From Linda Stradley, author of: "What's Cooking America" and I'll Have What They're Having: Legendary Local Cuisine Linda originated and maintains a very large on-line cooking site since 1997 called What's Cooking America. The site is treasure trove of unique, easy-to-follow recipes from all over America that readily transforms every cook into a chef. Also includes a large culinary dictionary and lots of food history. Be sure and check Linda's web site out! She has always had a fascination with history. Put this together with her love of good food and you have a culinary historian. Linda says, "The research of the origins of foods of America have become an obsession when being introduced to new foods." Traveling with her husband, Don, all around our wonderful country, she always combines her pursuit of pleasure and eating with the pursuit of new foods and their history. A native northwesterner, Linda was raised in Longview, Washington and now lives in Newberg, Oregon. Linda says, "My mom was a great cook, but she cooked the typical foods of the 50's of overcooked meat and vegetables. It wasn't until I really got interested in cooking for my family that I discovered the wonders of great food using simple fresh ingredients! I also discovered the love of eating and the problems of weight gain!" Linda’s new cookbook is called I’ll Have What They're Having –Legendary Local Cuisine, published by Globe Peugot Press. Linda likes to say that this is a culinary history book with recipes. Email Linda at: lstrad@hevanet.com Or Visit Linda at: What's Cooking America website ****************************** Sponge Cake - They are similar to angel cakes in that they use many eggs and no shortening or leavening. Sponge cakes use the whole eggs, while angel cakes use only the whites. History: Gervase Markham recorded the earliest sponge cake recipe in English in 1615. These sponge cakes were most likely thin, crisp cakes (more like modern cookies). During the renaissance, Italian cooks became famous for their baking skills and were hired by households in both England and France. The new items that they introduced were called "biscuits," though they were the forerunner of what we now consider to be sponge cake. Gervase Markham recorded the earliest sponge cake recipe in English in 1615. These sponge cakes weren't exactly your Betty Crocker behemoths, though - they were most likely thin, crisp cakes, more like modern cookies. By the middle of the 18th century, yeast had fallen into disuse as a raising agent for cakes in favor of beaten eggs. The cooks of the day must have had arm muscles like Schwarzenegger - it takes an awful lot of beating by hand to do what we can accomplish in a few minutes with an electric mixer! Once as much air as possible had been beaten in, the mixture would be poured into molds, often very elaborate creations, but sometimes as simple as two tin hoops, set on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. It is from these cake hoops that our modern cake pans developed. Ladyfingers - Oval-shaped cookies or cakes that are also known around the world as Boudoir biscuits, sponge biscuits, sponge fingers, Naples biscuits, Savoy biscuits (Savoiardi) and biscuits a la cuiller. History: The recipe, which has changed little in nine hundred years, dates from the House of Savoy in the eleventh century France. The recipe was carried throughout Europe by the marriages of the many daughters of Bertha of Savoy to the scattered thrones of Europe. Folklore has it that Czar Peter the Great of Russia and his wife, the peasant empress Catherine, so enjoyed Ladyfingers when visiting Louis XV of France, that they purchased the Baker and sent him immediately to Saint Petersburg. Ladyfingers were introduced to America probably by the earliest French settlers in the Northeast and New Orleans. Charlotte Russe - A cake is which the mold is lined with sponge fingers (Ladyfingers) and custard replaces the apples. It is served cold with cream. Charlotte is a corruption of the Old English word "charlyt" meaning a "dish of custard." There is a lot of doubt surrounding the origins of the name "charlotte." Meat dishes that were known as "charlets" were popular in the 15th century. History: It is said to have been invented by the French chef Marie Antoine Careme (1784-1833), who named it in honor of his Russian employer Czar Alexander. Other historians say that this sweet dish took its name from Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), wife of George III. Apple Charlotte - It is a golden-crusted dessert made by baking a thick apple compote in a mold lined with buttered bread. This dessert was originally created as a way to use leftover or stale bread. Some historians think that this sweet dish took its name from Queen Charlotte, known as being a supporter of apple growers. Charlotte Malakoff - It has a lining of ladyfingers and a center filling of a soufflé mixture of cream, butter, sugar, a liqueur, chopped almonds, and whipped cream. It is decorated with strawberries. cold charlottes- They are made in a ladyfinger-lined mold and filled with a Bavarian cream. For frozen charlottes, a frozen soufflé or mousse replaces the Bavarian cream. Lamington or Lemmington – The word lamington means layers of beaten gold. An Australian dessert of little cubes or squares of sponge cake, dipped in chocolate, then rolled in coconut. In Victoria (State of Australia) they often add a layer of raspberry or plum jam. They are served with tea in the afternoon. Lamington’s are so popular in Australia that the cakes are a favorite means of raising money for school groups, church’s, and scouts and girl guides. These money making adventure are called Lamington Drives. History: The cake is named after Charles Wallace Baillie, Lord Lamington, the governor of Queensland from 1895 to 1901. Lord Lamington was known for wearing a homburg hat that looked like the cakes. For many years lamingtons were served on state ceremonial occasions in Queensland. But Baron Lamington himself could by no means abide them. He invariably referred to them as “those bloody poofy woolly biscuits.” Another source recounts the slightly less dramatic circumstance of the baron's cook concocting the dessert as a way to use up stale or slightly burnt sponge cake. The Scots and the New Zealanders also claim credit. The Scots say it was a sheep shearer's wife in the village of Lamington who made the cake for a group of traveling sheep shearers. New Zealanders enjoy lamingtons just as much as the Australians. They refer to the cake as leamington or lemmington, which are names of towns. Tiramisu (tih-ruh-mee-SOO) - The Italian translation for tiramisu is "carry me up." Also known as Tuscan Trifle and Zuppa Inglese. Tradition tiramisu is a pudding-like dessert that usually consists of sponge cake or ladyfingers dipped in a liqueur, then layered with grated chocolate and rich custard. History: This dessert was initially created in Siena, in the northwestern Italian province of Tuscany. The occasion was a visit by Grand Duke Cosimo de'Medici III, in whose honor the concoction was dubbed zuppa del duca (the "duke's soup"). The duke brought the dessert back with him to Florence.He brought the recipe back with him to Florence and in the 19th century, it became extremely popular among the English intellectuals and artists who were living there. The dessert made its way to England, where its popularity grew. It is also said to have been created in a restaurant in Treviso, just northwest of Venice, called Le Beccherie. Today, Treviso is best know for its canals, frescoes, and Tiramisu. Stories are told about Venice's courtesans who worked in the brothel above the restaurant. According to legend, the ladies needed a "pick me up" to fortify themselves between amorous encounters. Trifle (TRI-fuhl) - The word "trifle" comes from the old French term "trufle," and literally means something whimsical or of little consequence. A proper English trifle is make with real egg custard poured over sponge cake soaked in fruit and sherry and topped with whipped cream. The English call versions of this cake a Tipsy Cake or Pudding, Tipsy Squire, and Tipsy Hedgehog. It was also known as Tipsy Parson and Tipsy Squire in America. The difference between this cakes and the original trifle is that these were all made with dried cake, rather than fresh. History: The first trifles were very much like Fools (an old confection of pureed fruit mixed with cream), and the two terms were used almost interchangeably for many years. Many puddings evolved as a way of using up leftovers and trifle originated as a way to use stale cake. The English Trifle is a close cousin of an Italian version called Zuppa Ingles (English Soup), and also seems distantly related to a Spanish dessert called "Bizcocho Borracho." It was in the mid-1700s that cake (or biscuits), alcohol, and custard were combined in the trifle bowl. The recipe for trifle (and many of its now-heirloom glass dishes) came to America via the British who settled in the coastal South. Its popularity remained firm with Southern planters who loved indulgent desserts. Supposedly, it was called Tipsy Parson because it presumably lured many a Sunday-visiting preacher off the wagon. Southern hostesses prided themselves on their elegant table settings and considered a cut-glass trifle bowl to be mandoraty. George Washington is said to have preferred trifle to other desserts. In 1861, American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes called it "That most wonderful object of domestic art called trifle…with its charming confusion of cream and cake and almonds and jam and jelly and wine and cinnamon and froth." Victoria Sandwich/Victoria Sponge/Victorian Cake - A two-layer sponge-like cake that is filled with a layer of jam and whipped cream.It is cut into small "sandwiches" and served in a similar manner. History: Anna, the Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861), one of Queen Victoria's (1891-1901) ladies-in-waiting, is credited as the creator of teatime. Because the noon meal had become skimpier, the Duchess suffered from "a sinking feeling" at about four o'clock in the afternoon. At first the Duchess had her servants sneak her a pot of tea and a few breadstuffs into her dressing room. Adopting the European tea service format, she invited friends to join her for an additional afternoon meal at five o'clock in her rooms at Belvoir Castle. The menu centered around small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, assorted sweets, and, of course, tea. This summer practice proved so popular, the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for "tea and a walking the fields. The practice of inviting friends to come for tea in the afternoon was quickly picked up by other social hostesses. Queen Victoria adopted the new caze for tea parties. By 1855, the Queen and her ladies were in formal dress for the afternoon teas. This simple cake was one of the queen's favorites. After her husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861, the Queen Victoria spend time in retreat at the Queen's residene (Osborn House) at the Islan of Wight. According to historians, it was here that the cakes were named after her.
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