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Snippets of folklore, history, stories, vintage recipes, remedies, herblore & the occasional cocktail

From 254 Ways with Asparagus to Nuns Bisket

Via Ghosts in Nighties, Spirits in Churchyards, Divination Cake, Risotto Meditation, A Hand of Glory & A Good Water for the Stone

Folklore, Food & Fairytales

Apr 18, 2023

Dearest Gentle Reader,

It is wonderful to be back with you. I hope that you are all living your lives to the fullest or at the very least doing something each day that pleases you. It could just be the smallest thing, like holding a square of chocolate in your mouth and challenging yourself to let it melt slowly until all your senses are overflowing with liquid chocolate and then doing it all over again.

You could take the time to watch a bird fussing in a hedge over its nest or stare at a big fluffy cloud until it breaks apart over time into wisps of weather with the power of your thoughts. Spring is good staring out of windows time, when the new season is rising in your blood like sap. Anything can happen, even if it's just that you treat yourself to new season asparagus, steam it, admire its verdant greenness against a white plate and then sit eating it with your fingers covered in melted butter. A Spring celebration for less than £2.50. If you want it roasted & served with this divinely ripe Tunworth, it might set you back a bit more. (I should probably mention that I have a total of 254 pictures of asparagus dishes in my photo library which may constitute an addiction.)

Or if you prefer a more folkloric take on Spring, you could take the time to ponder over which divination or ritual you are going to do on St Mark’s Eve which falls on 24 April 2023. It is one of the big ritual nights in the English folklore calendar so there should be one for everyone. I must admit though, that most of them are frankly terrifying. It is like Halloween but in April, ghosts everywhere. In most divinations, young women would hope to dream of their future beloved. Not on St Mark’s Eve, no, then you hang up your washed underclothing in front of the fire and hope the spirit of your beloved would appear and turn them to help them dry evenly.

Alternatively you could pick plants from a chosen grave at midnight and pop it under your pillow so you could have dreams that foretold the future. Walking around a church at midnight and checking each window until in the last you would see the ghostly face of your future spouse. Hanging out in the church porch might also help you see the ghostly representative of your future beloved but it could equally mean that you see those that would die in the year ahead and if you saw yourself, you would be amongst them. This is frankly terrifying and I would prefer never to identify my future beloved than risk seeing a horrid end in the near future for my friends and neighbours.

There are even a couple of cakes you could make on this date. The first requires you to fast from sunset and then make a cake that contains an eggshell full of salt, wheat and barley flour. Once baked, this should be placed on the table, all the doors opened and then the cake watched, as at some point before dawn your future beloved will be there in spirit to turn the cake.

The second cake also requires all the doors to the house to be opened which would be quite chilly, but also requires something I would find much more difficult to achieve: keeping silent. It is known as Dumb cake and must be made in complete silence usually in the company of at least one other unmarried woman. The name possibly comes from the ‘Doom’ or fate of the person seeking an answer.

Ok, I admit it, it’s not all ghosts, even on this night sometimes young women slept with a slice of dumb cake under their pillow hoping to dream of their future one & only. Other variations required the young women involved to walk backwards to bed whilst eating the cake so that they could have sweet dreams of their future spouse. This night, however, isn’t exclusive for making this particular cake, you could also make it on Hallowe’en, Christmas Eve, the Eve of St Agnes (20 January).

Anyway this was enough of an excuse for me to find you a wonderful yet slightly scary folk tale (I only do slightly scary I’m afraid, I’m not good with terror) but before I share it, I’d also like to bring you my risotto meditation for those of you that haven’t seen it before. Even if meditation is not your thing, I promise this is really good risotto even if you leave out the extra breathing. I’m not entirely why it needs to be in this letter but it feels like it might be of help to at least one of you.

This has all the text for all four images: Risotto Meditation Ingredients For risotto: 2 pints of stock (your choice can be homemade, from a cube, powder or even one of those lovely squidgy things) 2oz butter chopped into little cubes 2oz grated Parmesan or veggie hard Italian cheese plus any extra you fancy for serving 10oz risotto rice 1 onion, chopped A splash of oil, I prefer olive For meditation: just bring yourself no matter how frayed you feel Instructions For risotto 1. Add the olive oil and about 1/3 of the butter into a wide relatively shallow pan (but not as shallow as a frying pan if you can) 2. Add onion to butter and oil and fry over medium heat until softened and turning brown around the edges (around 5-10 mins) 3. Whilst onion is cooking heat stock to a simmer in a saucepan 4. Add rice to pan and make sure all grains are coated in the oil/butter mixture and stir around for a minute. You should see the grains go almost see through at the edges. 5. Add 1 full ladle of stock to rice and set timer for 18 minutes then stir gently and then add another ladle of stock once all liquid is nearly absorbed. Repeat until the timer goes off. You may still have a little stock left, it will depend upon your rice. Don’t worry about it. Take risotto pan off heat and add remaining butter and grated cheese to pan on top of rice mixture. Do not stir. Put lid on pan if you have one or cover with foil or chopping board and leave it to rest for 3-5 minutes. Do not skip this step. 6. Remove cover, stir and serve with extra cheese if you like. See the end for add one or variations For meditation 1. This takes place during step 5 as soon as you’ve set the timer and added the stock 2. Start counting how long it takes you to breathe in and out and then gently adjust your breathing so that your out-breath takes longer than your in-breath even if only slightly. Continue this adjusted breathing whilst concentrating on stirring your risotto and the cooking sounds and smells in your kitchen. Continue until that timer goes off. I sometimes also try to clear my mind completely of everything except the risotto whilst doing this, repeating ‘every in breath a new beginning, every out breath, a letting go’ internally as I breathe but sometimes I just stir, breathe and remember a good memory & relive it or imagine a joyous experience and how it would feel actually living it. 3. You should now feel better than you did before plus you have a gorgeous risotto in your future. Variations: I sometimes add pesto at the just before covering stage & serve with baked mushrooms. I sometimes add roasted veg & cooked greens before taking it off the heat. I sometimes reheat chicken in the stock & add just before taking it off the heat. You can pretty much add anything pre cooked but if it’s cold you should add before the last ladle of stock. I sometimes keep it as is and add a runny poached egg when serving which I poach in any leftover stock whilst the risotto is resting. The basic risotto recipe is based on my favourite one from Anna del Conte, the additions, changes, variations and meditation are my own.

Now for our tale, which you can tell on St Mark’s Eve, preferably after dark:

One evening, between the years 1790 and 1800, a traveller dressed in woman’s clothing arrived at the Old Spital Inn, the place where the mail coach changed horses in High Spital, on Bowes Moor. The traveller begged to stay all night, but said she had to go away so early in the morning, that if a mouthful of food were set ready for breakfast, there was no need the family should be disturbed by her departure. The people of the house, however, arranged that a servant-maid should sit up till the stranger was out of the premises, and then went to bed themselves.

The girl lay down for a nap on the long settle by the fire, but before she shut her eyes, she took a good look at the traveller, who was sitting on the opposite side of the hearth, and espied a pair of men’s trousers peeping out from under the gown. All inclination for sleep was now gone; however, with great self-command, she feigned it, closed her eyes, and even began to snore.

On this, the traveller got up, pulled out of his pocket a dead man’s hand, taken from the corpse of a hanged man, fitted a candle to it, lighted the candle, and passed hand and candle several times before the servant-girl’s face, saying as he did so,

“Let those who are asleep be asleep, and let those who are awake be awake.”

This done, he placed the light on the table, opened the outer door, went down two or three steps which led from the house to the road, and began to whistle for his companions. The girl (who had hitherto had presence of mind to remain perfectly quiet) now jumped up, rushed behind the ruffian, and pushed him down the steps. Then she shut the door, locked it, and ran upstairs totry to wake the family, but without success; calling, shouting, anD shaking were alike in vain.

The poor girl was in despair, for she heard the traveller and his comrades outside the house. So she ran down and seized a bowl of skimmed milk and threw it over the hand and candle; after which she went upstairs again, and awoke the sleepers without any difficulty. The landlord’s son went to the window, and asked the men outside what they wanted. They answered that if the dead man’s hand were but given to them, they would go away quietly, and do no harm to anyone.

This he refused, and fired among them, and the shot must have taken effect, for in the morning stains of blood were traced to a considerable distance across the moor …………

It is only right that after bringing you such a creepy story that I should provide you with a remedy to relieve your mind. I’m not exactly sure what it’s actually meant to cure but it does sound cheery even if my standard medical advice is to not take any medical advice from an unqualified stranger from the internet even if they write to you regularly (that would be me). This is from A Collection of over Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery from 1714.

A Good Water for the Stone Take four quarts of white thorn flowers, infuse them in two quarts of string white wine with two ounces of Nutmeg sliced; let these stand two days, then distil it in a cold still. Drink it with Sugar, or without, as you like best.

I happen to love the idea of these 18th century sort of macaroons or at the very least almond cakes. Don’t they sound heavenly (perhaps that’s why they have this name) and could almost be Sicilian in style. If I do make them I imagine I’ll be thrilled I have a very powerful hand mixer though. The recipe is from the same book as the remedy:

The Nuns-Bisket Take the Whites of six eggs and beat them to a froth; take also half a pound ofAlmonds, blanch and beat them with the froth of the whites of your eggs as it rises; then take the Yolks, with a pound of fine Sugar, beat these well together, and mix your almonds with your eggs and sugar; then put in a quarter of a pound of flower, with the Peel of two lemons, grated and some citron finely shredded, bake them on little cake pans in a quick oven, and when they are colour’d, turn them on tins to harden the bottoms, but before you set them in the oven again, strew some double-refin’d sugar on them finely sifted. Remember to butter your pans and fill them but half

So with that, Gentle Reader, I must bring this letter to a close. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the comments or via any of my social media profiles/my website. If you have enjoyed this and would like to read further such nonsense and have not yet subscribed, please don’t hesitate to subscribe for free at the button below. You’d be very welcome and it would be a joy to write to you.