Sunday, October 20 – 12:30pm
It’s been a busy last several months in which I wasn’t able to attend any of our Cookbook Club events, so I’m extra happy to be writing about our October event. It was such fun catching up with some old friends and meeting a bunch of new ones who have joined Cookbook Club since the last time I was able to attend! The cookbook was Tasting History by Max Miller. Originating as a YouTube channel and now in cookbook form, it provides historical recipes from around the world.
Ingrid and John hosted us in their lovely backyard, and had a special surprise in store… a guest appearance via Zoom by author of the cookbook, Max Miller! He was fantastic, chatting with each of us about the recipes we made, answering questions, and telling us a bit about the next book he’s working on. We feasted, the mead flowed (made by Ingrid and John’s son), and a good time was had by all.
The Menu
Tak made Potage d’Onions au Lait (Onion Soup with Milk). It’s old school French Onion Soup – made with nothing more than milk, water, onion, butter, salt, and pepper, with toasts floated on top. Despite its simplicity, it was quite tasty. Chalk one up for milk being just as good as beef broth!
Devon made Medieval Trencher (Torte Bread). She warned us it was pretty bland, and she wasn’t wrong. But I guess that’s how it’s supposed to be, since it was used back in the day as a plate to place other food on. It served that purpose well as a vehicle for goat cheese, olive oil, and Epityrum (see below).
Katherine made Epityrum. It’s like an olive tapenade with some extra herbs. The book recommended serving it with goat cheese, bread, and olive oil. She provided breads and crudite to eat it with, but since the Medieval Trencher was pretty bland, I decided to use it as my base – which worked out great and the Epityrum was one of my favorite dishes.
Ondrea made The Original Caesar Salad. Apparently the original used Worcestershire sauce rather than anchovies. Ondrea shared that she prefers it with anchovies, and I agree with her. Maybe it’s just what we’ve gotten used to, but it seemed like it was missing something without it.
Drew made Saag. This was a surprise winner for a lot of people – it doesn’t look like much, but it was delicious. It put out incredible aromas as soon as Drew took the lid off of it. I’m putting it on my list of recipes to make myself.
Ingrid made Pomodori Farciti all’Erbette. She was concerned that they leaked a bit, but I thought they still looked amazing. And what’s not to love about tomatoes stuffed with prosciutto, cheese, onion, and herbs? I bet they were even better hot out of the oven.
Ingrid also made Tuh’u. It is a stew of lamb, beets, leeks, and herbs. The lamb was super tender and the sauce was flavorful. If you can’t tell from the picture, the Tuh’u was in an enormous serving dish, but when I went back for seconds it was pretty much scraped clean.
Daphne made Gayejuk. It’s a very simple Korean dish of pork marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, then garnished with ginger, garlic, and scallions. The recipe called for coating the pork in flour before pan-frying. Daphne did half that way, and half without flour for the gluten-free folks, and said she actually preferred it without the flour.
John made Sauce with Herbs for Fried Fish. This was hands-down my number one dish. The sauce was absolutely fantastic – made with dates, herbs, honey, red wine vinegar, and fish sauce. Yep, fish sauce. This is an old Roman recipe… I’ve always associated fish sauce with Asian food before, but now I think I’m going to start using it in my Italian cooking.
Kamy made Globi. She said the book described them as cheesecake bites which is what got her excited to try them, but she found them rather disappointing. Maybe the description set the wrong expectation, because I tended to agree that these were underwhelming – somewhere between savory and sweet but seemingly not enough of either.
Greg made Pancakes. The recipe didn’t say to serve them with maple syrup or any other topping, so we ate them plain to stay true to the cookbook. They tasted like plain pancakes. But I’m not the best person to judge this dish, as I don’t generally go in for pancakes.
Anthony made Parmesan Cheese Ice Cream. He was weirded out that the recipe called for whole eggs rather than just yolks, and felt that the ice cream tasted too cheesy. By itself I didn’t find it stood out, but Katherine had brought some poached pears (not from the cookbook) and the pairing of the pears and ice cream was wonderful.
Tammy made Semlor (Hettwagg med mandel). These are buns with an almond filling. She said they were a lot of work, but look how beautifully she made them! The traditional version soaked the buns in sweet milk, but Tammy didn’t want them to get soggy so she went with the “modern” recommendation of serving them with whipped cream. They had a nice light sweetness.
Drew also made Pumpkin Tourte. This is almost like a pumpkin cheesecake. Drew said it was a pretty time-consuming recipe, but he chose it because the author said it was his favorite. I’m glad Drew put in the time and effort – it was a tasty treat.
Barbara made Texas Pecan Pie. She said this was a very long and involved recipe, which is saying something since she is a French-trained chef. She ended up cooking the meringue separately to save a bit of time. I’m not usually a huge fan of pecan pie, but I have to say I really enjoyed this one.
I made Aztec Chocolate. It’s made with cacao, honey, vanilla, allspice, and red peppers. The recipe called for 2 red chile peppers, but there are so many different kinds of red chile peppers! I used a Thai chili, but just one since they’re pretty spicy. People really liked this interesting spiced-up hot chocolate. I’d make it again, but with milk instead of just water.
The Verdict
I’ll admit that I did not go into this lunch with particularly high expectations, and I wasn’t the only one. Many of us were a bit apprehensive that a meal from Tasting History might be “interesting, but not necessarily tasty”, as one Cookbook Clubber put it. As it turns out, it was both interesting AND tasty. There must be good reason why these recipes are the pre-cursors to many modern-day favorites.
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