as much cream as will wet this mass, ond pour mountain wine to make it as thick as batter; beat, grossly, a pound of almonds, mountain and oronge*/Iower water, and put in a pound and a half of candied orange, lemon, and citron peel. Mix the whole well together; ond put the cake into a hoop with paste under it. to save the bottom while it is baking. Fomily Receipt-Book, London, ca. 1811 Cream until light 1 lb. butter 1 cup light brown sugar Beat until thick and lemon colored and add 9 egg yolks Beat until stiff but not dry 9 egg whites Fold in a second cup of light brown sugar and add to first mixture. Sift 3^4 cups flour 2 teaspoons mace 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon soda Stir into flour mixture 3 lbs. currants 2 lbs. seeded raisins cut into small pieces ^4 cup almonds blanched and chipped or cut into strips Add to first mixture. line deep pans with waxed paper buttered on both sides. Fill each ^ full, adding as you go layers of 1 cup dtron and candied peel cut into thin strips. Cover loosely with buttered paper and tie firmly in place. Steam 3 hours and bake 14 hours in a slow oven (300* F.). Or bake 4 hours at 275* F. without steaming. Rich fniitcake is always more satisfactory if part of the cooking is accomplished by steaming. Press surface with finger; if cake feels firm and does not retain imprint of finger, it is done. A wire cake tester, inserted in center of cake, will come out clean and dry if cake is done. Run knife around inside of pans and remove cake when nearly cool. Slice with very sharp kdfe. (Adapted from Fanny Farmer, The Boston Cooking School ('ook Book. Boston, 1936.) Called in the 1770*8, **the most beautiful building In the Americas,*' the colonial capital of North Carolina, Tryon Palace, awaits It's Christmas visitors. Tryon Palace. December 8th through 21. 1988 Recipe for an Historic Christmas Celebration ffi Colonial guests had “quite a sweet tooth". Shirley displays a hedge hog made of sweet blanched almonds. oranges, pineapples were shipped in barrels, spices in casks, butter in firkins. Salt and sugar came in blocks to be chipped and hand ground. Fruit and flowers were glazed by boiling and powdering to make edible table decorations. Many ingredients had to be shipped by sailing vessels. Since Shirley’s recipes are authentic, fin ding some of the foodstuffs on display was almost as difficult. lUk.VMKiqieMieMIUliaMWMMMWMKMaMHMaMMSMMMiMWflWMKMWMIkMIUtlltriitIMAMMk Here are some favorite 18th-century Christmas recipes (The modern equivalents are also given so you, too, can cook them.) WMMMKMIkMWMia'lPIIIMIIIMMMIIMaMWltlKM To Make Pastils (Small Mint Candies) Take double^refin’d Sugar beoten and sifted as fine as Flour: perfume K with Musk and Ambergrease: then have ready steeped some Gum arabick in Orange-jflower Water, and with that make the sugar into a stQf Paste: drop into some of it 3 or 4 Drops o/ Oil of Mint, or Oil ojT Cloves, or Oil of Cinnamon, or of what Oil you like, and let some only have the Perfume: then roll them up in your Hand like little Pellets, and squeeze them flat with a Seal. Dry them in the Sun. E. Smith, The Compieat Housewife, WUIiamsburg,1742 Simmer until dissolved 1 tablespoon gelatin 4 cup water Add to 1 cup 4X sugar or more 4 drops peppermint or spearmint oil, oil of cloves or cinnamon, lemon or orange oil, or almond extract 4 drops appropriate vegetable coloring Roll into balls and flatten with a seal or fork to make pastilles. To Make Whipt Syllabubs Take a quart of Cream, not to thick, and a Pint of Socli, and the Jutce of two Lemon,; sweeten tt to your Palate, and put It into a broad earthen Pan, and with a Whisk whip tt, and as the Froth rises, tahe it off wfth a Spoon, and toy It Into your Syliabub glasses: but first you must sweeten some Claret, or Sack, or White wine, and strain it, and pul seven or eight Spoonfuls of the Wjne Into your Glasses, and then lay In your Froth. Set them by. Do not make tkem iong before you use them. E. Smith. The Compieat Housewife, WUUamsburg, 1742 Stir well Vk cup granulated sugar 1 Vk cups red or white wine or sherry 2 cups half.and-half grated rind and juice of 1 lemon Pour into wineglasses. Whip ^ pint heavy cream 4 cup 4X sugar V. cup red or white wine or sherry graM rind and juice of 1 lemon Pile as high as pt^ible on the glasses of cream mixture. Drink with the help of a spoon. (Note: Red wine and cream produce a blue pink rather unappealing to the twentieth-century eye.) If a gentleman found the dried bean in his slice of the 12th-Night cake baked for an 18th- century Christinas party, it became his honor and expense to host the party the following year. A colonial lady might spend six months sewing the dress she planned to wear at the party and as much as two weeks getting to the party over forest paths and muddy roads by horse and and carriage. The big treat for the guests were the tables laden with fo^, the desserts, the music and the dancing. Each year the host tried to outdo the festivities of past years. ’This year Tryon Palace has found the bean. You are invited. — There will be tables of food cooked from 18th-century recipes, dancing to the harpsichord and violin, caroling, wassail for all, and visual treats of elaborate natural decorations. ’The party will be in New Bern, the colonial capital of North Carolina. It will last from December 8 through 21. When Josiah Martin was governor of the province of North Carolina (he suceeded William ’Tryon), he held events he called “grand illuminations”. S|>ecial Candlelight tours, lit by more than 800 candles and torches, are scheduled for the evenings of December 8,9,10,15,16 and 17 from 5 to 8 p.m. During those times dancers will perform the minuet to 1^-century music in the Palace's Council Chamber. There will be other period entertainment and carolers in the Palace Courtyard. In charge of the arrangements for this year’s Christmas Celebration at the Palace is Susan Ferguson, Assistant Horticulturist. She, along with Horticulturist, Herb Rea, decorators Dixie Dixon, New Bern, Pat Dixon, Bayboro, Allen Toler, New Bern, and Shirley Willis, Palace cook, will be assisted in preparing the decorations and food by more than 20 volunteers. “In the dining room,” Susan says, “there will be a dessert temple display. A miniature tem ple, built by Bill Widener of the Palace staff, will be the centerpiece in a picturesque and romantic scene.” ‘Die scene is created with candied fruits and flowers - - sweetmeats. Decorations will also be lavish in the other buildings on display during the Christmas Celebra tion: the John Wright Stanly house, built in 1783, the. Dixon-Stevenson house, 18^, the Jones house, used as a civil war prison, and the Commission House of the 1880 era; all will be decorated in styles ap propriate to their period. The Jones house, home for the Eastern office of the Governor, will have a Christmas tree decorated with apples, cotton balls, handwrapped tobacco, peanut garlands - - all North Carolina products. The reception center at the comer of Pollock and George Streets will be lushly decorated for the first time, and will feature an interpretive display of the materials used in Tryon Palace decoration, along with furniture and doll exhibits. The traditional wassail and ginger cookies will be served to all visitors in the decorated dining room of the Victorian Commission House. Daytime hours, Dec. 8 through Dec. 21, for the Christmas Celebration will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Sundays. Tickets for the daytime and candlelight tours are the same price. Certainly, William Tryon, Governor and Commander-in-Chief over his Majesty’s Province of North Carolina, would have wanted you to come to his party. So, put on your best suit, your fanciest frock and hope your horse doesn’t throw a shoe on your way to the “very grand and noble Entertain ment and Ball at the Palace.” A hostess, Betsy Ward, descends the "Great Staircase” of polished mahogany In tha Palace. The newel post Is decorated with evergreens and fruit. Photos and Story by George H. Hall Above — Outside doorways of the Palace and associated buildings are decorated with displays of fruit and greenery. Below — Decorafors vie for new designs In In terior displays based on authentic styles of the period. Carolers aeronada visitors with songs of |oy from under the outside collonada between the candlelight tours.
West Craven Highlights (Vanceboro, N.C.)
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Nov. 24, 1988, edition 1
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