Arrowroot, to Make
INGREDIENTS.-1 dessertspoonful of arrowroot, 3 tablespoonfuls of cold water, 1/2 pint of boiling water. AVERAGE COST, 2d. per pint.
ARTICHOKES, FRIED. the size of a shilling; artichokes. AVERAGE CosT, 6d. each.
Wash the artichokes well in several waters; see that no insects remain about them, and trim away the leaves at the bottom. Cut off the stems and put them into boiling water, to which has been added salt and soda in the above proportion.
Keep the saucepan uncovered, and let them boil quickly until tender; ascertain when they are done by thrusting a fork in them, or by trying if the leaves can be easily removed. Take them out, let them drain for a minute or two, and serve in a over.
ARTICHOKES. napkin, or with a little white sauce poured A tureen of oiled butter should accompany them. This vegetable, unlike any other, is considered better for being gathered two or three days before, but they must be well soaked and washed previous to dressing.
TIME.-20 to 25 minutes after water boils.
SEASONABLE from July to the beginning Artichokes, A French Mode of Cooking. INGREDIENTS. - 5 or 6 artichokes; to each 1/2 gallon of water allow 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt, ½ teaspoonful of pepper, 1 bunch of savoury herbs, 2 oz. of butter. AVERAGE COST, 6d. each.
Mix the arrowroot smoothly in a basin with the cold water, then pour on it the of September. boiling water, stirring all the time. The water must be boiling at the time it is poured on the mixture, or it will not thicken; if mixed with hot water only, it must be put into a clean saucepan, and boiled until it thickens; but this occasions more trouble, and is quite unnecessary, if the water is boiling at first. Put the arrowroot into a tumbler, sweeten it with lump sugar, and flavour it with grated nutmeg or cinnamon, or a piece of lemonpeel, or, when allowed, a little sherry or brandy. As arrowroot is in itself flavourless and insipid, it is almost necessary to add the wine to make it palatable. Arrow root made with milk instead of water is far nicer, but is not so easily digested. It should be mixed in the same manner, with 3 tablespoonfuls of cold milk, the boiling milk then poured on it, and well stirred.
When made in this manner, no wine need be added, but merely sugar, and a little grated nutmeg or lemon-peel.
TIME. If obliged to be boiled, 2 minutes.
Cut the ends of the leaves, as also the stems; put the artichokes into boiling water, with the above proportion of salt, pepper, herbs and butter; let them boil quickly until tender, keeping the lid of the saucepan off, and when the leaves come out easily, they are cooked enough. To keep them a beautiful green, put a large piece of cinder into a muslin bag, and let it boil with them. Serve with plain oiled butter.
TIME.-20 to 25 minutes.
SEASONABLE from July to the beginning of September.
A thin arrowroot gruel of the kind kept for invalids and children. The whole thing hinges on the water being at a full boil the moment it hits the slurry.
- DessertspoonfulA dessertspoon is between a teaspoon and a tablespoon: roughly 2 level teaspoons of arrowroot. That is a very light set for the liquid given, producing a drinkable gruel rather than a spoonable pudding.
- Half a pintAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, or about 1¼ US cups. With 3 tablespoons of cold water in the slurry the total comes to a generous mugful.
- Boiling means boilingArrowroot needs real heat to set and will not thicken if the water has gone off the boil in transit. Pour straight from the kettle onto the slurry, stirring, and do not stop stirring until it clears and thickens.
- Do not overcook itThe 2 minutes given for the saucepan method is a maximum, not a target. Prolonged boiling or vigorous whisking after thickening breaks arrowroot down and the mixture turns thin and slippery again; it will not recover.
- Lump sugarLoaf or lump sugar is simply refined white sugar in cut blocks. Ordinary granulated sugar is the same thing; sweeten to taste, starting with a teaspoon.
- The milk versionMade with milk it becomes something closer to a light blancmange sauce. Scald the milk rather than boiling it hard, and mix the slurry with cold milk as directed or it will go lumpy.
- "When allowed"The sherry or brandy was optional, added only where the invalid was permitted spirits. Vanilla, a strip of lemon peel steeped in the hot liquid, or a spoon of honey do the same work of making a bland thing palatable.
- YieldOne tumbler, one serving. It is best made fresh each time, as it thins and weeps on standing and cannot be reheated.
Arrowroot is the starch washed from the rhizome of Maranta arundinacea, a West Indian plant that reached British kitchens through the Caribbean trade and by Mrs Beeton's day was sold by chemists as much as by grocers. Its reputation rested entirely on digestibility: it was the standard food of the sickroom and the nursery, given to fever patients, teething infants and convalescents who could keep down nothing else, which is why the book takes the trouble to admit that it is flavourless and insipid and needs help. Victorian household manuals treated invalid cookery as a serious branch of the subject, with its own beef teas, gruels and jellies, and arrowroot sat at the plainest end of it. Adulteration was a live concern, potato and sago starch being cheaper, so writers of the period often insisted on Bermuda arrowroot as the trustworthy grade.