Lobscouse and Spotted dog - assorted POB goodness

[ysilme]

Since at least one of my flisties is as much of a Age of Sail and naval fiction addict as I am, and another at least shares the love (though I don't know yet the degree of the addiction *g*), I'm going to foist upon you share some assorted goodies belonging to that particular craziness with you. Who knows, even for the non-reader of the books/series there might be something in the company books, music and whatnot.

For startes, I'm going to take the most famous series of the whole Age of Sail-fandom: the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin novels written by Patrick O'Brian. A part of them were turned into one of the best book movies ever, Master and Commander, which came out in 2003. (How awesome is it when the director and screenplay author is already a large fan of the books in question, and has dreamed forever of filming them? Yeah, happened not only with Peter Jackson and LOTR, but also with Peter Weir and MaC, with an absolutely breathtaking result.)
Have the trailer:

Watch on YouTube

Trailer for Master & Commander on Youtube
Starring: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, James DʻArcy
Directed By: Peter Weir

Synopsis: In 1805, aboard the H.M.S. Surprise, the brash Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and his trusted friend, the ship's scholarly surgeon, Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), are ordered to hunt down and capture a powerful French vessel off the South American coast. Though Napoleon is winning the war and the men and their crew face an onslaught of obstacles, including their own internal battles, "Lucky Jack" is determined that nothing will stop the Surprise from completing its mission.

If you're obsesssed with historical detail, this is the movie for you - Peter Weir put the term "detail obsessed" to new heigths, I think *g*. And also the feeling of authenticity while fiming... this is, afaik, the first movie on and about a historical sailing ship where actual filming on a seagoing vessel took place. Also, Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, as many other of the actors, are perfectly cast for the book characters.

An enormous hype concerning the movie, the books, the period and everything around ensued and produced an astonishing number and range of fannish by-products. One of the most quaint, but also well-made of them I'd like to share, also due to sylvanwitch 's question about the nature of a Drowned Baby. You'll have to know that POB, the author, put a considerable amount of English period dishes and cooking traditions into the series, and most of them sound rather weird to the modern ear, and often are as puzzling as the said Drowned Baby (which is a suet pudding) or the Spotted dog (another kind of suet pudding; these being Aubrey's favourites.)

~oOo~

The book is Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Wich It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Anne Chotzinoff Grossmann and Lisa Grossman Thomas.

The most awesome fact about this companion and cookbook is, in my eyes, that the authors went to extreme lengths to present an extremely well-researched and entertaining oeuvre. They dug up all kinds of period recipes, cooking, preparing and preserving techniques, and present us with an abundance of most fascinating facts - and, of course, recipes. All these are tested and tried, doable with current means and ingredients, but still show the wealth and quaintness of 18th/early 19th cooking, dining, and drinking. It'salos quite lovingly decorated with the odd period seafaring song, complete with score (like "Spanish Ladies"), and these cute little drawings typical for a period cookbook.

I'm taking the liberty quoting a bit from the Amazon description:

---Quote---
And Spotted Dog is...? You'll find the recipe in the Grossmans' book, along with excerpts from the Aubrey/Maturin novels and many other authentic 19th-century dishes to test your sense of adventure, your culinary prowess, and possibly your waistline. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is more than a cookbook--it's a window into the past, an inspired piece of culinary detective work, and a delightful gastronomic companion to the novels of Patrick O'Brian.
---End quote---

The subtitle refers to a kind of running gag in the boosk and movies: Captain Aubrey's steward, Preserved [sic] Killick, is not of the most friendly and accommodating sort, always grumbling and groaning along as he prepares his master's food and takes care of this things. When asked about dinner, he usually answers with "Which it's ready when it's ready!" (quoted by memory from some years ago, so please be with me about literary accuracy).

I love this book to pieces, even if I won't ever try out most of the recipes - they're not really veggie-compatible *g*. Otherwise I probably would, just out of curiousity; we've been to a "Captain's Dinner" at a fandom/forum meeting in Hamburg once, complete with several reenactment/living history fans, dressed to the occasion (though naval uniforms of the period are rare, even in the reenactor scene), and complete with the necessary spirits (although consumed in a more 21th century amount) and singing. Due to the majority of the dinner guests being male, the singing left nothing to desire and came quite close to the famous movie scene:

Watch on YouTube

Don't forget your old shipmates - Master and Commander (on Youtube)

And now finally, as promised, dear sylvanwitch , the recipe for the Drowned (or boiled) Baby:

4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups raisins
1/2 pound suet, finely grated
Ice Water

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the raisins, breaking them apart (the flour will coat them so they can't clump together). Mix in the suet.
Work in 1-2 tablespoons of ice water. Continue gradually adding ice water until you have a stiff paste (probably about a cup all in all, but that depens on temperature, humidity, dryness of your flour and so on). Work with your hands until it forms a ball. Turn it out onto a well-floured board. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 5 minutes.
Knead the dough until it is shiny and elastic, cover again, let rest another 5 minutes and knead again for 1-2 minutes. Shape the dough into a nice, fat, vaguely cylindrical lump. Wrap the pudding fairly loosely in a well-floured cloth. Tie securely at bth ends (and perhaps also loosely around the middle to keep the cloth from gaping). Immerse the pudding in a pot of rapidly boiling water and cook for 2 1/2 hours, replenishing the water if necessary.

To serve, untie and unroll the cloth. Turn the pudding out onto a board or platter. Serve hot, accompanied by Custard Sauce.

I haven't tried it, even before my veggie times; suet is decidedly not my cup of tea ;o).

Comments

[sylvanwitch]

I had to actually look up what suet is, since it's not something typical in American cuisine. The only other usage I've seen of the word is in a seed cake expressly made for birds that we hang on tree branches or trunks for the woodpeckers and other seed-eaters. Having discovered what it is, I can avow that I will never be trying "Spotted Dick" or "Drowned Baby" (*shudders*) Even when I was a meat-eater (so more than 12 years ago now), I'm not sure I'd have hazarded it.

But I'm so grateful that you've shared this because it helps me envision their meals a bit better, and I may well purchase a copy of the book just to have a fuller picture overall!

Thank you so, so much! *hugs*

[ysilme]

(*shudders*) Even when I was a meat-eater (so more than 12 years ago now), I'm not sure I'd have hazarded it.
Indeed. We don't use it in our national cuisine either, afaik, but I had the misfortune (can't say it otherwise, really) of tasting it without knowing when I first was in the UK in 1986 and getting a real English breakfast. The typical sausages - at least back then - were made with a large part of suet, and I must confess I found the taste rather disgusting.

Please let me know if you're interested in more recipes and/or descriptions. I'm always happy to share! :o) You'll probably want to see what other companion books there are before deciding which ones are a must and which one can live without... for the time being *lol*. We have several by now, but they were collected over several years, too.

[twisted-twister.livejournal.com]

If I may add to the suet discussion: we had to look it up, too, when we read some original Christmas Pudding recipes (as we come from a country that neither celebrates Christmas nor cooks with pig products) and we found the idea of using it in desserts and baking in general rather disgusting. We are not veggies, and we have the odd sausage now and then (now only gluten-free, though), and it may not be the best part of it, but we can tolerate it in savoury dishes. But in pudding???? We use butter, instead. The only suet we use these days in the one that the wild birds enjoy in our fancy feeding station.

[ysilme]

Yeah, that would be the only use I had for suet as well. Even the cats, who get partly raw food, don't get suet, but they don't like it either; I give them goose's and pig's lard. They're not supposed to have vegetable fats, only animal ones for a species-healthy diet.
My non-veggie partner finds the idea of eating suet also disgusting. Perhaps it's one of the things you have to grow up with to like it... my mother is a farmer's daughter, and she loves certain meat dishes that are usually and only done and served after butcher/slaughter sessions (when she was small, it was normal to raise one or two pigs on the own small farm, too, have it slaughtered on the farm in the autumn and then have a year's provisions preserved and canned. My father who grew up war-starved in a large city where any kind of food was rare learend to love this as well when it was sometimes served later, when a cousin of my mother's still with a farm offered certain "delicacies". But I have never been able even to try it, as I found it all absolutely disgusting.

I'm going to look into veggie pudding recipes, since I know there are varieties existing based on certain grain varieties that are supposed to taste delicious; perhaps they can changed into something similar to the 18th century dish.
But is ist still common, then, that "English" sausages contain suet? I have eaten a full English breakfast later on several occasions, also with sausages, but there were always suet-free ones on the offer. Perhaps for tourits, though ;o).

[twisted-twister.livejournal.com]

Yes; as far as we know, they still use suet both in GB and Ireland. Our friends did not understand why we made such a big deal when we realised they used suet in their Christmas pudding....

And as for specific meat products that are not used anymore, where we come from people use a lot more parts of the animal; it makes both financial sense as well as humane - if we kill one animal anyway, we might as well respect its death by usuing it tail-to-nose and not kill another one just because we fancy another stake. of course, it is so culture-related that Herself's family have lots of dishes made of offals, for example, while my own family had dishes made of other bits entirely. Here they have only four or five cuts of meat, (the locals will not eat anything other than well-done stakes and some meat-balls or stew)and they either mince or throw away the rest, and we had to go to our own meat dealer (rare-bread, grass-fed happy animals) to make sure she gets the cuts she wants. They are happy to supply, of course, because it is more eco-friendly.

Great discussion, btw. We got from periodical cooking into subcultures and the socio-geographical aspects of meat consumption.

[ysilme]

Depending on regional dishes, offals and so on are also much used hereabouts as well. Most people I know who stopped using/eating them mostly did so for health reasons, since these animal parts are mostly also these who contain the hightest degree of unhealthy, dangerous or even poisonous matter, from the medicamentation modern meat animals get, and from environmental problems.

Generally, it's probably also a regional thing. You know probably that Germany is famous for its endless "Wurst" varieties, all kinds of sausage often quite different from what other countries know (though as far as I know your cultural heritage is closest to mine in that regard and with the use of animal parts), and many parts not used for direct sale at the butcher's are used to produce the Wurst varieties. When I buy meat for my cats, I always ask for the low quality pieces and - since it's an old-fashioned village butcher - also get a good variety of those. They're usually what is called "marbled", meaning that many strands of fat, membranes and even sinews are inside the meat. But sicne cats have a different digestive system than humans or dogs, they need animal fat, skin, tendons, bones and everything; mainly muscled meat or prime cuts is not "whole" enough for felines by far. My advantage, since that meat costs less.
I don't get offals for them, though, since they have that in their canned food anyway, and for the environmental poison problem. I'm not a complete "raw feeder" (people feeding their cats and dogs only with self-prepared, raw meat call themselves that, rougthly translated), I only go about 30-50% for several reasons. But even complete "raw feeders" are very careful with offals, and one has to calculate the amount carefully as not to imbalance certain nutritient values which would lead to kidney and liver diseases in the cats.

But speaking of cats, I probably can comfort you a little about the whole use of butchered animals all over Europe/the USA: at least where industrial meat-producing is concerned, the non-used parts aren't thrown away. They become canned and dried cat and dog food. In fact, the usage of this is so intense that your average and even most of the high-priced canned animal foods contain mainly the parts non-usable for human digestion.

(to be continued, my answer is too long for one comment)

[ysilme]

Continuing:

I'm setting the following info apart between the lines, since it's not particularly delicous, so you might probably skip it:
-----------------
And that goes down to beaks and claws, lung and brains, skin and sometimes eaven feathers. Everything is used, literally.
-----------------

The animal food industry suggests that what they sell is of a good or even high quality, but that is rubbish. Literally - because the already extremely small meat part of the food containts over 95% slaughterhouse waste. I can't tell for dogs, since I don't know enough about their digestive system and feeding requirements, but for cats/felines and their digestive system, carbohydrates are rather bad. They can't digest it, it makes them fat (while animal fat doesn't) and usually leads to renal failure sooner or later. This is so common that nowadays for cats, overwheigth and renal troubles are treated as normal symptoms of getting older, at an age where a cat is not yet old at all... but I digress.
Anyway, but since the food industry dictates it, the average tinned cat food contains at least 80% of carbohydrates. The rest containts 4-8% "meat" at all - not more. And from this 4-8%, over 95% consists of slaugtherhouse waste. Most cat foods have never even seen muscle meat at all .
There are some products only containing meat, no carbohydrates - and they're not even necessarily more expensive than the average cat food (though the kind you can buy in every supermarket is already the lowest of low qualities, despite the advertisement promises). We feed partly this kind of canned food that contains no carbohydrates - but it still consists mainly of slaughterhouse waste. So I'm complementing this with raw food. It's not ideal, totally raw food would be better, but for several reasons I don't manage - and can't afford it for four cats. So the raw meat I give contains mostly of fat muscled meat to counter the quality of the canned food.

Great discussion, btw. We got from periodical cooking into subcultures and the socio-geographical aspects of meat consumption.
Indeed! :o)