1812 Orange Liqueur Recipe

This recipe came from a book called Advice to a Young Lady in the Colonies; being a letter sent from Mrs. E. of England to Maria Macarthur in the Colony of N.S. Wales in 1812.

 Apparently "Mrs. E" was some kind of godmother to the young lady and new bride who had just set off to begin her housekeeping in Australia. It is principally concerned with food; recipes, menus suitable for different sizes of parties and occasions, etc.

I have had this book forever. Someone gave it to me at some point years and years ago, and it looked interesting, but sat on my shelf. Every time I moved and went through my books, I would look at it and say 'oh yes, that, still looks interesting, still totally mean to look at it one day,' put it in a box, schlep it to the next place, put it on the shelf, and there it would sit till I moved again.

I think this is where having had to make the very hard choices on what to move 2300 miles came in handy- if I decided to take it, I sure as hell better finally crack the pages and do something with it.

Upon finally perusing its pages, I found the following recipe

"Orange Liqueur

Into a wide-mouthed glass jar put a quart of good brandy, a pound of powdered lump sugar and a quarter of a stick of vanilla. Stir these until the sugar is melted. Then put in one fine, smooth-rinded, unspotted orange, whole, without being cut in any way. Cover the jar close, and set it aside in a warm place. This liquer takes two or three months to make, so as to be well impregnated with the perfume of the orange."

"Yes, let's definitely do that thing" said we "sounds yummy'. However this proved somewhat easier said than done, since upon further reflection, this list of ingredients actually started to look pretty foreign.

 For starters, we realized that what we thought of by 'powdered sugar' was probably not the same as what someone in New South Wales in 1812 would think of. Upon consultation with some educated folks, the general consensus was no, it isn't, and your best bet is probably to get some natural cone sugar from a Mexican market. 

The label said "Before best December 2014"....which is how you know it's legit. 

Unfortunately, this was not 'powdered'. No matter......

Me: "Am I being insane about this?"

Brian: "Yes, but its cool, we're the same kind of insane"

Me: "Ah, alright then, just so long as I have company...."

I powdered it myself. 

I got it mostly powdered, with some small chunks left I was hoping would just dissolve. As it was, there is actually still quite a bit of sediment in the bottom which does not seem to have any intention of further dissolving. Brian assures it will be fine and we can strain it if we need to, but in future I'm not gonna stop hammering till it's smooth. 

We also weren't entirely sure about what a 'stick' of vanilla would be. We are guessing this must be a bean. I mean, they're pretty stick-like. They are also, as it turns out, extremely expensive. Luckily the recipe doesn't call for much. I actually put in one half of the two beans you get in a jar for $8.50 at Kroger. 

"I cost more than a latte."

This was another point of 'Are we being insane? well, yes, but let's just accept that and go with it."

In other words, yes, one could probably figure out a conversion to just use vanilla extract, but by then we were hell bent on actually recreating the original recipe. At this point we had spent at least two months talking about this and tracking down the ingredients. I believe the orange I finally put in there was the third one we had bought for the purpose, since the other two had gone bad waiting to be used.

Since it said 2-3 months we are hoping it will be ready to share at Jane Austen Festival in July. 

This shit had better be fucking delicious.........

The orange 'impregnating' the brandy.....should I be blurring this?

Notes from the Victorian Man

Hey look, my honey started a new blog- ya'll should check it out and follow.

http://notesfromthevictorianman.blogspot.com/

Drawstring dress- complete!

Finally, a mere 2+ months from beginning this thing, it is FINISHED.

The bodice pattern was draped by the amazing and talented Maggie Waterman. 

Posing for this shot involved my boyfriend saying the phrase 'yeah, I can back up and take it'......so yeah, that happened......

I made the bottom ruffle as a separate piece. It is attached it at the top of the ruffle, with the bottom roughly even with the hem of the dress, hanging over about 1/4". It was easier to leave the bottom unattached rather than try to get it all to lay down smooth, and it doesn't seem to be flopping or rising up about as I wear it (knock on wood). If it becomes an issue I'll just tack it down in a few places. 

Dorset buttons from http://www.wmboothdraper.com/. Waiting for these to come in the mail was the final thing holding this up, even after I had worn the damn thing. Cannot tell you how good it felt to sew them on there and label this dress as DONE.

In action as Lizzy Bennet in Vevay, Indiana 

Photo by Andrea Kappes

There was a fair amount of obsessing to get the right about of poof in the sleeves- from how long to make them, to how much I wanted the sleeves to come onto my hand, to how long the trim should be for that to happen, to moving the wristbands around once they were in and I had worn it once. I  must say, I am pretty damned please with myself on the results. 

'Cause that's how we roll...........

Cabbage and Potato Soup

Hopefully this one doesn't look too similar to the last one. We added lentils again for a bit of protein, but it would be fine without them. The cinnamon stick adds a very different flavor, and cabbage is my current new-found vegetable.

Hellooo little friend...you have an appointment,  with my stomach! 

MHA HA HA!

1/2 onion
enough olive oil to coat the bottom of your pot
4 garlic cloves sliced - leave big enough that they will pop up as a tasty morsel in your soup
1/2 green cabbage chopped
2 medium potatoes cubed
1 can stewed tomatoes- you may need to chop these but be careful not to lose the juice. You want that for your broth.
1/2 cup lentils (optional)
8 cups water
3 small bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
*basil to your liking
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in pan then begin sauteing garlic for a minute or two. Add and saute onions & cabbage for  5-10 minutes. The Cabbage needs a bit of time to begin to soften and wilt. Add salt, ground pepper and basil. It will smell awesome- you're welcome.

Add water, tomatoes, potatoes, lentils if you are using them, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 30 minutes.

Made three hearty meals for two people. Probably more if you added bread in there.


*some of the recipes I was looking at called for dill, but we didn't have any and I hate leaving the house.

Weekend productivity. Shocking, I know.

Today I finally tackled (half of) the ever growing, ever looming mending pile. It's been sitting there, in the corner, taunting me, as it ate my wardrobe, piece by piece. I think frequently the simple projects are the ones which get put off the longest. The 'oh, I just need to run a few stitches through it...." and cut to a year later, where I have sewn three ballgowns, but that 2 minute project where I sew three inches is still pulsating in the corner like the the Tell Tale To Do Item.

The breaking point was getting out of the shower on a Saturday morning and realizing that I had no jeans available without tears in them. So I put on the rest of my clothes (yes, this is a story where I sew without pants) and finally got to it. Once you start, it's freakin' exhilarating.

It's like going shopping, but for broke people!

The rest required buttons, which will require a trip to JoAnn's in the near future (read, you will be getting an update on the second part of the pile sometime in early 2014....right about the time it has redoubled to its original size....). 

In other sewing related news, the drawstring dress is 99.9% done. I just need to get some cord for the wristbands. I will do a final update with lots of pics then, but for now...

mmmm, yummy ruffly goodness.....

Shameless plug for my mama's enterprises

If you enjoy my ramblings at all, you may want to travel with Thalassa.

Check out my mama's blog for tarot goodness, cute pictures of animals, and advice on being a 'stormtrooper for civilization'. A winning combo if ever there was one!

Thalassa in all her glory. 

Like mother, like daughter :-)

My life; a magical adventure involving gourds.

So, what exactly is it that I'm doin' here?

Most people I know have blogs designated for particular purposes; sewing, character diaries,cooking, personal stuff, etc. This one has so far been pretty random; books, cooking, sewing, character stuff, amusing anecdotes about my adventures, and the occasional serious thoughts. Basically, my life.

You got a problem with that?

There are the labels of course, if you look down at the bottoms of my posts, you will see categories each post is in and click on it for more like that. However I don't really think anyone does that.

I keep thinking I need to rewrite my description at the top, since I am no longer in fact a grad student. I guess I could just cross it out and write 'adjunct'. God knows that pays nothing and eats up a ridiculous amount of time as well. That seems to be the one thing I *haven't* been blogging much about, but it is going on. It takes a huge amount of time, but it is rewarding. And I know a lot of this is because it is the first semester and I have nothing made up already. Hopefully in future that will work out a bit better.

So, if you were looking for a particular purpose here, there isn't one. Just me, livin' my life, making shit and engaging in shenanigans, historical and otherwise :-).