h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In French and, I think, Italian, it still is the same word.

It's interesting, because it hints at the way recipes are handed around and passed down. I think "recipe" is the imperative of "receive" in Latin. We've sort of forgotten that meaning with the English word.

This conversation has got me trawling the web for ancient recipes - I think it would be cool to make something for dinner from 2000 BC. Apparently the oldest known recipe is one for beer, from Mesopotamia.

Table biscuits: Flour, milk, and sugar, well mixed together. Shape the biscuits with the top of a glass, and bake them on a tin.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29232/29232-h/29232-h.htm#Table_Biscuits

No amounts, no oven temperature, no cooking time.

I rest my case, QED.

Oh, this is a good one:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29232/29232-h/29232-h.htm#Cheese_to_stew
Cheese, to stew: Scrape some rich old cheese into a saucepan...

I know of a few rich old cheeses

Here's an interesting recipe from one of the books I read at Gutenberg...

CREAM PUFFS

1/2 cupful water 3 tablespoonfuls vegetable oil 1 tablespoonful butter 5/8 cupful flour 1/4 teaspoonful salt 2 eggs

Mix the water and fat and heat the mixture until the water boils. Add all of the flour and salt and mix thoroughly. Stir and cook until the ingredients are well blended and the paste does not stick to the sides of the pan. (Care should be taken not to cook the mixture too long. If the fat separates from the other ingredients, the puffs will not be successful.) While the mixture is hot, add the eggs, unbeaten, one at a time. Beat until thoroughly mixed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on an oiled baking-sheet, and bake at 450 degrees F., for 20 minutes, then at 325 degrees F., for 25 minutes. When cool slit one side open and fill with Cream or Chocolate Filling or Whipped Cream.

Cream Puffs may also be filled with creamed chicken or veal, or a salad mixture.


That sounds very similar to the way a hot water crust for pork pies is made - water and fat heated to boiling and then poured into flour to gelatinise it, but with added eggs and then made into rolls.

I'm going to have to try this.

Actually it's choux pastry.

So it is!

I've found a use for the jaggery
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sweet_and_sour_potatoes_27947

"For the record, I bought a 4lb box of Brooke Bond Red Label loose tea today. I'm putting this here so that I can get an idea of how long it lasts." (April 29th)

About ten weeks, apparently.