Summer Fool: A Historical Dessert

Summer Fool

A Historical Dessert

(or A  Summer Interlude

from Bury to Berry 😎)

Summer on the farm 200 years ago 

would have been prime milk production time.

But what's a lady to wear?

(waistlines on dresses in the late 1820's to1830's 

were starting to drop to the natural waist line)

Well, certainly not her good clothes for chores!

To protect her good clothes, she'd wear:

An overskirt, a short-dress, and an apron from right to left

A short dress was a woman's daily work shirt. it fastened with straight pins. 

This is a shirt that didn't require a pattern (patterns were not a thing back then anyway). 

It uses about a 1.5-2 yards of fabric. 

This would be worn to keep good clothes clean or as a shirt all by itself. 

Once ragged, it would become the house rags. 

Very few original ones of these survive in collections today for this reason.

It could be worn just over the shift or a better dress.
Layering it on, the good clothes are protected from daily tasks. 

But if guest should come, the short-dress (shirt) 

and overskirt could be quickly removed 

to look more presentable for company.

At the Canalside Cooking,

We displayed cooking tools from over the 

years that would be used to make the dessert.

Cups weren't standardized, 

so any cup on hand could be used for measure so 

long as you used the same cup

throughout the recipe. The same goes for spoon measures.

Also, whisks were originally made 

from rushes or broom straw for mixing.

It could take up to 15 minutes to whip a pint of cream!

A side note about the word recipe:

In the cookbooks from around this time,

recipes were call receipts.

This makes sense when you consider 

that a recipe is a list of ingredients,

a receipt of what you'll need to make it!

But why make fool when you can make butter with the cream?

Because you CAN!

Summer is prime milk production!

Your family farm would be getting cream daily.

And you only need so much butter.

And it's a tasty change of pace.

Fool doesn't need refrigeration if you don't have any.

But if you have a cool cellar, 

ice house 

(not super common yet when the canal 

first opened in along the canal), 

or you could put it in a sealed pail 

that you could lower in the well to chill.

So first you whisk your cream, vanilla and sugar

White sugar was available along the canal.

(our kitchen set up)

Vanilla would be a special treat to add if you had it,

but not absolutely necessary.

Then you would mash your favorite summer fruit 

and sprinkle on some sugar and let it sit to extract the juices.

Then you would fold the fruit into the whipped cream.

And then... Enjoy!

(Or chill and server for later if you wanted to!)

This summer treat is easy to modify.

Don't like fruit?

Add some cocoa powder or chocolate syrup!

Don't like whipped cream?

Use Cool Whip!

Can't have dairy?

Use non-dairy whipped cream and mix in your favorite flavors!

A side note:

If you want a no-churn ice cream:

Add in can of sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar.

Then add you flavorings.

Put it in the freezer for at least 4-6 hours or overnight

A rich ice cream dessert

our canal ancestors would have enjoyed only 

in big cities where ice houses

sold ice in the summer.

So in the end, why dress up?

For the fun of designing and wearing 

an outfit befitting the early 1830s!

Why bring out all the cool cooking gadgets from long ago?

For the fun of sharing some history of cooking 

with people along the towpath

And why a historic recipe?

For the fun of tasting history...

a way to step back in time if but for a moment!

This book:

A Fine Dessert

by

Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall

was the inspiration for our dessert

and Glen and Friends

No-Churn Ice Cream a delicious recipe...

...or receipt, 

depending how far back in time this 

dessert takes you! 😊