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- Dec 4, 2011
This is from Mrs. E. F. Haskell.
Molasses Toast.—Boil nice West India molasses; remove the scum, and strain it through a hair sieve or thin cloth strainer; let it boil five minutes slowly with a bit of butter to a pint, as large as half an egg; if the toast is dry and hard, dip it quickly in hot water, and then in the molasses; if fresh, in the molasses only; if the molasses has thickened, so that when not boiling the basin is not as full as when put to boil, add sufficient boiling water to make up the deficiency; some molasses thickens rapidly, while other does not. This dish is much better than would be supposed; resembling in taste a buckwheat cake with butter and molasses; the author well remembers enjoying it much when a child.
This really is good. Period bread, that's sliced thick and a little stale really, does give a cake-like flavor and texture.
I've had trouble reconciling the two main types of period molasses, West India and sugar house, with modern products. Wood's US Dispensatory describes them like this:
"Molasses is of two kinds, the West India and sugar house. West India molasses is a black ropy liquid, of a peculiar odour, and sweet empyreumatic taste. When mixed with water and the skimmings of the vessels used in the manufacture of sugar, it forms a liquor, which, when fermented and distilled, yields rum. Sugar house molasses has the same general appearance as the West India. It is, however, thicker, and has a different flavour. Its sp. gr. is about 1-4, and it contains about 75 per cent, of solid matter. It is the officinal molasses of the British Colleges. Both kinds of molasses consist of uncrystallizable sugar, more or less cane sugar which has escaped separation in the process of manufacture or refining, and gummy and colouring matter. When the molasses from cane sugar is treated with a boiling, concentrated solution of bichromate of potassa, and boiled, a violent reaction takes place, and the liquid becomes green; but if it be adulterated with only an eighth of starch sugar molasses, the reaction is prevented,and the colour is not changed."
0kay... So is that Grandma's or B'rer Rabbit?
Since there are really only three kinds of molasses available today, light, dark and blackstrap, I figure blackstrap is closest to West India, and not sure if it or the lighter ones are closer to sugar house. If anybody has a good way to compare period manufacturing or analysis of period to modern molasses, I'm curious.
I find that blackstrap tastes good in this recipe, so it's what I use.
That's cane. Then there's sorghum, probably not what Mrs. Haskell had in mind, but where there were wartime sugar shortages it might be used. I don't think it's ever going to be possible to get a taste of what period sorghum was like, because it was so new, just introduced to the US in the 1850s, that there hadn't been much breeding for improved flavor, drought and disease resistance, and growth habits, all of which have been affected from the late 19th Century on.
Molasses Toast.—Boil nice West India molasses; remove the scum, and strain it through a hair sieve or thin cloth strainer; let it boil five minutes slowly with a bit of butter to a pint, as large as half an egg; if the toast is dry and hard, dip it quickly in hot water, and then in the molasses; if fresh, in the molasses only; if the molasses has thickened, so that when not boiling the basin is not as full as when put to boil, add sufficient boiling water to make up the deficiency; some molasses thickens rapidly, while other does not. This dish is much better than would be supposed; resembling in taste a buckwheat cake with butter and molasses; the author well remembers enjoying it much when a child.
This really is good. Period bread, that's sliced thick and a little stale really, does give a cake-like flavor and texture.
I've had trouble reconciling the two main types of period molasses, West India and sugar house, with modern products. Wood's US Dispensatory describes them like this:
"Molasses is of two kinds, the West India and sugar house. West India molasses is a black ropy liquid, of a peculiar odour, and sweet empyreumatic taste. When mixed with water and the skimmings of the vessels used in the manufacture of sugar, it forms a liquor, which, when fermented and distilled, yields rum. Sugar house molasses has the same general appearance as the West India. It is, however, thicker, and has a different flavour. Its sp. gr. is about 1-4, and it contains about 75 per cent, of solid matter. It is the officinal molasses of the British Colleges. Both kinds of molasses consist of uncrystallizable sugar, more or less cane sugar which has escaped separation in the process of manufacture or refining, and gummy and colouring matter. When the molasses from cane sugar is treated with a boiling, concentrated solution of bichromate of potassa, and boiled, a violent reaction takes place, and the liquid becomes green; but if it be adulterated with only an eighth of starch sugar molasses, the reaction is prevented,and the colour is not changed."
0kay... So is that Grandma's or B'rer Rabbit?
Since there are really only three kinds of molasses available today, light, dark and blackstrap, I figure blackstrap is closest to West India, and not sure if it or the lighter ones are closer to sugar house. If anybody has a good way to compare period manufacturing or analysis of period to modern molasses, I'm curious.
I find that blackstrap tastes good in this recipe, so it's what I use.
That's cane. Then there's sorghum, probably not what Mrs. Haskell had in mind, but where there were wartime sugar shortages it might be used. I don't think it's ever going to be possible to get a taste of what period sorghum was like, because it was so new, just introduced to the US in the 1850s, that there hadn't been much breeding for improved flavor, drought and disease resistance, and growth habits, all of which have been affected from the late 19th Century on.
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