Rather wonderful but mostly unseen
- rosemary
- Jul 16
- 8 min read
"Language is a funny thing. Most of us know what good writing looks like, but few of us can actually write good." Ellie
It's time for a look at another blogger, and today it's the turn of The Past is a Foreign Pantry, which, just to show how careless I am, I originally read as The Pasta is a Foreign Pantry - which is another potentially interesting variant on LP Hartley's quote "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there". Somebody should try to do something with it perhaps.
This is Ellie - the writer of said blog - who has a Facebook page too. As you can see from the Facebook logo her readership is way larger than mine, but nevertheless small in terms of the internet. I actually tried to subscribe to boost her numbers but was told I was already subscribed to too many other posts, which is not true. A technical glitch associated to WordPress I think, not Ellie - whose surname is, I think, Murphy, but I'm not sure. I do know she is British and she has a toddler, a mum and best friends but that's about it.
As you can see from the logo of the website both the title and the subtitle show the author's playful way with words - I'm sure some would say twee, or annoying, but I just find it clever, and yes, funny, because I probably agree with her opening statement:
I’ve never actually read The Go-Between but I assume that it exists, like all great novels, to provide a useful quote to showcase my fragile intellect and act as a punny title for my amateurish blog attempts."
On her About page there is a brief explanation of who she is and why the blog, which I reproduce here, because it shows a bit of her style:
"Ellie decided to become a teacher when she realised that schools would pay her to combine the two things she loved the most: history and the sound of her own voice.
After a few years she could no longer deny her third love: food. No one would pay her to witter on about food and history, so she decided to do it for free here in this blog instead.
To date, she has achieved exactly zero culinary qualifications, although she did manage a history degree. This means that she often gets very excited when reading historical recipes but very angry (and messy) when trying to recreate them."
I think I must have come across her when something historical came up somewhere, and I was taken by the title of the blog, and also by the actual research that had gone into the posts, and the inviting way that it was presented.
She doesn't seem to write these posts very often - the blog began in 2020 and the most recent post I could find was in January of this year. And there don't seem to be that many posts, but then she's a young mum, and if she is still working as a teacher I doubt she has much spare time to write a blog. She divides her posts into sections - Ancient; Medieval, Tudor and Stuart; Georgian and Victorian; 20th century and modern and General. So I've decided to give you a sample from each section.
Kanasu broth - Ancient
The recipe is interesting, and I shall come to it, but where this post is particularly interesting is what she tells us about Sumerian writing.- the most ancient in the world. She lists some of the wonderful things that were written:
“A heart never created hatred; speech created hatred.”
“Putting unwashed hands to one’s mouth is disgusting.”
"Your worthiness is the result of chance.”
“Your role in life is unknown.”
and then she goes on to say why the recipes found on this tablet - Tablet A. The Babylonian Collection at Yale University is so brief, with a detailed explanation of how one wrote on clay and also with a detailed explanation of how cuneiform changed its form over a period of around three thousand years.
The recipe was written in the Old Babylonian period shown on this diagram, but in Akkadian. Anyway - a detailed and informative, history but easy to read, and demonstrating that:
"Basically it boils down to this: cuneiform script could be relatively time consuming to copy out and the meanings could be pretty unclear."
Just one of the reasons why the recipe for this dish is so short:
"Leg of mutton is used. Prepare water add fat. Samidu; coriander; cumin; and kanasu. Assemble all the ingredients in the cooking vessel and sprinkle with crushed garlic. Then blend into the pot suhutinnu and mint." Recipe 23"
On of the other reasons she gives for the shortness, is that the cooks knew what they were doing and didn't need elaborate instructions - so they knew what 'prepare water add fat meant'. Ellie had to guess.
Then we have a lengthy explanation of the unknown words and their derivation - e.g samidu, which, the experts eventually decided was semolina.
It was all very interesting, and the accompanying video of her making the dish, explaining why she did this is worth watching:
"And the food itself? Delicious! Far more stew like than broth in my opinion, which I actually preferred. The mutton gave it a stronger flavour than lamb, but it wasn’t too dissimilar. The mint worked exceptionally well (who would have thought that the lamb/mint combo stretched back so far?!) and the spices were subtle enough to add depth, but not so overpowering that they drowned out the other flavours. In fact, I could probably have added half a teaspoon more than I did."
Appulmoy - Medieval
This one is from A Forme of Cury - the very first English cookbook from Richard II's kitchens. And the dish is a kind of apple purée that is so thick after resting for a while, that it can be sliced.
"Take Apples and seeþ hem in water, drawe hem thurgh a straynour. take almaunde mylke & hony and flour of Rys, safroun and powdour fort and salt. and seeþ it stondyng"
A shorter post, no video, but some information about the dating of New Year, Christmas, Jesus' nativity and all that, as well as learning that Richard's birthday was on January 6th. And the result? "a delicious and quick and easy dish to make. It was perfect for the bitter January weather, and a pleasant antidote to weeks of roasted meat and potatoes."
Buttered beer or Ale Otherways - Tudor and Stuart - 1660 for this one.
The idea doesn't sound all that tempting -
"Boil beer or ale and scum it, then have six eggs, whites and all, and beat them in a flaggon or quart pot with the shells, some butter, sugar, and nutmeg, put them together, and being well brewed, drink it when you go to bed." Robert May, The Accomplisht Cook
Boiling beer, and adding eggs - even the shells - and butter, but:
"All in all, this was not too bad. Not too bad at all. It was very rich and thick, almost dessert like and there was a hint of brandy and Christmas pudding to it (though that might have been psychosomatic given the context.) I don’t actually like beer but found I could drink half of this easily."
Sugar ginger bread - Georgian and Victorian
Another New Year's post which leaves me wondering whether she starts the new year with the resolution of continuing regularly, and then fails to do so. It being New Year, however, we learn more about Jesus, circumcision, gift giving and holidays around this time of year, as well as the changing of calendars and dates.
"Take two pounds of the nicest brown sugar, dry and pound it, put it into three quarts of flour, add a large cup full of powdered ginger, and sift the mixture; wash the salt out of a pound of butter, and cream it; have twelve eggs well beaten; work into the butter first, the mixture, then the froth from the eggs, until all are in, and it is quite light; add a glass of brandy butter shallow moulds, pour it in, and bake in a quick oven." The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph
More ginger than sugar, her conclusion was that:
"Once cut open and tried the verdict was that they 1) were not overly sweet, 2) would go well with a sharp cheddar, and 3) packed so much of a spicy gingery punch that they could scare away a threatening New Years cold."
Hunter's stew - 20th century and modern
The lessons to be learnt in this particular post are the courting customs of February 29th, when traditionally St. Patrick is said to have agreed to women being able to propose marriage on the 29th.
Weirdly the recipe comes from Baden-Powells' Scouting for Boys, mostly because of the hunting reference - for a man as well as for wild animals:
"Hunter’s Stew – chop your meat into small chunks about an inch or one and half square inches. Scrape and chop up any vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, onions etc, and put them into your ‘billy’.
Add clean water or soup till it is half full.
Mix some flour, salt and pepper together, and rub your meat well in it, and put this in the ‘billy’. There should be enough water just to cover the food – no more.
Let the ‘billy’ stand in the embers and simmer for about one hour and a quarter. The potatoes take the longest to cook. When these are soft (which you try with a fork) enough not to lift out, the whole stew is cooked." Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys
And she pronounced that:
"once it was cooked – wow. Such a simple recipe yet it really packed a punch, even in the comfort of my own home. I can imagine that were I out in my tent on a cold night this would be like ambrosia. The gravy was salty and rich, just how I like my men, and had percolated through the fluffy insides of the potatoes so that everything tasted of beef and salt – delicious."
Clarified punch or a Cup of stars - General
This is a review of a cookbook - A Gothic Cookbook whose intent is:
"a celebration of food in Gothic literature. It’s about highlighting how authors in the genre, from the Romantic era to contemporary novelists, write evocatively about food. They use it, to varying degrees, to heighten tension, spotlight inequalities, highlight oppression, create a queasy unease, portend doom, reignite memories (warm or terrifying), or to warn of a greedy, gluttonous, dangerous nature."
The recipe is for the above cocktail which is pronounced good:
"I’m not normally a liquor fan, but this cocktail might just convert me. It was light and sweet with a refreshing lemony twist, but the rum still caught the back of my throat with its spicy, molasses-tinged heat."
It was a mildly interesting post, but the following one on Eurovision was hilarious - the first part, and the second - the historical part, was also drily witty and informative about song contests from ancient times until now.
Such a wonderful blog. I wish she would write more often, and also that I could find a way to subscribe. She deserves so many more followers than she has.
YEARS GONE BY
July 16
2024 - Decluttering recipe folders
2023 - Nothing
2021 - Roses and sesame seeds
2020 - Deleted
2019 - Spring greens
2017 - Nothing
2016 - Purple food
All very interesting. This post is another country! 🫠