Kitchen: Recipes
Gooseberries and Currants: Then vs. Now
The Wylie House family left us several recipes, one of which is for currant wine. Many recipes for currants and gooseberries, which the Wylies grew, were prevalent in the 19th century.
So... what's the deal with currants and gooseberries?
Currants and gooseberries were extremely popular berries used especially in recipes from the 1800s. We have several letters from Theophilus Wylie & family that allude to there being several currant bushes on the property. You may have also noticed that quite a few recipes from Rebecca Wylie above call for currants; including her "famous" currant wine. Pictured to the left, Louisa closes a letter to her mother in September of 1870 by saying: "If you come bring a bottle of your currant wine. Oh Mother dear, I never want to leave you".
Did you know? In the 1800's, people were so obsessed with gooseberries, that the time was termed as the “Gooseberry Craze.” In England, there were even gooseberry clubs formed. The clubs were started for the purpose of competing to see which club had the heaviest and biggest gooseberry. The heaviest gooseberry recorded in the world record books was 2.19 oz.
Why have I not heard of either of these fruits?
The production and distribution of currants and gooseberries was federally banned in the early 1900s because these members of the ribes family (of which there are about 200 species) are a secondary host to a fungal disease that attacks pine trees. White pine blister rust not only hurts pine trees but it also can cause leaf spots and leaf loss in any plant in the ribes family. When infected, pine trees often lose their branches and develop cankers or large areas of dead bark that then eventually form blisters designed to release the spores of the white pine blister rust. Indian paintbrush (Castilleja spp.) and lousewort (Pedicularis spp.) are also affected by this disease.
Are currants and gooseberries still banned? Can they be grown here in Indiana?
The federal ban on growing currants, gooseberries, etc. was lifted in 1966, however, some states like Maine still have state or city legislature banning the growth of these plants. Maine and other similar states rely on lumber production as a means of economic growth so the white pine blister rust fungus is a large threat to that resource. Other states have certain cultivars of these plants that are resistant to white pine blister rust and these are the only varieties allowed to be grown and distributed.
Indiana doesn't have a ban on growing gooseberries and currants AND the climate is within the ideal growing range for ribes according to the USDA, so go for it! They are harder to maintain because of their sensitivity to extreme temperatures; in today's climate we typically have less extreme temperatures than the Wylies recorded but a higher frequency of extreme weather events. If you do decide to grow currants or gooseberries, here are some recipes to try:
Additional information about these recipes & sachets:
Where did these recipes come from?
The recipes and the ingredients for the sachets come from both letters and writings in the back of books from the Wylie families. Margaret wrote recipes in the back of one of Andrew's books & Rebecca wrote recipes in one of Theophilus' chemistry notebooks. Most of the recipes we have are merely a list of ingredients; baking directions weren't typically included in recipes until the early 20th century when oven thermostats were invented. Before thermostats bakers would often throw flour into an oven; this would help them determine proper baking time depending on how quickly the flour browned.
How would the Wylies have prepared these recipes?
One of our theories is that the Wylie family had a "brick-set stove" inlaid into the fireplace; these stoves were more efficient and took up less space which would both benefit the family. Brick-set stoves often had space for a water boiler which would be especially helpful to Margaret in her quest to keep the family healthy. However, we aren't exactly sure where the Wylies would do their baking; they may have baked in the brick stove, they may have had a summer kitchen for baking, or they may have baked in another outbuilding that no longer exists. We DO know that Rebecca Wylie's bread was beloved by her daughters; Maggie Wylie in a letter to Louisa Wylie says that "Lizzie makes as good bread as Ma can".
What other recipes did they write down?
Margaret Wylie's Recipes:
Composition Cake
3/4 lb of butter
1 1/4 lb of sugar
1 3/4 lb of flour
5 eggs
one pint of milk
1 teaspoon full of pearlash
one nutmeg
2 pounds of stoned raisins or currents
If you wish it more like fruit cake, 4 lb raisins or fruit,
one tablespoonful cloves
one of ginger
and citron
A Sally Lunn
Sift into a pan a pound and half of flour. Make a hole in the middle and put in two ounces of butter, warmed in a pint of milk, a saltspoonful of [milk?], 3 well beaten eggs and 2 tablespoonfuls of best fresh yeast. Mix the flour well into the other ingredients and put the whole into a tin pan that has been greased with butter. Set it in a warm [sic] and when it is quite light bake it in a moderate oven. Send it to table hot and eat it with butter.
Milk Biscuit
Cut up 3/4 lb of butter in a quart of milk. Set it near the fire to warm till the butter becomes soft. Then with a knife mix it thoroughly with the milk and set it away to cool. Afterwards stir two glasses strong fresh yeast and add by degrees as much sifted flour to make dough stiff enough to roll out. As soon as it is mixed roll it into a thick sheet and cut it out into round cakes with a tumbler. Sprinkle a large iron pan with flour. Lay the biscuits in it, cover it, set it near the fire to rise. When the biscuits are quite light knead each one seperately. Prick them with a fork and set them again in a warm place for half hour. When light bake in a moderate oven. They should be eaten fresh and pulled open with the fingers.
Common pie crust
2 qt of flour, 1 lb of butter divided into equal parts
Rebecca Wylie's Recipes:
Mrs. Murphy’s Cake
1 cup sugar
3 cups flour
3 eggs
1 cup cream or buttermilk
2 table spoons butter
2 teaspoonful of [baking] soda
1 teaspoonful cream of tartar
Lemon or nutmeg
Sugar Cake
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
½ spoon soda
½ cup butter
Flour enough to mix well
Float
1 pint of rich cream sweeten it well
Flavor with lemon
White sugar, beat in a deep dish with a rim
When the foam rises take it off and [?] on a dish
Cut sponge cake in pieces about 2 inches long 1 ½ broad
Spread them with currant jelly and line your glass bowl with them after you have as much foam as you want add to the remaining cream wine to suit your taste pour it over the sponge cake in the bowl and fill with the foam. Put small pieces of currant jelly.
Mrs. Claybaugh’s Cake
1 teacupful of sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoonful [baking] soda
1 teaspoonful sweet milk
Tablespoon butter
1 nutmeg in essence of lemon
Strong Currant Wine
6 gallons currants
4 gallons water
Mash the currants well – then add the water and mash them again in the water. Then press the stems and hulls well with the hands; strains through a piece of thin linen. To each gallon of the mixture add 3 lbs of good clean brown sugar. Fill the barrel within 4 inches of the top and bring tight. Examine frequently for fear of bursting and if in any danger bore a gimlet hole. Rack off in November, rinse the barrel and return the wine to it.
Sweet wine, Currants or Blackberries
1 gallon juice
3 gallons water
3 lbs sugar to each gallon