Historically inspired cooking: red wine syllabub with liquorice

It's been ages since I last put on a costume, and in lack of time, resources and opportunity to spend this past year teaching myself to sew properly I took to studying and recreating historical recipes and food instead. In hopes of hosting a great ball or at least a little salon when this ordeal is finally over, I suppose. 

I really can't say that the culinary aspect seemed most appealing to me when I got into 18th century reenacting – honestly, I have never been particularly fond of traditional Swedish or Scandinavian food (with some exceptions), and I can't live without exotic, spicy food in the 21st century. Anyway, 18th-century cuisine still has a lot of lovely dishes to offer, even though the desserts have caught most of my attention and appreciation so far.

Syllabub is one of my latest obsessions. I had only tried it with white wine to date, even though some recipes say sherry (or sack), port or red wine... and can't say I've ever seen it in an 18th-century syllabub recipe, but everyone who loves liquorice knows that it goes well with red wine. So I just had to try it out, whether it was historically correct or not.

It turned out to be a solid syllabub, as is apparently the case when one uses less alcohol and more cream... it also proved to be delicious!

Aurora's red wine and liquorice syllabub

(4 servings)

10 tbsp red wine

1,5 tbsp sugar

2 teaspoons liquorice powder

250 ml thick cream

50 ml milk

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and whip it well – about 5 minutes with an electric mixer, or until the cream forms stiff «peaks». Pour into wine glasses or dessert bowls and allow to chill for some hours before serving.

Top with raspberries, passion fruit or sliced strawberries and possibly some liquorice or salty liquorice powder.

Historical cooking: bread with aniseed and rosewater

Since I have been posting some 18th-century cooking content on my Instagram lately, I thought it was about time to write my first food-related post here on my blog. ;-) 

I'm sorry to say that I can't cite the source for this recipe. I found it in a magazine many years ago and unfortunately I just cut out two recipes and threw away the rest of the article. It was something about a mysterious cookbook from the 1700s found somewhere in Halland on the Swedish west coast in 2000-ish. Anyway, the combination of aniseed and rosewater is typical for 18th-century food and very tasty as well!

(2 round loaves)

5 dl (500 ml) lukewarm milk

50 grams (1.7637 oz) wet yeast

1 dl (100 ml) sugar

1 egg

3 tbsp aniseeds (pound in a mortar)

3 tbsp rosewater

15 grams (0.53 oz) butter (not melted)

About 14 dl (47 oz) wheat flour 

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk. Add sugar, egg, rosewater and aniseeds and stir until smooth. Add flour (some cups at a time), work the butter into the mixture with your hands and form a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic on a lightly floured surface. Cover and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour). Punch the dough for some minutes, divide it in half, shape each into a round loaf and place on a baking tray with baking parchment. Cut the loaves across the tops with a sharp knife and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour). Heat oven to 200 C. Bake for 10 minutes, lower the heat to 175 C and bake for another 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.