Dining With Jane

LOBSCOUSE AND SPOTTED DOG

Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels

By Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Patricia Grossman Thomas

(Norton, 1997, 287 pp.; $29.95)

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THE JANE AUSTEN COOKBOOK

By Maggie Black and Deirdre Le Faye

(Chicago Review Press, 1995, 126 pp.; $20)

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Americans are having a love affair with Regency England. Two of the hottest-selling writers these days are Patrick O’Brian, author of 17 novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars, and Jane Austen, whose five novels are about the English country gentry of the same time (which was her own time, of course--she died in 1817). It’s been said that O’Brian writes about what the men in Austen’s novels were doing when they weren’t visiting the ladies’ parlors.

So maybe Americans will get interested in Regency-era food. Do you think?

Maybe it could happen. When O’Brian spoke in San Francisco three years ago, a woman rose from the audience and demanded, “When’s the cookbook?”

He seemed mildly surprised, though readers are intrigued by all the historical detail that drenches his novels, and there were already a couple of explanatory companion volumes in the works. And for tales of war and intrigue, his books are surprisingly food-oriented. Whether Capt. Jack Aubrey and the ship’s surgeon-spy Stephen Maturin are facing battle, entertaining fellow officers, languishing in French prisons, negotiating with Asian rulers, surviving shipwrecks or relaxing with their families, they eat.

Inevitably, an O’Brian cookbook has appeared. “Lobscouse and Spotted Dog” includes about 140 recipes referred to in the novels. That doesn’t include every “food” in them, such as most of the distressing things people are driven to eat when marooned. On the other hand, “Lobscouse and Spotted Dog” gives a tested recipe for that shipboard delicacy sauteed rat, which the authors were taken aback to find they liked.

As for lobscouse and spotted dog themselves, they also turn out to be surprisingly tasty. The former was a filling seaman’s hash of potatoes, ship’s biscuit, ham and corned beef, and the latter was a steamed pudding “spotted” with currants.

An Austen cookbook, published about two years ago, likewise gives recipes mentioned in the author’s writings (in this case, including her correspondence), but the attraction is a bit different.

Austen’s fans are interested enough in the Regency period, but they also care about the author herself. Many refer to her as “Jane,” as if they knew her personally.

Here’s the thing: Though it’s filled out with recipes from published 18th century books, “The Jane Austen Cookbook” includes 27 personal recipes of a family friend (and eventual sister-in-law) of Jane Austen who lived with Jane and her mother for 10 years. Several more come from another family friend.

What a thrill for an Austenite. Jane Austen tasted these very recipes.

The two volumes naturally differ in focus. The Austen book gives both homey and banquet-level dishes of the country gentry. “Lobscouse” includes the filling but practically vegetable-free foods of the Navy and a number of exotic foreign dishes. But they’re both basically about turn-of-the-19th century English cookery.

It was much better than English food’s current reputation would lead you to expect. In fact, it was a sort of country cousin of French cuisine.

At its highest levels, it really was French cuisine. Any more or less formal meal looked like a French meal of 40 or 50 years earlier. (It might have been a little more up to date if England hadn’t been at war with France since 1793.)

On its solid basis of roast and boiled meats, it liked to erect structures of color and symmetry, as in a sort of geometrically arranged chef’s salad called salmagundy. In fact, a “course” did not mean just one dish with perhaps a side dish or two, as it does today, but a whole tableful of dishes deployed in geometrical order.

There were homey snacks (hard-boiled eggs with mustard and fried onions) and dishes that had ascended the scale from homey to grand. Syllabub, originally milk from the cow squirted into a bowl of wine, became a wisp of whipped cream with a dose of brandy in it. Ice cream was fashionable, and many foreign ingredients were common, such as Parmesan cheese.

The awkward charcoal ovens of the time made it impossible to bake the modern sort of cake, but there were cookie-like Naples biscuits and “rout cakes” and lots of pies--fruit, meat and vegetable. Often these were massive, free-standing “raised pies” in the medieval tradition. The favorite dessert was steamed pudding, now practically extinct in this country but still a great favorite in Britain.

Most of the flavorings are familiar to us, though we rarely use rose water and orange flower water these days, or flavor a custard with bay leaf. And preserved foods of all kinds played a much larger part than they do today.

Like Colonial-style architecture, this cuisine was orderly, comfortable and confident. Do you suppose Americans will get interested in it? Maybe in a couple of the dishes.

SEA PIE

At sea, pie was constructed in decks, like a ship. This recipe is for a two-decker, or frigate-class, Sea Pie. Grossman and Thomas actually give one for a three-decker, which would serve 10 to 12. To make it, just increase all ingredients by 1/2, build the crust 4 inches high and add a third layer of crust and filling (you could even cut the recipe in half, but then it would no longer be a Sea Pie). The lemon peel flavoring goes unexpectedly well with ham.

HOT WATER PASTE

2 cups water

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1/2 pound lard

9 cups flour

1 tablespoon salt

FORCEMEAT

1/2 pound veal or chicken

1/2 pound bacon

1/4 pound mushrooms

1 onion

1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 egg

1 teaspoon minced parsley

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon minced fresh savory or 1/2 teaspoon dried savory

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Cayenne pepper

ASSEMBLY

12 mushrooms, quartered

2 onions, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch pieces

4 teaspoons butter or oil

2 1/2 pounds ham, cut in 1/2- to 3/4-inch dice

Flour

1 cup peas or diced carrots, optional

4 teaspoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh sage

2 tablespoons minced parsley

Salt, pepper

1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water

1 cup meat stock

HOT WATER PASTE

Warm water, butter and lard in saucepan over moderate heat until butter and lard are melted.

Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Add hot liquid and mix thoroughly. Turn onto lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Cover with damp cloth and let rest in warm place at least 30 minutes.

Divide paste and leave 1/2 under cloth in warm place. Place other 1/2 on thoroughly greased baking sheet or 9-inch baking tin and gradually form into bowl shape, beginning by indenting top with thumbs and pulling paste up and outward with fingers, allowing paste to rest and cool somewhat from time to time, until you have pie crust shape 9 inches across and at least 3 inches high. Smooth dough between palms of hands as you pull it up. Be careful to keep dough in 1 piece; holes or folds will weaken crust. Finished crust should have substantial floor and smooth vertical walls between 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch thick. Refrigerate until set, at least 1 hour.

FORCEMEAT

Mince veal, bacon, mushrooms and onion as fine as possible, or chop up and puree in food processor. Mix thoroughly with bread crumbs, lemon zest, egg, parsley, thyme, savory, salt, pepper and pinch cayenne.

ASSEMBLY

Saute mushrooms and onions in skillet with butter or oil until softened.

Dredge ham in flour.

Remove formed crust from refrigerator. Divide reserved 1/2 Hot Water Paste into 2 parts, 1 slightly larger than other.

Spread thin layer of Forcemeat on bottom of formed crust. Spoon 1/2 fried onion-mushroom mixture and 1/2 ham onto it. Sprinkle with 1/2 peas, 1/2 lemon zest, 1/2 sage, 1/2 parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Roll out smaller part of Hot Water Paste slightly larger than size of formed crust. Cut 1/2-inch hole in center. Place on top of filling, pressing edges gently into walls. Repeat with forcemeat, onion-mushroom mixture, ham and flavorings on second crust.

Brush top edges of formed crust with egg wash. Roll out remaining Hot Water Paste and cut 1/2-inch hole in center. Place over pie; edges should overlap formed crust somewhat. Seal by crimping with fingers. Cut decorative shapes such as leaves, anchors and knots from pastry scraps and cement to top crust with egg wash. Lightly brush crust with egg wash.

Heat stock almost to boiling. Insert funnel into hole in top crust and carefully pour in as much stock as possible, lifting funnel to make sure that some stock goes to upper deck.

Immediately set pie in oven and bake at 450 degrees 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 1 hour 15 minutes.

6 to 8 servings. Each of 8 servings:

1,492 calories; 3,458 mg sodium; 285 mg cholesterol; 90 grams fat; 110 grams carbohydrates; 57 grams protein; 0.84 gram fiber.

SWISS SOUP MEAGRE

Soup Meagre was simply a soup for meatless days (in French, soupe maigre). This one, from the recipe collection of Jane Austen’s sister-in-law, has a gentle sweetness and a refreshing flavor of greens.

10 ounces mesclun or mixed salad greens

1 (1/2-pound) cucumber

2 onions

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

3/4 cup young peas

1 teaspoon minced parsley

1 tablespoon minced chives

1 tablespoon mixed fresh herbs or 1/2 tablespoon dried

1 tablespoon flour

7 1/2 cups vegetable stock

2 tablespoons soft white bread crumbs without crusts

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup half and half

Salt, pepper

Snip off any tough stalks from salad greens and shred any large leaves. Peel cucumber, halve lengthwise and cut in 1/4-inch slices.

Peel onions and chop fine. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Add onions and cook until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add greens, cucumber, peas, parsley, chives and mixed herbs and toss with wooden spoon until everything is coated with butter. Sprinkle with flour, cover pan and stew gently 10 minutes, checking often for burning. Add stock and bread crumbs and cook 20 minutes.

Whisk egg yolks into half and half and season with salt and pepper to taste.

When soup is done, remove from heat to cool 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in half and half mixture. Keep warm until serving time but do not allow to boil.

6 servings. Each serving:

261 calories; 1,478 mg sodium; 185 mg cholesterol; 22 grams fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 1.07 grams fiber.